Sunday Spotlight: Taking A Quick Spin Around The Comics News This Week

by Richard Bruton

Welcome to Sunday Spotlight, another set of news and other things from the big, beautiful world of all things comics this week…

So, here we go again, more of all that I’ve seen around and about in the last seven days. It can be anything comics-related, but don’t expect this to be just another list of what Marvel and DC are doing. Nope, this is comics and comics is so much more than capes.

This week, a little shorter than usual because we’ve been flying back home after an extended stay in dear old Blighty. A combination of jet lag and sorting through four months of mail has eaten the week alive.

Okay then, time to get going…

**A Marc Ellerby Akira commission – always loved Ellerby’s work – go commission him!**

Dredd faces off with??? Find out in Prog 2351…

This popped up on the 2000 AD socials this week, with the teaser that 2000 AD Prog 2351 will be seeing Judge Dredd facing off against… well, it sure looks like the profile of Sláine, leading them to ask, “Could it really be a battle of Lawgiver Vs Brainbiter?”

Honestly, there are so many reasons why it’s not going to be Sláine, so who else could it be? All will be revealed in 2000 AD Prog 2351, out on 27th September.

The Killer – watch the trailer, read the graphic novel series…

It’s taken a long, long time, with David Fincher reportedly looking at it as long ago as 2007, with Brad Pitt meant to star, but we’re finally seeing the big screen adaptation of the rather excellent 12-volume French bande dessinée series The Killer by writer Matz and artist Luc Jacamon, originally published by Casterman. It’s already been published in English, with BOOM!/Archaia releasing it as albums and then a single-volume paperback in 2018.

In the adaptation, Michael Fassbender plays an assassin whose life is falling apart after things go wrong with a job, pitching him up against his bosses and his own troubled mind. The film premiered at the Venice film festival, which kicks off this week, hits cinemas in October and lands on Netflix in November.

Alison Brown Young Comics Maestro Award 2023 Winners Announced by London’s Cartoon Museum…

The Alison Brown Young Comics Maestro Award 2023, presented by London’s Cartoon Museum, celebrates young people making comics as well as the life of Alison Brown, an integral part of the London comics community for many years who passed away from Covid in 2021 at the age of 39.

It’s a great new award celebrating so much that is wonderful about comics. And the winners and runners-up could possibly be the future of comics. Who knows where they’ll be in a few years time!

The 2023 winners are: Sofia Deen, age 9 (winner), Eric Caseras-Ros, age 11 (runner-up), Zack Bennett, age 9 & Asta Haldane, age 8 (runners-up)

The entrants all submitted an original comic strip of up to three pages long (or a three-page section of a story). Each of the winners receives prize money and a certificate. The judges for the award were Hannah Berry, Martin Rowson, Laura Howell, Tom Fickling, Steve Marchant, Kate Owens, Matt Baxter, Mark Stafford, and Joe Sullivan.

Hannah Berry and Comics Cultural Impact Collective – Ars Council Survey UK

Hannah Berry, one of the previous comics laureates in the UK, has a survey up for comic creators in the UK looking at funding, particularly funding from The Arts Council UK. She, as part of the Comics Cultural Impact Collective (CCIC), have pointed out that comics comes off really badly in relation to arts funding, with a mission “to prove that yes, comics are worthy of celebration and support in the UK, actually.”

“We’re in talks with Arts Council England, who are currently interrogating their own data to see if comics projects are being given a fair and equal slice of the money-pie. In the mean time, we’d like to know more about who is applying and – very importantly – who isn’t applying for funding.

This survey is for everyone who makes comics or who belongs to a comics-related organisation, based or working in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, whether you have made a funding application before or not. Your data will help enormously, and anonymously, to inform our conversations with ACE and other funding bodies in the future.”

If you are a UK based creator of comics, take five minutes and fill the form in – it’s here.

Jamie Smart – You know you’ve arrived when…

Yep, getting your characters on a book token gift card is a big thing in the UK – so well done to Jamie Smart, author of Looshkin and the wonderfully successful Bunny Vs Monkey, appearing both in the Phoenix Comic and in collections. He’s not quite up there with Raina or Dav yet, but he’s already in million+ selling territory.

The special Bunny Vs Monkey National Book Tokens gift cards will be available to buy and spend in bookshops and online this autumn.

And also, US readers rejoice – Bunny Vs Monkey Book 1 is out in America through Union Square – Jamie has this to say…

“America! Bunny Vs Monkey book one is released TODAY by Union Square. More fun, fights and farts than you can fit into a book (but we managed it). Hilariously unhinged comics for kids, tell everyone you know and let the cute animals RAMPAGE!”

And finally – Happy Birthday Times…

Walt Simonson…

Happy birthday, Walter Simonson – an artist I, like so many others, will always associate with the acclaimed run on Thor from 1983 to 1987. But perhaps my favourite work of his comes with the art for the Archie Goodwin-written Manhunter from 1973 that ran as a back-up in Detective Comics.

So there you go, two chunks of essential reading for you to track down, all featuring the art of the wonderful Walt Simonson, born 2nd September 1946 and who’s just celebrated his 77th birthday!

Sergio Arogones…

One of the most wonderful comic creators, known for his work on Groo and Mad Magazine (and a hell of a lot more), Aragones was born September 6th, 1937, meaning he’s just celebrated his 85th birthday. Happy Birthday Sergio!

I’d seen his work in my Dad’s small Mad magazine growing up, but it wasn’t really until Groo the Wanderer that I finally started reading his work voraciously. It was just such a funny, funny comic – as is absolutely everything Sergio turns his hand to!