The Sunday Spotlight: Twas The Week Before Christmas And There Was Comics News
by Richard Bruton
Welcome once more to the Sunday Spotlight, Comicon’s little roundup of some of what’s happening in comics this week.
Well, Christmas is coming and everything has that sense of winding down. But there’s still some news in comics about and that’s what we’re here to tell you about… which is where the Sunday Spotlight comes in…
Again, comics are not dying…
Those two images were doing the rounds this week with various bits of commentary. The best of that commentary came from Heidi MacDonald at The Comics Beat, as it often does in this article called ‘Comics aren’t dying, but they are changing – and that’s got people scared.’
That’s pretty much my thinking on it. Comics are in spectacularly good health, it’s just that comic shops and superhero comics are increasingly less important to that health. Yes, that’s the big change that’s happened in comics in the last decade. Kids, Manga, a massive rise in readership and sales and comic shops simply not being part of that.
In MacDonald’s piece, she quotes this from a Twitter/X thread by Crushing Krisis, who has been creating really useful reading guides since 2000. The idea of comic shops turning into ‘museums for the middle-aged’ is so good because it’s, unfortunately, so on the nose.
“Comics are everywhere. I’ve never seen so many kids reading comics in my life. When Marvel & DC make comics for kids (as OGNs) they reap that. Stores can, too. Kids are comics fluent. They’re abuzz when a new Dog Man or Amulet drops. They love adaptations of books like Percy Jackson. They dig multiple Spider-People.
A LCS should be as exciting to a kid as a candy shop or a LEGO store. LCS shouldn’t be museums for the middle-aged.
Anyone complaining about how newer, younger, more diverse and socially-aware creators are ruining comics isn’t talking about comics. They’re talking about a middle-aged museum. News flash: the stuff ACTUAL kids ACTUALLY read is OFTEN more diverse and aware than Big Two comics.”
Heidi adds this as her conclusion – ‘The alternative to a museum is a little scarier, a little harder to imagine, but we need to build it together, on common ground.’
Amen to that. The very best comic shops in the world are already an alternative to that museum of the middle-aged and they’re thriving. As scary as that change may seem, it’s a necessary one, a vital one for the survival of the superhero and comic shop industry. The survival of the medium itself – nope, that’s got nothing to worry about at all. Never has.
Winner of the First Graphic Novel Award – Alexander Taylor with Bone Broth…
Speaking of a healthy, young, vibrant comics medium…
The First Graphic Novel Award announced the winner this week on 11 December at Waterstones Piccadilly. And that winner was Alex Taylor (also known as azbt). The work looks very special and Alex/azbt will be a name to watch in the future.
Winning means that Alex/azbt will be offered a contract for publication with SelfMadeMero. Emma Hayley, founder of SelfMadeHero, who will work with Alex to publish the completed book, says of Bone Broth:
‘The fun and colourful art style belies the intricate plot lines of this coming-of-age queer thriller set in a ramen shop. Crafted with vigour and spirit, the creator takes us on a somewhat crazy yet wonderful journey that is tasty from beginning to end’.
Conventions 2024…
Yes, after a massive convention season comes to an end for 2023, it all starts again with announcements for 2024. Here’s one that would be just perfect for 2000 AD fans, the always excellent 2000 AD-themed Lawless returning for its 10th anniversary convention with another stellar lineup of guests from both the UK and abroad.
Happening 25th and 26th May 2024 in Bristol UK. More details here.
Boulet’s webcomics coming to print through Oni Press…
Webcomic maker extraordinaire Boulet (Giles Rousel) has been making comics online since 2004, first only in French and then also in English, further expanding his readership.
And now Oni Press have announced a hardcover collection of diary comics and sketches from 2004-2007 with Notes: Back in Time due to be released on June 11, 2024.
Boulet’s other comics work has already found a translation – his art on the Zach Weinersmith written Bea Wolf from First Second and the wonderful Dungeon Zenith, co-created by Boulet, Lewis Trondheim, and b has been published by NBM. But even with Oni jumping in to begin publication of Notes, we’re still a hell of a long way off catching up with Boulet’s wonderful flights of imagination and fancy that you’ll see in Notes, as there have already been 11 volumes published in French. However, these Oni volumes are not complete collections, but rather, in the words of translator and editor François Vigneault, “a curated and newly-translated selection of his work from the early years.”
RIP – Brit Underground Comix Pioneer Lee Harris, 1936 – 26th November 2023
Reports came in this week of two comic deaths, one hugely reported with the death of Ian Gibson, the legendary 2000 AD artist responsible for Halo Jones, Robo-Hunter and so much more. The other was less reported, that of Lee Harris, who passed in November with news only coming out this past week.
Harris was a pioneer of underground comix publishing here in the UK, with his Brainstorm Comix title full of Bryan Talbot’s work, including his breakthrough strip, Chester P. Hackenbush. Brainstorm might only last six issues but it did go on to include Talbot’s first episode of Luther Arkwright and the debut of John Higgins amongst others.
But it was Talbot’s work that drew Harris into comics publishing. Harris had never published comics before but had already published several pioneering drug-related magazines, including Europe’s first cannabis magazine, Home Grown, through his head shop Alchemy, Britain’s oldest, in Portobello Road, London. Still, the legend goes that all it took was one look at Talbot’s Hackenbush art to convince Harris to publish it, reportedly saying, ”Right, let’s go find a printer.’
Harris’ death marks the end of a life full of character – one of the few white members of the ANC in his native South Africa, he moved to London at the age of 19 to pursue a dream of an acting career, became an accomplished playright and activist in the ’60s and the ’70s, before opening Alchemy in 1972. Later years didn’t diminish his activism either, as he ran for Mayor of London in 2016 representing the Cannabis Is Safer Than Alcohol party. But in comics, its Harris’ role as a pivotal member of the British underground comix culture and counterculture that he’ll be best remembered.
And finally – All I want for Christmas is?…
That’s the brilliant Margaux Motin with one of her pieces for Voici where she imagines celebrity childhood anecdotes – no prizes for guessing this one’s Mariah Carey…
‘Maman! Je ne veux pas grand chose pour Noel. Je m’en fiche des cadeaux sous le sapin!! Tout ce que Je’veaux pour Noel c’est lui!! Tu entends? Tont ce que je veux pour Noel, c’est toi!’
Which a quick Google translate (look, I took French all the way up to the age of 13 and I was always absolutely no good at it!) gives you this:
“Mom! I don’t want much for Christmas. I don’t care about the presents under the tree!! All I want for Christmas is him!! You hear? All I want for Christmas is you!”
