The Sunday Spotlight: Happy New Year, Have Some Comics News

Welcome to 2024. May it be a damn sight better in all ways than 2023 was. But some things don’t change – and The Sunday Spotlight is one of them. Every Sunday, we’ll be putting the spotlight on some of the comics news of the week that you may have missed…

Well, when I say we’ll be putting the spotlight, I actually mean me. Which means that you’ll be seeing the news that I reckon is worth pushing before your eyeballs, about all the magnificent comics things out there. So, shall we begin? First, a little seeing in of the new year by Bill Watterson and Ian Gibson…

 

Broken Frontier Awards 2023…

Broken Frontier, one of the best British comic sites, run by Andy Oliver and staffed by a dedicated band of volunteers, has a long history of championing great comics, often from newer and/or marginalised voices in comics. They do fine, fine things there, including their annual BF awards.

This year has 16 categories, including a Hall of Fame category that’s already seen Annie Koyama (Koyama Press), Corinne Pearlman (Myriad Editions), David Schilter and Sanita Muižniece (kuš! comics), Gosh! Comics, Steve Walsh (Gosh! Comics, Avery Hill Publishing), Avery Hill Publishing, and C. Spike Trotman (Iron Circus Comics) feted already since 2017.

Voting happens here until the end of Tuesday 9th January 2024, with the final decision coming from an equal 50-50 consideration of the comic community’s votes and an extended selection of the Broken Frontier team from across recent years. The results will be announced on January 11th, 2024.

 

More awards… ComicScene Awards 2024…

ComicScene magazine also has it’s end of year awards happening right now. 24 categories covering everything to do with comics. You can still vote in the ComicScene Awards here until 31st January.

And whilst we’re talking ComicScene, they have the Kickstarter for the new issue of their magazine about comics. This time, the post-target goal is to fund the creation of a new strip, with the strip this time being Ruby Tuesday by KekW and Charlie Gillespie.

 

Lawless’s Noble Bolt-01 Award available… 

The Lawless Comic Con, celebrating all things 2000 AD and Judge Dredd and now in its 10th year, is happening on 25 and 26 May 2024 here in Britain.

But one very special thing they do is the Noble Bolt-01 Award. This is in honour of two comics fans and friends of Lawless; the writer and archivist Colin Noble and the publisher, writer, and letterer Dave Evans (also known as Bolt-01) who both passed in 2021.

It basically tells you all about it in the graphic below. Suffice it to say, it’s a damn fine way to honour both men.

 

And the Lawless official birthday Tee…

Designed by the wonderful Steven Austin (with kind permission granted by Brian Bolland for the original Forbidden Planet design it was based on).

 

Even more awards – The AE Scott Dunbier Awards for Artist Editions…

Another set of very specialised awards here, with the Scott Dunbier Artist Edition Awards, organised by AE Editions.

Artist Editions, if you didn’t know, are the massively oversized books reprinting the work of a specific artist, often at something near or at the size of the original artwork. These are massive archive editions with top-notch reproduction that usually need a reinforced bookshelf or coffee table to cope with the weight. And the awards are named after Scott Dunbier because it was he who came up with the format of the artist editions in 2010 at IDW Publishing.

2022 saw a clean sweep for Dave Stevens’ The Rocketeer Artist’s Edition (40th Anniversary). This year there’s six books to vote for across the six categories – Judge Dredd by Mick McMahon Apex Edition, Kevin Nowlan’s Marvel Heroes Artist’s Edition, David Wright’s Carol Day: Lance Hallam Slingsby Bros, Ink!, Michael Golden’s Marvel Stories Artist’s Edition, Walter Simonson’s Fantastic Four Artist’s Edition, The 2000 AD Art of Kevin O’Neill: Apex Edition.

Voting is available here and is done through internal polling, which limits votes by IP address and cookie. Voting is open from January 1 to January 31, with the winners posted on February 1.

 

Comics Cultural Impact Collective round table online meeting…

We told you about the new Comics Cultural Impact Collective a while back – they’re a group of comics professionals who are working together with the aim of raising awareness of the cultural impact of comics.

Part of increasing the visibility and presence of the medium will involve gathering research and data and carrying out a review of cultural funding with a view to creating a non-profit to help channel funding, opportunity, and support to comic creators.

However, they can’t do it all alone – so they’re holding a round table online meeting on January 16th 2024 at 7pm to 9pm as a way to canvas opinions and pool skillsets.

To express an interest and receive updates – all you need to do is add your details to this page or email direct to helloCCIC@gmail.com.

Your regular Comics ain’t dying reminder… Asterix and Gaston dominate French book sales…

Always important to remind the naysayers that things in comics should never be judged just on how the current 85 X-Men titles and their multitudinous variant covers are selling.

Again, we’re linking to Dean Simons at The Comics Beat here, and a great article all about the sales of the books  This is now the third year in a row that comics have topped those bestsellers of the year lists in France. And 2023 saw two books holding the top two places of all books sold – Asterix and the White Iris and the latest Gaston LaGaffe album, the first since creator Andre Franquin’s death in 1997, with 1.5 million and half a million copies respectively.

So yes, comics… not really dying at all then. Yes, I know the North American and European markets are different beasts, but there’s always got to be clarity about these things when we talk about them. The North American direct sales comic shop market might be suffering (and there’s a Hell of a lot of reasons for that) but the all-ages market and Manga is flourishing around the world.

 

Lew Stringer’s What If…?

A few New Year’s post from the great Lew Stringer (of Combat Collin, Dr Who Daft Dimensions, Tom Thug, Sgt. Shouty fame) – a little What If…? we treated comics artists better…

 

Posy Simmonds’ cultural highlights…

Posy Simmonds, the grande dame of British comics talks to The Guardian about favourite places, things, TV, dance, and where she gets her pens from.

You should certainly know the name and her work, including Gemma Bovary, Tamara Drewe, and Cassandra Darke, as she’s one of Britain’s finest cartoonists. She’s currently being rightly celebrated in France right now as Paris’ Pompidou Centre has the exhibition Posy Simmonds: Dessiner la littérature running until 1 April 2024 – for which she created the exhibition poster below.

 

And whilst we’re talking comics legends… Dave Gibbons’ Christmas Message…

Didn’t know this before this year, but it appears Dave Gibbons, famed artist and writer, co-creator of Watchmen etc. etc., does a Christmas message with Forbidden Planet TV. Andrew Sumner of comic retailer chain FP is joined each year by Gibbons, to talk all things festive.

This year sees them discussing Gibbons’ part in the David Tennant Doctor Who specials, meeting Batman’s Adam West and Frank Gorshin, reviewing the best Christmas comics of 2023, Mel Gibson and David Harbour’s non-traditional Santa movies, Dave’s DC Christmas tale illustrated by Gray Morrow; Dave’s illustrated memoir Confabulation, and Andrew and Dave’s involvement in the Hard Agree podcast’s annual reading of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, in support of a great charity – ComicBooks for Kids!

 

Congratulations to Rachael Smith (& Rob, & Henry)…

Many congratulations to the wonderful Rachael Smith – whose Nap Comix was one of my favourite things this year – as she’s announced a certain important moment for herself and partner Rob. And of course, being the great cartoonist and diarist that she is, the announcement was done in wonderful style…

Check out the comic on webtoons for a bonus photo!: www.rachaelsmith.org/nap

 

And finally…

It’s a New Year… be kind.

Perfect words to live by from Patrick Mcdonnell…