The Sunday Spotlight: Comics, Comics Everywhere
by Richard Bruton
It’s Sunday once more, which means it’s time for another quick trundle round the comics news that you might not have seen. Yep, time to give you The Sunday Spotlight…
Broken Frontier’s Six Small Press Creators To Watch 2024…
It was only last week we were telling you about the Broken Frontier awards and how great a site BF is in looking at new and upcoming comic artists.
Well, one very big thing they do every year is the Broken Frontier Six Small Press Creators To Watch. And they’ve just announced the six for 2024 – Dominica Claribelle, Mike Armstrong, Tinglin Liu, Tom Philipson, Zhenyi Zheng, and Zoè Delautre Corral. More details, all the links, and examples of their work at the link.
I can pretty much guarantee that you’ll be wanting to go look at their work and that you’ll be seeing a lot more of their work in the future.
Posy Simmonds, Dan Clowes, Catherine Meurisse nominated for the Angouleme Grand Prix…
One of the biggest and most prestigious comics festivals in the world, the Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d’Angoulême has announced that the three nominees for it’s most prestigious award, the Grand Prix, will be British cartoonist Posy Simmonds, American comic artist Daniel Clowes, and French comic book artist Catherine Meurisse.
The Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d’Angoulême takes place on 25th – 28th January 2024 in Angoulême, France.
Posy Simmonds is also celebrated this year in France with the exhibition Posy Simmonds – Dessiner la littérature that runs until 1st April 2024 at the Centre Pompidou, Paris.
New Scholastic UK Graphic Novel Prize…
Scholastic know a little something about latching on to the growth in kids graphic novels, having sold millions and millions and millions of copies of Bone, Raina Telgemeier, Dav Pilkey, and more. They also know just how well kids graphic novels sell through their book fairs in the USA and the UK.
And now Scholastic UK has announced a 2024 Graphic Novel Prize, awarded in three categories: Graphic Novel for Younger Readers; Graphic Novel for Older Readers; and Graphic Novel for Teens.
The longlist will be selected by representatives from BookTrust and a judging panel will then pick the shortlist. For 2024, the judging panel will be Sha Nazir, events producer at Comic Con; Michael Stirling, creative director at Beano; Jon Biddle, English lead at Moorlands School; Richard Ruddick, teacher and Comics in Class blogger; and Jo Cummins, teacher, blogger and podcast host.
Once the judges have selected that shortlist, the final winners will be chosen by children’s votes, using Scholastic’s school channels to promote the titles, create class resources, voting packs and a virtual shortlist showcase.
Submissions will be open between Wednesday 10th January and Friday 2nd February 2024 with the shortlists selected at the end of March.
Lucy Sullivan’s Barking gets a launch party at Gosh…
Part of Avery Hill Publishing‘s slate of great looking graphic novels for Spring 2024, Lucy Sullivan‘s Barking has its launch party at Gosh Comics on Thursday 29th February 2024, from 7-9pm.
Barking has all the signs of being a massive hit for Avery Hill, with Sullivan’s debut graphic novel of depression and grief inspired by her own struggles with mental health. Here’s what Avery Hill have to say about it:
“A year after the death of her friend, Alix’s depression and grief still hound her in this personally-inspired graphic novel.
Loopy… cuckoo… stark raving…”
When the depression and grief Alix feels over the death of her friend overwhelm her, she’s institutionalized. But inside a psychiatric ward, things don’t get better for her – now she has nowhere to get away from her rapidly-spiraling thoughts. As Alix navigates disinterested attendants, group therapy, and isolation, she must build herself a new equilibrium and tame the black dog of her depression.
Inspired by her own struggles with mental health, Lucy Sullivan tells a powerful, emotional story about the problems that sometimes overwhelm us all – and the failures in the mental health system we depend on.”
Barking will be launching at Gosh on Thursday 29th February 2024, from 7pm – details here – and will be released by Avery Hill in February.
‘I’ve had the life that I wanted when I was 10 years old’ – Dave Gibbons interviewed at TCJ…
Dave Gibbons is – and everyone says so – one of the nicest men in comics. And this interview over at The Comics Journal certainly seems to back this view up.
It’s an excellent interview, dealing with his new autobiography, Confabulation, and every aspect of his long career at the top of comics. Through it all his absolute love for comics comes through good and strong.
What’s on Seth’s bookshelf?…
Missed this when it first came out in Dec 2023, but the Globe and Mail have a feature called ‘What’s On Your Bookshelf,’ and they asked three Canadian illustrators, including graphic novelist and all round fine fine artist Seth, what was on theirs here.
“My bookshelves are a deep mix of art books, novels, graphic novels and children’s books, arranged in thematic clumps (clumps that make sense to me). Some painters over here and some great authors over there. This drawing gives a little sampling. A mere taste. A few favourite authors are tucked away here but in real life you’d find whole sections devoted to them. Especially Anita Brookner (my favourite author over the last decade); you’d find an entire shelf just for her. Oh, and lots of bound comic books, too.” – SETH
London’s Cartoon Museum’s 2024 Conference…
London’s excellent Cartoon Museum kicks things off in 2024 with its annual Cartoon Conference… details in the image and here at their site, tickets via Arttickets.
And finally… happy second retirement Ramona Fradon!
The wonderful Ramona Fradon, 97 years young and going strong, has decided that it’s time to retire from drawing comics and will no longer be doing commissions – although she has said that she will be doing an occasional drawing from time to time!
Fradon started her career in 1950. She has worked for DC Comics, drawing Aquaman in Adventure Comics, where she would co-create Aqualad and Metamorpho. She also worked on many other DC Comics characters throughout her career. Her time at Marvel was a lot shorter though, just a fill-in issue of the Fantastic Four and a never-published issue of The Cat. She also worked on the Brenda Starr, Reporter newspaper strip, taking over in 1980 when Dale Messick retired and continuing there until her own retirement in 1995.
We wish her much happiness in her second retirement!
