The Sunday Spotlight: ‘Hold My Hand Chuck!’

Yes, it’s that time of the week again – specifically Sunday, where we Spotlight some of the interesting things going on in the world of comics. Now, what do we call it again?

Saw this for the first time in so long the other day… oh, Charles Schulz, how to make us all feel absolutely miserable with such incredible style…

 

2024 GLAAD awards – the comic nominees…

The 2024 GLAAD award nominees are out, celebrating media that properly represents the LGBTQ+ community – and it’s rather a bumper year for all things comic in the two categories, outstanding comic book and outstanding original graphic novel/anthology.

The full lists are below, but it’s always good to celebrate these things, all excellent examples of how comics can and should represent our world. And personally, it’s great to see the likes of Hannah Templer’s much loved round these parts Cosmoknights (Book Two) on the graphic novel list, plus excellent works from Alice Oseman with the latest in the rather doing well in the charts Heartstopper series, and the latest from Jillian and Mariko Tamaki, Roaming.

GLAAD 2024 Outstanding Comic Book

Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent, by Tom Taylor, Clayton Henry, Darick Robertson, Norm Rapmund, Jordie Bellaire, Wes Abbott (DC Comics)
Betsy Braddock: Captain Britain, by Tini Howard, Vasco Georgiev, Erick Arciniega, Ariana Maher (Marvel Comics)
Hawkgirl, by Jadzia Axelrod, Amancay Nahuelpan, Adriano Lucas, Alex Guimaraes, Carrie Strachan, Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (DC Comics)
Killer Queens 2, by David M. Booher, Bradley Clayton, Harry Saxon, Lucas Gattoni (Dark Horse Comics)
The Neighbors, by Jude Ellison S. Doyle, Letizia Cadonici, Alessandro Santoro, Becca Carey (BOOM! Studios)
New Mutants Lethal Legion, by Charlie Jane Anders, Enid Balam, Elisabetta D’Amico, Matt Milla, Travis Lanham (Marvel Comics)
The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos, by Tate Brombal based on an idea by James Tynion IV, Isaac Goodhart, Miquel Muerto, Aditya Bidikar (Dark Horse Comics)
Poison Ivy, by G. Willow Wilson, Atagun Ilhan, Marcio Takara, Guillem March, Kelley Jones, A.L. Kaplan, Luana Vecchio, Arif Prianto, Ivan Plascencia, Jose Villarrubia, Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (DC Comics)
Star Wars: Doctor Aphra, by Alyssa Wong, Minkyu Jung, Natacha Bustos, Jethro Morales, Rachelle Rosenberg, Joe Caramagna (Marvel Comics)
Tim Drake: Robin, by Meghan Fitzmartin, Riley Rossmo, Ricardo Lopez Ortiz, Serg Acuna, Nikola Cizmesija, Lee Loughridge, Josh Reed, Tom Napolitano (DC Comics)

Outstanding Original Graphic Novel/Anthology

Blackward, by Lawrence Lindell (Drawn & Quarterly)
Carmilla: The First Vampire, by Amy Chu, Soo Lee, Sal Cipriano (Berger Books/Dark Horse Comics)
Cosmoknights (Book Two), by Hannah Templer (Top Shelf Productions)
Four-Color Heroes, by Richard Fairgray (Fanbase Press)
Heartstopper Vol. 5, by Alice Oseman (Graphix/Scholastic)
Light Carries On, by Ray Nadine (Dark Horse Books)
Northranger, by Rey Terciero, Bre Indigo (HarperAlley)
Parallel, by Matthias Lehmann (ONI Press)
Roaming, by Jillian Tamaki, Mariko Tamaki (Drawn & Quarterly)
Us, by Sara Soler, Joamette Gil (Dark Horse Books)

 

Pride In Panels San Francisco…

Happening in SF on the weekend of 16-18 February, Pride in Panels brings together the Bay Area (and beyond) queer comics scene with events at the San Francisco Public Library’s Main Branch, with panels, maker workshops, and an exhibition hall with queer comics creators selling and signing their work, including Maia Kobabe, Ed Luce, Ajuan Mance, Trinidad Escobar, Lawrence Lindell, and Lee Marrs.

There’s also going to be Queer Comics Reading at Silver Sprocket on Friday 16th February and a screening of No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer Comics with a panel afterward on Saturday 17th February at the Hormel LGBTQIA Center of the SFPL.

More details here for more details – all events free to all, exhibitors and attendees thanks to the support of the Hormel LGBTQIA Center of the San Francisco Public Library.

Oh, and the wonderful Trina Robbins will be there as well – worth going just to say hello! Although there’s plenty, plenty more.

 

Rachael Smith and Paul Cornell crowdfunding Who Killed Nessie…

No more details than this right now, but writer Paul Cornell and artist Rachael Smith, who you should all know from my fulsome and much-deserved praise of her, have a new comedy mystery comics coming out on the crowdfunding site Zoop, Who Killed Nessie, which they describe ‘as a comedy whodunnit about finding confidence through rationality and accepting a world of mysteries… by solving one.’

Click here for more info and to be notified when the campaign goes live.

Lindsay Grockle’s taken on managing an isolated hotel in the Great Lakes with the aim of getting over a really bad break-up. She’s a sceptic of all things magical or whimsical, but she’s about to have a bit of an awakening. Because this weekend is… the convention.

Weird guests are everywhere, very weird, including a very dead Nessie in the ballroom. The Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster. So, in the middle of an annual cryptid meet-up, it falls to Lindsay to get to the bottle of the murder mystery.

 

2000 AD Anniversary signing at Gosh with Rob Williams, Henry Flint, TC Eglington, and Simon Davis…

Another good-looking signing session at Gosh comic shop coming up as we have another anniversary for 2000 AD – 47 years young and still going strong.

Gosh have the creative teams on both the fabulous folk horror tale Thistlebone, TC Eglington and Simon Davis, and the current incendiary Judge Dredd tale, A Better World, Rob Williams and Henry Flint. It’s happening on 24th February, 1-2pm, at Gosh in London.

 

Isabel Greenberg returns in April with Young Hag…

Yep, been away for a bit, but Isabel Greenberg, the great comics maker behind Glass Town and The One Hundred Nights of Hero is back with more great comics, this time her new thrilling fairy tale graphic novel, Young Hag. Described as a book that ‘ingeniously reinvents the women in Arthurian legend, transforming the tales of old into a heart-warming coming-of-age story,’ it’s one that I’m really looking forward to.

Here’s a bit of PR from publisher Jonathan Cape –

“Once there was magic in Britain. There were dragons and wizards and green knights and kings who pulled swords out of stones. But now, the doors to the Otherworld have closed.

Young Hag has grown up believing her mother and grandmother are the last witches in the land. But when tragedy strikes, she turns her back on these tales. Where is their magic when they really need it?”

And Gosh in London, one of the UK’s finest comic shops, have Isabel launching the book on Thursday 18th April 2024, from 7-9pm. You can pre-order a signed copy of the book for collection or mail-order here from Gosh.

 

Ed Pinsent’s Illegal Batman…

Ed Pinsent is something of a British comics legend and he’s been making these Illegal Batman comics off and on since 1989 and they’re all rather damn brilliant, as anyone who knows Pinsent’s work would expect.

Now, before saying anything else, these are fan-art books, all part of a long, long history of pastiche and Pinsent always points out that – “Batman copyright and trademarks are owned by Warner Brothers and DC Comics. Illegal Batman was written and drawn by Ed Pinsent and is a work of fan art” – hopefully that continues to keep those big DC lawyers away!

If you didn’t know, Ed Pinsent was a part of the vibrant underground/ self-publishing scene in ’80s/early ’90s Britain, alongside Eddie Campbell, Glenn Dakin, Woodrow Phoenix, and pretty much everyone who worked for/at Escape Magazine, including Paul Gravett. Pinsent is a hugely important artist in the history of Brit comics and also a key player in the Fast Fiction movement of the ’80s/’90s, taking over the edits on Fast Fiction magazine from Phil Elliott in 1984 and running the Fast Fiction mail order & distro service from 1987-1990, taking over that role from Paul Gravett.

As for this final issue of The Forgotten Batman… here’s how it’s described…

“In the last issue, Illegal Batman travelled time by walking through the walls of the Batcave as only he can, landing in that fateful year of 1932. Here he teamed up with Commissioner Devin, the gothic horror poet, who alerts him to the presence of the strange electrician, Hag Dag.

Meanwhile, in present-day Gotham City, the criminal narcissist Monster Pig has seized complete control, wallowing in the excess of his money and corruption. Officer Sanford’s domain is weakening, his incompetence exposed. Alone, Illegal Batman attempts to infiltrate the lair of Hag Dag by radio, only to learn the terrible truth of the Hag Dag scheme to eliminate the bat. A jolt of electricity then throws Batman into a catatonic state. With the help of Mystic Korla Pandit, can he recover?”

Go here to pick up a copy of the book.