The Sunday Spotlight – The “But My Dragon Is Cool As Hell” Edition

The Sunday Spotlight – all the delights of the weeks’ comics news, just filtered through the things I like and want to show you all. So, with the clock edging its way towards deadline time, shall we get on with this?

Journey Planet 79 – The Fanzine of Oddly Weird Essays turns its eye to V For Vendetta…

Journey Planet’s a nine-time Hugo nominated, winning in 2015, fanzine, currently edited by James Bacon, Christopher J Garcia and Alison Hartman Evans, has a new issue out right now.

Issue 79 is free to download right here and, as you can no doubt see from that cover, is all about the Alan Moore & David Lloyd piece of comics magnificence, V For Vendetta.

Under a cover from Lloyd, we have 92 pages of articles, interviews, reviews, and more on V, Evey, and everything about the book. It’s well worth taking a look at and grabbing the PDF download.

Oh, and whilst we’re talking V For Vendetta… here’s an ad for original pages back in the day. Oh, if only younger me would have been a bit more sensible with the pocket money!

Lucy Sullivan’s Barking signing – 6t April at York Travelling Man…

The great Lucy Sullivan will be signing the equally great Barking at York’s also great comic shop, Travelling Man on 6th April. Barking is a truly spectacular graphic novel that our own Brendan M Allen described as “an incredibly dark story, beautifully told. From the tumultuous opening scene to the last splash page, authentic, raw emotion jumps off the pages, offering a small glimpse into a very personal struggle. It’s not a comfortable read, and it’s not intended to be,” in his review.

Well worth a trip to York that day…

Todd Klein’s The Art and History of Lettering Comics — online, for free…

Todd Klein, one of the great US comic letterers, has his book, The Art and History of Lettering Comics, available, for free, online right now.

It’s available in blog form at Klein’s site and it’s a really involving and fascinating read, with Klein tracking the development of comics lettering across the ages, including plentiful writing on individual letterers who’ve helped shaped the artform.

Lewis Trondheim does Asterix… sort of…

Lewis Trondheim, one of the absolute great comic makers in Europe, has (sort of) taken on Asterix in his latest Lapinot (Rabbit) book.

Trondheim co-founded the l’Association publishing house in 1990 and since then has been incredibly prolific – seriously, just look at the number of books on offer from l’Association alone here. Although like so many Euro comic makers, you’re hard-pressed to find his work in English sadly, with Fantagraphics translating a small fraction of his work – which is better than nothing and highly recommended.

Les Nouvelles Adventures de Lapinot volume 6: Par Toutatis! is the latest in his Rabbit series, his most popular work. Although this time, things are a little bit different for Lapinot:

“When Lapinot wakes up in the middle of the forest, he can’t believe his eyes or his ears… a big man, dressed in blue and white breeches and wearing a helmet calls out to him: “Asterix! “. Lapinot, incredulous, leaves this curious character behind and continues on his way. An unfortunate encounter with a Roman patrol and then the care given by Panoramix – who obviously made him drink a magic potion – finally convinced him: it seems that he had been teleported to the indomitable Gauls. And strangely, even Toutatis is there!”

Neill Cameron’s fabulous new merch line…

Neill Cameron, creator of the wonderful Mega Robo Bros, has a new line of merchandise based on his fabulously silly strip from The Phoenix Comic, Donut Squad. Sign up here for the latest from Neill and head here for the goodies – t-shirts, badges, stickers, and temp tattoos – but sadly, not these beauties…

Dave McKean, Robert Macfarlane, and Johnny Flynn announce 2027 Gilgamesh graphic novel…

The epic Gilgamesh gets the graphic novel treatment in spring 2027, courtesy of nature writer Robert MacFarlane, actor-musician Johnny Flynn, and artist, photographer, and so much else, Dave McKean. Macfarlane and Flynn have got form with the epic tale, having already collaborated on the 2021 show, Lost In The Cedar Wood, which subsequently became an album in 2022.

The Hamish Hamilton published GN will be out spring 2027. The publisher said the graphic novel would ‘tell both the tale, then, and the tale of the tale’, with one storyline being the epic itself of the god-king Gilgamesh and his friend Enkidu who journey to the Sacred Cedar Wood; whilst a second storyline would feature George Smith, the auto-didact, working-class genius who in the 1860s taught himself to read the ancient cuneiform script, and became the first modern translator of Gilgamesh.

Belgium Football Association unveils new Tintin-inspired kit for summer European Championship…

You get your first chance to see the brand new kit, inspired by Belgian cartoonist Hergé’s famous reporter, Tintin, in the 26 March international friendly against England.

Steve May’s Wild Boars! Wild Boars! – something to leave you with a smile on your faces…

As a huge fan of Duran Duran, this one had me smiling… Steve May’s Wild Boars! (to be said as if one were a member of Duran Duran)