The Sunday Spotlight: The ‘It’s Not My Fault’ Edition
by Richard Bruton
Sunday? Again? Well as we all slowly awake on what is hopefully our day off, it’s time for my little round-up of all the news that I fancied telling you all about… it’s The Sunday Spotlight…
Coming from Fantagraphics – one last time for Joe Matt’s Peepshow…
Joe Matt’s passing last year at the age of 60 was both tragically unexpected and robbed us of a great artist – albeit never one of the fastest artists. If you want to know more of his work, here’s the tribute I put up at the time.
We thought we’d not see anything else with Matt’s name on it with his death, but it turns out that he’d been working on, and nearly finished a new issue of his Peepshow comic. After his death, it was discovered that the entirety of issue 15, some 17 years in the making, was complete aside from four uninked pages. Now, with the help of Matt’s friends on the inking, Peephow #15 will be out on 17 July 2024 from Fantagraphics, who have this to say…
“The issue is quintessential Matt, as if he had never left us: utterly shameless, completely self-absorbed, crafted with an exhibitionist’s enthusiasm for his favorite subject, himself. Detailing his move to Los Angeles in 2003—”trapped in a world he never made!”—to pursue an ill-fated HBO series. Peepshow #15 is Joe Matt at his Joe Mattiest.”
It’s an essential purchase for those who love his work and a fitting way to bid farewell to an artist gone way too soon.
Lawless Comic Con announces David Roach’s Best of British exhibition for May…
The 10th anniversary Lawless show, celebrating comics and all things 2000 AD and Judge Dredd, gets better and better. Not only have they announced even more guests, including Garth Ennis, but there’s also going to be a very special exhibition put on by David Roach – The Best of British.
Roach has been posting tantalising sneak peeks of just a little of the art he’ll be bringing with him and exhibiting at the show – somewhere around 90 pages, with art from some true greats including Burns, Embleton, Holdaway, McMahon, Redondo, Ezquerra and Belardinelli from 2000AD, Warrior, Girls comics, picture Library covers, and so much more.
Lawless happens on 25 & 26 May 2024 in Bristol.
Enniskillen Comic Fest – guests include Mick McMahon and Alan Davis – coming 8 & 9 June…
Another comics festival that seems to be getting things right now – this time happening in beautiful Enniskillen in Northern Ireland – the Enniskillen Comic Fest.
It’s a two-day festival of comics, with a slate of impressive guests already unveiled that includes Alan Davis, Mick McMahon, Robin Smith, John Higgens, Sally Jane Hurst, Pye Parr, Will Simpson, Mike Carroll, PJ Holden, Kieran McKeown, Ruairi Coleman, Dave Windett, Geoff Senior, Clint Langley, Mike Collins, and Anna Morozova.
Any festival that has Mick McMahon there is already a great one, but also featuring Alan Davis? Well that’s a really special event indeed.
You can keep up to date with the show and how to get tickets via their Facebook page.
Advance Pride – Kevin Wada’s fabulous cover to DC Pride this year…
Pride month, celebrating all things LGBTQ+, happens every June. Increasingly, comics have been getting in on the act, something which most right-thinking people will think is a great thing but a few morons will no doubt be up in arms about.
Anyway, more Pride stuff in June but I couldn’t help sharing this wonderful Kevin Wada DC Pride 24 cover…
Battle Action Force returns in new Treasury Editions…
Another blast from Brit comics’ past now, as Rebellion have announced that they’re working with Total Toy Books, Hasbro, and Skeletron to bring out an officially licensed reprint series of Action Force.
Action Force, if you didn’t know – and if you were born after the mid ’80s you probably won’t – was originally a toy line created by Palitoy as a mini version of their Action Man (GI Joe) toys. But it was also made into a comic featuring work from some great names of Brit comics, including Cam Kennedy and Gerry Finley-Day, that ran between 1983 and 1986 in IPC Magazines’ weekly comic – Battle Action Force.
In 40 years, none of that’s been reprinted – until now. Total Toy Books, Hasbro and Skeletron, working with Rebellion are planning on releasing a reprint series of Action Force, collecting the comics in a series of deluxe oversized treasury editions.
More details will be revealed soon according to Rebellion, but thehy do point us to the mailing list at www.TotalToyBooks.com for more.
Darryl Cunningham’s Elon Musk book is coming out from Delcourt… but where’s the English-language version?…
You should all know Darryl Cunningham‘s name from his incredible library of work – some incredibly insightful and powerful non-fiction works that include Psychiatric Tales, Science Tales, Supercrash: How to Hijack the Global Economy (a New York Times bestseller), Graphic Science, Billionaires, and Putin’s Russia: The Rise of a Dictator.
His next book on a certain tech mogul and social media site destroyer, one Elon Musk, has already been announced as coming out in French from Delcourt in July 2024. But where’s the English-speaking version for the likes of me whose French never got past the very basics? Well, Darryl says there will be news soon!
If you want to find out more and see some of his work, check out the Myriad Press creator page for Darryl.
