The Sunday Spotlight:The ‘We’ve Reached The End Of Time’ Edition
by Richard Bruton
It’s Sunday and that can only mean one thing… time for your regular catch-up with the comics news in The Sunday Spotlight…
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The Moomins and Queer Culture – 19 June, London…
It’s time for the first ever official Moomin Pride event in the UK! Taking place on 19 June in London – The Moomins and Queer Culture: The Legacy of Tove Jansson it’s a very special event celebrating the queer legacy of Moomins creator Tove Jansson.
Hosted by activist and illustrator Fox Fisher and featuring author Paul Gravett, gaming influencer Eeowna, and artists Ashton Attzs and Aleesha Nandhra, this is a night of discussion of the incredible world of Tove and Moominvalley.
In-person and online live-stream tickets are available. Attendees will also get an exclusive Pride tote bag featuring Tove Jansson’s artwork to take home as a keepsake for this Moominous event.
The Moomins and Queer Culture: The Legacy of Tove Jansson – hosted by The Common Press, 118 Bethnal Green Road, London E2 6DG – Wednesday 19th June, 6.30-9.00pm.
Tickets are limited and available here.
(Via Paul Gravett)
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Canada Post celebrates cartooning Canadians… Chester Brown, Seth, Michel Rabgliati, Mariko & Jillian Tamaki…
Canada Post has released a set of four stamps celebrating five Canadian graphic novelists – Chester Brown, Seth, Michel Rabgliati, and Mariko & Jillian Tamaki – with characters from some of their well-known books. All great cartoonists/artists/comic makers and all very deserving of the recognition.
Although I couldn’t help think when I heard about this that things sure have changed since the time 16-year-old me picked up a copy of Yummy Fur sometime in the late ’80s and then Seth’s Palookaville in 1991, when this sort of recognition was impossible to even imagine!
Bios of the artists and more info here, and here’s what Canada Post had to say…
‘Graphic novelists tell rich stories by deftly interweaving words and images. Since emerging nearly a half-century ago, this narrative form – which can include anthologies, memoirs and other non-fiction works – has steadily grown in popularity and captivated readers around the globe. Canada Post is pleased to celebrate some of the most talented and influential authors of the genre in a set of stamps that includes Chester Brown, Michel Rabagliati, Seth and cousins Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki. Individually, these five graphic novelists have inspired readers at home and abroad and elevated the graphic novel form. Collectively, they have helped establish Canada’s reputation in the comic arts world.
‘While Canada Post has issued stamps featuring comic book superheroes, it has never before showcased the unique work created by Canadian graphic novelists. When designing these stamps, each artist collaborated with Canada Post to create original drawings, exclusively for this stamp issue, of their main characters from their most beloved books engrossed in their own stories.’
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DC FINALLY releases the Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez DC Style Guide…
Okay, sort of. It’s actually independent publisher Standards Manual, set up by Jesse Reed and Hamish Smyth with the intent ‘to archive and preserve artifacts of design history and make them available to future generations. From reprinted graphics standards manuals to new compendiums of archival work’ – including something as important as the famed Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez DC Comics Style Guide from 1982.
The Style Guide was an internal manual produced by García-López to give the company a standard reference point for the look of every major DC character of the time, giving the house look for all comics and merchandising. It’s long been on the wishlist of many fans but now it appears we’ll finally be able to get copies of the manual for ourselves, with all that fabulously cultured and smooth as silk García-López artwork.
Standards Manual are saying it’s going to be a 1:1 sized hardcover and arrives in August 2024.
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Another good-looking event – Webcomicon 2024 – Aug 3-4, Ferndale, Michigan…
One of the things I keep meaning to do here at Comicon is to get more regular in my Webcomic Weekly feature – after all, the clue to how often it should be up is right there in the damn title. But hey, it’s a constant struggle to get it on a reasonable schedule.
However, one thing I always say about the great world of webcomics is just how wonderfully diverse and inclusive they are, how there’s always something new out there, something amazing, something thought-provoking, something plain old fun.
And it you want the chance to see some of the finest purveyors of webcomics in person, there’s only one place to be this August and that’s Webcomicon. Plenty of great names already announced – more at webcomicon.net.
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Tripwire’s looking for the right way to draw Dredd’s helmet…
This one was a few weeks ago but it’s taken this long for me to get round to looking at it – apologies! Anyway, it’s Paul N Neal writing at Joel Meadows’ excellent Tripwire site (also an excellent print mag – see here for an idea) taking a round table view from several Dredd artists on just what they reckon is the best Dredd helmet of all time… ‘Artists on the right way to draw Judge Dredd’s helmet’.
Artists include Boo Cook, Glenn Fabry, Nick Percival, Liam Sharp Simon Coleby, Brian Bolland, John Charles, Chris Weston, Dan Cornwell. Here’s a bit of Chris Weston’s take…
‘The great thing is there are now quite a few variations to choose from, depending on your mood or the tone of the story. My helmet used to be very cylindrical, much like the way Bolland and Steve Dillon used to draw it. However, as I’ve got older, I’ve slightly flared it a bit in reference to Mick McMahon. One day, I aim to do a really wide, exaggerated version in tribute to Brendan McCarthy.’
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What, Me Worry? – The Art And Humor Of Mad Magazine – Norman Rockwell Museum, Mass. 8 June-27 Oct 2024…
The Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massechusetts, is putting over 150 pieces up on its walls, all celebrating the magnificence of MAD Magazine.
What, Me Worry? The Art and Humor of MAD Magazine features art from Sergio Aragonés, David Berg, Paul Coker, Jack Davis, Dick DeBartolo, Will Elder, John Ficarra, Kelly Freas, Al Jaffee, Harvey Kurtzman, Don Martin, Nick Meglin, Norman Mingo, Antonio Prohías, Marie Severin, John Severin, Angelo Torres, Sam Viviano, Richard Williams, and Wally Wood. And there’s a whole gallery given over to the work of Mort Drucker, who spent more than five decades drawing caricatures and illustrations for MAD.
The exhibition is co-curated by Steve Brodner and Stephanie Haboush Plunkett, with Sam Viviano as lead advisor. What, Me Worry? opens on Saturday 8th June 2024 and runs to 27 October 2024. The Norman Rockwell Museum is located at 9 Glendale Road Route 183 in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Tickets are now available. More details at Previews-Scoop.
