The Sunday Spotlight: The ‘Was It The Necronomicon?’ Edition
by Richard Bruton
It’s Sunday, time to spotlight some of the news stories I noticed… yep, it’s The Sunday Spotlight…
.
Lucy Scholes talks to the grande dame of Brit comics, Posy Simmonds, at Prospect…
Another great interview with Posy Simmonds, this time at Prospect, in the wake of her well-deserved award of the Grand Prix at France’s Angoulême International Comics Festival – shocking still that she’s but the fourth woman to win in the 50-year history of the Grand Prix. Simmonds also has a career retrospective at Paris’ Pompidou Centre, where this delicious anecdote comes from…
‘The first thing she tells me about the exhibition, though, is that it was disrupted by the bedbug infestation that was sweeping Paris. The parasites colonised the carpets in the Pompidou Library, which meant the show was briefly shut down while exterminators were called in. Simmonds is grinning while she tells me this. Behind her warm and elegantly spoken exterior is a deliciously naughty sense of humour. She’s also an obscenely talented mimic: the only castaway on Desert Island Discs to have reduced Kirsty Young to hysterics, with her impersonation of a chicken.’
Read the interview here and take a listen to that Desert Island Discs episode here.
.
A 2000 AD double-header at Forbidden Planet London – Getty Finley-Day & Dave Gibbons on 17 Aug, Simon Bisley on 24 August…
Three legends of comics, two events, one location…
Creators of Rogue Trooper, Gerry Finley-Day and Dave Gibbons, will be at FP London on 17 August to sign copies of Essential Rogue Trooper Volume 1.
Then, a short week later, 24 August, Simon Bisley is there to sign Sláine: The Horned God Anniversary Edition, celebrating 35 years since it was first published in 2000 AD.
.
Must read comics industry analysis – Brian Hibb’s Tilting at Windmills #298: The Problem With Excess…
Brian Hibbs is the owner/operator of San Francisco’s Comix Experience comic shop, and has long written very smart things about the comics industry, particularly from a retail perspective, over at Heidi’s Comics Beat.
Tilting at Windmills is what it’s called, and it’s absolutely essential reading for anyone interested in both the medium and industry of comics.
Case in point, the latest one, #298, The Problem With Excess, takes on the problems of excesses in publishing leading to a worse market, a weaker market, for all involved.
Here’s a little pull quote for you…
‘I truly think that a well-curated and much narrower line of Marvel comics (where they are publishing, say eight or less comics each week) would be potentially incredibly appealing to customers and I would expect those comics to be selling far far better than they do today, yielding more profit per effort, and selling more copies of backlist collections, as a result.’
.
Comix Experience, San Francisco, welcomes Samuel Sattin for Unico: Awakening signing – 24 August 2024…
The last of Comix Experience‘s summer of signings happens on Saturday 24 August, from 2-4 pm, when writer Samuel Sattin arrives to promote and sign copies of his Scholastic graphic novel, Unico: Awakening.
Unico: Awakening is, according to Scholastic’s PR:
“The incredible story of a young unicorn who, after enraging the evil goddess Venus, is banished from the heavens and forgets all he once was. Befriended by a resourceful watch cat, Chloe, who feels protective of the young unicorn, they find themselves near a small village in the forest, taking refuge with a kindly, but helpless, old woman. To take care of her, Chloe begs Unico to turn her into a human girl, but that act of kindness has unforeseen consequences: Unico’s love has awakened Venus and her minion, Byron, who want to destroy them both!”
Written by Samuel Sattin and drawn by Gurihiru, Unico has been developed in collaboration with Tezuka Productions as a reboot of a beloved story by Astro Boy creator Osamu Tezuka.
.
SDCC Announcements – Scott Dunbier’s ACT 4 announces a hell of a lot of great books…
Amongst the huge number of announcements that came out of SDCC (so many of them covered here) the one that really rather excited me was the list of books coming from Scott Dunbier‘s new publishing company, Act 4.
In a not surprising move, given that it was Dunbier who essentially created the market for the massive Artists Editions, Act 4 will be publishing a lot of those, plus other archival works, not to mention a few brand-new things.
There’s no doubt more to come, but just the first eight really do give you an idea of the delights to come. Leading off for a must-buy, we have Darwyn Cooke’s The Complete Spirit. But then there’s a couple of Dave Stevens books, Walter Simonson‘s Ragnarok, with an oversized collection plus a brand new mini series, Wally Wood’s Expanded EC Stories Artist’s Edition, Jim Aparo’s DC Classics Artist’s Edition, Jason Pearson’s Body Bags Artist’s Edition.
.
More SDCC – Eisner Awards Hall of Fame 2024…
With all the announcements of the Will Eisner Awards on the Saturday night showing us a hell of a lot of great comics and comics makers, there’s been less coverage of the 2024 inductees into the Eisner Awards Hall of Fame that were awarded on Friday night.
There were 19 inductees chosen by a judges’ panel, with deceased honourees being Creig Flessel, A. B. Frost, Billy Graham, Albert Kanter, Warren Kremer, Oscar Lebeck, Frans Masereel, Keiji Nakaszawa, Noel Sickles, Cliff Sterrett, Elmer C. Stoner, and George Tuska. The living honourees were Kim Deitch, Gary Groth, Don McGregor, Bryan Talbot, Ron Turner, Lynn Varley, and James Warren.
The Voters’ Choice Hall of Fame inductees are Klaus Janson, Jim Lee, Mike Mignola, and Jill Thompson.
Congratulations all!
But winner of best celebratory picture has to go to Jill Thompson…
