The Sunday Spotlight: The ‘Your Dog Stuffs His Tongue Up Your Nose’ Edition
by Richard Bruton
It’s that time again – join us on a quick spin around a little comics news… it’s The Sunday Spotlight…
Congratulations to Annie Koyama – CXC 2024 Spurgeon Award Winner… 26-29 September…
The third annual Spurgeon Award, honouring those who have made a substantial contributions to the field of comics, concentrating on those outside cartoonists, has gone to comics publisher and philanthropist Annie Koyama. It will be awarded at Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CXC) 2024. The Spurgeon award is named for comics editor, writer, historian, and journalist Tom Spurgeon, who sadly passed away in 2019.
Annie Koyama is the founder-publisher of the alternative comics powerhouse, Koyama Press, established in 2007 in Toronto. Koyama Press supported many, many comic makers and cartoonists over the years, and acted as a positive voice across comics.
Koyama set up Koyama Press in 2007 after surviving a terminal brain aneurysm diagnosis. She left a film and advertising career to pursue a passion for comics and supporting emerging talents and Koyama Press subsequently became its own small but important force in published, winning plenty of awards in the process, including the 2011 Joe Shuster Award for Outstanding Publisher.
Koyama Press ceased operations in 2021 but Koyama has continued to support artists with the creation of the Koyama Provides mini-grant initiative, supporting emerging and independent artists through the process of making their art.
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SPX unveils the 2024 poster for the finest Small Press Expo in all the Americas… 14/15 September
Just to show you I’m not all about the Brit comics festivals, here’s the latest poster for one from Maryland, USA – the annual Small Press Expo (SPX), where you’ll find a hell of a lot of things to do and people to see, particularly wonderful comics people like Tillie Walden and Jeffrey Brown to name but two.
It all happens on 14 and 15 September, including the presentation of the Ignatz Awards (named for the character in Herriman’s classic comic Krazy Kat), recognising outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning.
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More great comics to add to your pull-list… Evan Dorkin’s Beasts Of Burden Omnibus out in February 2025…
Dark Horse Books has announced the Beasts of Burden Omnibus for February 2025 – that’s 600 pages of some really great work following a group of dogs and cats in Burden Hill, who just happen to find themselves defending the neighbourhood from weird and wonderful supernatural stuff.
Created by writer Evan Dorkin and artists Jill Thompson and Benjamin Dewey, the omnibus features stories written by Evan Dorkin, Sarah Dyer, and Mike Mignola, and drawn by Jill Thompson and Benjamin Dewey, and contains the whole of Beasts of Burden to date – Animal Rites, Occupied Territory, Neighborhood Watch, andWise Dogs and Eldritch Men, plus plenty of Wise Dogs tie-in stories, including a special appearance by Mignola’s Hellboy.
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Gosh signings – John Harris Dunning signing Summer Shadows – 11 September 2024…
The new gay vampire romance set on a Greek island four-issue series, Summer Shadows, comes out in September from Dark Horse, and writer John Harris Dunning will be at Gosh, London, on 11 September 2024 from 6-7pm.
Dunning is joined on the comic by Ricardo Cabral, Brad Simpson, and Jim Campbell, with the first issue out 11 Sept.
Here’s the DH PR…
‘Sink your teeth into an all-new horror mystery series, Summer Shadows, beginning this fall and published by Dark Horse Comics. Set against the sunny backdrop of a remote Greek island, the comic tells the story of an LGBTQIA+ romance turned deadly mystery. The tale is written by John Harris Dunning, with interior and cover art by Ricardo Cabral, colored by Brad Simpson, and lettered by Jim Campbell.
‘Nick Landry is on the unspoilt Greek island of Avraxos to look for his ex. Anthony was the love of his life, and without knowing why he left, Nick can’t move on. But Anthony isn’t the only one to disappear on Avraxos. Coast Guard officer Alekos Kourkoulos is on the trail of another young man missing on the island. They learn that both of the missing men fell in with the glamorous inhabitants of a jet-black super yacht, the Nyx, before vanishing. As the mystery deepens, Nick and Alekos discover that the brighter the sunshine, the darker the shadows…
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More GOSH London signings – Batman Day with Christian Ward for the launch of Batman: City of Madness – 21st September…
Another week, another great-looking Gosh Comics signing, this time celebrating the bat on bat-day, 21 September, with Christian Ward, for the release of City of Madness – which is, as all agree, a damn fine book indeed. Plus, free Batman day comics and an exclusive mini print for the signing as well!
Here’s what publishers DC have to say about the book –
“Buried deep beneath Gotham City there exists another Gotham. This Gotham Below is a living nightmare, populated by twisted mirrors of our Gotham’s denizens, fueled by the fear and hatred flowing down from above. For decades, the doorway between the cities has been sealed and heavily guarded by the Court of Owls. But now the door swings wide, and the twisted version of the Dark Knight has escaped…to trap and train a Robin of his own.
Batman must form an uneasy alliance with the Court and its deadly allies to stop him—and to hold back the wave of twisted super-villains, nightmarish versions of his own nemeses, each one worse than the last, that’s spilling into his streets!
Visionary writer-artist Christian Ward unleashes a cosmic-horror take on Batman’s world, and readers will never look at Batman’s villains the same way again.”
All the info here.
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Alan Moore’s Maestro episodes come to YouTube – well, some of them at least…
Ah, the delightful lilting tones of Northampton’s finest wordsmith* – some of his recent Maestro episodes from the BBC are now on YouTube. Not all by any means, but definitely worth a watch. Maestro’s a series of online courses from masters in their fields, including Mr Moore talking about writing – about which he does know more than a little.
Find a couple of the episodes here. And there’s more if you take a look-see.
*Actually, I love listening to him. If you’ve never had the pleasure of his spoken word performance pieces, do yourselves a favour and check them out – there’s magic in that voice for sure.
