The Sunday Spotlight: The ‘Don’t Tell Me, You’re From Disneyland?’ Edition
by Richard Bruton
Welcome once more to The Sunday Spotlight – taking you a little way into comics news you may have missed…
2000 AD mega-zine Zarjaz Sci-Fi Special 2024 out in September…
Announced a while back, there’s new life in a long-running 2000AD-zine – Zarjaz! After many years of being run by the much-missed Dave Evans, aka Bolt-01, who passed away in 2021, the zine will return this September thanks to Andrew J. Lewis, the original editor of Zarjaz.
It’s a zine that’s been running since 2001, although zine doesn’t particularly give you an impressive of what became something very snazzy, featuring characters from 2000 AD, and featuring creators from the comic as well as creators who’d get their first exposure here before moving on to write and draw in 2000 AD itself. And it was a zine that had received the blessing of 2000 AD itself.
Zarjaz Volume 3, the Sci-Fi Special 2024 will be 116 pages with 18 brand-new stories featuring classic 2000 AD characters. Now, because it’s a not-for-profit publication and uses 2000 AD/Rebellion characters means they can’t launch it on Kickstarter. Instead, they’ve opened it up for pre-sale here. It’s a limited print run based on pre-sales and copies should be sent out towards the end of September.
You can pre-order here.
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UK Comics Laureate Bobby Joseph brings you his 2024 Graphic Novel Library List – recommended reading indeed…
Bobby Joseph is the current UK Comics Laureate and part of his role is bringing the medium to greater attention, something he’s done well with his new list of recommended reads for children and general readers, a list distributed by Arts Council England to libraries across the UK.
Including a truly diverse list of authors, for every age, the list highlights not just the best of comics but has a real focus on the best of British comic makers – including the likes of Sabba Khan, Adam and Lisa Murphy, Bex Ollerton, Shanti Rai, David Shenton, Danny Noble, Mark Stafford, Lucy Sullivan, and Jamie Smart.
Bobby has this to say:
“As the Comics Laureate, my main role is to promote the art form. It is something I do not get paid for. So, therefore, anything I do is for the sheer love of the form and to do things that help and uplift creators because that is what we should be doing as a community. The main reason why I created the Laureate list is to give UK Comic creators a spotlight in libraries throughout the whole of the country. Not only does it give them more profile, but it also gives them another revenue stream to gain royalties. This also creates stronger links with comic creatives and libraries. It opens the channels up for more talks or events with UK comic talent.”
You can find more info on the list at the Comics Can Change The World site, and the whole list is available at Waterstones here.
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Lakes International Comics Art Festival presents ‘Enter the Mulberry Tree and Fly Free: Palestinian Comics Revealed’ in a new exhibition – and also at Thought Bubble…
The Lakes International Comics Art Festival (LICAF) has announced the latest of its international exhibitions – ‘Enter the Mulberry Tree and Fly Free’, which will be the first exhibition of comic art from Palestine of its kind to take place outside of the Middle East and North Africa region, all part of this years LICAF happening rather soon – 26th – 30th September 2024 – where the hell has this year gone!?!?
It’s also an exhibition that will be shown at this years Thought Bubble Festival in partnership with LICAF – always good to see the two biggest and best comics festivals in the UK playing together!
It’s curated by George Khoury, a Lebanon-based expert on Arab comics, and one of the key featured artists, multi award-winning Mohammad Sabaaneh, based in Palestine, will be in Bowness-on-Windermere for the festival weekend. Both will feature in an event where they’ll be discussing the work and themes of the ‘Enter the Mulberry Tree and Fly Free’ exhibition, examining the different perspectives shared by a new generation of comic artists.
“Enter the Mulberry Tree and Fly Free: Palestinian Comics Revealed presents the work of twelve Palestinian comic artists in an installation designed by architects Rabih Koussa and Nabil Farhat, made from cardboard. ‘Fragile yet resilient, paper symbolises the endurance of a people amidst the tempests of history. The installation reflects the traditional architectures of the region and will house the art of twelve Palestinian comic artists. Each fold and crease in this paper house reflects the complexities of identity, memory, and the unyielding spirit of the works.”
‘Enter the Mulberry Tree and Fly Free’ is free of charge and will be open at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival in Bowness-on-Windermere daily between 10.00am and 4.00pm from Thursday 26th – Monday 30th September 2024. It then moves on to Thought Bubble Festival in November 2024 at Left Bank in Leeds from 6 – 28th November 2024.
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Cartoon Museum hosts Sir Ian Livingstone for The Art of Fighting Fantasy book launch, talk, and signing – 10 September 2024…
Okay, not comics, but hell, if you grew up around the same time as me, the world of Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone’s Fighting Fantasy choose-your-own-adventure series was just a very special thing, guaranteed to bring misty-eyed nostalgia to many.
Well, if you’re in London on 10 September, might we suggest heading down to the Cartoon Museum from 18:30-20:30 where Sir Ian Livingstone will be chatting and signing at the launch of Magic Realms: The Art of Fighting Fantasy.
It’s a book celebrating the many incredible talents who contributed to the whole Fighting Fantasy line, including Chris Achilléos, John Blanche, Jim Burns, Les Edwards, Karl Kopinski, Iain McCaig, Martin McKenna, Ian Miller and Russ Nicholson, among others. Written by Fighting Fantasy co-creator Livingstone and Fighting Fantasy historian Jonathan Green, it looks like a must for any FF fan.
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Scottish BBC tv comedy Still Game to return in comic form…
Still Game was a rather well-loved Scottish comedy TV series on the BBC about a group of pensioners that ran for nine series and three live shows. Now it’s coming back – in comic book form.
The creators of the TV show, Greg Hemphill and Ford Kiernan, have worked with a team of writers and artists to adapt the stories for a new format, all under editor Gordon Tait and coming from Scottish publishers Scunnered Ink. The main writer on the comic is Daniel McGachey, with art from Steve Bright, Kenneth Anderson, Dean Rankine, Jamie Buchanan, and Gary Welsh.
The first volume – He Who Hingith Aboot Getteth Hee Haw – is released on 16 September.
More info here.
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Scott Dunbier talks David Mazzucchelli’s Batman: Year One with AE Index…
David Mazzucchelli’s Batman: Year One Artists Edition has recently come out from IDW. It’s rather fabulous and just a bit on the HUGE side. It was a project coordinated by Scott Dunbier, who’s since left IDW to found Act IV, a new company bringing more archive works to press, including works from Dave Stevens, Walt Simonson, Wally Wood, Jason Pearson, and a hell of a lot more. Unfortunately, as perhaps IDW have found out, Dunbier is irreplaceable it seems – with the news that they accidentally sent out several copies of the Batman: Year One Artists Edition artist’s proof to customers instead of straight to Mazzucchelli. Ooops.
Dunbier’s recently sat down with Scott VanderPloeg of AE Index and talks about a book that a lot of people are very, very excited about.
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Finally… on the whole Oasis thing…
Nope, not comics news, but it can’t have escaped your attention that Oasis are coming back in 2025. The lure of performing together, the putting aside of brotherly rivalries, doing it for the fans… or perhaps it’s all about the paycheck. After all, Noel’s got another divorce to pay for. But, seeing as the bookies are already taking bets on the exact date the wheels will fall off this one and one or both of the brothers will quit, maybe go for one of the earlier dates?
Anyway, a couple of rather timely bits of art from the past for the news…
And then I saw this on socials from JaKe:
“In 2012 I worked with the Official UK Charts on a really fun and creative project: a series of comics to celebrate the Charts’ 60th anniversary. I started with a strip for each decade and this was the 90’s one ( The first time I’d gone ‘period’ and rendered pop stars I’d drawn back in the 90’s ) I had no idea at that point that all the bands in the strip would eventually reform.”
