The Sunday Spotlight: The ‘Are You One Of My Rabbits?’ Edition
by Richard Bruton
It’s Sunday, let’s spotlight some comics news in the imaginatively named Sunday Spotlight…
Phoenix Comics to launch Phoenix Comic Books and Phoenix Comic Club – coming in January 2025…
Announced this week, David Fickling Books (DFB) and the Phoenix Comic are launching a new comic-book imprint, The Phoenix Comic Books, in January 2025. The two companies will work together to publish graphic novels for children.
Now, if you’ve been following me telling you about The Phoenix all these years, you’ll already know what a damn fine comic for kids it is, launching Jamie Smart’s Bunny vs Monkey and Looshkin, as well as Neill Cameron’s Mega Robo Bros.
The new imprint will, it seems, take over publishing Phoenix collections, including new Bunny vs Monkey and Mega Robo Bros titles, alongside new series like Donut Squad by Neill Cameron, which will publish in May 2025, and Pandora in Puzzlevale, publishing June 2025.
As well as that, there’s going to be a Phoenix Comic Club, launching alongside the new imprint, giving readers access to drawing, writing and comic-creation tutorials from artists and comic creators.
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Jamie Smart’s Bunny Vs Monkey – the latest victim of the ‘ban this’ movement?...
Seen on Jamie Smart‘s socials this week, a post on Mumsnet had a parent talking about her eight-year-old son’s teacher banning him from bringing in Bunny Vs Monkey books for he and his friends to read. Said teacher had deemed them, ‘rude, violent, and inappropriate.’
Firstly, Bunny Vs Monkey ‘rude, violent, and inappropriate’? Well yes, it’s slightly rude – in the sort of silly toilet humour way of things. And it’s got some mild cartoon violence, but none of it nasty or vicious in any way. But inappropriate? Inappropriate to whom, dear teacher? To your eight-year-olds in your class? Not in the slightest. And if you had any notion of how and why kids read – which you should – you’d see that and not do such a dumb thing as banning kids from reading.
Now, aside from the fact that it sounds like this eight-year-old has the most boring teacher in the world, there’s that horrible thing happening here of teachers STILL not seeing comics as reading, not ‘proper’ books, and all the things that never seem to go away. So, what do we get? An eight-year-old spreading his love of reading and comics with his friends, presumably making them better readers at the same time and giving them the same love of reading that it sounds like their teacher is singularly failing to do.
On the plus side… Jamie Smart gets BANNED – you know that’s only going to result in more interest, more sales, and more kids absolutely loving his books – including the rude, violent, and inappropriate bits!
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Mike Mignola exhibition Hell, Ink, and Water: The Art of Mike Mignola opens at the Philippe Labaune New York comic book gallery – September 19 and October 26…
A new gallery show – Mike Mignola’s very first (incredibly!) – takes place from 19 September to 26 October at the Philippe Labaune comic book gallery in New York. On display (and up for sale) are 30 watercolors and over 100 b&w pieces, including 50 covers and 10 pages of Hellboy original artwork.
Here’s how the gallery put it…
“Philippe Labaune Gallery is pleased to present, Hell, Ink & Water: The Art of Mike Mignola. Reading Dracula at age 12 introduced Mike Mignola to folklore and Victorian supernatural literature, from which he has still never recovered. He began working as a comic book artist in 1982, working for both Marvel and DC Comics before creating Hellboy, published by Dark Horse Comics in 1994. What began as a single comic-book series would eventually expand to a “Hellboy Universe” of related graphic novels, prose novels, short story anthologies, and both animated and live action films. Philippe Labaune Gallery will host Mignola’s first ever gallery show.”
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Liam Sharp’s lost BBC podcast series… Sharpy’s Comic Book Legends…
This from Liam Sharp, artist extraordinaire… seems we could have had a BBC podcast series on the finest comic makers…
‘Around a year ago I was approach my my great friend, writer, producer, broadcaster and cartoonist, Brian West, with a view to my doing a series of comics-related podcasts for BBC Sounds. We decided there really could only be one clear guest for the pilot, the govnor, former comics Laureate, and fellow doctor, Mr. Dave Gibbons. And of course, he was terrific! Sad to say, the UK mainstream continues to have very little interest in our beautiful medium so it never got picked up, but I’m proud of this singular episode, which was a genuine pleasure to do.’
Well, that would have been one great series. Damn shame it was never picked up. But at least we still have that pilot episode – click here to listen for free.
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You signed up for the Comix Experience Graphic Novel Club yet?…
Brian Hibb’s Comix Experience in San Francisco is a fine shop doing many, many things so right. A lot of this is their Graphic Novel Club – adult and kids flavours – definitely worth a look. Even if you’re not going to sign up for that, it’s absolutely worth signing up for their monthly mailing list here.
The adult choice for September is Rare Flavours by Ram Venkatesan and Filipe Andrade from BOOM! Studios! They’re talking to Ram and Felipe on Sunday 9/29 at 10am. You can watch that one here.
The Kids Club selection for September is How It All Ends by Emma Hunsinger from Greenwillow Books. There’s also a live streamed conversation with Emma on Sunday 9/22 at 10am PST. That’s going to be here.
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Fancy a Walk Across Northampton to visit Alan Moore?…
The greatest living comics writer, who doesn’t write comics any more, but hey, it’s still a thing, Alan Moore, features on a (new to me at least) May 2024 video on YouTube, where John Rogers walks across Northampton with author Iain Sinclair on their way to have a chat with Mr Moore.
As an aside, my only time meeting the great man was at Nostalgia & Comics Birmingham when he and Dave Gibbons were doing the Watchmen tour, so probably 1987, when I was a mere 16 or 17 years old and rather in dumbstruck awe of the pair of them as I took them coffees for the signing session. One of the best things I remember about the whole thing was afterwards, once the shop closed, and both gents wandered the shelves, picking up an armful of goodies and much to the boss’s incredulity, expecting they were theirs to take away, gratis. Turns out one of the prior signings went so well that the boss of that shop told them that, yes, please take whatever you want from the shelves, and both gents just assumed it was a thing for the whole tour.
Anyway, the Walk Across Northampton is described thus, and it’s a great, great watch…
‘A fascinating walk exploring elements of the deep history of Northampton with writer Iain Sinclair on the way to a conversation with Alan Moore, author of Jerusalem, The Watchmen, Voice of the Fire, The Great When (Long London Trilogy). Our route takes in St Peter’s Church, Gold Street, All Saints Church, the Guildhall, St Andrew’s Hospital, and the County Ground. The cast of characters mentioned include John Clare, William Smith, Lucia Joyce, Samuel Becket, John Deakin and more. Presented as Unearthing Alan Moore at Swedenborg House in Bloomsbury, London.’
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More Moore… talking about The Great When in the Bookseller…
Yep, double Moore this week, as the great man’s been interviewed by Katie Fraser for The Bookseller magazine about his new novel, the first in the Long London series, The Great When, out in October 2024, a ‘fantasy series set between 1940s London and it’s otherworldly counterpart’ (as Fraser’s interview puts it). I’m sold.
This from the interview, well worth a read;
‘I’m making more of an effort to conjure this spell of words to involve the readers, to make them feel like they are viscerally there.’
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And finally… C’mon Marvel, you’re throwing the money away… Kerry Callen’s Spider-Ham Saves The Universe…
This from Kerry Callen…
’15 years ago, or so, I made a pitch to Marvel. They weren’t currently using Spider-Ham and it caught their interest. They asked me the purpose of the story. “Is it a parody of modern society or politics? Etc…” Hmm. I’m not against any of that, but I just wanted it to be funny.’
Yep, sometimes funny is just funny. But Marvel, you passed on a great one there… worth it just for the ‘it’s a vicious cycle’ line…
