The Sunday Spotlight: The ‘If It Wasn’t So Painful, I’d Probably Try It Again’ Edition
by Richard Bruton
Welcome, welcome one and all – another week over, time to settle back in comics news, it’s the Sunday Spotlight…
Jess Nevins’ The History of Comics in 500 Issues Podcast – get listening…
Jess Nevins, who you may well know from his fascinating and absolutely obsessively detailed annotations of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, is a writer about comics whose work is always worth a look. And he’s just started what promises to be a really enthralling and suitably in-depth and exhaustive podcast – The History of Comics in 500 Issues.
You can see a long, long list of the first 438 episodes he’s got planned here, and it looks like a really essential series if you ask me. Here’s the first ten for you to peruse…
- 1837. Rodolphe Topffer’s Histoire de Mr. Vieux Bois.
- 1854. Gustave Dore’s Dramatic and Picturesque History of Holy Russia in Caricature
- May 1890. Comic Cuts #1.
- 1897. The Yellow Kid in McFadden’s Flats.
- 1899. The Story of the Three Kingdoms.
- July 1904. Puck #1.
- Oct 1905. O Tico-Tico #1
- Aug 1907. Gente Menuda: Debut of “Un Viaje al Planeta Júpiter.”
- 1908. Corriere dei Piccoli #1
- June 1908. L’Epatant: debut of “Les Pieds Nickelés.”
Yep, so as you can see, it’s really covering a hell of a lot of ground and may well prove to be essential listening. I’ve downloaded episodes 1 and 2 and will be listening soon. You can get them wherever you find your podcasts or listen on his site.
Anything missing? He’d ask you to suggest more at jjnevins@ix.netcom.com! I’d encourage you to sign up to his Patreon to get episodes first before general public release.
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We Called Them Giants Launch Party With Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans – Gosh Comics – 31 October 2024…
Whilst not busy with The Power Fantasy (which is great btw), Kieron Gillen‘s been making an original graphic novel with Stephanie Hans – We Call Them Giants.
And as is the way of these things, Gosh Comics London are having a launch signing, complete with limited bookplate edition on Thursday 31st October 2024, between 7-9pm. As the flyer says – fancy dress is encouraged. Should be a rather great night.
‘We Called Them Giants is a story of communication across a chasm at the end of the world.
‘Lori wakes to find the streets empty. Everyone has gone. Or at least, nearly everyone. She’s thrown into a world where she has to scrape by in the ruins of civilization, nearly starving, hiding from gangs when …
‘They arrive.’
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Alison Bechdel in conversation at Yale News…
The acclaimed (quite rightly as well) Alison Bechdel is interviewed by Oscar Sweeting at Yale News, where she’s now a professor in the practice in English and Film and Media Studies in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
It’s a wide-ranging interview covering plenty of topics, but concentrating on the two classes she’s teaching this fall on the craft and production of comics and graphic novels this fall, where students will explore “the alchemy of combining words and pictures into the visual language of comics.”
It also mentions Bechdel’s next project, which sounds absolutely fascinating…
‘Bechdel’s next project is an autofictional “mashup” of her previous memoirs and comic strips. Characters from “Dykes to Watch Out For” return, now older and with kids in college. A cartoonist by the name of Alison Bechdel — who in some ways resembles Bechdel, but in many other ways does not — also makes an appearance.’
You can find the interview right here.
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Go read – Tom Ewing’s Discourse 2000…
Tom Ewing’s Discourse 2000 has just finished the first ‘season’ of articles taking a deep, deep dive into the world of 2000 AD. He’s writing brilliantly about the subject, concentrating on specific stories for each article.!
Here’s the season 1 full line-up…
- Dan Dare – Monday 26th August
- Invasion! – Wednesday 28th
- Flesh – Friday 30th
- MACH 1 – Monday 2nd September
- Harlem Heroes – Wednesday 4th
- Judge Dredd – Friday 6th
- Shako – Monday 9th
- Tharg The Mighty – Wednesday 11th
- Tharg’s Future Shocks – Friday 13th
- Inferno – Monday 16th
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Thought Bubble Presents…Rainbow Age with Theo Parish – 12 November 2024…
Another great Thought Bubble event here in advance of the big convention, the UK’s biggest, as they welcome Theo Parish, author of Homebody (published by PanMacmillan & HarperAlley in April 2024), to Leeds Central Library on 12 November 2024, 5:15 PM – 6:45 PM.
Theo, in conversation with Jack Fallows, will talk about how they created this incredible, uplifting and enlightening book, which tells of the journey they went on to be comfortable in their own body.
Leeds Central Library is home to a great collection of queer graphic novels and comics, donated by UK comic shop chain Travelling Man.
More details here, follow Theo on the socials here, and go buy Homebody.
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Join EM Carroll and Emma Rios at a post-Thought Bubble Festival signing at Gosh Comics London…. 18 November 2024…
More great signings from Gosh! Comics London now. If you know you’re going to be in that post-festival funk here in the UK after the joint delights of the Lakes International Comics Festival and Thought Bubble Festival, head down to London’s Gosh! Comics for a double signing by two Thought Bubble guests, the incredibly talented two-some of E.M. Carroll and Emma Rios on Monday 18th November 2024 from 6-7pm.
E.M. Carroll should be well known to you from their books Through the Woods, When I Arrived at the Castle, and their first full length graphic novel, A Guest in the House. And of course, we’d point you in the direction of emcarroll.com, packed with some wonderful short comics.
Emma Rios is a cartoonist based in Spain who’s worked for Marvel, DC, and Image Comics where she co-edited Island and created I.D., Mirror with the two part volumes The Mountain and The Nest with Malay cartoonist Hwei Lim. She’s currently at Image co-creating Pretty Deadly with Kelly Sue DeConnick.
The Gosh! signing will see the pair talking and signing copies of Rios’ new comic Anzuelo from Image Comics and Carroll’s latest gothic horror, A Guest in the House.
