The Sunday Spotlight: The ‘Do We Make Bicycles Illegal?’ Edition
by Richard Bruton
Oh glorious Sunday, day of rest. Well, maybe it used to be, but I’ve been slaving away at the comics news coalface to bring you the Sunday Spotlight…
Harvey Awards Hall Of Fame Inductees Include Sergio Aragones & Akira Toriyama…
The ceremony took place on Friday at New York Comic Con, and congratulations to all the winners there. But sometimes the Hall of Fame inductees get left off the news stories. So here they are…
The inductees include comic book creators Arthur Adams, Larry Hama, Sergio Aragonés, and posthumous inductees John Buscema and manga creator Akira Toriyama, perhaps most famously creator of Dragon Ball Z.
The Harvey Awards are, of course, named for the genius that was Harvey Kurtzman.
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Juanjo Guarnido wins 2024 Sergio Aragonés International Award for Excellence in Comic Art…
Missed telling you about this when it happened but glad to pick it up in the Spotlight: Blacksad artist Juanjo Guarnido becomes the latest recipient of the Sergio Aragonés International Award for Excellence in Comic Art, presented at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival (LICAF) last month.
Previous winners are Dave McKean (2017), Hunt Emerson (2018), Charlie Adlard (2019), Boulet (2021), Posy Simmonds (2022) and VIZ comic, edited by Graham Drury and Simon Thorp, in 2023.
The award, established in 2017 by The National Cartoonists Society, in partnership with LICAF, is presented annually to an exceptional comic artist, animator, or cartoonist.
And that’s certainly an apt description of artist Juanjo Guarnido, co-creator of Blacksad with Juan Díaz Canales. Guarnido worked as layout artist and character animator at Disney’s French studios before going on to create Blacksad, an anthropomorphic noir series set in 50s USA, beautifully and stylishly drawn by Guarnido. The six Blacksad tales have garnered critical, commercial, and popular success. With Guarnido also making stunning works such as Sorcelleries with writer Teresa Valero, and Les Indes Fourbes, with Alain Ayroles.
Want to get into 2000 AD? The Thrill-Cast has you covered…
I’m a 2000 AD fan. You should know that through all my writing here with The Weekly 2000 AD and the rest. But if you should need more, the latest 2000 AD Thrill-Cast gives you their recommendations for graphic novel collections to pick up to really get into 2000 AD. Expect Dredd, Brink, Thistlebone, Nemesis, Judge Anderson, Best of 2000 AD, and plenty more.
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Tim Bird talks to the Avery Hill podcast about the wonderful Adrift on a Painted Sea…
Adrift on a Painted Sea is the latest graphic novel from the über-talented Tim Bird, a beautifully done memoir/look back on the life of his mother, typically drifting and quiet comics that fill my heart with absolute joy at a grande life.
He talks all things Adrift on the latest Signals From The Hill podcast from Avery Hill. Go listen and definitely go pick up the book.
Here’s what Avery Hill have to say about the book…
‘A poignant, thoughtful graphic memoir that explores family, loss, and art through the author’s relationship with his mother, who painted as a hobby throughout her life.
‘Sue Bird was always painting: botanical art, landscapes, still lifes, and especially the sea. She took classes, kept countless sketchbooks, and filled the house with art. From their neighbourhood to their family trips, all the moments of her life were memorialized in her artwork. Throughout her life, she never sold a piece — she gave art to family and friends, and shared her work online, but never received wider recognition for her work.
‘This graphic novel by her son, Tim Bird, explores their family life and her creative explorations through a mix of her paintings and Tim’s comics, depicting their relationship and her life from teenagehood to her struggle with cancer at the height of the covid pandemic. After her death, this graphic novel at last showcases her work.
‘At its heart a book about creativity and family relationships, Adrift on a Painted Sea tells a story about the things we overlook in the people closest to us.’
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Forbidden Planet TV host Garth Ennis, Brian K. Vaughan and more, talking Battle Action…
The always worth a watch/listen FP TV have a great 45 minutes of chat with Garth Ennis,Torunn Grønbekk, Chris Burnham, Rob Williams, Keith Burns, and Brian K Vaughan.covering the new Battle Action series…
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Alan Moore interviewed at Publishers Weekly – ‘the biggest and most useful rabbit to pull out of the near-infinite top hat that we believe magic to be’…
The long-awaited, long-delayed Moon & Serpent Bumper Book of Magic came out everywhere last week. This is a book I’ve been eagerly awaiting for many years now, and it doesn’t disappoint in the slightest. Co-authored by Moore and Steve Moore (famously no relation), with illustrations by Kevin O’Neill, John Coulthart, Steve Parkhouse, Rick Veitch, Melinda Gebbie, and Ben Wickey, it’s… ‘One last graphic grimoire: a sprawling and stunning introduction to magic in all its timeless forms, brought to life by six wondrous and whimsical artists. Splendid news for enquiring minds, and guaranteed salvation for humanity! Messrs. Steve and Alan Moore, proprietors of the celebrated Moon & Serpent Grand Egyptian Theatre of Marvels (sorcery by appointment since circa 150 AD) have produced a clear and practical grimoire of the occult sciences that offers endless necromantic fun for all the family.
Anyway, Publisher’s Weekly and Rob Slakowitz have an interview with Moore. And they’re always worth reading for the grand man’s thoughts. Although don’t you just want to read one interview where superheroes aren’t mentioned, even tangentially, by the interviewer in the first question?
So many quotable moments, but here’s this…
‘Amidst all this, we felt that any real human importance or social use for magic was being lost in a sea of either fatuous make-believe or Master of the Dark Arts theatrics. So, with the Bumper Book, we wanted to present what we hope are lucid, coherent and joined-up ideas on how and why the concept of magic originated and developed over the millennia, a theoretical basis for how it might conceivably work along with suggestions as to how it might practically be employed—and, perhaps most radically, a social reason for magic’s existence as a means of transforming and improving both our individual worlds, and the greater human world of which we are components. And we wanted to deliver this in a way that reflected the colorful, psychedelic, profound and sometimes very funny nature of the magical experience itself. That, we felt, would be the biggest and most useful rabbit to pull out of the near-infinite top hat that we believe magic to be.’
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Zoe Thorogood on tragedy, mental health, and the loss of her brother…
Sadly, tragically, comic star Zoe Thorogood lost her brother James to suicide in September at the terribly young age of 23.
For her own mental health, in a search for positivity, and to raise awareness of something that affects far too many people, young men disproportionately, she’s determined to talk about it. David Barnett in the Observer has a wonderful piece talking to Zoe here. Our sympathies to Zoe, her family, and friends of her brother.
She’s not only talking about it though, she’s also donating all profits from the brilliant It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth to mental health charities in the UK. She reports that her Italian publisher is doing the same, and her French publisher is doing something as well.
As she says so well in this Facebook post, ‘My heart is broken, but the world keeps turning, and there are so many people suffering that still need help… Good must come of this. My brother was the kindest boy in the world, and he never stopped helping others. I’m not good like my brother was, but for him I will try my best. Hug your siblings and children.’
Go donate to Mind (UK), NAMI (USA), or United for Global Mental Health. You’re not alone. There is help. You can get through things. Please, please talk to someone and get help.
