The Sunday Spotlight – The ‘I’ll Be The Control, And Change Absolutely Nothing’ Edition

Welcome, welcome, one and all to your regular weekly update on all* things comics and news – The Sunday Spotlight…

*Okay, ‘all’ might be putting it a little high. Let’s go with some of the things I noticed this week that have something to do with comics.

Anyway… shall we?

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Finally available in the US – Bryan Talbots The Legend of Luther Arkwright – the epic saga completed…

Oh, the anomalies of publishing. Despite Bryan Talbot‘s third and final book in the iconic/epic/brilliant (add your own lauding adjective if you want) The Legend of Luther Arkwright being available from Jonathan Cape in the UK since 2022, it’s taken until December 2024 for a US/Americas edition to be released from Dark Horse Comics – and that rather sneaked out to little fanfare, which is criminal for something so important.

There’s a really nicely put together interview of Bryan Talbot by D. Morris at The Comics Beat, which confirms what we already knew… the saga of Luther Arkwright really is over, “the first and last books start and end at the same place – 50 years apart in real time – and, yes, there will be no more Luther stories.”

Of course, that’s not the end of Talbot’s work. Far from it, his new graphic novel, a prequel to his Grandville series, The Casebook of Stamford Hawksmoor, comes out at the end of 2025. But for now. If you haven’t, go read Luther Arkwright.

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Joe Sacco calls for arrest warrant for Joe Biden over genocide in Gaza…

As reported by Middle East Monitor…

‘Maltese-American cartoonist and journalist Joe Sacco has called for an arrest warrant to be issued for US President Joe Biden over his relentless support for Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza.

“What is happening in Gaza is a genocide, a crime against humanity in which the United States is also involved, because it provides Israel with military and diplomatic cover, and participates in the daily killing through weapons manufactured in [the US],” Sacco told Haaretz. He added that Biden should be tried alongside Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.’

Full details – Middle East Monitor

The War On Gaza by Joe Sacco is essential reading from one of the US’s finest comics journalists. It’s still available to read on The Comics Journal site and is available in print.

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Tintin in the public domain in the US? Maybe not…

In the 29 December 2024 Sunday Spotlight, I reported on Popeye and Tintin becoming public domain on 1 January 2025, as both hit the 95 year rule for US published material. It meant that, in theory, Tintin and the Soviets, the first Tintin story would have been fair game, but as with Mickey and Winnie, only the earliest version of the character, and only in the USA, as outside of the US, where other copyright rules apply – most countries adopting the model of characters only becoming public domain 70 years after the creators death – so that’s 70 years after Hergé left us in 1983.

First out the traps with an announcement was Fabrice Sapolsky announcing a Kickstarter for The Big Lie, a new Tintin graphic novel inspired by that first version of Hergé’s character. He had this to say about it:

“In the beginning, there was TINTIN, the young reporter created by HERGÉ in 1929 in “Le Petit Vingtième”. The hero soon became a sensation, entertaining generations of readers all around the world from its origins to 1983, when his creator passed away. On January 1st, 2025, Tintin and his loyal dog Snowy entered public domain in the United States, paving the way for new adventures. For French born-US based comic book creator Fabrice Sapolsky, this brought a golden opportunity: finally give The Belgian Reporter a future. 1929 meets 2025! “THE BIG LIE” offers a brand new adventure in a unique format, honoring the hero’s past while rooting him in today’s world.” Note this is public domain in the USA only!”

Although, thanks to Paul Gravett (here), that might not be the case… as he reports that Mike Tiefenbacher has brought up the fact that Tintin should remain in copyright in the USA until 2082…

“A French-born Marvel artist is floating an updated TINTIN project on Kickstarter under what I believe to be a misreading of American copyright law. True, Tintin the character was first published IN EUROPE IN 1929. But it was not published AND COPYRIGHTED in the UNITED STATES until Dell published five books in the series in 1959. That copyright lasted until 1987, and, by law, was automatically renewed through 2082. Tintin is in no imminent danger of becoming public domain until then! So, you can mess around with Popeye or Mickey Mouse all you want, for bad or good (but mostly bad, though it’s hard to beat King Features’ current version of Popeye), but keep your hands off Tintin.”

So, whilst Sapolsky’s version looks intriguing, I can’t see the very litigious Hergé Foundation letting it come out.

Although, if you are after some alternative Tintin, there’s always The Adventures of Tintin: Breaking Free, an anarchist parody that first appeared in 1988 from Attack International where the boy reporter is recast as one the ’80s disaffected youths of Thatcher’s Britain, shifting from dole-ite kid to revolutionary leader.

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Graphic Medicine International Collective 2025 awards open for submissions…

The Graphic Medicine International Collective (GMIC) is an American not-for-profit organization with ‘a mission to guide and support the uses of comics in health’. Every year, they give out the GMIC Award to ‘recognize and honor outstanding health-related comic projects published in 2024.’

This year, they have three awards – one for short-form comics (28 pages or less), one for long-form comics (more than 28 pages), and a new award for educational comics. As they say:

“This new third award category, launching this year, is meant to promote excellence in educational graphic medicine. It is intended to celebrate comics with a primarily instructional aim: comics that emphasize one or more medical topics, treatments, diseases, devices, and biological functions to teach medical professionals, medical students, patients, caregivers, or the general public. Submissions in this new category can be of any length.”

Submissions info here.

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Comicscene Awards 2025 voting open right now…

More awards now, as Comicscene have their annual awards open for public vote right now.

Loads of categories available… the voting form is here. You can vote until the end of January with results announced 14 February.