The Sunday Spotlight: The ‘Maybe I’ll Check Out The Fandom’ Edition
by Richard Bruton
Yes, time for another Sabbath day of reading about a few news pieces for comics this week (after you’ve been to church, of course) – it’s The Sunday Spotlight…
COMIC ARTIST BECKY BURKE, SAFELY HOME AFTER US DETENTION, INTERVIEWED BY THE COMICS JOURNAL AND THE GUARDIAN…
After her detention by ICE in the USA for 19 days in February and March after falling foul of the seemingly stricter border entry rules – or perhaps more accurately a case of border officers either really applying the strict letter of the law or overstepping their authority – comic artist and illustrator R. E. Burke/Becky Burke is safely home.
Thankfully, unlike hundreds, thousands of other detainees, Becky’s plight in the horrible conditions of the ICE detention centre, Becky’s detention attracted plenty of press, something that seems to have played a big part in moving her up to the top of the queue to be deported.
Now we have the first big interviews and articles with and about Burke – there’s this one at The Guardian, and a particularly good one at The Comics Journal that goes deep into the circumstances of her detention and her experiences in the ICE centre, including a lot of the illustrations Becky did whilst she was being detained.
GUY DELISLE TALKS HIS NEW GRAPHIC BIOGRAPHY ON EADWEARD MUYBRIDGE WITH THE GUARDIAN…
A pioneer of the moving image, the man who proved horses lift all four hooves off the ground in a gallop, Muybridge’s story comes to comics courtesy of Guy Delisle.
‘Lots of people didn’t accept it. When they saw a photograph of the horse gathering its hooves, they said it looked like a dead spider. But when the photographs were projected in sequence, they said, “It’s true!”‘
Guy Delisle’s Muybridge is published on 29th April by Drawn and Quarterly. Read all about it in a Guardian feature by Phil Hoad.
COMICS CULTURAL IMPACT COLLECTIVE CALLS FOR £1.5M IN FUNDING TO UNLOCK UK COMICS POTENTIAL…
Well, if you’re going to make a case, you might as well go big. That’s possibly the thinking behind Comics Cultural Impact Collective (CCIC) calling on the UK Government, and specifically the Department of Culture, Media, and Sports (DCMS), to support the UK comics industry to the tune of £1.5m to make the most of what they describe as the ‘untapped potential of the comics industry’.
Founded in 2023, CCIC’s released its latest report in April after plenty of consultation with creators, publishers, booksellers, and others in the comics industry that sets out a pathway to transform the UK comics industry into a ‘thriving cultural sector for the UK’. Granted, it’s a big idea and an even bigger ask, no doubt, but the potential of comics as an industry, as we’ve seen over and over in recent years, is huge – and at least CCIC is addressing the disparity in arts funding with work such as this. Go read it here.
LATEST VOLUME OF DIGITAL ANTHOLOGY ACES WEEKLY IS STARTING NOW…
Set up by David Lloyd of V For Vendetta fame, Aces Weekly is a digital subscription anthology that’s been running many years now. The new volume of seven issues begins on 5 May, and for just £1 a week you just can’t go wrong, especially when you consider the talent Lloyd usually assembles for each volume.
Previous series have been made by the likes of John McCrea, Phil Hester, Mark Wheatley, Marc Hempel, David Lloyd, Shaky Kane, David Hine, Kev Hopgood, Paul Rainey, SK Moore, Yishan Li, Rachael Smith, Scott Shaw, Laura Scarpa, Henry Flint, Lew Stringer, and plenty more besides.
More info and previous volumes, not to mention free samples so you can try before you buy, at www.acesweekly.co.uk.
SHOPPING FOR SUPERMAN – NEW FILM CELEBRATES COMIC SHOPS…
Funded on Kickstarter, Shopping for Superman is a new film looking at the world of comic shops – and we all know how we should be supporting those. Worth a look…
‘Shopping for Superman, guides viewers through a 50-year journey revealing the origin story of their friendly neighborhood comic shops and the people fighting to keep their doors open. Since it began, the retail comics industry has contracted by over 75% with more shops closing every month. After five years of diminished sales, a global pandemic, and the digitization of retail shopping dominating most markets, Shopping for Superman asks the question, “Can our local comic shops be saved?”‘
Lakes International Comic Art Festival launches the 2025 Sophie Castille Award – English for Comics in Translation…
The 2025 Sophie Castille Award, for excellence in comics translation to English, happens again this year, with the award presented at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival ceremony in Bowness-on-Windermere on Saturday 27th September 2025.
Named in honour of Sophie Castille, international rights director and V. P. of licensing for Mediatoon, and cofounder and director of Europe Comics, who died unexpectedly in 2022, the awards are all about ensuring that the wealth of comics material around the world gets to as many readers as possible.
Michele Hutchison was the winner of the inaugural Award in 2023, for her translation of The Philosopher, The Dog and the Wedding by Barbara Stok, published in English by SelfMadeHero. Alexa Frank was the 2024 winner of in the Sophie Castille Award – English, for her translation of 沖合の雷 (Offshore Lightning) by Saito Nazuna, translated from Japanese, published by Drawn & Quarterly.
The 2025 Sophie Castille Award- English is now open for submission. Publishers from around the world are invited to submit their comics translated into English for consideration. More info at sophie-castille-awards.org.
CHRIS WARE INTERVIEWED IN THE FINANCIAL TIMES…
As part of the press for his exhibition at CCCB (Centre de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona) that runs to 9th November 2025, Chris Ware talks to the FT and Edwin Heathcote about his work. It’s a good read…
‘Comics can be considered closer to typography than to drawing in some ways,’ he responds, “just as words on this page are meant to be read, but not really seen, the drawings in comics are sort of transitory and translucent; serviceable, but not worthy of lingering upon. While reading prose, we cease to see the type and instead see the pictures they produce in our minds, but comics exist in a sort of half-sleep, keeping the reader’s eyes open and, if the cartoonist is good, making it seem as if the pictures come alive on the page.‘
