The Sunday Spotlight: The ‘I’m Wearing My US Rubber Extraterrestrial Underwear’ Edition

Welcome once more to the soupçon of news we call The Sunday Spotlight, taking you on a quick spin around the comic news you may have missed this week…

COMIX EXPERIENCE’S GRAPHIC NOVEL CLUB PICKS FOR MAY…

Brian Hibb‘s Comix Experience is an excellent comic shop for you in San Francisco (or further afield with mail order) that also does a very handy GN of the month book club – which has proven to be excellent at selecting books that you should be reading.

So, here are May’s couple of picks, starting with the adult club pick – Gerard Way and Chris Weston‘s Paranoid Gardens.

‘Loo is a nurse at the most bizarre care-center around. The staff are not entirely human, and the cases downright unearthly. Aliens, ghosts, superheroes, and more creatures plague its hallways as both doctors and patients and the hospital itself seems to be somewhat self-aware. Loo believes that despite a recent failure at her job she’s been given some sort of higher calling in this mysterious place, and decides to rise to the challenge. Along the way she must fight her way through corrupt staff members, powerful theme park cults, and her own personal demons and trauma to meet this challenge and discover what secrets the gardens hold.’

Comix Experience will be talking to Chris Weston later in the month, with the interview up online shortly after (YouTube) – and if you have any questions, email them to brian@comixexperience.com.

As for the kids club pick, it’s Halfway to Home by Jose Pimienta.

‘Ave thought moving to Kansas would be boring and flat after enjoying the mountains and trails in Mexico, but at least they would have their family with them. Unfortunately, while Ave, their mom, and their younger brother are relocating to the US, Ave’s father and older sister will be staying in Mexico… permanently. Their parents are getting a divorce. As if learning a whole new language wasn’t hard enough, and now a Middle-Schooler has to figure out a new family dynamic… and what this means for them as they start middle school with no friends. Jose Pimienta’s thought-provoking middle graphic novel is about exploring identity, understanding family, making friends with a language barrier, and above all else, learning what truly makes a place a home.’

Again, CE will chat to Jose Pimienta later this month in a video conversation. Again, email your questions, or your kid’s questions to Brian at brian@comixexperience.com before 18 May.

NEILL CAMERON’S DONUT SQUAD – TAKING OVER THE WORLD FROM 8 MAY…

Out right now, Neill Cameron‘s Donut Squad Take Over The World is the next book from the creator of Mega Robo Bros, with Cameron hitting the road to provide tons of Donut (and Bagel) fun to adoring, comic-reading children across the UK. He’ll be out and about at Waterstones bookshops in Liverpool (20 May) and London Finchley Road (21 May) where he’ll be doing ‘big donut-y window paintings and then running comics workshops’. But if you’re not in the vicinity, there’s a virtual schools event on 22 May, followed by what he’s calling ‘a very special event’ at Waterstones Piccadilly on 30 May. Waterstones will also be throwing special Donut Squad events at branches all across the country with drawing games, activities, treasure hunts, maybe even some actual donuts as well. It’s yet more proof of just how much Waterstones are throwing themselves behind this one.

You can find all the links to order Donut Squad at Neill’s linktr here.

‘THE FATE REMAINS MYSTERIOUS’ – THE COMICS JOURNAL ON THE DIAMOND BANKRUPTCY…

Anyone with a passing interest in the industry of comics, particularly that of comics retail stores, knows that the ongoing uncertainty around Diamond Distributors is a bad, bad thing for comics retail. There’s been plenty of moment-by-moment, covering every tortuous move in the various legal proceedings from news sites such as The Comics Beat, but the Comics Journal, in an excellent and lengthy piece by Brigid Alverson, have a good summary piece to keep up with things, ending with this…

‘The outcome will materially change the comics industry in ways that are difficult to predict, especially as it comes at a time of increasing unpredictability in the country as a whole. The comics industry is bigger than Diamond, but Diamond touches every aspect of it in one way or another, and at the end of the day, the outcome of this case will have a profound effect on the shape of the comics world as a whole.’

FILE UNDER ABSOLUTE IRONY – LICENCE TO OFFEND EXHIBITION CANCELLED OVER POTENTIAL TO OFFEND…

Every Month, I do the Art Of Politics round-up of political cartooning, where the great and the good of the world’s political cartoonists do thie best to prick the egos of the political classes, living up to the old adage of the pen is mightier than the sword.

If you needed proof that what these political cartoonists do is still incediary and worthwhile, look no further than the decision by the Kingston Riverside venue’s decision to call off a new political cartooning exhibition, ‘Licence to Offend’ due to the risk of it causing, well, offence.

The exhibition was organised by Whitelight Projects and is now seeking a new venue. It was due to feature political cartoons from many that I feature in the Art of Politics and many more. Organisers Paul Mowatt and Zoe Dorelli were contacted by the venue and told it was off, just hours before the opening private viewing. Talking to The Spectator, Dorelli said:

‘I think when they saw it, they just thought it would be too offensive to the people working there, and they decided to pull the show. The cartoonists are pretty upset about being cancelled, It’s not often that they get to have actual exhibitions. They do everything under extraordinary pressure in a very short space of time. I just think it’s incredible and requires it requires a lot of respect.’

Kingston TownSq said in a statement:

‘Whilst we have not felt the exhibition was offensive, Kingston Riverside is a workspace, and our policy is to remain politically neutral. Once we were made aware that the art is not in keeping with a professional workspace, we respectfully asked the artists to remove them after the exhibition. We are still allowing the artists to hold their exhibition at the space for free, but the current art will not remain in place later.’

Well, that’s just as ridiculous as it sounds, isn’t it? They will get a new venue, the press blowback on this one has been rather large as you’d expect, but it’s really a prime case of the cartoonists knowing they’re still doing it right.

THE 2000 AD CREATOR TAPES – PART 2 OF THE SIMON BISLEY INTERVIEW…

The second part of the epic three-hour plus interview with Simon Bisley is up on the the 2000 AD site plus all the usual socials – you can find all the links here.

Of course, it was at 2000 AD that Bisley made his name, with his work on first ABC Warriors: The Black Hole and then Sláine: The Horned God. catapulting him to comics stardom. The huge two-part interview covers everything – his work, where and how it all began, his style, as well as a complete page-by-page walk through of the Sláine: The Horned God Anniversary Edition.

ANN TELNAES & MICHAEL RAMIREZ ON POLITICAL CARTOONING IN A NEW AGE…

PBS Newshour has a feature on political cartooning which interviews cartoonists Ann Telnaes and Michael Ramirez, as well as Sara Duke, Curator of Popular and Applied Graphic Art, Library of Congress. This from Telnaes…

‘Autocrats especially do not like editorial cartoons. They are the great equalizer, and they don’t like being laughed at. If editorial cartoonists all of a sudden go away, that means something else is following. Other voices will be silenced. And it’s not that great a leap to go from an editorial cartoonist being silenced through threats or whatever to you sitting around having coffee with your friends and you’re joking about politics nowadays, and you’re making fun of the president or the prime minister or your local politician, and somebody reports you. And then you get questioned about your political beliefs. It’s not that big of a jump.’

AND STILL ON ANN TELNAES – CONGRATULATIONS TO HER ON WINNING THE PULITZER PRIZE..

Ann Telnaes, the political cartoonist who resigned from her 16-year role as Washington Post cartoonist in January over the paper’s decision to spike a cartoon depicting Trump and his tech-bros acolytes, has won a Pulitzer Prize.

We carried the story of her resignation and the cartoon that caused it here. She won the Pulitzer for Illustrated Reporting and Commentary and was described as ‘delivering piercing commentary on powerful people and institutions with deftness, creativity – and a fearlessness that led to her departure from the news organization after 17 years.’