The Sunday Spotlight: The ‘Just Checking The Colour’ Edition
by Richard Bruton
Come on in, take the weight off, pour yourself a drink, settle down and relax, it’s Sunday, time for the round-up of a bit of comics news – it’s the Sunday Spotlight…
‘WE HAVE BEEN FEELING THE PRESSURE LIKE NEVER BEFORE’ – BROKEN FRONTIER REPORTS ON THE STATE OF COMICS JOURNALISM…
Subtitled ‘The Worrying Disappearance of Comics Commentary and Journalism Sites from a Broken Frontier/UK Small Press Perspective’, Andy Oliver writes about the state of the once thriving comics journalism at Broken Frontier.
Well worth a read for anyone interested in such things, and you should be, as an artform needs well-written commentary and criticism to support it. Andy points to the work of Comic Book Yeti and both Heidi MacDonald and Tiffany Babb at The Beat writing about the current state of play. And then goes on to give a British perspective on things…
‘My own reflections veer, unsurprisingly, more towards the UK side of things and it’s a bleak picture we are faced with, particularly for the self-published comics scene. Multiple mainstay sites have either disappeared altogether or have near abandoned small press coverage, leaving the few British platforms providing intelligent, considered comics writing overwhelmed as a result.’
Now, Andy and I go way back, as he writes in the piece – ‘Way back in 2011 when I first started focussing first and foremost at BF on small press comics it was just us and the Forbidden Planet International Blog (now long gone and unforgivably, given its importance as a historical record, not even archived online) who were centring small press at the very heart of our coverage missions.’
Yes, I was part of the FPI Blog, along with editor Joe Gordon and a small band of felllow writers, and we were proud to be one of two sites, along with Broken Frontier, who really went to bat for all comics, from the big boys to the tiniest of tiny small press and self-publishers and everything in between. Since then, I’ve tried to bring as much of the ethos of championing the world of comics here at Comicon.
Andy and his team do great things at Broken Frontier, always a rich source of new names in comics to watch out for. Definitely give it a read!
BAD AND GOOD NEWS IN BOOK BANNING – ‘I AM BILLIE JEAN KING’ BANNED AND THEN REINSTATED IN SOUTH CAROLINA…
The delightful book series I Am… or Ordinary People Change The World, by Brad Meltzer and Chris Eliopoulos is an unlikely target of book banning, but the volume on Billie Jean King, LGBTQ+ icon and tennis great was recently banned in Midlands school libraries over the mere mention of an LGBTQ+ relationship.
Targeted at young readers, aged 5-9 or so, I Am Billie Jean King’s sole LGBTQ+ content was thi:
‘Around this time, I also realized I was gay. Being gay means that if you’re a girl, you love and have romantic feelings for other girls — and if you’re a boy, you love and have romantic feelings for other boys. Eventually Larry and I stopped being married and I fell in love with a wonderful woman named Ilana. You can’t choose who you fall in love with. Your heart will tell you.’
But that was enough for one parent, who complained to the Lexington-Richland 5 school district, leading to administrators removing the book from libraries at three different schools. The reason? The book ‘doesn’t meet [the school district’s] age and grade level standards.’
Thankfully, the dangerous decision was overturned after public push back at a school board meeting, with the Lexington-Richland 5 superintendent saying he would reverse the administrative decision after several parents criticized the move during the meeting and board members indicated they wanted the decision changed.
But the danger of book banning is ever present, with books with LGBTQ+ and minority viewpoints particularly targeted these days – it’s an evil that we should all be pushing back against.
SKYBOUND AND THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY BRING YOU SOME GREAT AUTHORS THIS SUMMER…
Tillie Walden, Faith Erin Hicks, Matt Braley and Ainsworth Lin, Sarah Graley and Stef Purenins, Brian “Smitty” Smith and Marz Jr. are all to host author talks this summer at the NYPL this summer, running May to October, as part of Skybound’s push to all-ages with Skybound Comet.
They’ll be talking about their many works, including the forthcoming Skybound Comet imprint, aimed at Young Adult (Ages 12+) and Middle Grade (Ages 8-12) audiences.
The talks are as follows, with links to the event pages…
NYPL Author Talk – Matt Braly and Ainsworth Lin – Tuesday, May 27
NYPL Author Talk – Tillie Walden – Wednesday, June 4
NYPL Author Talk – Sarah Graley and Stef Purenins – Tuesday, July 8
NYPL Author Talk – Brian “Smitty” Smith and Marz Jr. – Friday, July 11
NYPL Author Talk – Faith Erin Hicks – Thursday, October 2
CLASSIC COMIC SHOP ADVERTS – DARK THEY WERE AND GOLDEN EYED…
Richard Sheaf‘s Boys Adventure Comics blog keeps providing great nostlagia of comics gone by, with a recent post highlighting some of the great art of the pioneer British comic shop, Dark They Were And Golden Eyed, with ads featuring the art of Dave Gibbons, Garry Leach, Bryan Talbot, Brian Bolland, Alan Moore, and plenty of others. Here’s a Bryan Talbot from 1978, plenty more at the link…
MORE GREAT READING ON COMICS AND ALL MANNER OF WEIRD STUFF – MINDLESS ONES…
Gary Lactus and The Beast Must Die are the Mindless Ones (and of course, they’re also Fraser Geesin and Dan White, White being the creator of the quite magnificently good Cindy & Biscuit and other great comics). Well, they have a podcast and they have a website and they have a newsletter, and all three are highly recommended.
The website’s going through a purple patch recently, with intriguing and entertaining writing on art, comics, music, films, and so much more besides. A recent favourite is Strange, I’ve Seen That Face Before, going from David Lynch to Denim to Robert Dallas Gray to Larry Cohen movies to all many of other things. But part of it is a bit on Nemesis the Warlock, and it’s sublime…
‘You have not been pure.You have not been vigilant. You have not behaved.
The Warlock is before you.
What colour is your Warlock?
Cold silver? Verdant green? Royal blue? Sick orange? Shocking pink?
What form is your Warlock? Sculpted? Metallic? Or does it coil like bramble? Pulse like hydraulic starfish arms?
How is your Warlock dressed? Bone armour? Leathers? Tarred drummer boy brocade? A dirty wife-beater and torn fishnets?Is your Warlock naked?
How does your Warlock smell? Sulphur? Bitumen and amber? Ozone and solder? The sharp damp tang of a neglected stable? Phosphine? Brut 33?’
And that’s just a little of it. Go read.
ANOTHER GREAT COMIC CON ALL ABOUT THE COMICS… ENNISKILLEN COMIC FEST, NORTHERN IRELAND, 7-8 JUNE…
The guests look great, it’s all about the comics, as all comic festivals and comic cons should be – Enniskillen Comic Fest happens on 7th and th8 June… more info at FB, Insta.
AND FINALLY – THE NEW SUPERMAN FILM DOES LOOK RATHER GOOD, DOESN’T IT?…
Out on 11 July…
