The Sunday Spotlight: The ‘Seriously, Do The Dishes’ Edition
by Richard Bruton
Once more with the arbitrary seven-day thing we call a week, which means it’s Sunday and that can only mean one thing. Why, it’s The Sunday Spotlight…
DOUG WRIGHT AWARDS WINNERS ANNOUNCED…
The recent Toronto Comics Art Festival announced the winners of the 2025 Doug Wright Awards, honouring the best in Canadiancomics. Quite rightly, Maurice Vellekoop’s I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together bagged Best Book. It’s a wonderful memoir, done in Vellekoop’s just beautiful style. The Nipper: The Doug Wright Award for Emerging talent went to Boum’s The Jellyfish, Patrick Allaby’s Customer Service won the award for Best Small/Micro-Press Book. Trina Rathgeber, Alina Pete, and Jillian Dolan won the award for best kids’ book with Lost at Windy River: A True Story of Survival.
The awards also welcomed two inductees into the The Canadian Cartooning Hall of Fame. First up was Richard Comely, publisher, artist, and writer best known as the co-creator of the iconic Canadian superhero, Captain Canuck, (celebrating his 50th anniversary in 2025). Second, Lou Skuce (1886–1951), newspaper and advertising cartoonist and showman, known as Canada’s Greatest Cartoonist.
You can view the full awards on the Doug Wright Awards YouTube channel.
The poster for this year’s award was designed by Maurice Vellekoop…
SCREW AI, THEFT IS THEFT – ARTIST NICH ANGELL TALKS AI BEING A THREAT TO AN ARTIST’S LIVELIHOOD ON THE BBC…
Yes, as we’ve said again and again, AI is theft, stealing the work of artists to create dereivative, and inferior, works. The BBC profiles artist, Nich Angell, and looks at what AI means to the work and livelihood of all artists and creatives. He’s right in everything he says. AI is theft, pure and simple. No argument, no debate. It’s theft, pure and simple, and it has no place in the comics (or any other creative) world.
Here’s a little bit of what Angell says on the piece:
‘What AI generation is doing is focusing purely on the product and removing people from that creative process,’ and ‘It used to be very easy to spot mistakes, but the whole essence of how AI works is that it’s constantly iterating and learning from more and more data. Why would the value and time I’ve put into developing my visual signature be worth anything at all, if anyone could do it with a click of a button? There’s a real sense of replacement here rather than addition. It exists purely to replace the artist entirely.’
So yes, screw AI. Theft is theft is theft. Don’t allow it to happen.
Angell’s new book, Tiny Hercules, is a new comic series written by Jon Lock and illustrated by Angell that’s been signed to a four-book deal by Macmillan Children’s UK, with the first books launching in 2026.
HI VIS COMIC CON IS DONE FOR 2025, SEE YOU IN 2026?…
He’s far too modest and fair-minded to toot his own trumpet here, but Comicon’s own Senior Editor, Olly MacNamee, is currently resting up from putting on his first Comic Con – Hi Vis Comic Con, taking place in King’s Heath, Birmingham on 21st June.
The day was, it seems, a success, albeit one that suffered from sweltering, very un-British temperatures. But all involved seemed to enjoy themselves. Let’s look forward to Hi Vis 2026.
‘I’m still buzzing from the weekend, but just want to share with you the final mural – minus the odd logo – celebrating the first High Vis High Vis Street Culture Festival Comic Con and 2000 AD. Thanks again to SNUB 23, Andrew Title Mills, Bunny Bread, The Art of Sok, i.am.sprite, Ginger Dan and Panda for their sterling efforts. Catch this piece of “organised vandalism” behind Poundland on the Kings Heath high street. And if they missed us this year… we’re coming back, bab!’
And here’s that mural – something rather spectacular for Birmingham residents to look at…
FANTAGRAPHICS BOOK FAIR – ART, COMIX, ZINES, MUSIC – SATURDAY 12 JULY…
Plenty to look forward to for the Fantagraphics Bookstore’s next Book Fair… everything you need to know in the image below…
GOSH DRINK/BROKEN FRONTIER DRINK & DRAW, NOW WITH ADDED MARK STAFFORD…
Artist extraordinaire Mark Stafford will be the host for the GOSH/Broken Frontier Drink & Draw events at the Royal George pub in London from June to November.
Guests will be happening, with the first one being Lucy Sullivan, artist of the quite captivating Barking, and Dominique Duong. Comics and booze, quite the good idea. The first one’s already happened, there’s plenty more to come.
HOW TO REVIVE A WHOLE DAMN COMICS FESTIVAL AFTER 14 YEARS – CAPTION REBIRTH HAPPENING 16/17 AUGUST – OXFORD…
Caption Rebirth has secured dates and a venue for the return of what was always a very different sort of comics convention.
Confirmed guests so far include Lucy Sullivan, Beck Kubrick, Chris Shepherd, Paul B Rainey, Zen K, Darryl Cunningham, Paul Cornell, Dominique Duong, Zara Slattery, Cara Brown, Mike Armstrong, Andy Oliver, and plenty more.
But the guests aren’t there as figures only behind booths, isolated from the fans. Nope, not with Caption. Throughout it’s 1992-2017 run and now back with its 2025 rebirth, Caption was all about breaking down the barriers, making interactions between creators and fans more relaxed and natural. The focus is still on being the same low-key, small-scale, sociable festival/convention unlike any other, all with that focus on self-published, micro-published, and small press works.
Creator’s books for sale go on the Caption shared table and everyone gets involved with the workshops, events, and the plentiful socialising that goes on. It’s a convention where it’s easy to relax and enjoy things, but also one where you’re bound to find so much to enjoy in the diverse and amazing comics and zines on show.
As Caption say:
‘Our goal is, quite simply, to bring Caption back so that more people can share in the positive and unique comic festival experience.’
More info here. And to find out what it’s taken to bring Caption back, new Caption Chair Amy Letts talked to Kurt Sasso of Two Geeks Talking about it all…
KATE BEATON INTERVIEWED IN THE COMICS JOURNAL #311 – READ AN EXCERPT ONLINE…
Sarah Glidden interviews Kate Beaton in a long, long interview in the print edition of The Comics Journal (#311). It’s a wide-ranging thing, from which you can read an essential excerpt over at TCJ.com.
Beaton, of course, was one of the superstars of webcomics with Hark! A Vagrant regularly reaching half a million online readers a month. Her kids’ book, The Princess and the Pony, was turned into an Apple TV series, and her graphic memoir, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, is a multi-award-winning thing.
The short excerpt talks Hark! A Vagrant and engaging with an Internet audience. It’s short, but it really makes you want to read the full interview.
‘I like my audience. I remember Drawn & Quarterly saying that when they put my first book out at San Diego, people were coming up for it, and it sold out. They didn’t get enough of them. And it had sold out. People came up, they were like, “Can I have Kate’s book?” And they were like, “No, it’s sold out.” And they were like, “Oh, good for her.” [laughs], which was so nice because they were coming up for some other people’s books, and they were like, “You don’t have this, you’re dead to me.” [Laughs.] They’re mad about it, but they were happy for me, which is so nice. [Laughs.] These other old-school comic reader dudes, they’d be grouchy [laughs]. That’s just the story I was told, probably exaggerated! Just funny to think about.’
