The Sunday Spotlight: The ‘Everything Awful. Oh God Somebody Do Something’ Edition

Well, if the world hasn’t ended quite yet, you’re going to be wanting a little comics news to ease you into your Sunday – and here’s the Sunday Spotlight, designed for just that…

JIM SHOOTER – 1951-2025 – RIP…

Well, we lost another comics legend this week, as Jim Shooter, comics writer, editor in chief at Marvel from 1978-1987, and publisher at Valiant, Defiant, and Broadway. He passed aged 73 from esophageal cancer.

There have been many, many tributes and thoughts around his death, many of them painting the picture of a somewhat complex, even difficult man. But that’s for others to discuss. He may have been a divisive personality, but my God, he was a talented one. Starting as a writer at DC at the tender age of 14, his work on their titles included a much lauded run on Legion of Superheroes. But he’ll be remembered by most as the larger than life editor in chief at Marvel from 1978-1987, where he introduced the idea of the big company-wide crossover with Contest of Champions and, more importantly, Secret Wars. Beloved by many, disliked by many, and his policies at the time regarding gay characters was, let’s not mince words, pretty bloody terrible, but, despite many failings, he shepherded Marvel through the late ’70s and ’80s, shaping it as the biggest comics publisher in America. After his exit from Marvel, he went on to found three more comic companies, Valiant, Defiant, and Broadway, all successfully in their time.

So, as so many have said this week – complex, complicated, difficult, maybe even dictatorial, but still very much a huge talent who did many important things in comics.

THEY’RE BANNING CALVIN & HOBBES NOW?…

From Pen America, ‘Magic Tree House Author, Calvin and Hobbes among hundreds of Tennessee book bans’. Well, I read that headline and realised that there really is no hope for this bloody world. I mean, Calvin & bloody Hobbes? They’re banning Calvin & Hobbes?

Here the opening paragraph from Pen America’s story:

‘Magic Tree House author Mary Pope Osborne, children’s poet Shel Silverstein and Calvin and Hobbes cartoonist Bill Watterson have joined Judy Blume, Sarah J. Maas, Eric Carle and Kurt Vonnegut on a mind-boggling list of hundreds of books purged from some Tennessee school libraries.’

Again and again, I can’t say this enough, we all need to stand up here and say no, no more, you will not take us down this route. Book banning has no place in a free country. Stand up now before it’s too late.

THOUGHT BUBBLE & TRAVELLING MAN HAVE MICRO-BURSARIES FOR NINE UK-BASED EARLY CAREER COMIC CREATORS…

Happening 1th5 & 16th November in Harrogate, Thought Bubble (you should know this by now) is one of two really big comic festivals in the UK (alongside The Lakes International Comic Art Festival). You’ll find everyone in Brit comics exhibiting there, where hundred and hundreds of stands feature nothing but comics greatness.

Anyway, like the Lakes, Thought Bubble does plenty for the comics community, including this, their latest series of micro-bursaries. Nine creators will be chosen to receive £400 in cash and a table at Thought Bubble 2025. There will be three recipients each from the following categories – Disabled Comic Creators, Comic Creators of Colour, and Trans/Non-Binary Comic Creators. These are three groups criminally underrepresented in comics, and this is a damn good thing that TB is doing. Seriously, if you’re going to bitch and moan about it, might I politely suggest you do one.

In addition, they are specifically looking for comic creators who are early in their careers, meaing anyone not published by a major publisher – those who’ve self-published or published by small press publishers can still apply.

Find out more and submit here.

THE RETURN OF LEW STRINGER’S BRICKMAN…

Well, it was only back in March we were saying happy (semi) retirement to Brit funny comics legend Lew Stringer, but he did promise he’d still be doing his self-published work, even though he was stepping back from his work for bigger publishers.

And it seems that was true, as he’s just announced that his Brickman series, featuring the wonderfully silly adventures of Loose Brayne, struck on the head by a brick whilst contemplating his destiny… yes, he shall become a brick. Like Lew says, ‘Yes, it’s a Batman parody. How did you guess?’

‘Struck on the head by a brick whilst contemplating his destiny, zillionaire Loose Brayne decided to become the masked superhero Brickman! Aided by his girlfriend Tina Trowell, the duo combat such villains as The Poker, The Mad Cobbler, Man-Brick and more.’

The first of three issues is available right now from Lew direct, collecting the best of the Brickman strips, with issue 1 featuring work from 1986 including guest pages by Dave Gibbons, Kevin O’Neill, Mike Higgs, Mike Collins and Mark Farmer.

THE COMICS JOURNAL HAS A CAREER-SPANNING INTERVIEW WITH PETER KUPER – ‘ART CAN LET US KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON’…

Yep, another week, another really fascinating interview at The Comics Journal. They profile Peter Kuper, talking insects and comics.

Kuper’s latest work, Insectopolis: A Natural History is out from W.W. Norton & Company.

LATEST PHOENIX DIGITAL EVENT – JESS BRADLEY’S DOODLEMANIA WORKSHOP – 12 JULY…

Jess Bradley‘s Squid Bits in the Phoenix Comic are just plain old daft comics, always a delight. Well, now she’s doing a Doodlemania 60-minute online workshop for an hour of giggles, creativity, and doodle-icious drawing. Tickets here.

COMIX EXPERIENCE’S GRAPHIC NOVEL PICKS FOR JULY – TWO ESSENTIAL BOOKS FOR YOU – YOUNG OR OLD….

Again, Comix Experience, owned by Brian Hibbs, is a great, great comic shop, well worth paying a visit to if you’re ever in San Francisco. And one of the great things they do is the monthly graphic novel club – now in its 10th year. Every month, they pick two books, one for adults, one for kids, as part of their graphic novel club. And I’ll keep featuring them because I’ve long found that whatever Comix Experience picks is almost guaranteed to be well worth a read.

July’s picks are just as essential. This month’s adult GN club pick is from German creator Tobias Aeschbacher, a great piece of crime fiction, In The End We All Die.

‘If Tarantino met Murakami in Germany-this multiple-prize-winning graphic novel set in six adjoining apartments is touching, intricate and very, very violent. When three sleazy gangsters storm into an apartment in search of a stolen urn, they set off a series of unfortunate events that threatens everyone in the building. As blood begins to pool, it becomes clear that this story is about more than the senseless violence. What is good and what is evil? Who decides who should die? And does anyone really know their neighbors? Theft and poison and so much shooting: and yet, on muted and somber pages, heartless villains become vulnerable heroes-before descending to cruelty once again. In this graphic novel that swept awards for best debut in Germany and Switzerland, a classic gangster comedy of errors grows into a meditation on loneliness, morality, and even love.’

As is the norm, CE will be interviewing Tobias later in July, with the recording going up on the CE YouTube channel and podcasts after that.

And their Kids Club pick for July is Nick Bertozzi‘s Karmopolis...

‘Welcome to a world on wheels! It’s nonstop excitement in this nutty graphic novel starring two kids in a fast-paced future. Karmopolis is a world made up of super-highways and super-vehicles! Drivers zip from their wheeled houses to the moving super-mall without ever touching the ground, while the few mysterious Walkers skulk within the highway median. Two young Drivers, Pooja and her brother Om, are out shopping when they accidentally find a beautiful gem. After two angry men demand that they hand it over, a head-spinning adventure begins-Pooja and Om race across Karmopolis in search of the meaning of the gem, with the two creeps hot on their tailpipe. Award-winning cartoonist Nick Bertozzi combines old-fashioned comic book thrills with futuristic frenzy and super-cool diagrams in the endlessly imaginative Karmopolis: The Land of Cars. ‘

Again, they’ll be talking with Nick in July in a video conversation, with the whole thing uploaded later.

AND FINALLY – MORE EVERYTHING AWFUL…

The full page that I culled the top image from – Matt Fraction and David Aja’s must-read run on Hawkeye (2012-2015). Really, go and buy it right now.