The Sunday Spotlight – The ‘Boredom Is Just Very Boring’ Edition
by Richard Bruton
The Sunday Spotlight, a little microdose of comics news to end your week with. Enjoy…
NEW AT THE CARTOON MUSEUM – THE FUTURE WAS WHEN…
London’s Cartoon Museum have announced a major new exhibition – The Future Was Then, running from 4 October 2025 – March 2026
It’s promoted as a look to the future, and the past,‘”to explore science-fiction comics that went beyond the final frontier and predicted what humanity would look like in years to come. Will the Daleks invade in the year 2150? Did the space travel of Dan Dare or the dystopia of V for Vendetta come true in the 1990s? What will our future look like?”
The Cartoon Museum should be an essential stop off on any visit to London. More details here, book tickets here.
LORENZO MATTOTTI WINS 2025 SERGIO ARAGONES INTERNATIONAL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN COMIC ART…
Announced at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival on 27th September (yes, I know that makes it old news, but hey, give me a break, the inbox is currently creaking under the weight of unread emails and there’s only so many hours in the day), The National Cartoonists Society and the Lakes International Comic Art Festival (LICAF), the genius that is Lorenzo Mattotti is the 2025 winner of the Sergio Aragonés International Award for Excellence in Comic Art.
It’s an award that’s given out annually, with previous winners including Dave McKean (2017), Hunt Emerson (2018), Charlie Adlard (2019), Boulet (2021), Posy Simmonds (2022) and VIZ comic, edited by Graham Drury and Simon Thorp (2023) and Juanjo Guarnido (2024).
If you didn’t know – and you should – Mattotti is an Italian-born, Paris-based cartoonist and illustrator, whose work includes Fires (1986), Caboto (1992), and Stigmate (1998). His graphic novel version of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde (with Jerry Kramsky) won an Eisner Award in 2003. He is also a prolific illustrator for publications such as The New Yorker, Vogue, and Vanity Fair.
It’s an award that celebrates the decades-long career of one of the European greats, and it is, of course, much deserved. Do take the time to investigate just how good Mattotti’s work is.
2000 AD ANNOUNCES THE COMPLETE 2000 AD BY ALAN MOORE…
Alan Moore, the greatest living comic writer. Seriously, surely you can’t argue that one? And a lot of his early works can be found in the pages of 2000 AD, where he took the idea of the short story Future Shock and Time Twister to another level, creating brilliant, innovative, and truly fabulous short tales.
Well, 2000 AD have plundered the archives to collect all of his published work for the comic in the Complete 2000 AD by Alan Moore, to be published April 2026.
It’s the first of however many volumes, bringing together the plentiful works Moore wrote at 2000 AD, with a plan to publish a collection of every Moore story that ever appeared in the comic. The first volume includes all of his Future Shocks and Time Twister stories, alongside one-off stories written for iconic characters including Rogue Trooper, Ro-Buster, and The ABC Warriors
THE POWER CUT – THE FANZINE ALL ABOUT KIERON GILLAN AND CASPER WIJNGAARD’S THE POWER FANTASY PUBLISHES ITS SECOND ISSUE…
Seen in Kieron Gillen‘s newsletter, there’s a new second issue of The Power Cut available right now, free to download. It’s a fanzine dedicated to Gillen and Caspar Wijngaard‘s excellent book from Image, The Power Fantasy, one we’ve all been enjoying a hell of a lot here at Comicon.
80 pages of essays, criticism, art and loads of other stuff. If you’re a fan of The Power Fantasy, as we are, as you should be, it’s a great little read. Go download it for free now – all the links here.
COMIX EXPERIENCE’S GRAPHIC NOVEL PICKS FOR OCTOBER…
San Francisco’s Comix Experience, one of the great comic shops, runs its graphic novel club monthly, where it focuses on a couple of picks, one for adults, one for kids, that are always an indicator of a couple of must-buy books for you. That’s why I keep flagging them up for you. Plus, it’s always good to celebrate the damn good comic shops out there.
The Adult Club pick for October is Assorted Crisis Events by Deniz Camp and Eric Zawadki.
‘An action-packed sci-fi anthology series following normal people navigating an alternate world where time is having a crisis, and just stepping outside your door can send you on an unexpected adventure. Time is having a crisis. Mingling in the red-light district, you can find actual cavemen, medieval knights, and cyborg soldiers on leave from World War IV. Victorian debutantes amble their way into cell phone stores, confused and bewildered (what is a data plan?). On their way to work, bleary-eyed commuters get trapped in time-loops, assaulted by alternate-reality versions of themselves, and try to avoid post-apocalyptic wastelands.’
As for the Kids Club pick, it’s a debut graphic novel by Pixar director Bobby Podesta, North For The Winter.
‘What would you think if you saw a reindeer fly? When this happens to Virginia, she isn’t sure what to do-she’s just lost her mom, she’s in a new city, and everything seems so hard. But when she reluctantly confesses what she saw to her neighbor, Benny, he’s convinced that flying reindeer can only mean one thing: this is Santa business. In this stunning graphic novel debut from Pixar director Bobby Podesta, two kids and a lost reindeer go up against obsessive hunters, suspiciously convincing department store elves, and radar operators for the Continental Air Defense Command Center. No matter the odds, Virginia’s going to get Christmas back on track! ‘
Comix Experience will be talking to Deniz and Eric later in October. They’re also hosting Bobby live on 19 October at the store. The interviews will go live on the Comix Experience YouTube channel later in the month.
WHO HAD THE 2000 AD DOES GUITAR PEDALS ON THEIR WEIRD CROSSOVER THINGS FOR 2025?
Yes, this is one of the more bizarre crossovers you’ll see this year. Or is it? After all, there’s no shortage of 2000 AD and music crossovers. I’m thinking both The Human League and Anthrax having songs called ‘I Am The Law‘, Phil Oakey’s ‘You Have Been Judged‘ t-shirt in the ‘Together in Electric Dreams‘ video, Transvision Vamp‘s ‘Hanging Out With Halo Jones‘ song, Suggs and Chas from Madness as The Fink Brothers releasing ‘Mutants in Mega City One‘ (with Dredd cover art from Brian Bolland – which I doubt they cleared to be honest). Well, there’s a lot.
So, maybe the comic partnering with ThorpyFX to bring you a line of 2000 AD guitar pedals isn’t the strange marketing thing you might initially think?
Pick from The Judge Dredd Lawbringer ThorpyFx Gunshot overdrive pedal, Judge Death Deathbringer ThorpyFx Warthog distortion pedal, and the Rogue Trooper Fallout Cloud muff style fuzz.
You can pre-order at thorpyfx.com right now for £249 a pop!
