The Sunday Spotlight – The ‘Were You Never Taught The Rhyme?’ Edition

Time for another spin around the little bits of comic news I thought you might like – yep, ’tis The Sunday Spotlight…

Yep, seeing as it’s the 5th November this week, time to bring out that most wonderful of graphic novels about a fascist Britain… V For Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd.

The rhyme in question… ‘Remember Remember, the fifth of November, the gunpowder treason and plot…’ Well, in the USA, you have trick or treating for Halloween, which is strange in itself, as a fundamentally (and sometimes fundamentalist) Christian country sends their kids out on a night all about witchcraft and magic to get candy from strangers. Whereas countless generations of British kids grew up with Guy Fawkes’ Night, celebrating a failed English Catholic assassination plot to do away with the Protestant King James I. As part of that, Guy Fawkes was caught with a rather large quantity of explosives under the House of Lords before he had chance to blow the place up. So, how do we celebrate this? Well, we set bonfires, light fireworks, and burn effigies of Guy himself. Of course we do.

Anyway, on with the comics news…

THOUGHT BUBBLE’S LIST OF DEBUTING BOOKS AT ONE OF THE GREATEST COMICS FESTIVALS IN THE WORLD…

By now, you should know what we think of Thought Bubble, one of the biggest and best UK comics festivals, happening in Harrogate on 15th & 16th November.  It’s a pure celebration of comics, comics, and more comics that brings together some incredible headline guests but also has pretty much the entire UK comics scene in attendance – and there’s an awful of of great comics work being made in Britain right now.

Over the years, Thought Bubble has become THE place for comic creators to debut their new works – and Thought Bubble have put together a handy list of every single one of those new releases debuting at the festival – right here. It’s a long, long list indeed. If you’re headed there, be prepared to spend a little bit more than you could ever imagine, but rest assured that you’ll find so much you’re going to absolutely love.

BRIAN HIBBS’ TILTING AT WINDMILLS ON THE NEW DISTRIBUTOR LANDSCAPE IN DIRECT MARKET COMICS – IT’S NOT PRETTY…

Brian Hibbs is the owner of San Francisco’s Comix Experience, and he’s been at the forefront of comics retail for many, many years. He’s outspoken on the whole business of comic retail, and most of what he says is essential reading.

He’s been writing his monthly Tilting at Windmills columns at The Comics Beat for quite a few years now – the latest is number 303 (you do the math). This latest is part 3 of his analysis of the unholy distribution mess that comic shops find themselves in post-Diamond Distributors going bust.

To give you an idea of what to expect, here’s something from early on in this one:

‘Most of these new businesses are trying to take pathways that are essentially antithetical to retailers actually making any profit on the sale of comics.’

Yep, it’s not a pretty picture at all. Now, some of you reading this might be unconcerned. All you want is your comics, and you’re pretty confident you’ll be able to get them. But, with the way the comics direct market, the business of comic shops, is going, there’s an awful lot of comic shops out there really feeling a lot of pain right now. And not all of them will survive. And that’s exactly why you should care, why you, as a customer of the direct market, should be reading this.

LAKES INTERNATIONAL COMIC ART FESTIVAL RETURNS TO KENDALL FOR 2026…

It started off in Kendall, taking over the town for a weekend of all things comics, before moving, a few years ago, to Barrow-in-Furness. Well, from 2026, The Lakes International Comic Art Festival will be returning to Kendall.

LICAF takes place in 2026 from Friday 2nd – Sunday 4th October 2026, back in Kendall, bringing you a weekend of comic events and featuring the biggest names in comics from around the world.

Since leaving Kendall, its grown and improved (and it was pretty damn great in the first place) to include international partnerships and a bigger and better family and kids zone. It will be taking all its learned and bringing it back to the beautiful town of Kendall for 2026, centred on the Brewery Arts Centre but including multiple venues across the town. I’ve been to LICAF when it was previously in Kendall, and it’s genuinely a comics takeover, a real celebration of comics across the entire town.

FORBIDDEN PLANET TV BRING YOU BRYAN TALBOT, CHARLIE ADLARD, MIKE PERKINS, & MICHAEL LARK…

The Forbidden Planet comic shop chain do an interesting line of interviews over on YouTube, with the latest couple of particular interest.

First, FP TV’s Andrew Sumner caught up with three sons of Shrewsbury at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival recently – Charlie Adlard, Mike Perkins, and Michael Lark. They talk all things creative, their latest works, their careers, and you get to see them as they launch into a live draw.

Then you’ve got the legendary Bryan Talbot in conversation from June 2025 with FP’s Sumner at Enniskillen Comic Fest. Talbot talks about his many, many years making some of the finest graphic novels, including the likes of Luther Arkwright, Tale Of One Bad Rat, and Grandville. He also talks about the new Grandville prequel, The Casebook of Stamford Hawksmoor, out on 6 November from Penguin.

AND SPEAKING OF WHICH… BRYAN TALBOT’S THE CASEBOOK OF STAMFORD HAWKSMOOR – OUT 6 NOVEMBER….

Talbot’s anthropomorphic Grandville series is a riotous mix of steampunk alt-history, where Detective Inspector LeBrock and Detective Ratzi investigate grisly crimes in a strange world of an England where Britain has only just gained independence from France following losing the Napoleonic Wars.

This new graphic novel takes place before the events of the Grandville series, in the dying days of the French occupation of Britain, where Detective Inspector Stamford Hawksmoor ‘shadows the murky backstreets of London on the hunt for a sadistic serial killer.’

‘The deeper he delves, the more he puts himself in mortal danger, pitting himself against unknown antagonists whilst under the scrutiny of the feared anti-terrorist squad, and the more he is forced to resort to working outside the law.’

‘The Casebook of Stamford Hawksmoor is an intriguing, labyrinthine stand-alone mystery set in a world of hansom cabs and pea-souper fogs, where explosive violence can erupt at any second and does!’

I’m looking forward to getting my copy this week – as anything by Talbot always climbs to the top of that must-read pile!