The Sunday Spotlight – The ‘Feed Your Head!’ Edition

One quarter of the year done already, and we haven’t all been vaporised quite yet. So, in celebration, time for a little more Sunday Spotlight …

Lawless Comic Con — The 2000 AD Celebration — Full Guest List For 9th-10th May …

Oh, it’s as though the comics festivals and comic cons have all woken up after a hibernation over winter, have shaken themselves off, stretched their wings, butterfly-like, and launch into the announcements.

One coming up pretty soon is Lawless in the UK, taking place in Bristol over the weekend of 9th-10th May. A 2000 AD and related event, it’s got a reputation for being laid back and as welcoming as you could possibly want. Plenty of great guests on what may well end up being the final guest list, with artist Greg Staples and former Tharg/editor Steve MacManus added to the list.

Full details and tickets here. And wonderful to see that they’re raising funds this year for Prostate Cancer UK in honour of Dave Taylor.

The Phoenix Comics Workshops — New 2026 Events Revealed…

The Phoenix Comic — the UK Weekly kids comic that continues to amaze with what it does. It’s where Jamie Smart‘s million+ selling Bunny Vs Monkey first appeared. It’s where Neill Cameron‘s epic Mega-Robo Bros and his super silly Donut Squad first appeared. And there’s a load more great things in the weekly comic over the last 14+ years and in the various collections published by David Fickling and The Phoenix.

One thing they do very, very well are their digital workshops, featuring artists from the Phoenix, all available worldwide, just perfect for your comics-loving kids. And if you can’t make them live, don’t worry, your ticket to the event gets you the recording of the full hour-long workshop. (And it’s one ticket per viewing device — so go wild, throw a comics party!)

They’ve also announced workshop dates for the rest of the year — 13th June, 18th July, 22nd August, 19th September, 17th October, 14th November, and 12th December, with artists to be announced nearer the time. But the first two are happening on April 11th and May 9th. Tickets for them all here.

Saturday 11th April – 10.00 BST — Jamie Smart’s Megalomaniacs Comic-Drawing Invasion.

Saturday 9th May – 10.00 BST – Create Epic Legacy Comics with Zak Simmonds-Hurn and the Fickling Brothers.

More From The Phoenix — Their Annual April Fools Gag…

They do it every year, and every year it always raises a smile. So, this year, subscribers to the Phoenix Comic got a surprise through the mailbox in time for April 1st, with the issue wrapped in this cover for Soups magazine. Oh yes, well played once more.

More Audio/Visual Delights From 2000 AD — Dan Abnett and INJ Culbard Talk Brink For The Thrillcast…

Now, you should know that the 2000 AD Thrill Cast is well worth a listen (or a watch if you’re doing so on YouTube.) There’s the regular-ish Creator Tapes (most recently having interviews with Ben Wheatley and a three-part epic with John Wagner), and the weekly In Orbit Every Wednesday.

So, given that, every so often there’s one I have to point out to you as something very good indeed. Such is the case with this one from a few weeks ago now (I’m behind in my listening, as with pretty much everything else!), as Dan Abnett and INJ Culbard sat down for a 50-minute chat with Mike and Chloe at 2000 AD, all about Brink. And seriously, I shouldn’t have to tell you how good I think Brink is, surely? Every chance I have, I bang on about it. I mean, just see here for a little of what I mean. And it turns out Mike and Chloe hold it in equally high regard. Essentialy reading, essential listening/viewing.

Full list of episodes here. The Abnett/Culbard episode is here.

The Comix Experience GN Club Picks For April — A Couple Of Must-Buys Right Here…

As always, no apologies for featuring this every month. Simply put, Brian Hibbs and the team at San Francisco’s Comix Experience really know how to pick some great, great books you might have missed for their monthly GN Clubs for adults and kids. Definitely a sure sign of quality every month.

So, this month, the Adult GN Club pick is Dave Baker and Nicole Goux‘s Punk’n Heads, an anarchic book about ‘making music, making mistakes, facing your past, and choosing your future.’

‘This band plays together, lives together…and unfortunately two of them are sleeping together. Whatever, I’m sure it’s fine. Now put on your punk’n mask and let’s rock! Hannah Lipsky isn’t sure what’s happening. She dreamed of becoming a fine art painter, but after breaking up with her girlfriend, she’s suddenly dropped out of art school, moved into a flophouse, and gotten roped into singing in a campy horror-punk band. With costumes.’

And their Kid GN Club pick for April is Mike Lawrence‘s The Lionhearts, a D&D-inspired thing, where two brothers find themselves having to rescue their parents and uncover the secrets behind their uniquely adventurous family.

‘Adventuring isn’t just in the Lionhart family’s blood — it’s the family business. Grammy and Baba Lionhart were once a famous questing duo—slaying dragons and fighting monsters, they were legends throughout the land. Now, their daughter, Lenna, has taken over the business, questing under the famous Lionhart name with her husband, Gerard, and their young sons, Alder and Flynt, are desperate to be included! When their parents go missing after accepting an unusually high-paying job from a mysterious woman, the boys set out to find them, eager to prove they’re ready to carry on the family legacy.’

As is usual, all involved will be interviewed by Brian this month, going up on the Comix Experience socials and YouTube when they’re all edited.

Elizabeth Sandifer’s Last War In Albion gets to Grant Morrison’s Vertigo tales…

I’ve banged on about Elizabeth Sandifer‘s Last War in Albion before, a fabulously detailed history of the comics work of Alan Moore and Grant Morrison, put together from the viewpoint of a grand magical war between the two. Sandifer writes so well, giving us incredible detail, covering so much. It’s essential reading. So, go read.

The latest piece, Book Four: Two Wizards – Chapter Four: Some Kind of Divine Manipulatrix (Morrison at Vertigo), is right here. But really, go back and read the lot. It covers Morrison at Vertigo, but not before taking us through a quick history of Karen Berger, the genesis of Vertigo, Disney’s promised comics line, Sebastian O, steampunk, Mark Millar, The Mystery Play, and the absolute brilliance that is Morrison and Philip Bond‘s Kill Your Boyfriend. Seriously, if you want a great comic, fun, flash, silly, funny, go hunt down a copy of Kill Your Boyfriend right now. And right after that, go read all of Sandifer’s Last War in Albion.