The Sunday Spotlight: ‘The Universe Is A Drooling Idiot With No Fashion Sense’ Edition
by Richard Bruton
Put aside your chores, it’s Sunday, you deserve to put your feet up. Time for a little news from the week in comics — why, it’s The Sunday Spotlight …
Fantagraphics’ Gary Groth talks 50 years of publishing with Direct Edition Podcasts …
2026 marks 50 years of publishing for Fantagraphics. And boy, it’s been an event-filled half-century, many ups and downs, but a hell of a lot of incredible comics.
Gary Groth, publisher and founder of Fantagraphics, joins Direct Edition Podcasts to look back on a memorable life in publishing. Topics include starting the Comics Journal at 21, meeting the likes of RobertCrumb,HarveyKurtzman, and Charles Schulz, and what it was like to have Love and Rockets appear, unsolicited, in the mail.
Definitely worth an hour and a half of your time. Should be embedded below. If not, head here.
The Boys Humble Bundle — Get The Whole Bloody Lot & Give Some Cash To Charity …
Right now on Humble Bundle, running till 23 April, the chance to get the entirety of Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson‘s The Boys in The Boys: Grand Finale Humble Bundle. That’s all 12 volumes of the series, plus the eight issues of The Boys: Dear Becky.
And it’s all for a pay at least ridiculously low price of $18. Yes, $18 for all that. Ridiculous. As with all Humble Bundles, the books come in digital, and you get to decide how much extra you want to put in above the $18, plus what proportion of the price goes to the publisher, Humble Bundle, and the chosen charity, which, for this one, is the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, an incredibly worthy cause that’s worth at least 10 bucks extra when you’re getting a hell of a lot of great reading.
Barrow Does Comics, the latest Brit Comics Festival, happening 18th April — Programme and Guests announced …
Spinning off from the Lakes International Comic Art Festival, Barrow Does Comics is happening on Saturday, 18th April 2026, a new day show aimed at young readers aged 16-25. A hell of a lot going on over the course of the day.
Guests include Charlie Adlard, Michael Lark, Sean Phillips and Young Comics Laureate Mollie Ray. Expect a busy comics marketplace, activities, workshops, signing sessions, and portfolio reviews (you need to pre-book those).
Everything actually kicks off the night before, Friday 17th April, as Adlard, Phillips and Lark take part in the free Drawn to the Screen live draw event at the University of Barrow Campus.
Download the Barrow Does Comics programme for details, or just have a look online. And take a look at the Barrow Does Comics Page on the LICAF website.
Rick Veitch’s Once Banned Swamp Thing #88, now available as Swamp Thing 1989 …
Once upon a time, Rick Veitch had a great run on The Saga of the Swamp Thing, taking over from Alan Moore on the series back in the late 1980’s. He had taken Swamp Thing on a time-travelling adventure, eventually happening upon a humble carpenter. Oh yes, that’s Jesus Christ cast as a white magician. DC got a case of cold feet and pulled the book, leading Veitch to walk from the series.
Well, you may well know that DC have finally backtracked on that decision and is publishing Swamp Thing #88, plus the Veitch-written issues #89-91, which Veitch planned as his finale to his run, as the new Swamp Thing 1989 issues #1-4. Art comes from the sadly passed Michael Zulli, with inks from Vince Locke, on issue 1 (#88), and Tom Mandrake on issues 2-4 (#89-91).
Well worth picking up. Meanwhile, Veitch has posted this, a letter from then DC head honcho, Jeanette Kahn, to a fan writing in complaining about the cancellation … fascinating piece of comics history right there.
Swamp Thing 1989 starts in April. Finally, a chance to see just what got DC’s knickers all in a twist.
More Fantagraphics @50 celebrations — Jaime & Gilbert Hernandez at the LA Times Festival of Books — 19th April …
Well, the title and the image says it all really. A chance to see Los Bros Hernandez in conversation with Jordan Crane at the LA Times Festival of Books, followed by a signing in Area 5, hosted by Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore.
