The Sunday Spotlight: The ‘I Got Ice Cream And You Didn’t!’ Edition
by Richard Bruton
Welcome to The Sunday Spotlight, a nowhere near complete round-up of all the comics news this week. Alternatively, just a few stories that I thought were interesting. Whatever, read on …
Kickstarter, oh, Kickstarter — the adult ban and then the, no, don’t worry, we didn’t mean it really backtracking …
Well, we first had Kickstarter unveil its plans to ban anything with ‘adult content.’ Now, seeing as this is increasingly the platform so many comics makers are using, and seeing as the whole definition of ‘adult content’ is so bloody vague, it could have potentially meant that anything with any mature themes in comics would have been prevented from doing anything on the platform.
According to KS, it’s all to do with Stipe, their payment partners, who really don’t, it seems, like anything with the hint of ‘adult content,’ So, we saw new KS guidelines and a host of comic projects suspended from KS.
Naturally, there was a LOT of outrage online. Cue Kickstarter backtracking, getting rid of their new content guidelines, and going back to the way it was before. Albeit with the proviso that Stipe could still block any campaign it chose to block. Of course, this was all delivered in a wonderfully wordy and legalise-packed press release from Kickstarter.
So, basically, you can put your ‘adult content’ comic (whatever that means) up on Kickstarter, and it will still be okay with the new/old Kickstarter rules, but there’s still the possibility that Stipe will block the campaign anyway. Oh, boy, don’t you just love that?
Oh, Eisner’s, you really dropped the ball here — the story of a shitty AI comic getting an Eisner nomination …
Well, it was bound to happen, I suppose. The Eisner Awards nominations were released and, and amongst a whole host of wonderful comics and books, we have Stardust the Super Wizard Anthology, which included a single page made using generative AI – the sort of comics art that only exists because the makers of it stole art from so many comic artists to ‘create’ their new artwork.
Anyway, after much condemnation online, the Eisners have released a statement saying, quite rightly, that the Judges should have known this was AI-generated, and that they wouldn’t have voted for it had they known there was AI included. The anthology’s editor has subsequently rescinded the book’s inclusion in the awards.
Again, just in case you weren’t sure, generative AI is theft, pure and simple, taking great works from creators and churning out AI slop. If you use it, if you support it, if you don’t rail against it, well, screw you, we just don’t want you here. Theft is theft is theft. And AI is theft, pure and simple.
Chris Ware Exhibition at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum …
Chris Ware: Life is Complicated is a new exhibition opening at the Robinson Gallery of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum that runs from 23rd May to 3rd January 2027.
The exhibition has spent three years touring Europe and now hits Stateside, with its final and only American appearance at the Billy Ireland Museum on the campus of Ohio State. Designed by Ware, the exhibition includes original drawings, notes and sketches as well as sculptures, paintings. It also includes material on display for the very first time, stuff they’re calling ‘auxiliary objects too fragile to ship internationally.’
Life is Complicated will be on view from May 23rd through January 3rd, 2027, and the gallery is open 1-5 pm Tuesday to Sunday. Ware will be there on 17th October for an in-person event.
Gatekeeping in Comics can just F*ck right off…
You know, just when you think comics are getting better and stopping being just some adolescent boys club, we get a news story that pricks a huge hole in that idea.
Heidi at The Comics Beat had this one, reporting on a post on Reddit entitled Not Sure if I Want to get Into Comics Anymore After First Comic Shop Experience. Essentially, a female Marvel movies fan went into a comic shop looking for something good to read and was then bullied and humiliated by some ridiculous little male customer who wanted to belittle her and prove she wasn’t a ‘real’ comics fan.
Seriously, I’m with Heidi here. I thought we were over this. I thought we’d got to the point where we realised that comics are for everyone and it’s always good to get new readers into the medium. But no, seems there’s always going to be some asshole out there who doesn’t see things that way. Well, screw them. Comics needs new readers. Comic shops need new people buying comics. And any comics shop that doesn’t see this really deserves to go to the wall.
Back when I worked comics retail, I used to love, absolutely love, getting in any new reader who expressed an interest in comics, and it would be my pleasure to see them leave with an armful of books that they were going to love.
So, no, as Heidi says, we all need to keep gatekeeping out of comics. It has no place here. Comics are for everyone. EVERYONE.
Shelfdust hosts The Gutter Review — Some Excellent Writing About Comics …
Shelfdust is Steve Morris’s thing, a great comics site that dives deep into comics in all their wonderful forms, focusing on comics one issue at a time. It’s one of those essential, must-read sites that you really should bookmark and read every time a new article comes out.
They’re also doing us all a favour by republishing articles from the much-missed Gutter Review site, curated by Chloe Mavael. Seriously, with comics sites disappearing so quickly, it’s essential that good writing about comics is cherished and made available, and I’m so glad that Shelfdust is taking on the mantle of republishing all those great articles.
You want an idea of what to expect? Well, how about this one, as Chloe talks about how John Smith used codeswitching on 2000 AD‘s Devlin Waugh. Absolutely great writing on comics that you should be reading.
