The Sunday Spotlight – The ‘This Forest Is Too Weird For Me’ Edition

Here we go, Sunday once more… and that means it’s time for the Sunday Spotlight …

So, no Sunday Spotlight for the past couple of weeks. Blame life. Seriously, life can suck sometimes. Or life can just be too damn busy and packed full of enjoyable stuff, that means a couple of weeks off is a good thing. Or, closer to the truth of the matter, it’s somewhere in between.

Anyway, did you miss me? Awww, shucks, thank you.

Time for a little look-see at a few bits of comics news that I thought I’d like to see. (After all, if you hadn’t realised it by now, these Sunday Spotlights are simply me banging on about things I’d seen that I thought needed more exposure, usually because they seemed important to me. Your mileage may vary.)

Okay, here goes… well, first this from the genius that was Leo Baxendale, something from Willy The Kid (seen at the Mighty World of British Comics Facebook group)

Marjane Satrapi, unique talent in comics, dies aged 56 …

Being away for a couple of weeks meant I didn’t cover this. Sad, sad news, as we got word that Marjane Satrapi, author of Persepolis, Chicken with Plums, Woman, Life, Freedom, and the Marie Curie biopic Radioactive, passed at the way too young age of 56.

Her talent was phenomenal. If you haven’t already, go and read her works. Start with Persepolis, then go and watch the movie of Persepolis, which she co-directed. It’s an incredible tale of her childhood in Iran and her youth in Europe after the Iranian revolution. It’s all magnificent, award-winning stuff, seeing her become the first woman to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Feature (and yes, she should have won).

Her talent was undeniable, incendiary, brilliant, with any of her works genuinely essential. Her work and her life were fascinating, pushing boundaries, unafraid, rebellious. She passed away at a far too young age, a year after the death of her beloved husband, with her family reporting that she ‘died of sadness’ over her husband’s death.

A true loss to the comics medium. Celebrate her work, continue to champion her comics, and fight against those who would seek to ban them.

John Wagner, creator of Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog, Robo Hunter, Button Man, Rok of the Reds, and so many more, gets an MBE …

Congratulations to John Wagner, one of the greatest living comics writers we have, author of so many stories, creator of so many iconic characters, on his becoming a Member of the British Empire, as it was announced that he’s set to become John Wagner MBE ‘For services to British Comic Books and the Comic Book Industry.’

This is a great thing. Let’s all raise a glass and champion his work.

Oink! the Documentary premieres at Macc-Pow! Comics Festival, 27 June…

Oink!, for those of you that don’t know, was a UK comic published from 1986-1988. It was sort of a Viz clone, but aimed at a younger audience, and it was a hell of a lot of fun.

It’s Oink’s 40th anniversary this year, and there’s a documentary about the comic that gets its premiere at Macc-Pow! comics festival on 27th June 2026. The Macc-Pow! festival takes place on 25th-28th June in Macclesfield, UK. It’s a smaller UK festival, but one that really does seem to get it all right.

Guests this year include James Kochalka, LewStringer, Tor Freeman, Roger Langridge, Laura Howell, Tim Quinn and Dicky Howett, Jim Medway, Michael and Keli Lark, Gary Northfield, John Allison, Rachael Smith, Sonia Leong, Lucy Sullivan, Sean Phillips, Abby Bulmer, Emmelline Pidgen, Simone Lia, Nigel Parkinson. Well worth a look if you’re up that way in June.

Paul Gravett’s PG Tips For June — a list of books you should be looking at …

Every month, man at the crossroads (oh, that really does show my age), Paul Gravett, writer, editor, all-round comics great, gives us all his list of essential books for the month. June is no exception. Here they are. Simply put, Paul’s always had excellent taste, and you should consider each and every book on that list as something you should be taking a look at.

This month, his top two picks are from Tillie Walden and Minetaro Mochizuki. Walden brings us Charity & Silvia, telling her tale of two women in love in early American history, whilst Mochizuki takes a Japanese literary gem and turns it into a ‘present-day portrait of complex relationships and responsibilities in his inimitable hybrid style of Charles Burns meets gekiga.’

Those are just two of the delights to be found in this month’s list. Like I say, go check them out and consider them your essential reading for the month.

A little love for Mike Carroll’s Rusty Staples… banned by Facebook…

Michael Carroll, writer of many great things, including many wonderful strips at 2000 AD, runs a blog called Rusty Staples, where he espouses, with plenty of style and good writing, all about the history of British comics.

Sadly, he fell foul of the Facebook algorithm police a while back and found himself kicked off the platform. Which was a damn shame as it meant he wasn’t able to post about all the fascinating things he puts up on Rusty Staples. Anyway, he’s managed to get himself back on social media now. Go find him. Go read all the great things he’s posted at Rusty Staples.

ARC, A New Free Comics Festival In London… happening 9-12 July…

Organised by Lando, of Decadence Comics, whose art it is you see on the poster below, Miranda Smart, Peter Cline of Otto Press, and Tom Oldham of Breakdown Press, ARC promises to bring cutting-edge comics to Peckham in London on July 9th-12th. Four days of independant comics, complete with an exhibition (9th-12th July), talks (10th July), and a two-day comics fair (11th-12th July).

Caption Comics Festival Announces First Guests for the most social of all comics festival, happening 8-9 August…

As I’ve told you before, Caption Comics Festival is back, and that’s such a great thing. Originally running in Oxford, UK from 1992 to 2017, it was more a social gathering of comics people, blurring the line between fans and creators, all there with the intent of promoting small press, self-published, micro-published, and similar good stuff.

Well, this year’s Caption is Pirate Caption, taking place on 8th-9th August at Seacourt Hall in Oxford, and they’ve announced their initial tranche of guests, including Daisy Crouch, Francis Todd, Shri Gunadekara, and Yu-Ching Chiu. All four of them are part of Broken Frontier’s 2026 “Six To Watch” selection of talents (that you really should be checking out.) In addition, they’ve invited Andy Oliver along, Broken Frontier’s Editor-in-Chief, and all-around nice guy, keeping the spotlight on great comics you won’t see covered anywhere else.

Other guests include Kieron Gillen, yes, that Kieron Gillen, of The Power Fantasy, DIE, The Wicked and Divine, and a lot of Marvel books. Oh, I knew him when he was this up-and-coming on Phonogram, and he’s always been a great supporter of all things comics. You can also find the likes of Scarlett Rickard & Sophie Rickard, Lydia Turner, Myfanwy Tristram, Karrie Fransman, Hannah Berry, and Rich Johnson, a comics journalist at large.

The Caption t-shirt design for 2026 (below) is by Sean Azzopardi, a great comics maker I’ve featured here at Comicon several times.

More details and tickets for Caption, the most laid-back and social comics event you’ll ever go to, can be found here.

Jim Medway, great comics creator, brilliant comics educator, now part of the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition …

Oh, I do love me some Jim Medway, artist/writer/creator of comics including Crab Lane Crew, Sgt Chip Charlton & Mr Woofles of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Playing Out, and so many more great comics works. True fact, back when I was working in a Yorkshire primary school, I convinced the Headteacher there to get Jim in for a two-day comics workshop, where he had a hall’s worth of 10 and 11-year-olds enthused about comics and making art. Even better, we put him up for the night, where he entertained daughter Molly with her own mini workshop. Seriously, if you’re UK-based, working in schools, and have a headteacher who wants to give her kids a great art experience, get in touch with him.

Anyway, he’s still making comics, still doing many projects, including, most recently, a series of works for University of Manchester to welcome and reassure students and staff. More on that in a moment. But he’s also now a Royal Academy of Arts exhibitor …

Now, a few of those perfectly done guides for students and staff at the University of Manchester …