Devin’s Comics NEWS Digest - December 13, 2024
This was supposed to be short, I'm in the middle of moving.
Hello, everyone! This is the Comics NEWS Digest, an aggregation of all the top comics and comics-related stories that caught my attention that I thought you might enjoy reading. I post these two weeks after every regular newsletter.
NEWS
We’ll start with some bad news this month, as the class action lawsuit against Action Lab Entertainment was dismissed. It was brought by nearly 60 artists, which was part of its undoing as the judge cited “too many different claims.” That feels like a technicality, but I’m no lawyer or legal expert. This is a real blow to creators and my heart goes out to all the artists who were cheated out of money that was owed to them.
In other news regarding publishers with dubious records toward creators, Scout Comics has been dropped by Lunar Distribution because of excessive lateness. For those who don’t know, comic books can often run late for any number of reasons because there are so many steps in the creative process. To be so late so often that the distributor refuses to try and sell your comics to stores and other retailers is unprecedented. The people hurt most, once again, are the creators whose books aren’t going to be sold because of an irresponsible publisher.
In book ban news, the state of Utah just banned its fourteenth book from public schools. The other thirteen books are mostly by Sarah J. Maas, but include Blankets by Craig Thompson, which we read back in 2019. Also, a South Carolina school district has removed the manga Assassination Classroom from its libraries. I know the people behind book bans in this country will be energized by recent political events, but they must be fought every step of the way.
On a lighter note, Book Riot listed some controversial comics to dovetail nicely with book ban news.
In local news, Quimby’s Bookstore here in Chicago, a fixture of the indie comics and zine scenes, is for sale after more than three decades of operation. It’s heartening that the current owners are looking for people who will continue the store’s legacy. It is impossible to overstate the importance of Quimby’s to the comics culture of Chicago, but also to how that culture goes out into the wider world and has a broader impact.
Diego Higuera at Comics Beat spoke to Kenny Meyers about his new comics marketing app, Bindings. I’d normally post this in the Interviews section, but Bindings is still pretty new and I thought this might be the best way to learn about it instead of an article that would probably repeat most of the same points.
Interviews & Criticism
Also at Comics Beat, Heidi MacDonald expands on a point she made on
’s Off Panel podcast about the “Big Lie” of comics. Specifically, the idea that they’re only lucrative as IP farms for television and movie adaptations. It feels like more and more small comics publishers are popping up with this exact business model and I’m glad it’s being exposed for what it is. I was surprised the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles didn’t warrant a mention in the article, but maybe they came up in the podcast episode.I was delighted to find one of my favorite sites for comics criticism,
, present here on Substack. Writer looked at a lesser-known Vertigo book from Grant Morrison and Philip Bond, Kill Your Boyfriend. It’s peak 90s indie comics in many ways and it was nice to revisit.Philip Bond was interviewed by The Comics Journal along with his wife Shelly, a pioneering editor in her own right who did amazing work at Vertigo and beyond. The Kickstarter for the third and final volume of her autobiography and indispensable comics editing guide, i-DOPPELGäNGER, is wrapping up and I can’t wait to complete my set.
Also here on Substack, I discovered the
newsletter, which posted this interview with Crucial Comix, founded by Shay Mirk and Audra McNamee.Over at SOLRAD, Hank Kennedy reviewed B. Traven: Portrait of a Famous Unknown by French artist Golo, which was translated into English this year.
I did not expect to ever include an article from the Journal of Eye Movement Research in this newsletter, but they published a study about reading comics. I’m not going to pretend I understood all of it, but it appears “expert” comics readers have longer and more durable fixations than “non-expert” readers.
Publishers Weekly interviewed a couple of creators I respect and admire. Tony Weaver, Jr. spoke about his new middle-grade graphic memoir, Weirdo. And Dutch cartoonist Janine Janssen spoke about the print edition of her webcomic, Les Normaux. I discovered Les Normaux on Webtoon by accident and found it incredibly charming! I hope it translates well to print.
I know I don’t often link to videos in these digests, but I had to include this interview of James Romberger and Marguerite Van Cook for the 407th New York Comics & Picture-story Symposium about their groundbreaking, underrated classic 7 Miles a Second that they co-created with artist and activist David Wojnarowicz. It’s a fascinating comic that I can’t recommend enough.
Awards
Late in October, the fifteenth Golden Comic Awards took place at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. The awards were given out by Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture to celebrate Taiwanese comics, including six for Comic of the Year. Other categories included Best Editor and Best Cross-media Application.
JewCE, the Jewish Comics Experience convention, was held last month in New York City and included the 2024 JewCE Awards.
In Canadian awards, Maurice Vellekoop won the Toronto Book Award for his graphic memoir, I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together. It’s the first comic book to ever win that prize. Meanwhile, Canadian Kate Beaton won the Swiss Jan Michalski Prize for Literature for her work Ducks. She’s gonna have to reinforce her mantle if she hasn’t already.
The Entente Littéraire Prize, which recognizes teenage and young adult literature, gave out its first awards and included the graphic novel Thieves by Lucie Bryon.
In Awards News, the Nebula Awards for science fiction will include Poetry and Comics categories starting next year. They won’t be awarded until 2026, so get your pitches ready now! Lol
Obituaries
The comics world lost a lot of bright stars and old souls this past couple of months. Pierre Christin, perhaps best known in the United States for his Valérian science fiction comics, was a prolific writer, journalist, and teacher who passed away in October. He was 86.
Tim Jackson was a cartoonist and historian whose book Pioneering Cartoonists of Color was nominated for an Eisner in 2017. He died of complications stemming from Lewy Body disease. He was 66.
Fantagraphics book designer Ryan McCardle passed away after struggling with a rare form of bone cancer.
Clydene Nee was a comics colorist and had been the organizer of San Diego Comic-Con’s Artist Alley since 1989. I cannot imagine what a Herculean task that must have been. She died in her sleep.
British cartoonist Peter Maddocks passed away at the age of 96. He was known for a whimsical style published in several newspapers and magazines.
Finally, Sam Blanchard, known to the comics community as Shlepzig, died more than three months after receiving heart surgery. I know a lot of people who were personally affected by his death, though I don’t think I ever got to speak to him myself. He was described to me as “full of life and wildness” and will be deeply missed. He was 56.
That’s all for this month. Did I miss anything? Comment below if I have. Feel free to subscribe if you haven’t already. The Comics Book Club will be meeting again on December 17 to discuss Parasocial. Thanks again for everything.
nice, thanks!
Love the social science included in here!