Devin’s Comics NEWS Digest - October 11, 2024
Finally! A short one! Sorta.
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
To begin by briefly revisiting a story first mentioned here a while ago, Penguin Random House has finalized its acquisition of comics publisher Boom! Studios and begun all the reorganization that entails. They’ve also hired Michael Kelly, the former Vice President of Global Publishing at Hasbro, as Publisher.
In other executive news, Lena Atanassova has been named Editor-in-Chief at Tokyopop. She was formerly the brand editor for their romance imprint, LoveLove. Tokyopop is distributed by Penguin Random House. Also, credit where it’s due, I first learned of this story from
.The American Library Association recognized Banned Books Week from September 22 to September 28. Here’s a comprehensive look at the censorship that’s been plaguing comics specifically in recent years, courtesy of The Comics Journal. Most of the comics being targeted are not new; some are decades old. The majority have LGBTQ+ content.
The ShortBox Comics Fair is happening the entire month of October and completely online. Check it out!
In strange news, it turns out Marvel and DC held a joint trademark on the term “Super Hero” since the 60s. Or, they did until a United States Trademark Office Tribunal canceled it recently, putting the term back into the public domain. An artist based in London asked the court to cancel the trademark and Disney and Warner Bros, the respective parent companies, didn’t file a response.
In other lawsuit news, a class-action settlement was reached with comics distributor Andrews McMeel Universal regarding a data breach from 2022. I had completely forgotten that this had even happened, honestly.
I don’t normally cover crowdfunding campaigns here, because otherwise I would be writing about nothing else, but Tiffany Babb is a comics critic I greatly respect and admire and she’s got a Kickstarter for her new comics criticism journal, The Comics Courier, running until November 1. The first issue will include an article written by Kat Calamia of
fame. Please support it!Interviews & Criticism
While on the topic of crowdfunding, Austin English published this debate with Crowdfundr’s president-at-the-time, David Barach, from more than a year ago. For a different take on the same topic, David Harper at SKTCHD talked with Sam Kusek, Kickstarter’s Senior Outreach Lead for Comics. Meanwhile,
provided a look at how one creator has been gaming Kickstarter with unfulfilled campaigns for more than a year. For anyone interested in crowdfunding in comics, I highly recommend reading these pieces!I’ve linked to a few articles and videos on lettering in the past, and Bad Ink Studios released a helpful tutorial on their YouTube channel a few weeks ago.
This Jeet Heer interview of the Hernandez Brothers was published by the Southwest Review a while back, but I learned of it recently and I’m including it because Love and Rockets is one of the greatest comics series in the history of the medium.
Helen Chazen wrote for The Comics Journal about Bhanu Pratap’s Cutting Season and Katie Lane’s Perception Through a Gap, two works that look to provide comics with some much-needed (in my opinion) surrealism in their style and content. Specifically, she compares the depiction of the human body and the perception of time in both works.
The Strange Tales of Oscar Zahn by Tri Vuong was one of my first discoveries when I downloaded Webtoon and I’m so happy to see it gaining a wider audience, with Ten Speed Press publishing the first 65 chapters in print. Comics Beat interviewed the creator last month.
Awards
The winners of the Ignatz Awards were announced at this year’s Small Press Expo shortly after I posted the last news digest. Lots of very cool comics worth checking out, including many that were self-published.
Obituaries
Last month, I found out too late about the death of Karl Moline. Known for work with publishers Marvel and Dark Horse, he distinguished himself with action-oriented storytelling, especially in comics set in the “Buffyverse.” He was 51.
Finally, concept artist and comics artist Karl Mostert passed away at the age of 43. You can read a touching tribute from his friend and collaborator David Baron here. His work will also be seen in Exit City, a forthcoming series from Mad Cave.
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 October 16 to discuss Gideon Falls, Volume 1. I’ll be on vacation when the next newsletter goes out, so the next NEWS digest might be a bit delayed. I’ll keep you posted. Thanks again for everything.