April Roundup

This month as Marvel fires about 7 to 8% of its total workforce, Scott Snyder and DC admit that Absolute Batman has become wildly more popular than they expected, Pearl Jam’s guitarrist announces a graphic novel telling the story of grunge, various awards have been announced, Lee Lai’s Cannon is definitely popular with awards, and a lot more.

This month, we also particularly want to highlight the Cartoonists United YouTube channel which has a lot of great video content. A channel that’s definitely subscribing to, especially in the lead up to next month when they will be hosting lots of interesting panel talks and presentations including with Australian creator Reimena Yee.

Also, this month sees the publication of The Curator by Wendy Tyrer through Perentie Press, a new Australian publisher of junior and YA graphic novels.

NEWS

• Are we going through a new wave of superstar artists? Nick Dragotta, Daniel Warren Johnson and others are bringing about a popularity and mania not seen since the heyday of Image Comics in the 1990s according to Borys Kit, writing for Hollywood Reporter.
• TokyoPop, the publisher known for introducing manga to the North American market, has announced a new comics and children’s book imprint, Publishers Weekly reports.
• More and more people and comics festivals are talking against AI or releasing anti AI statements. Renowned comics creator Matt Kindt has created his own anti AI comics label with, of course, a hand drawn logo, Publishers Weekly reports.
• As Popverse reports, Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready tells the mythic story of Seattle’s music scene in Farewell to Seasons, a graphic set to be published in October.
• The long running Monstress series of comics by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda is set to be adapted into a series for Amazon Prime. How the stunning visuals of the comics will translate to the screen remains to be seen.
• The Australian Books Industry Awards have announced all their shortlists and they’ve included one graphic novel in the Book of the Year for Younger Readers (ages 7-12) category.
• Svetlana Chmakova is returning to the Berrybrook series with Fight. Brigid Alverson reports in SLJ.
• DC’s Absolute Batman is now selling 3 times what Scott Snyder expected, and DC staffers are looking back at ‘New 52’ data to learn how much bigger this is than that, Chris Arrant reports in Popverse.
• Brian K. Vaughan and Niko Henrichson’s Pride of Baghdad is being released again, twenty years later, through Image Comics. An excellent graphic novel that remains equally harrowing and relevant today as when it was published, The Comics Beat reports.
• The Center for Cartoon Studies announced the shortlist and winners of the Cartoonist Studio Prize. Congratulations to Australian Lee Lai, whose graphic novel Cannon was in the shortlist. The winners are here. The shortlists are here.
• The Los Angeles Times Book Prizes were announced last week. Jaime Hernandez won the Best Graphic Novel award for Life Drawing. Australian Lee Lai was also nominated for this award for Cannon. Trung Le Nguyen won the Best Young Adult Literature award for Angelica and the Bear Prince.  

REVIEWS

• Hugo Pratt’s Corto Maltese is an absolute classic. One of the most important and influential works in European comics. Fantagraphics is now set to publish all his adventures starting with Corto Maltese: Fable of Venice and Other Stories. Tom Shapira has published a great review in The Comics Journal.
• The Summer Hikaru Died has been a well received manga and Valerio Stivé has written an excellent review in The Comics Journal.
• Jonathan Waugh at AIPT reviews the second and final volume of Star Wars: Jedi Knights Vol 2: A Higher Path, a really fun anthology series presenting adventures of the Jedi Knights before The Phantom Menace that is perfect for libraries.
• Colin Moon at AIPT reviews the exciting and promising start of a new Thor Saga: The Mortal Thor Vol. 1: No Gods, No Masters.

INTERVIEWS

• Aug Stone has published an excellent interview with renowned European comic book artist Jordi Lafebre: ‘I try to make the reader forget that they are reading a comic book’ in The Comics Journal.
• Fanbase Press’ Barbra Dillon interviews Trevor Mueller on the upcoming release of the young reader graphic novel series Secret STEAM Society (out through Papercutz).

COLLECTIONS

• Publishers Weekly has a couple of great articles looking at STEAM powered books and comics for middle grade readers and Young Middle Grade series gaining STEAM. 

MEDIA

• Cartoonists United is a YouTube channel to follow as they publish lots of interesting videos with comics creators. They recently published a video, Explicit Comics, Censorship, and Freedom of Speech, featuring Maia Kobabe, Taylor Titmouse, and PomPoison hosted by Iris Jay as they discuss censorship in the comics scene and their personal experiences, triumphs, and struggles creating explicit comics. 
• The Study of Comics in Academia: Understanding Comics. Join cartoonist and comics devices curator Reimena Yee as she introduces the work of comics scholars and educators Scott McCloud (Understanding Comics), Dr. Neil Cohn (Speaking in Pictures) and Nick Sousanis (Unflattening). Together they will discuss the exciting developments in comics academia, and how cartoonists and academics benefit from each other’s expertise.
• Making History: Reimena Yee, Sierra Barnes and Vincent Cecil discuss the joys and challenges of making webcomics in the historical genre, from research to creation to public engagement.
• The Readings Podcast has a new episode of The Comics Question out with Bernard Caleo in conversation with Mandy Ord. You can listen to it here.
• The Thick Lines podcast discusses Rachel Ang’s I Ate the Whole World to Find You, the art of blogging, the changing severity of lifeguards, mascots and Wrong Organ’s Mouthwashing, the lexicon of Goodreads, and the strange realities of Australia.
• Comics critic Tiffany Babb joins the Off Panel Podcast to talk about her comics zine, The Comics Staple, and the world of comics journalism.
• Cartoonist Faith Erin Hicks joins the Off Panel Podcast to talk about her new graphic novel Inbetweens and the evolving role of comic creators.

NEW RELEASES

Junior

• Amelia Shadows and the New Head Ghost by Matthew Dow Smith (Papercutz) [9781545824597]
• A Blood Moon Snowlands: Book One by Morr Meroz, Collin Fogel (Graphix) [9781761729140]
• Captain Underpants: The First Epic Manga by Dav Pilkey, Motojiro (Scholastic) [9781546151210]
• Clock Hands by Marieke Nijkamp, Sylvia Bi (Greenwillow Books) [9780063027145]
• The Definitive Yokai Field Guide by Shigeru Mizuki (Drawn & Quarterly) [9781770468207]
• Hikaru in the Light Vol 3 by Mai Matsuda (Scholastic) [9781761729287]
• The Last Comics on Earth: Across the Doodleverse by Max Brallier, Joshua Pruett, Jay Cooper (Viking Books) [9780593526835]
• Mighty Mega Pets: Freaky Food Fiasco! by Gary Northfield (Walker Books) [9781529526486]
• Once Upon a Tail A Horse and Dragon Graphic Novel by  Audrey Perrott, Charlene Chua (Abrams) [9781419770722] 
• Penny and the Yeti By: Jimmy Gaspero, Amber Akin (Papercutz) [9781545823811]
• Sashimi by Dan Santat (Roaring Brook Press) [9781250360007]
• Science Comics: Prehistoric Mammals From the Jurassic to the Ice Age by Joe Flood (First Second) [9781250868411]
• Snowlands Book 1 by Morr Meroz, Collin Fogel (Scholastic) [9781761729140]
• The Spark Experiment by Matthew K. Manning, Matthew Loux (Andrews McMeel Publishing) [9798881601928]
• Speed Racer Adventures by Franco, Derek Charm (Papercutz) [9781545823798]
• Soccer Kicks Over 60 Laugh-out-loud Comic Strip Soccer Jokes! by Emiliano Migliardo (Happy Yak) [9781836000709]
• Young Shadow & the Watchdogs by Ben Sears (Fantagraphics) [9798875001826]

YA

• The Curator by Wendy Tyrer (Perentie Press) [9781923543010] [Australian creator]
• Leo da Vinci Renaissance Kid by Richard Ashley Hamilton (Papercutz) [9781545823750]
• Star Wars: Jedi Knights Vol 2: A Higher Path by Marc Guggenheim, Madibek Musabekov (Marvel) [9781302963217]

Adult

• All the Cameras in My Room by Michael DeForge (Drawn & Quarterly) [9781770468191]
• Anxietyland by Gemma Correll (Particular Books) [9780241572894]
• Archie vs Minor Threats by Jordan Blum, Timmy Heague, Patton Oswalt (Dark Horse) [9781506751146]
• Comic Therapy: Meditations for Reflection by Kay Medaglia (SelfMadeHero) [9781914224393]
• Corto Maltese: Fable of Venice and Other Stories by Hugo Pratt (Fantagraphics) [9798875001345]
• The Court Charade by Flore Vesco, Kerascoët (ABRAMS) [9781419788260]
• Creased Comics by Brad Neely (New York Review Comics) [9798896230540]
• The Credits Roll into the Sea Volume 1 by John Tarachine, Jocelyne Allen (Dark Horse) [9781506752136]
• Human Nature Book 1 (of 3) A Satirical Science Fiction Graphic Novel by Darren Aronofsky, Ari Handel, Jeff Welch, Martin Morazzo (ABRAMS) [9781419780370]
• Mrs Orwell by Andrea Chalupa, Brahm Revel (23rd Street) [9781250877857]
• The Outsider by Joe D’Esposito (Fantagraphics) [9781683969051]
• Punk’n Heads by Dave Baker, Nicole Goux (Top Shelf) [9781603095860]
• The Wreck by Lizzy Stewart (Jonathan Cape) [9781787335318]