August Roundup

We’re fully immersed in the awards season. The Eisners were announced a few weeks ago, the Harvey Awards nominations have been announced, the first American Manga Awards, and a couple of others too. It’s always a great idea to go through the awards winners and nominees to see what you have in your collection and what you may have missed.

Talking about awards, we hear through the grapevine that the Comic Arts Awards of Australia should be gearing up for some announcements. They’ll be announced a bit later this year but it seems like there’s movement. Yay!

This month we have two more graphic novels by Australian creators. Queenie Chan has completed the publication of her updated and expanded The Dreaming. This is the third and final volume of the series, a thrilling conclusion you don’t want to miss. This month also sees the publication of Follow Your Gut, an epic journey through the human gut. This is graphic medicine at its most scientific. A fascinating read now out thanks to Scribe Publications, who continue to publish really interesting titles. I think it’s safe to say that Scribe is taking risks and the titles being published may be niche but definitely of really high quality.

This month we also published the recording of the Drawing Attention: Comics and Censorship webinar and a creator chat with Meriam and Christian Carnouche, who recently published their first graphic novel in partnership, Tunis to Sydney. You can find them both on our YouTube channel and our podcast feed. Search for ALIA Graphic Podcast, wherever you listen to podcasts. In fact, we can’t quite believe it but we’re coming up to 100 podcast episodes soon. There may or may not be a special episode to celebrate that. 😶🤐

Our next creator chat will be with Mike Barry who recently published the third and final book of Action Tank. Watch out for that one, we’re sure it’s going to be a great conversation.

Enjoy this month’s harvest of news, resources and new titles and let us know how we’re doing and if there’s anything else you’d like us to cover. We love feedback!

NEWS

• We’ve noticed that more libraries are hosting comics related events and, of course, it’s something we’re really interested in. We will have an awesome webinar at the end of the year hearing from a few library services and their events. In the meantime, you can check out How to Organize a Library Comics Fest by Janna Morishima.
• In related news, we’re glad to see another public library service holding a comics and cosplay extravaganza. It’s Victoria’s Your Library organising it and it will take place at the Lilydale Library, 31 August 11am to 3pm. All the information for the event is here.
• Brigid Alverson has published a really interesting article about the increased presence of middle grade comics(not graphic novels, but comics) in San Diego Comic Con. A trend that will most likely flow into libraries. It’s a really interesting read and you can read it on Publishers Weekly here.
• Are you in Melbourne September 15? The Emerald Hill Comics Festival is the place to be. Continuing the legacy of Homecooked Comics Festival but in a different location and smaller. For all the information visit their blog here.

COLLECTIONS 

• Nancy Powell has a great piece on Comics Beat covering a San Diego Comic Con panel where librarians reflected on the impact that comics, graphic novels and manga have had on library readership and propose the next steps to broaden its appeal. It’s a really interesting discussion we highly recommend. You can read the article here.

AWARDS

We’re in full awards season so here’s a roundup of different award winners and award nominees announced recently.

• The 2024 Eisner Awards have been announced and women have won big, including the Tamaki cousins with three wins. We’re also glad to see Melbournian Tom Taylor win Best Single Issue/One Shot.
• The Harvey Awards have announced the 2024 nominees and it’s quite a list! You can find the whole list of nominees here.
• The Ringo Awards nominees have been announced. You can find all the nominees right here, and congratulations to Stephen Kok from Sydney, who’s been nominated for the Best Letterer category. Good work Stephen!
• The Ignatz Awards, which recognise outstanding achievements in comics and cartooning by small press creators or creator-owned projects published by larger publishers, have also announced their nominees. You can check the full list here.

And a last minute addition not discussed in the podcast but absolutely worth checking:

• The first American Manga Awards Winners have been announced during Anime NYC. This is the first year of what is set out to be the most important Manga Awards event in the U.S. You can see all the winners at The Beat here.

PODCASTS

• The ALIA Graphic Podcast: You can listen here or wherever you listen to podcasts.
• The Shelf Care Podcast by ALA’s Booklist published episode 36 recently where they discuss lots of recommended titles and Sarah Hunter discusses lots of graphic novels. You can listen on Soundcloud here or wherever you listen to podcasts.
• We’ve also discovered another great podcast. You can listen to Comic Boom: Comics in Education here or wherever you listen to podcasts. A great podcast for school librarians and teachers. For libraries, the episode with Lida Tsene of the Athens Comics Library is really interesting.

NEW TITLES

Junior

• 101 Dalmatians: D Is For Dalmatians by The Disney Comics Group (Papercutz) [9781545800928]
• How It All Ends by Emma Hunsinger (Greenwillow Books) [9780063158146]
• Molly and the Bear: An Unlikely Pair by Bob Scott, Vicki Scott (Aladdin) [9781665943123]
• Unico: Awakening by Osamu Tezuka, Samuel Satting, Gurihiru (Scholastic) [9781761526701]
• Wonder Woman: The Adventures of Young Diana by Jordie Bellaire, Paulina Gaunucheau (DC Comics) [9781779527134]

YA

• Ash’s Cabin by Jen Wang (St Martin’s Press) [9781250754066]
• Avatar the Last Airbender: The Bounty Hunter and the Tea Brewer by Faith Erin Hicks, Peter Wartman, Adele Matera (Scholastic Australia) [9781761527326]
• Blue Period Vol 15 by Tsubasa Yamaguchi (Kodansha) [9798888770290] 
• Brownstone by Samuel Teer, Mar Julia (Versify) [9780358394747]
• The Dreaming Vol 3 by Queenie Chan (IFWG Publishing Australia) [9781922856593] [Australian creator]
• Follow Your Gut by Ailsa Wild, Lisa Stinson, Briony Barr, Gregory Crocetti, Ben Hutchings (Scribe Publications) [9781761380891] [Australian creators]
• I Am Iron Man by Murewa Ayodele, Dotun Akande (Marvel Comics) [9781302948559]
• The Last Starry Night by Jamison Odone (Black Panel Press) [9781990521256]
• Maelstrom: A Prince of Evil by  Merriman, Lorian (Henry Holt) [9781250822840]
• The Ghostkeeper by Johanna Taylor (Penguin Putnam Inc) [9780593526668]
• Navigating With You by Jeremy Whitley, Cassio Ribeiro (Mad Cave Studios) [9781952303609]
• Pearl by Sherri L. Smith, Christine Norrie (Scholastic / Graphix) [9781338029420]

Adult

• All or Nothing by Shikke (Yen Press) [9781975372170]
• Black Mary 1: The Departed by Rodolphe, Florence Magnin (Cinebook) [9781800441378]
• Black Mary 2: Passage to the Hereafter by Rodolphe, Florence Magnin (Cinebook) [9781800441385]
• Brittle Joints by Maria Sweeney (Street Noise Books) [9781951491260]
• Coda: False Dawns by Simon Spurrier, Matias Bergara (Boom! Studios) [9781608862252]
• Don’t Let Go by Michel Bussi, Frederic Duval, Dider Cassegrain (Magnetic Press) [9781962413053]
• Einstein in Kafkaland by Ken Krimstein (Bloomsbury) [9781635579536]
• Emilie’s Inheritance Vol 1 of 5: The Hatcliff Domain by Florence Magnin (Cinebook) [9781800441361]
• Faceless and the Family by Matt Lesniewski (Oni Press) [9781637154472]
• Frontier by Guillaume Singelin (Magnetic Press) [9781962413022]
• Hanami, You Me and 200 Sq Ft by Julia Cejas “(Humanoids/Life Drawn) [9781643376653]
• Houses of the Unholy by Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips (Image Comics) [9781534327429]
• No Love Zone Vol 1 by Danbi (Seven Seas) [9798888431269]
• The Outsider by Albert Camus, Ryota Kurumado (Penguin) [9780241703731]
• Pink Floyd in Comics by Nicolas Finet, Tony Lourenco, Thierry Lamy & various (NBM) [9781681123363]
• Rashomon and Other Stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Philippe Nicloux, Adapted by mkdeville (Tuttle Publishing) [9784805318393]
• Search and Destroy Vol 1 by Atsushi Kaneko, Osamu Tezuka (Fantagraphics) [9781683969327]
• Shadows of Kyoto Vol 1 by Yumeya (Titan Books) [9781787742673]
• Space Junk by Julian Hanshaw (Top Shelf) [9781603095433]
• Stuff of Nightmares: No Holiday for Murder by R.L. Stine, Adam Gorham, Pius Bak (Boom! Studios) [9781608862290]
• What We Wished For by Ilias Kyriazis (Humanoids) [9781643377728]