It’s a travelling week for your mild-mannered linkblogger, and so this week’s links, below, are being written, as it tradition during these sojourns, from the bar of a hotel, in which I am currently ensconced, listening out for any hot comics news scoops that might pass my way, the likelihood of which happening on a random Thursday night in the midlands of the UK is probably scant, but you work with what you’re given, right? experimenting with style for @SBComicsFair pic.twitter.com/QShYOghDSR — kiku (depression era) (@kikuhughes) May 20, 2024 This week’s news. • Japan’s attempts to com ..read more

Peep is a new anthology, edited by Sammy Harkham and Steve Weissman, printed at the same dimensions as Kramers Ergot 10 was, but at only 48 pages, and staple-bound. There is a high number of contributors - 29, if you count cover artist Alex Schubert - but everyone only has a few pages to work with. Artists make the most of the space afforded them, and while one might grow weary at how many grids there are, with some artists seemingly vying for the title of most panels per page, the short-form format ensures that no one outstays their welcome, nor is there much that can be dismissed as being sl ..read more

PREVIOUS INSTALLMENTS The post The War on Gaza – 5.28.24 appeared first on The Comics Journal ..read more

We find ourselves, inexorably, moving out of peak Canadian comics events season and into peak US comics events season, with all the attendant pomp and circumstance that such a changing of the guard affords, and so, in order to ensure that you’re dressed appropriately for the occasion in question, please continue to stay abreast of this week’s links, below. All that is.#1bit #pixelart pic.twitter.com/7twx2ULZkr — meds - despairing. (@gxndyy) May 13, 2024 This week’s news. • A month after Embracer Group announced that it would be transmogrifying into three smaller corporate entities, ICv2 ..read more

Don Perlin in his home studio shortly after moving to Florida (note the old-style Mac in the background). All photos of Perlin are courtesy of his family unless otherwise stipulated. Prolific comic book artist, editor, and art director Don Perlin passed away peacefully from natural causes on May 14 in the company of his family in Florida. Donald David Perlin was born in New York on Aug. 27, 1929, and grew up in Canarsie, Brooklyn. “My father was what they called a ‘Sunday painter,’” recalled Perlin in a 2003 interview with Adelaide Comics and Books. “He had always wanted to be an artist but ci ..read more

Think back to your history classes (for some of you this might be further back in time than others). When your class discussed the American Revolution, you covered Jefferson, Washington, Adams, etc. You heard about Paul Revere’s ride and “the shot heard ‘round the world.” Was any time devoted to Baron Friedrich von Steuben? In my U.S. history class the Baron warranted a short paragraph and a painting of him drilling the troops. We certainly didn’t learn anything about his background or personal life. I imagine there are some classes that didn’t get even that much information about him. It’s no ..read more

From Newave: the Underground Mini Comix of the 1980s, edited by Dowers, 2010 A legion of comics creators whose work has rarely entered the spotlight are mourning the May 7, 2024, death of Michael Dowers, due to complications from advanced rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's disease. The publisher/founder of Starhead Comix and Brownfield Press was a friend and colleague to every cartoonist who was motivated more by self-expression than by any glimmer of hope for financial reward. At Starhead, throughout the 1990s, Dowers was a kind of Moses for independent cartoonists, especially in the Northwest ..read more

Seattle Star #1, Peter Bagge cover art When news of Starhead Comix-Brownfield Press publisher/Eros editor/musician/Tarot advocate Michael Dowers’ death started circulating on social media, some of his longtime artistic collaborators and friends from the 1980s–2000s Pacific Northwest minicomics scene reached out, many unprompted, with tributes. To read more about the mini comics publisher/promoter/editor, Michael Dean's obituary can be found here. Peter Bagge Being a city of migrants, Michael Dowers was one of the very few lifelong Seattle natives I met back when I migrated here myself back in ..read more

From “A Better World,” a Judge Dredd storyline serialized in 2000 AD #2364-2372 (10 Jan. 2024 - 6 Mar. 2024); art by Henry Flint, lettered by Annie Parkhouse, written by Rob Williams & Arthur Wyatt. Hairy and harried, “A Better World” begins with a tower block coming into focus against an acrid sky - gray on gray differentiated by subtle hues of color and tight inks. These abstractions, set off in the distance, conjure a hint of texture, glimmers of light, the suggestion of monumental scale. A variegated world opens up to us, teeming with life and riddled with death. With his stylized figu ..read more

You could, if you were so inclined, at this point in the century, initiate a party game, not necessarily a fun one per se, where guests were challenged with naming which distributors are currently servicing which comics publishers’ book shipping needs, with bonus points for differentiating between direct and book markets, again, if you were so inclined. I’m not that way inclined, incidentally, as I’ll be in a darkened room when this feature goes live, starting off 72 hours of watching bands who exclusively make 9 minute songs about wizards and goblins, but your mileage may vary - so, in case t ..read more