Manga awards, Samnee and some other guy on Batman, and a bunch of reviews— Comic Bookmarks 7/21/2024
Things to read from the past week in the world of comics.
‘Since starting this, I’ve had a section for manga, kind of a catch all for all business, review, and features of articles pertaining to manga. As of this week, I’m removing that section but not our linking to pieces about manga. Personally, I’ve never liked separating manga out from the rest of the comic discussion or the comic discussion out from manga. While there are different flavors to all of it, it’s all comics and we should be having our discussions that way as well. I don’t really think that at this site we’re at a point in all of this where we should be maintaining the walls of superhero comics, Indy comics, manga, YA books, zines, digital comics, and whatever else you have. Though my personal taste may be narrower, I like the idea that this is all comics and that we should be discussing it as a whole rather than as silos.
Anyways, here’s what we were up to this week:
Headlines
Also, go to Anime NYC’s site to see the nominees as well as some discussion by the judges. These nominees are just adding to the list of books I need to look for in bookstores.
Joe Grunenwald
I’m torn on this one. Samnee doing a good Batman and Robin story would be at the top of my list of books to get. Even if I still feel incredibly burned out on Batman stories, ones with good art can get me excited.
But I’m just not a fan of Mark Waid. Sure, he’s done some good stuff but I don’t connect with him books on any kind of level. I mean that I get that he’s a good writer but I barely feel anything from his stories. They’re just kind of there.
Comic Sites on Comic Sites
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A great pre-SDCC podcast with The Beat’s Heidi MacDonald, where she and Harper touch on a lot of the news that’s happening leading up to that show.
Business
The big story here is that sales are still well ahead of pre-pandemic numbers. Over at the Beat, Heidi MacDonald has some good commentary on these numbers.
The Funny Pages
Ben Towle plays some catch up from Angoulême and shares some art from the Moto Hagio exhibit there and it’s all just stunning. There’s some really impressive art that was part of this show. And I love that Towle talks about what it was about each of these pieces that really caught his eye.
Interviews
JK Parkin
I’ve seen this book pop up all over the place and I love the cover of it. It’s really striking and tells you what the book is about without you having to open it up. I haven’t gotten it yet but I’ll probably pick it up when I see it out in the wild.
Chris Barsanti |
Hopefully you’re not like me and have at least one more free article to read on PW. I’m starting to get really excited for the fall of Charles Burns.
Reviews & Features
Susana Polo
This looks to be part of Polygon’s ”Spicy Take Week” but I really don’t think it’s all that spicy but it’s just incredibly true. Once I learned to look past trying to track down continuity and just start accepting each story for what it was and what it was using, things became so much better.
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I really need to get that Wendy book.
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David Brothers doesn’t write enough about comics nowadays so it’s always great to see him popping up on Shelf Dust.
Hagai Palevsky
This book is sitting on top of the pile right now. Actually, it’s been there for a month or two and I just feel intimidated by it. I love Palevsky’s conclusion that “… emotionally speaking, Peep is a hungry book.”
Austin Wood
It’s news of another long-running manga getting towards the end but I kind of wish this article had delivered the story it promised with the author working through his feelings about the ending of it. Really this falls under the news but I find the headline of this piece so fascinating and just wish it had been followed up a bit more in the piece.
RJ Casey
R.J. Casey with a bunch of thoughts on comics. Always interesting to see what books and ideas he latches onto.
