More on Neil Gaiman, lots of manga news, and a killer X-Men #1 review— Comic Bookmarks 7/14/2024

A lot of links from social media this week. As we get closer and closer to SDCC, I expect most of the comic news sites to be covering SDCC announcements, which I really plan to stay away from unless there’s something earth shattering.

Headlines

Manufacturing consent

Untangling the Neil Gaiman sexual assault allegations, and the Tortoise Media investigation that is both flawed and important

The Politics of DancingAnnabel Ross

For all that I've read about the Gaiman assault allegations so far, this is a fairly measured response to them, really exploring what they mean from many different angles without downplaying the weightiness of the accusations at all.

It's probably behind the Patreon paywall but I also appreciated Ryan C's exploration of this as well, looking at some of Gaiman's Sandman books and background to make some connections to Gaiman's Scientology background.

Comic Sites on Comic Sites

Popverse is taking a much-needed break before San Diego Comic-Con (but we’ll be back!)

It’s time to rest up before a big summer!

PopverseChris Arrant

There's a lot of interesting things in this announcement from Chris Arrant over at Popverse, not the least of which is that I hope that crew has a good break and is taking plenty of vitamins before SDCC.

But what's really interesting is the news that they're getting a new platform as the one they were one was sold off earlier this year.

Manga

This Twitter thread from Deb Aoki from last weekend has been making the rounds and that’s because it’s really good.

Business

23rd Street Books Hits the Road at Macmillan

The grown-up sister imprint of Macmillan’s eclectic graphic novel powerhouse, First Second Books, will launch next year with graphic novels from Gene Luen Yang, Damon Wayans Jr., Saul Williams, Ben Hatke, and more.

PublishersWeekly.comJohn Maher |

Someday I hope that someone can do a retrospective of First Second because this new imprint sounds a lot like was First Second was when they first turned up on the scene. They weren't the YA powerhouse that they are now but had a wide line of different types of books in their early catalog.

“I Have Nothing but High Hopes”: Retailers on the Surprisingly, Quietly, Maybe Positive First Half for Comic Shops - SKTCHD

Whenever the subject of the direct market’s health comes up, the conversation tends to focus on extremes. The moment is always an epic disaster or huge success, with little attention paid to anything in-between those poles. That makes for scintillating conversations and thinkpieces while inspiring a sea of YouTube videos that declare this point to … Continued

SKTCHDDavid Harper

Sorry to be hitting you with another paywalled piece but David Harper's look into the comics retail business is always a fascinating read. And it looks like you can still read a good chunk of this piece before you hit the portioned that's paywalled.

I'll be honest, I'm kind of thinking about picking up these Beetlejuice variants. Out of the whole batch, this one is probably the best and the most fun one.

The Funny Pages

The Agonies of Intimacy

Two new graphic books by Charles Burns capture the pleasures and discomforts of human connection and self-expression.

The New YorkerCondé Nast

You know they're prestige releases when The New Yorker has a preview of two upcoming Charles Burns releases, Kommix and Final Cut.

Follow the thread. It's proof that Twitter is still good for something.

hahaha I'm awesome www.gocomics.com/nancy/2024/0...

[image or embed]

— Shaenon K. Garrity (@shaenon.bsky.social) Jul 11, 2024 at 4:35 PM

Reviews & Features

Okazu » An Error Occurred ( 오류가 발생했습니다), by Lee Sanhwa

Patricia B. says:

Erika Friedman reviews a Korean book that she used Google Lens to translate. The book sounds good but I'm really fascinated by using online translation tools to read books in other languages. I do it regularly for websites and have tried to use it to read some French comics that haven't been translated yet. It's certainly a different reading experience.

The Internet Archive Rescues MTV News’ Web Site, Making 460,000+ of Its Pages Searchable Again

Image via Internet Archive Last month, MTV News’ web site went missing. Or at least almost all of it did, including an archive of stories going back to 1997.

Open CultureColin Marshall

I honestly don't know if MTV's Splashpage was a victim of the recent take down of MTV News or (as I kind of remember now) taken down years ago but as news of the Internet Archive capturing MTV News, I quickly used it to see that Splashpage is archived at the Wayback Machine.

The Wendy Award - The Comics Journal

Wendy often feels to me like a missing link of comics history. In terms of aesthetic and general happenstance (drinks and drugs galore), it feels much like a natural continuation of the 1990s alt-scene, the kind of lo-fi comics that were all about how crappy their protagonist are and reveled in the terribleness of people... Read more »

The Comics JournalTom Shapira

REVIEW: Trying to Care About X-Men (2024) #1 - WWAC

WWAC reviews X-Men 2024, after Fall of the House of X.

WWACNola Pfau

For some reason against my better judgement, I picked up this new X-Men comic. I thought I was done with them after whatever just happened but there was some kind of pull by a new shiny #1. I wish I had read Nola Pfau's takedown of the issue before I bought the comic.