Here’s your Mid-February Update. It’s a post Galentine/Valentine’s Day post

PLUGS

§ DEFEND THE 11! The remaining defendants in this case could use some help to get them across the finish line and help put the suit to rest.

§ There are new comics out from Silver Sprocket including a nice looking work called No Romance In Hell by Hyena Hell

§ I can’t believe I’m typing this, but there is an erotic Road House fanfic comic by Julia Gfrörer written by Gretchen Felker-Martin and Sean T. Collins. I really want to read it. Collins wrote an essay every day in 2019 about the movie Road House, so I’m sure the ideas behind this zine will be wild.

§ Jessica Kuczynski could use some financial help. Readers may remember that I had put Jessica’s comic Is this healthy on my selection of best comics of 2016. She’s in a rough spot financially and any help is appreciated.

§ Anya Davidson designed a shirt. You can find it on redbubble and profits are going to support Bernie Sanders’ campaign. It is appropriately called In league with Bernie Sanders.

NEWS

§ This was the most interesting thing I’ve read this month, Matthew Bogart wrote an incredibly detailed blog entry on the process of creating a slipcase for his series Incredible Doom. It’s an interesting look at how the slipcase was made, but also what went wrong in the process and what he had hoped he knew before going in this.

§ Huge news for cartoonist Mike Diana. After a probation of 26 years, he is finally off of probation. Diana is the first and only cartoonist ever arrested for obscenity. He had moved a few years after his release (of a 3-day sentence) which violated the terms of his probation, labeled him a violator and a warrant for his arrest was released. A documentary on his experience and life called Boiled Angels will be coming out this year.

§ In sad news though, French cartoonist Claire Brétécher and Hubert Boulard both passed away in the same week. I wrote about it in detail here.

§ The excellent and articulate Kat Verhoeven is on a podcast.

§ Krazy Kat has started entering the public domain.

§ It’s been a while since I’ve heard chatter online about Nancy. Olivia Jaimes is still going strong with those strips. You should take a look either on Twitter or GoComics.

§ CBC books has a list of 17 Canadian comics to look forward to in 2020. One in particular I’m really excited to see is Enemy Alien by Kassandra Luciuk & Nicole Marie Burton. I’ve met Nicole a few times and she’s a phenomenal, smart and engaged artist. Her work is expressive and she infuse her characters with this humanity that I find quite endearing. Enemy Alien is based on the memoirs of a writer named John Boychuk, who documented his life in a Ukrainian internment camp in Canada from 1914 to 1917. It traces his story from his arrest to his imprisonment in a forced labour camp in Northern Ontario. This looks very promising.

§ I am way behind on Cathy G. Johnson’s podcast Drawing a dialog. I need to catch up with some older episode, but her latest episode on decolinizing museum looks very interesting.

§ Avery Hill will be publishing Katriona Chapman’s next graphic novel, Breakwater, in September 2020. I loved her previous book Follow Me In and her latest is a book I’m keeping my eyes peeled for.

§ Sophie Bienvenu was on La soirée est encore jeune to talk about her new comic Traverser l’autoroute.

§ A long Twitter thread on narrative broken up by panels from Michel Fiffe.

§ A company called Bad Idea will be publishing comics by some great talents currently working at Marvel and DC comics but you won’t be able to read them. See, their comics will only be released to 20 comic stores initially and may be expanded to other stores elsewhere in the future, but not now. They selected these stores via a set of “unique system of criteria” that includes extra promotional commitments and a “strictly enforced ‘limit one per customer’” policy for Bad Idea comics, among other stipulations. What is likely to happen is that no one will read these comics, but they will be sold and resold on Ebay creating a speculator market for a comic with no real readership. It’s a collectible, not a comic. It seems counter-intuitive to create a publishing company where people can’t read your book, but I’m not a businessman so what do I know.

§ There’s a fanzine called Vines & Roses dedicated to the character of Poison Ivy, who I’ve argued before as being Batman’s greatest villain.

§ Seven Seas will be publishing BL Metamorphosis, an interesting book about friendship between an elderly woman and a high school girl that developed through their shared passion for the “Boys’ Love” genre.

§ A reader passed along a link to Ivory Comics, a small independent studio in New Orleans. The team there are making action-packed comics. It’s worth a look.

§ And finally, an interview with Ben Passmore about his upcoming graphic novel Sport is Hell.

EVENTS

§ Seth will be giving a lecture in Ottawa at the Carleton Dominion Chalmers Centre on March 21st at 7:00. This is part of the 2019-2020 Munro-Beattie Lecture series from the Carleton University.

§ I’m not super attuned to comics events. If you know any I should highlight, let me know.

COMICS

§ A four panel strip from Cardiff-based cartoonist Pigeon

§ A new comic by Adam Szym.

§ The best comic I’ve read so far this month is an historical account of how Haiti came to be and the role of the Slave Revolution in creating the country from Rocky Cotard and Laurent Dubois. It’s available for free on The Nib.

§ Another good one at the Nib on government surveillance by Andy Warner and Jess Parker.

§ And a last one from The Nib from Whit Taylor and Chris Kindred on reasons African-Americans are more likely to distrust the medical system.

§ Morning Light by Grant Snider

REVIEWS AND OTHER THINGS OF NOTE

§ My colleague from The Beat, Andrea Ayres, talked about Seven Soldiers of Victory: Zatanna #1.

§ I also wrote for Shelfdust about the character of Poison Ivy and why she’s the best Batman villain.

§ Andy Olivier talks about Lizzy Stewart’s Walking Distance over at Broken Frontier

§ Moe Abbas on Sports is Hell

§ Ryan Carey talk about MacDoodle St. over at Solrad.

§ If you see something I should know about, tell me about it. You can email me, tell me in the comments or tweet at me @Leblanc_Phil. I’ll be back in two weeks with more updates.