The weekend is here! Put down your paperwork, throw your stationery out of the window, and do a victory spin in your office chair --- it's time to catch up on that greatest of all mediums: comics! What's been going on this week? NYCC has fallen upon us all like a giant comfy pillow filled with news, so Weekender is here to catch you up on some of the stories you may have missed, and some of the best writing about comics from the past few days.

 

Cameron Stewart
Cameron Stewart
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INDUSTRY NEWS

Deb Aoki was on hand at New York Comic-Con as Kodansha announced an Attack on Titan anthology, featuring tribute art by Faith Erin Hicks, Asaf Hanuka, Scott Snyder, Afua Richardson, Ron Wimberley, and Cameron Stewart (above). Expect it to be released around this time next year.

As that franchise expands, so too does the world of Humanoids, which sell graphic novels by artists like Moebius and Alejandro Jodorowsky. This week the publisher announced that it has signed with Ingram Publisher Services to distribute its comics across the US. The best comics in Europe are heading to your doorstep, America!

And if that isn't enough European comics for you, here's a second announcement: this NYCC weekend will see the launch of a new initiative called Europe Comics, also aimed at getting the best comics from the continent across to America and beyond.

 

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Finally, a topic we'll sadly keep coming back to; cartoonist Julia Wertz spoke on the subject of harassment this week in a forthright and brilliant post over on her Tumblr page. It's important to keep listening to these stories, and hopefully to start acting on them.

 

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John Martz
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AWARDS NEWS

As reported on, well, the Comics Reporter, it looks as though John Martz's Koyama Press collection A Cat Called Tim and Other Stories has been shortlisted for the Governor-General Literary Award. Everything's coming up comics!

At the first CXC Festival last weekend, a handful of new awards made their debut. The Emerging Artist Award was put in the deserving hands of Nurse Nurse creator Katie Skelly, whilst Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly's RAW was recognized with the Transformative Work Award.

 

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James Stokoe, Steve Orlando
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NEW AND UPCOMING RELEASES

The latest collaboration on Alison Sampson's long-running comics ode to architecture and innovation, Think of a City, went up this week. This latest image comes from Steve Orlando and James Stokoe, and like its predecessors in the project, it's an inspiringly beautiful snapshot of a fascinating moment in time and space.

Broken Frontier has caught hold of the debut print comic from Kim Clements, Rabbit Thoughts. If there's one thing that needs to be made clear, it's that I will 100% support any pro-rabbit comic you care to wing my way. This one looks like a particularly lovely piece of work, something I'm looking forward to picking up when it sees wider release.

Over the last few months you may have noticed that Off-Life has recruited a series of cartoonists to take part in their latest collection, 'YELLOW.' This week they took the project across to Kickstarter for a crowdfunding effort that has already shot past its funding goal. Head on over, see what you think!

 

Michael DeForge
Michael DeForge
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WEEKEND READING

John Freeman at Down The Tubes is one of the organizers of next weekend's Lakes International Comic Arts Festival in Kendal, England --- meaning he's got the access to conduct a string of great interviews with the various attendees. First up is Michael DeForge.

WomenWriteAboutComics celebrated its second blog carnival this week, as a series of websites and bloggers convened to discuss one particular topic; Is it possible for comics to keep growing if the direct market continues to dominate distribution? You can see a few of their responses in the link above, and blogger Christian Hoffer also had a piece on the subject over at ComicsReporter.

Vulture's Abraham Reisman has an excellent profile on Adrian Tomine that's well worth checking out.

Jason Sacks and Alexander Lu of Comics Bulletin talk to brothers Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba about their new Dark Horse Comic, Two Brothers.

 

PODCASTS

Jason Enright got in touch to let me know about his podcast The Previews Party, which each week invites special comics guests to run down the latest solicitations and previews. The idea is to look beyond the obvious starry-eyed superhero announcements and spot the gems that are lurking near the back of the catalog.

 

tintin
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AND FINALLY

That feller Tintin proved his enduring appeal this week, as a page from Herge sold in Hong Kong for a staggering 9.6 million HK dollars --- for comparison, that's over $1m US! You can't keep a plucky ginger down, as my mum always used to reassure me. The page came from The Blue Lotus, cited as a rare early example of European comics depicting Asian culture within a story.

Have a great week, everybody!

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