Boom Studios has had its biggest ever pre-order, Image comics has overtaken Marvel, DC in their most recent sales rankings (as reported by bleedingcool.com), and DC had its first online convention with DC FanDome.
So much news
to share this month! The team at ALIA Graphic are super excited for the new original
series by award winning Australian writer Tom Taylor and fan-favourite artist Daniele
Di Nicuolo, Seven Secrets. We are really looking forward to the
collected edition coming to libraries in a few months.
DC FanDome
was a big hit this month with great promotion and advertising for all their
upcoming projects. Lots of movie and video game news and teasers, and an
announcement that Milestone Comics, DC’s Legendary imprint centred around the
experiences of characters of colour, will return in 2021.
We also have
a fabulous new Creator Chat this month with Cameron Davis, author of Rose and
Dahlia, Blow the Cartridge, Presidog and more. Subscribe to
our YouTube
channel to keep up to date with Creator Chats, comic-related videos, webinars,
and talks. Prefer to listen? Our monthly roundups and chats are also available
on Apple
podcasts.
News
- Frank Herbert’s Dune is seeing a lot of movement
these days. A movie, a graphic novel adaptation of the original book, and
a prequel series of comics to cite a few. The Beat published a good wrap
up: SDCC
’20: Frank Herbert’s DUNE Universe is Expanding Like No Other
- Dark Horse Comics have announced
that Avatar: The Last Airbender is getting a graphic
novel spin-off entitled Toph Beifong’s Metalbending Academy.
- Asterix and Obelix is a favourite of many and has
been for decades. With the series being relaunched by Papercutz in the US,
Publishers
Weekly discusses race and representation in these classic comics. Are
the Asterix and Obelix comics racist, should they be changed, or should
they have some sort of disclaimer? Something to ponder.
- Jeff
Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino’s Gideon Falls (Image Comics) has an end date.
The creepy horror series will come to an end in December with an 80-page
finale.
- DC News: DC Fandome delivered a whole
lot of news about the James
Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, Patty
Jenkins’ Wonder Woman 1984, Zack
Snyder’s Justice League cut and Matt
Reeves’ The Batman, among many others.
- Marvel News: With The Eternals movie coming
out next year, Marvel
is relaunching the comic with Kieron Gillen, Esad Ribić, and Matthew
Wilson. Nia DaCosta (Candyman) will direct “Captain
Marvel 2” for Marvel Studios.
- Dark Horse: Dark Horse Comics will distribute print editions of ComiXology Originals collections to retail, beginning March 2021. Titles will include: Eisner Award-winning Afterlift, Breaklands Vol. 1, Youth Vol. 1 and The Black Ghost Vol. 1.
Collections and PD
- This month, the ALA’s Booklist
offered two graphic novels related webinars: A Novel Form: Graphic Novels
Part II and Booklist’s Graphic Novel Panel Part II. Follow
the link, register, and you can access the archived versions.
- BookRiot have a great article
called A
Brief Guide to Comic Book Art Styles by Giovanna Centeno which
discusses the many different styles used in comic publishing.
- ICv2 published an interesting article discussing the change from monthly comics to graphic novels, from Marvel and DC to Scholastic’s Junior and YA graphic novels. Superhero Comics May Have Finally Met Their Kryptonite by Rob Salkowitz.
Media
- We published a new ALIA Graphic Creator Chat with Cameron Davis of
Rose and Dahlia. We talk comics, Rose and Dahlia and food (Also
available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts)
- The San Diego Comic Con @ Home
had lots of great events and we created a
playlist on our YouTube channel with some of our favourites. One of
the highlights for us was the Graphix/Scholastic panel: Graphix Get Drawn In.
- Kapow! has published an
excellent video interview and profile of Safdar Ahmed who will be
publishing his first graphic novel, an expanded version of his highly
acclaimed Villawood:
Notes From an Immigration Centre, next year through Twelve Panels
Press. You can read
lots of Safdar Ahmed’s webcomics on his website.
- The AIPT Comics Podcast recently
had a
great interview with Tom Taylor and Danieli Di Nicuolo about their new
series Seven Secrets. This is Melbourne-based Tom Taylor’s first
creator-owned series after The Deep and we can’t wait for it.
- The I Read Comic Books
Podcast is always a good listen. In
this 250th episode, they discuss some great new releases and they have
a very cool discussion about comics they didn’t think they would like but
they ended up liking. A great topic for discussion.
- The latest episode of the Serious Issues Podcast from Sydney’s Kings Comics is wholly dedicated to Manga. A great listen.
New releases
Junior and YA
- Agent Moose - Mo O'Hara, Jess
Bradley (Feiwel & Friends)
- A Map to The Sun - Sloane Leong
(First Second)
- Beetle and the Hollowbones -
Aliza Layne (Atheneum Books for Young Readers)
- Bigby Bear: The Explorer -
Phillippe Coudray (Humanoids)
- The Daughters of Ys - M. T.
Anderson, Jo Rioux (First Second)
- Displacement - Kiku Hughes
(First Second)
- Grumpy Unicorn Hits the Road -
Joey Spiotto (Graphix)
- Kerry and the Knight of the
Forest - Andi Watson (Random House)
- Little Josephine: Memory in
Pieces - Valerie Villieu, Raphael Sarfati (Life Drawn)
- Lois Lane and the Friendship
Challenge - Grace Ellis, Brittney Williams (DC Comics)
- Lumberjanes: Birthday Smarty - Shannon
Watters, Kat Leyh, AnneMarie Rogers, Maarta Laiho (Boom! Box)
- Teen Titans Go! To Camp - Sholly Fisch, Macelo DiChiara (DC Comics)
General Adult
- Broken Frontier - Various
creators (A Wave Blue World)
- Carthago: Origins - Christophe
Bec, Ennio Bufi (Humanoids)
- Child Star - Brian Box Brown (First
Second)
- DCeased: The Unkillables - Tom
Taylor, Karl Mostert (DC Comics)
- Ghostwriter - Rayco Pulido
(Fantagraphics)
- The Great Gatsby - F. Scott
Fitzgerald, Fred Fordham, Aya Morton (Simon & Schuster)
- Invisible Differences: A Story
of Asperger’s, Adulting and Living a Life in Full Color - Julie Dachez,
Mademoiselle Caroline (Oni Press)
- In Vitro - William Roy
(Humanoids)
- Jack Kirby: The Epic Life of the
King of Comics - Tom Scioli (Random House)
- Medicine: A Graphic Story - Jean
Noel Fabiani, Philippe Bercovici (SelfMadeHero)
- Metal Hurlant: Selected Works -
Various creators (Humanoids)
- Nicnevin and the Bloody Queen - Helen Mullane, Dom Reardon, Matthew Dow Smith (Humanoids)
- Pulp - Ed Brubaker, Sean
Phillips (Image Comics)
- Retina - Benoit Riviere,
Phillippe Scoffoni (Humanoids)
