ALIA Graphic August 2020 Roundup

 

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)