Monday 28 February 2022

ALIA Graphic February 2022 Roundup

This month we have some great news about Australian comics!

'Folio: Stories of Contemporary Comics' is an excellent initiative that we look forward to seeing grow and right off the bat, they have already published excellent essays in their blog that we highly recommend.

We can also see that the popularity of comics in general - and of Dog Man and Manga in particular - continues to grow. U.S. sales data for 2021 has been published and it's been another big year for comics. Dog Man: Mothering Heights was the biggest selling book in the U.S. of all categories and all age brackets. Manga sales were huge. See the link below for an excellent report published on The Beat.

The campaign to challenge and ban books and comics in the U.S. continues. While this may seem distant to us in Australia, it's a very disturbing campaign that we should pay attention to and something we should be prepared for. The ALA Graphic Novels and Comics Roundtable is organising itself to confront the campaign. Other organisations such as Pen America and the Comic Book Legal Defence Club are also taking action.


In terms of professional development, we have two great events coming up. We will be taking part in a webinar on the value of comics in libraries with an excellent trio of speakers and organised by Bibliotheca and Comics Plus. It is free and looks amazing and you can see more information
here and further below. We also have an event with Nancy Silberkleit, co-CEO of Archie Comics. Nancy was previously a public school educator and art teacher and will be talking about comics, education and, of course, Archie Comics. This is also a free event and we would love for you to join us.

Finally, we have a great collection of Australian comics podcasts this month by Graphic Nature Podcast, Hiveminded and, of course, our monthly ALIA Graphic Roundup Podcast is out on Apple Podcasts.

Without further ado...

News Roundup


Podcasts


Webinars


NEW TITLES

Junior and YA

  • 5 Worlds Book 5 by Alexis Siegel and Mark Siegel (Penguin Random House)

  • Dune: House Atreides Vol 2  by Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson, Dev Pramanik (BOOM! Studios)

  • House of El Book 2: The Enemy Delusion by Claudia Gray, Eric Zawadzki (DC Comics)

  • Lucky Luke: Wanted by Matthieu Bonhomme (Cinebook)

  • Magical Boy Vol 1 by The Kao (Scholastic)

  • Record of Ragnarok Vol 1 by Shinya Umemura, Takumi Fukui, Azychika (VIZ Media)

  • Wings of Fire 5: The Brightest Night by Tui T Sutherland, Mike Holmes (Scholastic Graphix)

  • Witchy Vol 2 by Ariel Slamet Ries (Oni Press) [Australian Creator]

  • World Class by Jay Sandlin (Mad Cave Studios)

Adult

  • Black Hammer Vol 5: Reborn Part I by Jeff Lemire, Caitling Yarsky (Dark Horse)

  • Castaways by Laura Perez, Pablo Monforte (Dark Horse)

  • The Forest by Thomas Ott (Fantagraphics)

  • Olympia by Bastien Vivès, Florent Ruppert, Jerome Mulot (Fantagraphics)