Happy Monday! It’s the start of a new week. New beginnings, new possibilities, new hope. I can only wish that the next few days are better all-around for everyone. Fingers crossed.
Speaking of current events, 2016 is shaping up to be one of the most contentious election years in United States history. I’m sure my non-U.S. friends are simultaneously becoming both tired and terrified of the impending presidential vote. I sympathize, believe me. I live in the Washington D.C. area, and the next four months are going to be exhausting. What does the U.S. election have to do with comics, you ask? It turns out Donald Trump is now a Marvel supervillain, albeit a short-lived one.
The inevitable has happened! Donald Trump has been made into a legit Marvel villain: https://t.co/CvFbQhwCWN pic.twitter.com/9gGC0go2GW
— PEDESTRIAN.TV (@pedestriandaily) July 3, 2016
Anyone want to take a guess as to who’ll be the next political figure (doesn’t need to be from the U.S. either!) to grace the pages of a comic book?
Whether it’s the upcoming U.S. election or the fallout of the Brexit vote in the U.K., younger people have been the focus of many thinkpieces and headlines lately. Their vote can determine who’ll be the next U.S. president. The Brexit vote has the potential to greatly affect them in the future. If comic books are reflection of the world around us, it’s not really a surprise that we’d get young activist superheroes at some point. Marvel’s tapping into this zeitgeist with its new series, Champions, by Mark Waid and Humberto Ramos.
Not to be outdone, across the pond, Scottish publisher Diamondsteel Comics is launching its own superhero series. Dubbed Scotland’s first superhero, the comic book draws upon historical figures, events, and folklore. Sounds cool to me!
Attack on Titan fans, rejoice. After years and years of promises, we finally have an air date for season two. Mark your calendars. The new season will begin airing in spring 2017. It’s been four years since the first season aired, and I don’t know about other fans but my enthusiasm for the series has waned. Mostly because I follow the manga and I can’t say I’ve been thrilled with it lately. Maybe the new anime will reignite my excitement? Possibly by fixing some of the manga’s pacing issues?
Keep your fingers crossed that season two won’t be experiencing any more delays.
Two years after the pedestrian accident that led to its hiatus, the Zombiewalk is returning to Comic-con in 2016. This summer marks the ten-year anniversary of the event and if the hints are true, this may be the last time the zombie parade takes place. If you’ve always wanted to participate, you better hop on that. You might not get another chance.
While we’re on the subject of cons, Anime Expo set a new record with over 100,000 unique attendees. Wow, that’s a lot of people. And I’m hearing they’re thinking of adding a preview night next year, making it a five-day event. How daunting! While manga license announcements were trickling in last weekend, we’ve had enough time to round up the new titles. Anything catch your eye?
As more readers adopt digital comics, this raises the question of how to provide them to library patrons. In Southern Texas, libraries have come together to provide e-comics to patrons. “In its [Comics Plus] database are more than 16,000 EComics — electronic comic books — available for free to library members via their computer or mobile device.”
We’ve been covering the Libre Publishing saga in this column since its inception. To refresh your memories, Libre and Digital Manga ended their partnership last month, leaving many incomplete BL manga in limbo. SuBLime, VIZ’s BL imprint, announced that it’d acquired English-language rights for one of those in-limbo titles, Finder. I wonder what other titles, if any, they’ll rescue?
And to wrap things up, here are a few other items that might be of interest:
- A Colombian-born cartoonist has captured the frustrations of what it’s like to immigrate to the U.S.
- A fire started at a Sacramento comic store, damaging thousands of dollars of goods. Yikes! Best of luck to owner in rooting out the cause.
- Toyota has released a conceptual take for its GT86 sports car, drawing inspiration from the cult favorite street racing manga, Initial D.
- Tokyo has plans to restore an apartment building famous for housing many manga artists. If they’re planning to recreate the artists’ studio, does that mean it’ll be housing the mangaka of today? Time will tell.
- Keeping up with zine events can be tough. Luckily, we have a compiled schedule. Coming up this weekend are Alt Press Fest in Salt Lake City and Grand Rapids Zine Fest.
- Harvey Award voting is currently in progress. If you’re a comic book creator, get your ballot in now!
