Hello and welcome back to another edition of Previously On Comics! Please allow me to remind you how we started this week.
That would be Deadpool actor Ryan Reynolds being passionately kissed by the former Peter Parker, Andrew Garfield, during the Golden Globes on Sunday. I just want to thank whoever did the seating arrangements which allowed for this real life moment of Spideypool to happen.
But now for real news!
As you may have noticed, The US President Elect decided to kick off the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend by trying to pick a fight with Civil Rights leader Representative John Lewis of Atlanta’s 5th District. As a result, Rep. Lewis’s graphic novel trilogy March (written in collaboration with Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell and published by Top Shelf Comics) immediately became the bestselling graphic novel on Amazon and sold out. There’s not much good out there right now, but this is a good thing. If you haven’t picked up National Book Award winning trilogy yet, now is a good time. And if you haven’t seen his tweet about how he spent his winter break, please allow me to share this moment of adorableness.
I hope everyone had a safe holiday. I spent some of the break playing with my cats. pic.twitter.com/ETJg4uO5Go
— John Lewis (@repjohnlewis) January 4, 2016
Moving on to some not so cute things, DC and Marvel have announced some questionable events which, I have to say, do not make me excited. Marvel has two offerings currently, because if one is good, two is better, I suppose. There is something they’re teasing called Secret Empire, featuring HYDRA!Steve Rogers (#NotMyCaptainAmerica) and other apparently not good people. And for some reason, Marvel has also decided to bring back Ben Reilly, a Peter Parker clone, as The Scarlet Spider. The Clone Saga was the first time I learned about a comics storyline and then immediately questioned whether comics was worth it–but it was far from the last. Not to be outdone, DC is trying to Make Comics Edgy Again by doing some sort of Watchmen crossover. I will say that at least the Watchmen crossover is only four issues and it’s being written by Tom King, so. I’m going to give Marvel the win (loss?).
Other news!
- Park Jung-hyun, an editor of Bessatsu Shonen Magazine, which serializes the popular manga Attack On Titan, has been arrested and charged with the murder of his wife.
- It’s Eisner nomination season and four comics creators have been selected for the Eisner Hall of Fame. Voting is still open on who the other four entrants will be. Among the nominees are Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez (Love and Rockets), underground Feminist comics creator Roberta Gregory, political cartoonist Garry Trudeau, and mangaka Rumiko Takahashi (Ranma ½, Inu Yasha).
- Submissions are open for The 5th Annual Cartoonist Studio Prize, which awards $1000 to two creators whose work exemplify excellence in comics.
- The 5th Annual Black Comic Book Festival took place this past weekend in Harlem.
- Jody Houser, the very cool lady who writes Valiant’s Faith comic, among other titles, will be writing Marvel’s comic book adaptation of Rogue One.
- DC has updated Superman’s costume yet again. This article on Comics Beat helpfully points out the minor tweaks, the only good one being he gets his red boots back.
