Quick Hits | ‘Chivalry’ wins at the Locus Awards

Plus: #ComicsBrokeMe, Lambda Literary Awards, Hoopla adds manga and more.

Awards | Chivalry, the short story by Neil Gaiman adapted into a graphic novel by Colleen Doran, has won a Locus Award in the category of “Illustrated and Art Book.” The graphic novel, which was published by Dark Horse, was up against several traditional art books and a few other graphic novels like The Night Eaters in the category. Artist Charles Vess also won another Locus Award in the category of “Best Artist.”

Industry | Writing for the Daily Beast, Chris Kindred talks to several comic creators about the #ComicsBrokeMe hashtag that Shivana Sookdeo created after the death of Ian McGinty and the stories they shared about working in the comics industry.

“The act of creating hundreds of well-illustrated pages takes serious time, significant strain on the body, and mental stamina. So many of us have sustained significant damage to our health trying to make ends meet,” Sookdeo told Kindred.

The article also notes the creation of the Cartoonist Cooperative, a creator-run organization trying to address these issues within the industry.

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Colleen Doran, Alex Ross, Sarah Andersen among this year’s NCS divisional nominees

The National Cartoonist Society announces the divisional nominees for the 77th Annual NCS Reuben Awards.

The National Cartoonists Society has announced the 2022 NCS Divisional finalists for the 77th Annual NCS Reuben Awards, which annually recognize creators of comic strips, illustrations, comic books and more. The winners will be announced Sept. 7, and the nominees for their biggest award, the Reuben itself, should be announced soon.

The awards recognize the artist or cartoonist, so you’ll see work, the writer or publisher aren’t called out in the nominations. The graphic novel category nominees for this year include Colleen Doran, artist of Chivalry; Alex Ross, creator of Fantastic Four: Full Circle; and Christian Meesey, artist of Time Shopper. For comic books, the nominees include Brett Bean, artist of I Hate Fairyland; Ben Bender, creator of The Littlest Viking; and Robert Goodin, creator of The Kurdles.

Webcomics creators are recognized in two categories — long form and short form. In the long-form category, the nominees include Phil Foglio, Brad Guigar and Sheldon creator Dave Kellett. In the short-form category, Sarah Andersen, Tex creator Jesse Atwell and Rich Powell have been nominated.

Below is the full list of the nominees.

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Gaiman + Pratchett’s ‘Good Omens’ is coming to comics, courtesy of Colleen Doran

The graphic novel will be funded through Kickstarter.

Colleen Doran has adapted several of Neil Gaiman’s prose stories into comics in recent years, including the Eisner-nominated Chivalry and the Eisner-winning Snow, Glass, Apples. But now she’s turning her attention to a Gaiman work of Biblical proportions.

Teased by both Doran and Gaiman on social media, Doran will next adapt Good Omens, the 1990 novel Gaiman co-wrote with Terry Pratchett about a young antichrist and the end of the world.

The Terry Pratchett will crowdfund the project via Kickstarter; you can check out the campaign page and sign up to be notified when it goes live.

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‘Chivalry,’ ‘The Night Eaters’ nominated in the Locus Awards

The annual awards will be given out in June.

The nominees for the 2023 Locus Awards have been announced by Locus Magazine. While they don’t have a dedicated comics or graphic novel category like a lot of science fiction literary awards do these days, they do have an “Illustrated and Art Book” category where a few graphic novels have popped up.

It makes for some strange bedfellows for sure, as a handful of graphic novels will compete against an illustrated version of George Orwell’s Animal Farm and art books by science fiction artists, including a project collecting the artwork of Rowena that was spearheaded by comic artist Kim DeMulder.

But it’s nice to see comics sneaking their way into the awards, and who knows — maybe they’ll add a graphic novel category someday.

The graphic novels nominated in the category include:

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Colleen Doran to adapt Neil Gaiman’s ‘Chivalry’

Dark Horse will release the graphic novel adaptation in September.

Colleen Doran will once again adapt a Neil Gaiman short story into a graphic novel later this year. Chivalry will arrive from Dark Horse in September.

Gaiman and Doran’s collaborations go back to the days of Sandman. She has also adapted his short stories for Dark Horse before, including the award-winning Snow, Glass, Apples and Troll Bridge.

“I’ve wanted to do an adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Chivalry ever since he sent a draft of the story to me at about 1 a.m. via fax machine decades ago,” Doran said. “It is one of Neil’s loveliest, most charming stories, and I cried with happiness when I learned I would get to do the adaptation. I wear my art on my sleeve throughout, bringing Golden Age illustration styles and Illuminated Manuscript studies to the work. It’s a Holy Grail project for me. I sincerely hope it brings joy to people.”

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DC celebrates 80 years of Wonder Woman with new digital series

‘Sensational Wonder Woman’ will launch in January.

DC will launch a new “digital first” series in January featuring ‘free of continuity’ stories about Wonder Woman.

Sensational Wonder Woman will be a “reader-friendly, high action series,” according to the press release, featuring the star of DC’s latest film. It’s also just in time for her 80th anniversary.

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Comics Lowdown: Can Disney stop cops from using the Punisher symbol?

Plus: News on Al Jaffe, Uncivilized Books, awards and more.

With police brutality once again in the public eye, many fans on social media have called out Disney/Marvel to put their litigious muscles to work and prevent cops from using the Punisher logo — a popular emblem with some members of law enforcement, despite the fact that Frank Castle is a criminal and a killer.

First, you can find some history of both the character and its popularity with police here. That piece’s writer, Brian Cronin, is not only a contributor to CBR, but also a lawyer, and he offers his thoughts on why he doesn’t think Disney would have much success in an article titled “There’s Not Much Marvel Can Do About Cops Using Punisher’s Logo.” Cronin writes:

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Nominees announced for the 2019 Bram Stoker Awards

Winners of the annual awards for horror/dark fiction will be announced April 18.

The Horror Writers Association has announced the nominees for the 2019 Bram Stoker Awards. The annual awards for horror/dark fiction include a “Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel” category.

Presented annually since 1987, the winners will be announced at StokerCon 2020 in Scarborough, England on April 18. The nominees in the graphic novel category are:

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DC announces line-up for milestone ‘Wonder Woman’ #750

Greg Rucka, Gail Simone, Joëlle Jones and more contribute to the Amazon’s anniversary celebration.

Wonder Woman’s 750th issue arrives in January, and DC has revealed an all-star line-up of talent to help her celebrate.

The 96-page issue will include contributions from popular Woman Woman scribes Greg Rucka and Gail Simone, as well as Vita Ayala, Marguerite Bennett, Jeff Loveness, Kami Garcia, Shannon and Dean Hale, Mariko Tamaki  and current Wonder Woman writer Steve Orlando.

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Comics Lowdown: Remembering Stan ‘The Man’ Lee

Plus: ‘The Brotherhood’ writer revealed! Transformers’ growing female fan base! Plus Art Spiegelman, Stan Webb and the scariest comic panel in ages!

Following the death of Marvel legend Stan Lee on Monday, many outlets covered not only his death, but turned the focus on his wide-reaching life and legacy. Some of the mainstream coverage included:

  • The New York Times not only wrote a thorough obituary of “The Man,” but also featured a comic by Brian Michael Bendis, Bill Walko and Howie Noel.
  • Peter David, freelance comics writer and a former Marvel employee, wrote a remembrance of Lee for Vulture. “Still, there was a time where Stan became the incarnation of that line from The Dark Knight: You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villain. In the ’80s and ’90s, it became increasingly stylish to bash Stan, to accuse him of hogging attention for his creations from the artists. But the fact is that before Marvel Comics, comics writers and artists were anonymous. It was Stan who made the artists the centerpieces of the work, giving them snappy nicknames like ‘Stainless’ Steve Ditko, ‘Genial’ Gene Colan, ‘Larrupin’’ Larry Lieber (no, even his brother wasn’t immune), and many others. We would come to know the artists (and other writers) as well as, if not better than, members of our only families. DC editors were so disdainful of this practice that they referred to him as ‘Stan Brag,’ before eventually following suit and crediting people.”
  • Roy Thomas, a legendary comics writer in his own right, shares the memory of his last Saturday spent with Lee at the Hollywood Reporter.
  • Marvel dedicated a special section of their website to Lee, with a tribute video.

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‘Finality’ by Ellis, Doran debuts on Line Webtoon

“It’s like Muppets re-enacting Cormac McCarthy out here at night now.”

The megapopular webcomics site Line Webtoon launched a new series earlier today that reunites the Orbiter and Super Idol team of Colleen Doran and Warren Ellis. You can read the first three chapters of Finality now, with more to come.

“Warren Ellis and I started working on Finality way back in 2016, but I got too sick to continue for awhile, and it had to go on the back burner,” Doran wrote on Tumblr last month. “As I’m doing the color here, I realized the lead character in Finality is a dead ringer for Elisabeth Moss, lead actress in The Handmaid’s Tale! She’d be perfect in the role, too!”

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Quoted: Colleen Doran on fan fiction

The creator of “A Distant Soil” not only encourages readers to create fan fiction featuring her characters, she also says she does it herself.

“There is an A Distant Soil fanfic site that sometimes links updates to the A Distant Soil webpage. I’ve been asked if I am OK with this. I am not only OK with this, I fully support not-for-sale fan activity. If you want to make fanfic and fanart of my work and link it from the FB page or the website, you are welcome to do so. I not only got my start in comics doing fanfic, but when trying to break through a creative block fairly recently, sat down and worked on some myself, posted it anonymously, and it got me through that creative block like a charm.”

A Distant Soil creator, renowned artist and fan fiction writer Colleen Doran