Comics Lowdown | Manga gets Naomi Osaka right

Plus: How comics ease quarantine, who buys variant covers and more.

Manga drawing Naomi Osaka

Tennis champ Naomi Osaka is the star of a new story in the Japanese shoujo manga magazine Nakayoshi (which first published Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura, among others), and the creators are taking pains to get her skin tone right. Osaka’s mother is Japanese and her father is Haitian-American, describes herself as “tan,” but an instant-noodle brand that depicted her with light skin caused an uproar last year. This time, the Nakayoshi designers consulted Osaka’s sister Mari Osaka, who is a tennis player and illustrator, for help in getting the skin tones right. The story features Naomi using her tennis skills to battle extraterrestrials in outer space, supported by Mari and her parents. Osaka has drawn some criticism in Japan, where she was born, for her outspokenness on racial matters, but the magazine focuses on her skill and dedication rather than her political statements.

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Smash Pages Q&A: KC Councilor

The comics creator and professor discusses his memoir ‘Between You and Me: Transitional Comics’ and much more.

KC Councilor is a cartoonist and an Assistant Professor of Communications at Southern Connecticut State University. He is the cartoonist behind the great memoir Between You and Me: Transitional Comics, and has contributed comics to various anthologies including the recently published Menopause: A Comic Treatment. He has also made comics for academic journals including a great recent article, Drawing the Body In: A Comic Essay on Trans Mobility and Materiality.

Councilor and I spoke recently about Lynda Barry, Graphic Medicine and how making comics changed his life and the way he processed the world.

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Lynda Barry wins the Reuben Award

‘Usagi Yojimbo,’ ‘They Called Us Enemy’ recognized in the NCS divisional awards.

This has been a very busy weekend for comics, from DC FanDome to the Small Press Expo and the Ignatz Awards to the National Cartoonist Society‘s virtual NCSFest, their annual event where the winner of the Reuben Award is announced (as well as other awards).

As announced during NCSFest, cartoonist Lynda Barry has won the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year. The award has been presented annually since 1954 and was named for Rube Goldberg.

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Sunday Comics | ‘How did then become now?’

Check out comics by Lynda Barry, Joey Weiser and more.

Here’s a round up of some of the best comics we’ve seen online in the past few weeks. If we missed something, let us know in the comments below.

In her latest comic for the New York Times, Lynda Barry asks the question, “How did then become now?” and chronicles the little things she saw as the world slowly changed from pre-pandemic to pandemic.

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Comics Lowdown: Rio mayor arrives too late to seize ‘Avengers’ comic

Plus: Lynda Barry, ‘Cathy,’ Brian Hibbs and more.

Censorship: The Mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Marcello Crivella, sent a team of law enforcement agents to the International Book Fair in his city to confiscate any and all copies of Avengers: The Children’s Crusade, on the grounds that it shows a same-sex kiss. The mayor was concerned that it was “sexual content for minors” and would lead the children of Rio de Janeiro astray, but the joke was on him: The comic had sold out by the time his officers got there. The festival organizers took him to court and won an injunction against any further seizures or attempts to pull the festival’s permit, but the ruling was partly overturned the next day. “We will always continue to defend the family,” said the mayor, an Evangelical preacher, who apparently found a drawing of a kiss to be a more pressing matter than the fact that 40% of Brazilian children live in poverty.

Late-breaking addendum: Despite Crivello’s admonition that “Books like this need to be wrapped in black sealed plastic with a content warning displayed on the outside,” the daily newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo put the image on its front page.

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Drawn + Quarterly announces 2019 titles

At Comic-Con International, Drawn and Quarterly announced new titles by Lynda Barry, Vanessa Davis, Eleanor Davis, Yoshiharu Tsuge and more.

Canadian publisher Drawn and Quarterly announced many of their upcoming 2019 graphic novels in San Diego earlier this month, revealing new titles from Lynda Barry, Yoshiharu Tsuge, Kevin Huizenga, Vanessa Davis and more.

Take a look at what they have planned below, and note that none of the cover art is final …

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Nominees announced for this year’s Reuben Award

Nominees include Lynda Barry, Stephan Pastis, Hilary Price, Mark Tatulli and Glen Keane.

The National Cartoonists Society has announced the nominees for the 2017 NCS Reuben Award for “Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year.”

The nominees include:

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Lynda Barry climbs ‘through the circle’ to join ‘The Family Circus’

The same weekend she receives the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award, Barry finds herself immortalized in the long-running comic strip.

Lynda Barry received the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Cartoonists Society over the weekend, but that wasn’t the only honor she received — she was also immortalized with a special appearance in one of her favorite comic strips, The Family Circus.

The May 27 strip featured Jeffy introducing his dad to his new friend Lynda:

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National Cartoonists Society honors Lynda Barry, Ann Telnaes and more

Telnaes takes home the Reuben and Barry receives the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual award presentation.

The Reuben Awards ceremony took place this past weekend at the National Cartoonists Society’s annual get-together.

Lynda Barry was presented with the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award by her old friend, The Simpsons creator Matt Groening. Ann Telnaes received the Cartoonist of the Year award. Ngozi Ukazu took top honors in the Online Comic: Long Form category for OMG Check Please, and Ruben Bolling’s Donald & John won the prize for Best Online Comic: Short Form. John Allison, Max Sarin, and Liz Fleming’s Giant Days was named Best Comic, and Rick Geary’s Black Dahlia won the Best Graphic Novel award.

The complete list of winners can be found below.

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