Tag: Matt Bors

The Nib will shut down after August

Editor Matt Bors announced the decision today, noting ‘The math isn’t working anymore.’

The Nib, the award-winning, critically acclaimed and much-needed political comics website and publisher, will shut down at the end of the summer.

Editor and publisher Matt Bors announced the decision on the site, noting the decision was “incredibly hard,” but “the math isn’t working anymore.”

“This was an incredibly hard decision to make and there’s no one factor involved,” Bors said. “Rather it involves, well, everything. The rising costs of paper and postage, the changing landscape of social media, subscription exhaustion, inflation, and the simple difficulty of keeping a small independent publishing project alive with relatively few resources—though we did a lot with them. The math isn’t working anymore.”

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Sunday Comics | Afghanistan, masks and killer bees

Check out recent comics by Jay Hosler, Alex de Campi, Christine Larsen, MariNaomi, B.J. Mendelson and more.

Here’s a round up of some of the best comics we’ve seen online recently. If we missed something, let us know in the comments below or on social media.

As the United States ends its occupation of Afghanistan, political cartoonist and The Nib founder Matt Bors looks back at the comics he created as a result of a trip he took to the country in 2010:

In August of 2010 I embarked on a month long trip through Afghanistan with fellow cartoonists Ted Rall and Steven Cloud. We traveled unembedded throughout the North of the country and in the capital of Kabul. It was the ninth year of the war and, at the time, the height of the Taliban insurgency and US troop presence.

The goal of the trip was to hear from Afghans directly, see the occupation for ourselves, and share those experience—through writing, comics, and photography. I captured a lot in sketchbooks and filed a series of comics through my syndicate where papers normally ran my political cartoons. The following comics are a series of vignettes on Afghanistan and represent some my earliest attempts at more realistic nonfiction comics. These originally ran online at Cartoon Movement, but appear to be lost to web decay, so I wanted to publish them again here—for posterity and for any insight they still hold.

You can see his comics here.

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Matt Bors retires his weekly political comic strip; will still run ‘The Nib’

Bors will turn his attention to creating fiction comics and longer-form nonfiction comics.

After almost two decades, cartoonist and The Nib founder Matt Bors has announced he’s retiring from his weekly political comic. His comic on background checks that ran at the end of March will be his last regular political cartoon.

He plans to continue running The Nib, the award-winning webcomics site that features political and nonfiction comics on a daily basis by a variety of artists. He also said he plans to do more nonfiction comics, including comic interviews, for the site. And he’s preparing pitches for fiction comics as well.

“So I will be staying busy, as always,” he said in his announcement post. “Something had to give in my life to make room for other things and, frankly, it was an easy decision. I’ve drawn political cartoons every week since I was 19 and feel like I have said everything I can say, often a few times over. I know this may be disappointing to longtime readers, but my creative desires pull me in another direction, one where I hope to create more work on par with what I’ve done in this field. I also owe it to both The Nib’s readers and creators to keep the publication going as long as possible.”

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Mail Call | Dark Horse to bring several comiXology Originals titles to print

A round-up of news from DC, Marvel, Titan Comics, IDW and more.

Mail Call is a roundup of the announcements we’ve received from comics publishers in our mailboxes recently. Hit the links for more information.

ComiXology announced this week that they’ve struck a deal with Dark Horse to bring several of their comiXology Originals digital titles to print, starting with four titles next spring: Afterlift, Breaklands, Youth and The Black Ghost.

“We were always hopeful comiXology Originals books would get into readers’ hands via comics retailers and book stores, and Dark Horse is a terrific collaborator to work with to do so, with an unmatched history of supporting creator-owned projects alongside unmatched distribution expertise. This deal fortifies the ability for these stories to reach customers like never before,” said David Steinberger, comiXology co-founder and CEO. “We’re thrilled to be working with Dark Horse.”

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Sunday Comics | Protests, Eisner winners and more

Check out recent comics on the web by Erica Eng, Ben Passmore, Paul Guinan and more.

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

How do you dress for a protest, and what should you bring? Ben Passmore shares some tips in this piece for the New York Times’ “Diary Project.”

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Sunday Comics | Bite-sized science comics from TinyView

Check out recent comics from Andrew Neal, Gabrielle Bell, Gary Moloney and more.

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

So have you checked out TinyView yet? TinyView is a “platform for bite-sized comics,” offering up content you can scroll through easily on your phone. It was founded/created by the father-and-son team of Rishi and Raj Lalwani, and so far it has offered up nonfiction content — including biographies of scientists, Malachi Ray Rempen’s travel comic and political cartoons by The Nib’s Matt Bors. There’s even a comic about the creation of the app.

Some of the content is free, while some is behind a paywall. Visit their website to learn more.

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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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Sunday Comics: Sunday Haha delivers kids comics to your inbox

Check out new comics by Ebony Flowers, Tom Scioli, Jen de Oliveira and more.

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

Here’s a fun one, especially if you have little ones looking for something to look forward to every Sunday: Sunday Haha, a new email subscription service that delivers kid’s comics right to your email box. Like Reggie, by Jen de Oliveira:

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Matt Bors’ ‘We Should Improve Society Somewhat’ available for preorder

New collection by the man behind The Nib comes out next March.

Although probably best known as the mastermind behind the award-winning editorial cartoon site The Nib, Matt Bors is also a brilliant cartoonist in his own right. After crowdfunding his first collection of comics in 2012, he’s back taking pre-orders for the next one.

“This will be a collection of my best work from the Trump era, a 184 page collection with some additional commentary from me and an introduction by Tom Tomorrow,” Bors said in his email newsletter. “The book takes its name from what has become my most well-known comic and will hit shelves in March 2020. I’m doing a pre-order now through The Nib where you can order it with a sketch, get a tote bag, stickers and some other merch. Print still rules and I’m glad the people at Clover Press reached out to collect this era of my work.”

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Tamaki, Valero-O’Connell and more win 2019 Ignatz Awards

Annual awards presented at the Small Press Expo honor excellence in independent comics, graphic novels and minicomics.

The winners of the 2019 Ignatz Awards were announced this weekend at the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland.

The big winners of the night were Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me writer Mariko Tamaki and artist Rosemary Valero-O’Connell, who took home three awards between them, including “Outstanding Graphic Novel.” The political cartoon site The Nib also continued its recent winning streak, taking home the award for “Outstanding Series.”

The Ignatz, named after George Herriman’s brick-wielding mouse from the classic comic strip Krazy Kat, recognizes exceptional work that challenges popular notions of what comics can achieve, both as an art form and as a means of personal expression. The awards have been presented annually since 1997.

The awards presentations were hosted by cartoonist Keith Knight:

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‘The Nib’ loses funding support from First Look Media

Site editor Matt Bors says he plans to continue The Nib with member support.

First Look Media, which has funded The Nib for the past three years, will drop its support for the political/non-fiction comics site and lay off its staff at the end of July. Editor Matt Bors said he is working with First Look so they can “hand the publication over to me so that I can continue The Nib.”

In addition to the website, Bors also oversees a print edition of The Nib, with the fourth issue scheduled for July. He said a fifth issue is in the works, and he plans to print it independently.

“This will be a major setback but I will be devoting all my time to continuing this publication with contributions from all the editors and cartoonists who have made this publication what it is,” Bors said.

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