Weekly Weird Trigger Warnings 10

 Broken Frontier Blasts Into the New Year:

I had the honour of nominating titles for the Broken Frontier Awards 2025, and I was most proud that this LDComics Online Comics Fair entry by Abs Bailey was nominated in THREE different categories! It's the most visually striking comic I've seen since Leo Fox's My Body Unspooling. Congratulations to all the winners.

Skhoshbell

The Broken Frontier Six to Watch Class of 2026 continues my personal favourite feature of BF since the years of lockdown. Daisy Crouch, Francis Todd, Jua OK!, Shri Gunasekara, Skai (Skhoshbell) Campbell, and Yu-Ching Chiu are definitely worthy successors to past honorees.

New York Comics & Picture-story Symposium Spring 2026 Season Announced:

Carol Tyler (2/24) is the must-see guest of this session, for me. Also looking forward to creators George Wylesol (4/20), Katie Lane & Angela Fanche (2/17), and Frederic Coche (5/5). Caitlin McGurk (2/2) of The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library should also be a good watch. Register here

Action Revived With New Stories of Controversial Characters:

2000 A.D.

Two Garth Ennis stories highlight this revival of the short-lived comic that caused a "moral panic" in it's brief original run in 1976-77. Although, today you could probably make some good money selling bootleg t-shirts with that banned cover of "Kids Rule OK" assaulting the police.

Victor De La Fuente 60th Anniversary Collection From Treasury of British Comics:

2000 A.D.

Legendary Spanish artist Victor De La Fuente is celebrated with this collection of Trelawny of the Guards from Lion in 1966. Pre-order from Treasury of British Comics.

Corto Maltese Again:

downthetubes.net

I was excited to hear Fantagraphics is taking over reprinting Corto Maltese by Hugo Pratt, they have a good track record for finishing reprint series. If I remember correctly, there was some controversy over the formatting of the previous attempt at presenting this series. I believe this may be the first time former Eclipse head Dean Mullaney is collaborating with Fantagraphics, in the role of translator it seems. John Freeman gives his usual in-depth rundown of Hugo Pratt and Corto Maltese.

David Sandlin's Epic Comic Series: Belfaust:

Print Magazine

I had no idea David Sandlin was working on an 18 issue autobiographical comic series. Stephen Heller profiles the series and provides samples from the latest issue.

Interview With Wanda John-Kehewin and Nicole Marie Burton:

Comic Book Yeti

Dreams Volume 2: Visions From the Fire by Wanda John-Kehewin and Nicole Marie Burton from Highwater Press is the sort of YA graphic novel that young adults actually deserve, rather than the formulaic crap they are usually force fed. High praise to Andrew Irvin and the Comix Book Yeti team for this thoughtful in-depth interview on a book outside the usual subject matter of comics today. I will be tracking this one down on Hoopla or the local library, very curious to see how this looks.

If You Don't Like Bill Griffith You Can Kiss Our Ass:

zippythepinhead.com

Zippy the Pinhead has been in syndication so long, it seems a lot of people either overlook the strip or actively dislike them. While Griffith has been rolling out full-length historical books on a regular basis that have been well-received, we don't get a lot of analysis or notice of a comic strip that's been running for 50 years (40 years at King Features Syndicate).

Rick Veitch and Dave Sim in the Will Eisner Hall of Fame, Bitches!

The Beat passes on word of 18 "Judge's Choice" entrants into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame. Mark Evanier reports on one last choice left out of the original announcement. A very well-rounded group, with a couple of my favorite underground cartoonists starting the best of the rest...

Carol Tyler, Lee Marrs, Hector German Osterheld, Bud Plant, Mike Friedrich, Denys Cowan, Go Nagai, Mike Royer, Tom Palmer Sr., Abe Kanegson (score one for the letterers!), Bob Bolling, Oliver Harrington, Jimmy Swinnerton, Edwina Dumm, possibly the most prolific comic book writer in comic book history: Paul S. Newman, Gerry Conway, Don Heck.

Comics Watch List:

Tom Fellrath shows off a real classic from Allen Freeman with some great art from Jeff Gaither, Michael Roden, and the one and only Brad Foster.

John Kelly talks at length to underground comix proponent and historian, Patrick Rosencranz. I've always wondered if Rosencranz and Clay Geerdes ever crossed paths. They did, according to Rosencranz, like two alley cats fighting over a trash can full of anchovies. I love Clay Geerdes, so I was laughing out loud as Rosencranz bristled at the mere mention of him!

Two feature length videos on alternative cartoonists, one I'm not so familiar with and one of my favorites:

Nate McDonough

Chris Cajero Cilla

Comix Reading List:

I will try new or old Manga titles on Hoopla, this old-fashioned teen, mystical, romantic comedy was a rare hit. Peach-Pit are a Manga duo I'd never heard of before, they have a solid drawing style and a tell a compelling (if silly) story.

The rest from Hoopla:

Five Highlights From The Comics Journal #52

 

Front cover: Dennis Fujitake (GCD)

Cover design: Kim Thompson

Back cover: Michael T. Gilbert

(TCJ Archive)

THE COMICS JOURNAL 52 (December 1979)

Executive Editor/Art Director: Gary Groth

Editor/Circulation Director: Kim Thompson

Consulting Editor: J. Michael Catron

General Assistant: Ed Via

Correspondent (UK): John Dakin

Correspondent (Undergronds): Bruce Sweeney

Mascot: Susanne Hayes

Mascot: Gretchen Meyer

Mascot: Linda at Friendly's

Mascot: Janet Toombs

1. NEWSWATCH: "Batman Movie Planned"

Clint Eastwood, 1979

Ten years before Tim Burton's blockbuster BATMAN movie, this article announces that executive producers of that film, Michael E. Uslan and Benjamin Melniker, had formed Batfilm Productions, Inc. to pursue the making of a film based on the character from the comics.

 "Uslan, who taught the first credited college course on comics at the University of Indiana, and served briefly as a writer for DC, is currently employed by United Artists. Melniker is the former Vice-President of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Uslan will produce the movie, while Melniker will serve as the Executive Producer."

 "The projected budget of the movie, which is slated for release around Christmas of 1981, is $15 million."

 "Superman" was the top grossing movie of 1979, so this seems like a logical move at the time. Even though Sean Connery had THREE movies out from Uslan's United Artists in 1979, I think Clint Eastwood would have made a great Batman coming off "Every Which Way But Loose" and "Escape From Alcatraz" in 1979, imho. Here's a link to all the United Artists movies running in 1979.

2. BLOOD &THUNDER: Jim Shooter vs. Jeffrey Wasserman

In honor of the memory of Jim Shooter's passing earlier last year, we'd like to highlight this missive from Shooter in his new-ish role as Editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. It gives a detailed rundown of the corporate structure of Marvel in 1979:

 "Our division has a President, Jim Galton, an Executive Vice President and Publisher, Stan Lee, and several other VPs and executives, including myself. We all work only for our division, the Marvel Comics Group. None of us has any connection to any other Cadence Division or Company.[...]"

3. COMICS REVIEWS: "Good Aardvark Art" by Kim Thompson

Editor Kim Thompson analyzes very early days CEREBUS, specifically the first 12 issues of the series.

 "What [Carl] Barks and [Dave] Sim have in common, and what so few creators, particularly nowadays, seem to have, is honesty vis-a-vis their creations. Barks wrote straight from the heart; Sim, once he'd shucked off the initial parodic shallowness in Cerebus, seems similarly sincere."

GCD

4. COMICS REVIEWS: "The Hole in the Floating Donut" by R. Fiore

Welcome to one of the longest tenured writers for TCJ! Robert Fiore, well-known for "Funnybook Roulette", contributed as recently as 2025.

That Fiore was born to be a Journal critic is borne out by his mercilless deconstruction of a mediocre Marvel effort:

"But what is finally damning about WOTSR is that it presumes to say something about good and evil and then doesn't deal with the question at all. In Moench's cosmology evil is an outside force, and will disappear for the most part if that force is obliterated. This idea should be familiar, as it is the rationale for 90% of all the monstrous acts perpetrated in this century. How is evil fought? By pure, sweet innocence. Consider all the races slaughtered in human history, the Jews and the Armenians, the Aztecs and the Iroqouis, the Ukrainians and the Ibos. All known for culture, learning, humanism, most probably better than their oppressors. What does Moench's cosmology say about them, that they weren't 'innocent' enough? That they should have recruited a white wolf? When these issues are raised they must be answered, or the result is empty blather."

5. INTERVIEW: "An Interview With Rick Marschall, Collector, Historian, Cartoonist, Comics Editor, and Former Strange Duck at Marvel" Rick Marschall interviewed by Gary Groth

Print, 2023

A real turning point in the direction of The Journal, mostly forgotten due to the Harlan Ellison interview in the next issue. There are a ton of classic cartoons and comic strips reproduced along with the interview and Marschall discusses them at length. I feel this provides a link to the future Nemo Magazine and classic newspaper strip reprints published by Fantagraphics in the 80s, continuing with the idiosyncratic choices of "The Top 100 (English-language) Comics of the Century" list in 1999, and even to the current partnership between Sunday Press and Fantagraphics.

Weekly Weird Trigger Warnings 9

2000 A.D. Year End Roundup:

Dean Simons and Zack Quaintance of The Beat look back on 2000 A.D. Weekly and the Judge Dredd Megazine in 2025.

The 2025 best of 2000 A.D. Weekly as voted by the readers! Love the idea behind reader polls, see what the worldwide audience says here

Don't miss this epic analysis of the Judge Dredd "Cursed Earth" serial from 2000 A.D., by Tom Ewing at FreakyTrigger

2000 A.D. webshop

Son of Groth Interviewed:

Yatta Tachi

A really nice interview with Conrad Groth at Yatta Tachi, on new Fantagraphics imprint Takumigraphics, which will focus on translated comics from a variety of Asian countries (Taiwan, South Korea, Philippines). Lots of insight into the new line.

Dummy Zine "Help Mark Beyer":

I'm not sure what's going on with Mark Beyer, of Raw Magazine and "Amy and Jordan" fame. John Kelly has a whole section of his store devoted to Beyer merch with the above heading. Hope all is well with the king of existential dread.

Deconstructing Ed Subitsky:

New York Review Comics

Tim in Tokyo and Kumar from Melbourne host Deconstructing Comics #862, a podcast discussing Poor Helpless Comics: The Cartoons (and more) of Ed Subitsky (New York Review Comics). Listen here at Comicon.

Classic Jordi (Torpedo 1936) Bernet:

Comicon (negative)

Comicon has a nice long preview of The Legend Testers (Treasury of British Comics) reprinting some of Jordi Bernet's earliest work for UK weeklies. Treasury of British Comics have also reprinted UK work by Francisco Solano Lopez and Hugo Pratt.

Europe Comics Still Exists!:

Amazon

The Beat shared a link to a Europe Comics release from November 5, 2025. Making this one of only two releases from the digital translation company last year. Even more confusing, amazon lists original publisher Le Lombard instead of Europe Comics as publisher of this English-language edition. I wonder how many of their other releases I've missed the last two years?

Early Jack Kirby Comic Strips Part of New Research Project:

Heritage Auctions

Just when you thought every avenue of Jack Kirby's career has been covered, we find this post from Allan Holtz announcing a series reprinting the whole run of Lincoln Features strips. Kirby worked for the syndicate producing comic strips and panels from 1936-1939. Looking forward to this look at very early Kirby art.

Negative Burn Joins Long Line of Legacy Anthologies Resurrected:

Zoop

Heavy Metal, Metal Hurlant, A1/Deadline, and now Negative Burn! Negative Burn started in 1993 and originally ran 50 issues over four years. It featured a who's who of independent comics creators of the time (mycomicshop has a good list). Image Comics revived the series briefly in the early 2000s. Now original series editor Joe Pruett has the defibrillator out crowdfunding Negative Burn for a new generation of independent comics creators. Check out the campaign here

Miscellaneous:

New colour art by Joshua W. Cotter here

 John Freeman profiles Michael Cohen's (and the late Michael Shearman) Strange Attractors, a 90s indie comic worth remembering

Nik Dirga has the latest issue of Amoeba Adventures available as a free PDF

Weekly Weird Trigger Warnings 8

Gosh Comics Spotlight:

Back when I was doing "Alternative and Small Press New Arrivals" every week, Gosh Comics online store was a favorite source of information. They always had unique titles that perfectly complemented Domino Books or Gatoshop listings.

A recent page from the site

I would like to salute Greg and Tom, who are the two main curators of the Gosh Comics "Small Press" section, which in my opinion is the broadest selection of small press, indie, and mini-comics in the world. Here's a couple shots (in the background) of the small press section from Gosh's facebook...

Gosh Comics hosted their very own small press comics show this past August! Check out all the great creators (including blog favorite Patrick Wray!) listed on that poster below...

Here is Andy Oliver's induction of Gosh Comics into the Broken Frontier Hall of fame for 2020:

In this most difficult of all years for comics retail we decided that our choice for Hall of Fame entrant would be one that would recognise the vital importance of those comics shops that act as community hubs, bringing people together and playing their part in championing emerging voices. As I have said before at BF “stores that put themselves at the very heart of the creative community they serve, and are as much activists for the medium as they are retailers, are the way of the future.” Our Hall of Fame is designed to acknowledge individuals or institutions with a decade-plus of bringing talented creators to new audiences and elevating emerging artists, and for 2020 we wanted to pick a shop that represents the incredible work going on globally by comics retailers who acknowledge and push the broader potential of the form by promoting the grassroots side of the scene.

We’ve chosen London’s Gosh! Comics as being an excellent example of one of the many comics shops that go above and beyond the call in that regard. Many shops have well stocked small press sections that give aspiring creators an opportunity to see their work on the shelves of their favourite store but Gosh have exceeded that over the years. They’ve given self-publishers and small pressers launch nights for their work, run regular meet-up/reading/discussion groups (the Process group run by Steve Walsh bringing new creators together which spawned multiple anthology comics particularly stands out), and have hosted events designed to bring creators and publishers together (having sat on a small press symposium panel, chaired a panel on pitching to a publisher, and on various small press workshops at Gosh I can certainly attest to that). And, of course, there’s the Drink and Draw events that we have been collaborating on with Gosh since 2015.

In short, they’ve not simply fostered a sense of comics community they’ve created one; people have been brought together who would never have met otherwise, collaborative bonds have been forged that would not have occurred without them, and comics projects that would have gone unpublished have seen the light of day through creators finding each other via the welcoming environs of 1, Berwick Street. We don’t want to stop there though. We want to use this year’s Hall of Fame announcement as an opportunity to celebrate shops globally in this most trying time for them. So this week we’ll be using the hashtag #CelebrateYourLCS on social media and looking for stories about how your shop has played its part in supporting new creative voices and boosting their profiles. Look for a post on that later today at BF.

(We would be remiss, if we weren't also...) Remembering Steven Walsh of Gosh Comics and Avery Hill Publishing:

An earlier proponent of small press comics at Gosh Comics was Steven Walsh (1975-2022), who, from what I've read, generally seems like an important lynchpin in the UK independent comics scene before his untimely death in 2022. 

Piccadily's: Jack McInroy remembered Walsh from early days

Column: Walsh was a columnist for Broken Frontier in 2013. Named after his comics workshop at Gosh: Process.

Interview: Short 2015 interview with Walsh

News: Andy Oliver reports on Walsh joining the Avery Hill Publishing team in 2017

Hall of Fame: Walsh was inducted into the Broken Frontier Hall of Fame Class of 2021. This served as both tribute and memorial to Walsh

Memorial: Rich Johnston of Bleeding Cool also gathers remembrances of Walsh

Interview: Walsh's final podcast for Avery Hill with his discussion of his life in comics

Best of Rusty Staples Blog by Michael Owen Carroll:

Rusty Staples

Michael Owen Carroll is the author of one of my favorite 2000 A.D. serials, Proteus Vex. He has been doing this intense history of UK comics magazines, "Hatch, Match & Dispatch", since 2019! This installment covers the overall most popular posts on Rusty Staples the past two years, which makes for a good introduction to the blog. It was fun to see one on the list is Carroll's analysis of comics in the background of the Sam & Cat TV series, a show I've seen multiple times with my kids.

The Brit Brats

Broken Frontier Highlights:

carolswaincomics.com

Carol Swain New Website

Lavender Clouds by Bex Ollerton Andy Oliver review

How to Make Life Better... by Simone Lia Lydia Turner review

Last Kevin O'Neill Comic Published

Whither Angouleme International Comics Festival?

John Freeman reported on Le Grand OFF de la Bande Desinee, a new free festival coming to Angouleme January 29th-February 1st, 2026. No mention of plans for continuing OFF past this year, or if the proper Angouleme festival returns in 2027.

downthetubes

Book Review - Conversations With Rick Veitch, edited by Brannon Costello:

University Press of Mississippi

At the International Journal of Comic Art, Joe Hilliard reviews this welcome addition to the analysis of the work of Rick Veitch. In this case, a collection of interviews spanning 1987-2023. Veitch is endlessly fascinating sharing his thoughts in the few interviews I've read. I've been reading Veitch's comics since 1985, and I still can't believe I bought this weird, horrifying comic off a spinner rack!

GCD

Shoutout to Colin Blanchette's interview with Veitch in Die With Your Mask On #1, still available as a bundle with #2:

Canon zine

David Kunzle Free Downloads at Topfferiana:

Daily Cartoonist

Also for IJOCA, Michael Kempeneers profiles the wonderful work of the Topfferiana site in gathering the extant research of "early comics" scholar David Kunzle onto a dedicated page. By my count there are 35 articles and books by Kunzle on his speciality of 19th century comic strips, all free to download as PDFs. 

Evin Collis Store:

ComicKkrakK

I was thrilled to see ComicKkrakk spotlight Litterpig #1, an Evin Collis comic, on his final "Sunday Wrap" of the year. Especially since Collis is from Winnipeg, just like ComicKkrakk. I don't even know where I first saw Collis' comics, whether bluesky, All The Old Poisons online shop, or some other chance encounter with that gorgeous penwork. He now resides in Spain.

store

Comix Reading List:

One last blast from my free trial of Comixology Unlimited, a second volume of Reed Crandall EC stories pristinely reproduced by Fantagraphics Books. I love Crandall's (now) old-fashioned representational illustrative style on these genre stories. Crandall could draw anything beautifully, but his "ugly" art is something to behold (see above).

Comics Watch List:

Friend of the blog Colin Blanchette has a new channel, with artist Karl Stevens! They are analysing Cerebus the Aardvark issue-by-issue starting with #1 from 1977. Thanks to ComicKkrakK for the heads up.

Greg Petix looks through his Chris Cajero Cilla collection! One of my favourite alternative cartoonists. Cilla has been around for decades, first doing DIY mini-comics and now serializing his comix on Patreon.

Weekly Weird Trigger Warnings 7

Terence Fuller aka ComicKkrakk spotlight:

Like so many others from my old days on long dead Comics Twitter, ComicKkrakk has been a big influence on, not just my comic reading habits, but my attitude toward comics and media and life in general. We salute you!

ComicKkrakk art

My earliest "liked" video on YouTube was this comics roundtable with ComicKkrakk, LahRasa, sleepyreader666, and (debuting) earlgrey862. The former two still continue this format to this day:

sleepyreader666, 5/9/21

Here's a favorite recent installment of ComicKkrakK's long-running "Sunday Wrap" series where he discusses his comics, music, TV, and movie consumption from the previous week:

ComicKkrakk

Did you know that ComicKkrakk's secret identity, Terence Fuller of Winnipeg, Manitoba, is a polymath active in the film, music, and radio industries (he's also an artist, as well)? Check out the links below:

Film: IMDB

Film: Manitoba Music

Film: Film Training Manitoba

Musician: FreakingSnap

Musician: Unravalled Broken Orchestra

Radio: Dead Air

Newsletter: Merzstack

Five Favorite Comics From 2025:

This may be cheating since I reviewed the middle three, and will be reviewing one of the other two.

Broken Frontier

Broken Frontier

Broken Frontier

2025 Hall of Obscuro Award: Tom Fellrath:

SIX, count 'em, six books of terminally out-of-print Steve Willis material! All published by Tom Fellrath of Phoenix Productions. These are all on my list to be reviewed, if you are a reviewer as well you should contact Fellrath. Or, purchase from amazon (available on other country's amazon sites, as well)

all amazon

 

Sean Kleefeld Year End Round-up Crasher:

Kleefeld on Comics

Some people crash weddings, Sean Kleefeld crashed The Beat's year end creator survey! Love it. Read Kleefeld's responses here.

You may remember Kleefeld from this book:

Bloomsbury

Last Gasp Manga Releases for 2025:

Venerable underground comix publisher Last Gasp has been publishing some wild Manga translations recently. I believe a Barefoot Gen Omnibus, Ultra Heaven Volume 3, and more Suehiro Maruo are coming in 2026...

Last Gasp

Last Gasp

Swipe File (Logo Edition):

GCD

 

GCD

Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum 2025 Donations Round-up:

The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at Ohio State University received so many great donations this past year. Here are a few highlights that stood out to me:

1) Willy Murphy collection including a sketchbook, original art for his underground comix, and miscellaneous archival items.

2) Joshua Cotter collection including original cover art for Skyscrapers of the Midwest and a sketchbook containing all the original art for Drive by Lemons.

3) Emily Flake original art for the Lulu Eightball alternative weekly strip.

4) Other pieces of original art by: Ron Rege Jr., Kevin Huzienga, Brian Ralph, Jessica Abel, Ted Stearn, Ho Che Anderson, and J.R. Williams.

5) Unspecified donations from cartoonists Stephen Bissette, Terry Laban, and Frank Santoro.

Comix Reading List:

Closing out the year catching up on Richard Sala (on Comixology Unlimited and Hoopla) and his work, all are well worth your time. Is it just me or did he become a bit of a dirty old man? Just saying, lot of young (sometimes naked) women running around those later books. Not that I mind!

Ubiquitous Crowdfunding Spotlight:

Kickstarter

It was great to come across this campaign for a comprehensive omnibus of Brian Kirk's Ubiquitous Funnies mini-comics. He has an immediately recognizable style and there's only $99 to go with a January 30th deadline. Check out the campaign here!