World Comics

Zainab Akhtar (the newest recruit here at the Beat in case you haven't noticed) has a series running currently on the Forbidden Planet blog about comics in Singapore, specifically a new line of comics from the publisher Epigram. First up is an interview with Sonny Liew, whose gorgeous art we've been admiring for years. Liew acted as a consultant for Epigram's comics offerings:

The news issue of international literary magazine Words Without Borders is online and it's their annual GN issue, with comics from around the world on topics from the Spanish Civil War to the political violence of Peru’s Shining Path, organized labor in France and broken homes in South Africa.

Although the Angoulême Comics Festival is the biggest comics event outside of Japan, with 200,000 people visiting art exhibits and lining up for hours to meet cartoonists, is the the most poorly covered in the English language. No minutely updates of what vintage wine is consumed or breaking news on cover artists, Nonetheless, scouring our twitter feed revealed some pictures that give a bit of the flavor:

Despite an attempt to liven things up with a more actually influential cartoonist winning the Grand Prix at Angoulême, 72 year old Dutch cartoonist...

The opening titles of The Adventures of Tintin, while not technically part of the screenplay, offer a jaunty, tongue-in-cheek symposium on the action-adventure  genre.  Or,...

Speaking of the Angoulêeme comics festival, Comixology is there and making news. Earlier in the week it was the announcement of an office...

The biggest comics-focused event in the world is underway drawing hundreds of thousands of people to look at comics and cartoonists with no movie stars to distract them, Despite this, only one English language reporter seems to be filing from the show, Comics Reporter's Bart Beatty who has his first two reports here and here.

It was a must-go sight unseen but now that it's been seen, we're dialing up Porter Air for tickets. This year's Toronto Comic Arts...

The Phoenix Weekly is a UK comics magazine for kids—somewhat in the tradition of the ancient Beano and the departed Dandy—but a little more...

A nice capstone for a year of graphic novel triumph as Dotter of Her Fathers Eyes by Mary and Bryan Talbot has won the Costa Award for best biography. The Costa is a respected UK literary prize, and the Talbots win is emblematic of wider acceptance, says the Guardian

BAREFOOT GEN and I SAW IT creator Keiji Nakazawa died on December 19th at age 73. The cause was lung cancer. As a...

First off...congrats to cartooners Abby Denson and Matt Loux who tied the knot not long ago. And then celebrated with a honeymoon in Japan...