World Comics

A collected edition of MALINKY ROBOT, Sonny Liew's charming series about two urchins in a city full of giant robots, is coming out in August, and here's the cover. Liew is the artist of MY FAITH IN FRANKIE, Marvel's SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, and many other fine comics; he also edited two volumes of the Eisner-nominated LIQUID CITY, the Singapore comics anthology.

If you were to guess where the first real world village of the lovable blue folk known as Smurfs would spring up, you probably would not say Abu Dhabi -- or maybe you would, as they seem to be one of the few countries with money to burn on a project like a Smurf Village.

A private commission Via

More great Canadian cartoonists were honored Saturday, with the presentation of this year's Joe Shuster Awards at the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo with...

Via Yesterday's Papers, aging goodness from Knockout.

Jean-Christophe Menu, a founding member and driving force behind the French art comic powerhouse L'Association, has left the organization following a series of shake-ups and disruptions, including a workers strike. Bart Beaty has the best analysis of what it mean for L'Asso, Menu and French comics in general.

An update on what you can and can't bring into and out of Canada, and how to avoid getting your comics seized by the Canadian government. Also, Gahan Wilson and why hotels in San Diego will soon cost even more.

Toyko prefecture's law restricting sales of material deemed "harmful" to minors under the age of 18 has selected its first list of titles to be considered for the ban, Anime News Network reports. The law, which has been revised a few times and goes into effect July 1, has been met with an outcry from publishers and creators.

In spite of the dramatic international intrigue Sparkplug Comic Books and its affiliates faced at the Canadian border on the way to TCAF last weekend, we managed to simultaneously invade a whole other continent at Stockholm Sweden’s 11^th Annual SPX Festival. Sparkplug was honored to be invited to the festival for the 3^rd year in a row along with many other hella distinguished international guests.

Just a reminder: The NBM blog is running regular web comics by Lewis Trondheim, one of the finest cartoon diarists of all time. The comics are excerpted from his acclaimed Little Nothings series, published in the US by NBM. Bookmark!

Canadians seem like a peaceful, tolerant folk, but they have a record of seizing a lot of material at the border, including, this week, several copies of the comics anthology BLACK EYE. Editor Ryan Standfest has a complete account in the link. Basically cartoonist Tom Neely was carrying five copies of the book across the border, when the books were seized. Neely writes:

Prolific Argentinean comics writer Carlos Trillo has passed away at age 68. According to reports, he was traveling in London with his wife when he began to feel unwell and was taken to the hospital where he died.