§ Nice Art: Scott Morse broke in as a pretty stellar cartoonist (Soulwind) back in 1997, but while he continued to put out comics, he took a detour into animation with a nearly 20 year stint at Pixar, working in story and design on all your favorite Pixar movies. He was part of Pixar’s layoff last year, but now he’s getting back into comics as he posted on Instagram: This Ink Runs Cold, an anthology of one page scripts by people from Mike Allred to Matt Wagner and everyone in between. He wrote:
Credit where it’s due. Full roster. Not in print order. So, so amazed that this pile of people were able to find the time and energy to make this thing possible. There are old friends and family, colleagues, mentors, and legends, side-by side, page after page. Comicsmakers, filmmakers, TV makers, editors, journalists, students. It’s a startling, kind-hearted murderer’s row of heroes.
And maybe this is just the beginning.
More soon…
Just the cover and promo art are spectacular, and lots more sneak peeks on his insta. The book will be published by Allen Spiegel Fine Arts in the US and Bao Publishing in Italy.
§ Wow, 2025 was a heck of a year…what’s that you say it’s only the end of January? Well, damn. This is gonna be another shorter K’n’B but I’m guessing you like it more frequently and shorter than once every five months and longer, right?
§ I won the Pulitzer Prize and I’m busking on a corner: Fast Company interviews editorial cartoonists Barry Blitt, Jack Ohman, and Jen Sorensen, and there is much wisdom and observation
How would you all describe the financial side of cartooning in 2025?
Blitt: Shit. [Laughter.] I mean, I feel a bit like a fish out of water here because I’m really not a regular editorial cartoonist, but just speaking as an illustrator, I’m getting a quarter of what I might’ve got for something 15 years ago. It’s kind of alarming. I’d imagine it’s the same all around. Sorensen: Hardly any cost of living raises at all in my entire career, 20-plus years. I guess there are many times throughout my career that I thought it was all about to end. The Great Recession, I thought I had maybe a year left, and, I mean, yeah, things are terrible now. I weirdly find [that] my work somehow is just getting out there more. And so through subscribers, I would say, I’m able to make a modest living. Not a great living. [Laughs.] And going forward, I don’t feel great about the future of publications, and I’m wondering if even more clients are going to be either intimidated or put out of business.
Ohman: I’m probably the one on the call here who’s an actual syndicated cartoonist in the sense of traditional rules and regulations. Until maybe 15 years ago, I was routinely making a quarter of a million dollars a year, sometimes a little less, but right in there, between all the things, with syndication and salary. When I started in national syndication, when I took over Jeff MacNelly’s client list, my first check was for $13,000. That’s a monthly check.
§ French-Syrian cartoonist Riad Sattouf has a big profile in the NY Times.
Over the past decade, Mr. Sattouf, 46, has become one of France’s biggest literary stars, thanks largely to his masterwork, “The Arab of the Future,” a series of graphic memoirs. Over six volumes, the series tells the story of Mr. Sattouf’s childhood, which was jarringly divided between the Middle East and France, and the disintegration of the marriage between his French mother and his Syrian father. The books — in a genre known as “bandes dessinées” in France — have sold more than three million copies and have been translated into some 23 languages. Though told from a child’s perspective and drawn in a deceptively simple style, they touch on some of the thorniest questions about the compatibility of the Western and Arab worlds. They are also suffused with a subtle but withering social satire.
The Arab of the Future had four volumes come out from PRH, but the last two in the series are coming to the US from Fantagraphics, according to the article. IT’s also mentioned that Sattouf is a respected movie director in France, even winning a Cesar Award, the French equivalent of an Oscar. Marjane Satrapi and Joan Sfar are also known directors in France, where apparently if you comic good they also let you make movies. That does not happen in the United States.
§ At Popverse, Chris Arrant sniffs out the controversy over the Harley Quinn Fartactular: Silent Butt Deadly #1 April Fool’s comic. And yes the entire article is full of jokes like that and you will love it.
§ It’s not just SDCC that brings in money to the local economy. According to a press release from GalaxyCon, their 2024 events generated $42 million in economic impact across seven cities. GalaxyCon currently puts on shows in Raleigh, Richmond, Oklahoma City, Columbus, San Jose, Des Moines, and Miami. According to the release, they will be adding shows in Chicago, IL, New Orleans, LA, Philadelphia, PA, Cleveland, OH, St. Louis, MO, and Savannah, GA in 2025 and beyond. “This ambitious expansion reflects GalaxyCon’s dedication to reaching more fans and providing new opportunities for communities to benefit from pop culture tourism,” says the release.
“While 2024 was our most successful year to date, 2025 will be even bigger,” said Mike Broder, founder and president of GalaxyCon. “We look forward to continuing to grow and evolve our brand in exciting new ways across new markets to reach even more fans.”
While GalaxyCon currently puts on comics, anime and horror shows, they are also adding Galaxie Ink, a tattoo-focused event. We still hope to check out one of these events one of these days!
§ There will be a scant four superhero films in 2025, but does that mean there won’t be more movies and TV shows based on comics? Of course not. While this article Every Book-To-Movie Adapation Releasing in 2025 focuses on word-novels, there are several comics-based projects that sneak in there. One of the most intriguing is The Electric State (Netflix) which adapts Simon Stålenhag’s graphic novel. (It’s more of an illustrated book, actually but okay.) The movie stars Millie Bobby Brown as an orphaned teen who teams with an oddball drifter played, of course, by Chris Pratt, as they travel across a dystopian America. It’s directed by the Russo Brothers, so you might want to set an alert for it.
As I mentioned, Stålenhag’s book is mostly illustrations, but holy cow, what illustrations! From his page:
“In late 1997, a runaway teenager and her yellow toy robot travel west through a strange USA, where the ruins of gigantic battle drones litter the countryside along with the discarded trash of a high tech consumerist society in decline. As their car nears the edge of the continent, the world outside the window seems to unravel at an ever faster pace, as if somewhere beyond the horizon, the hollow core of civilization has finally caved in.”
Wait is this book set in 1997 or 2025? I’m confused.
Given the sometimes drab flattening of movies on Netflix, you gotta wonder how they’ll translate these spectacular visuals? This cries out for the big screen! Or just buy the book!
§ Another project coming from Netflix is an interesting one: a six episode adaptation of The Eternaut, the comics classic by Héctor Germán Oesterheld and Francisco Solano López that is considered Argentina’s greatest graphic novel. Using science fiction to speak truth to power about Argentina’s repressive regime, the book was considered so important that Oesterheld was later “officially disappeared.” Fantagraphics put out a US edition back in 2015 that was one of the most stunningly designed graphic novels I’ve ever seen. Sadly it sells for more than $500 on ebay now, so I missed my chance to buy one.
Anyway, the Netflix series is directed by Argentinian Bruno Stagnaro and written by Stagnaro and Ariel Staltari, and stars Ricardo Darín, Carla Peterson, César Troncoso, Andrea Pietra, Ariel Staltari, Marcelo Subiotto, Claudio Martínez Bel, Orianna Cárdenas and Mora Fisz.
“For me, El Eternauta represents my father bringing me the comics every week,” said Stagnaro at a presser when the project was announced. “I believe it was one of the first things I read in its entirety in my life, at the age of 10, and it had a profound impact on my way of understanding fiction made in my country.”
The logline:
In The Eternaut 1969, the great world powers have forsaken South America to alien invaders, and POV character Juan Salvo, along with his friend Professor Favalli, metalworker Franco, and neighbor Susanna, join the resistance in Buenos Aires with the knowledge that the outside world will not come to their aid. Through the lenses of these timeless characters, the politically prescient creators ask readers to consider the implications of global domination by the “great powers” before it’s too late.
The show debuts in April.
§ Another classic series will NOT be returning to Netflix: Scott Pilgrim Takes Off will only have on season. That was kind of the plan for the anime adaptation of the millennial icon, as creator Bryan Lee O’Malley wrote on X:
“It’s been one year since Scott Pilgrim Takes Off came out. It was an honor to work with all of the cast & staff around the world. It was like conducting a symphony orchestra every day. From the moment [co-writer BenDavid Grabinski] sparked the idea, the project felt like a one of a kind miracle. Anyway, we were recently informed that the show will NOT return. As you know, we only intended one season, and called in a lot of favors to make it happen, so making more would have been nearly impossible. Still, I know some of you have been holding out hope.“
Hope no more, fans!
