The Harvey Awards have announced their 2023 Hall of Fame. Which were the top-selling graphic novels of September? It’s Banned Books Week. All on Comic Book Club News for October 5, 2023.
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Episode Transcript:
Harvey Awards announces Hall of Fame for 2023.
September’s top-selling graphic novels revealed.
It’s Banned Books Week.
This is Comic Book Club News for October 5, 2023.
Harvey Awards Announces 2023 Hall Of Fame Inductees:
The Harvey Awards, held annually at New York Comic Con, have announced the 2023 inductees into their Hall of Fame.
They include Chris Claremont, Walt Simonson, Louise Simonson, Marv Wolfman, the late George Pérez, and Bill Griffith.
John Lind, co-chair of the Harvey Awards Committee, said of this year’s inductees, “We have an outstanding class of inductees from 2023, with a focus on creators whose influence on the books they created transcended the medium and serve as key examples of comic books’ influence on larger pop culture.”
Added Chris Claremont: “I started writing comics for the fun of it. Stayed in comics for the love of it. Still can’t wait to see what an artist will do with my words. I am honored to be inducted into the Harvey Awards Hall of Fame, especially as the reason I went to work for Stan Lee at Marvel as an intern many years ago is because Al Jaffee wouldn’t put me up for an internship at MAD Magazine as he felt it was no place for an innocent like me—MAD, the magazine the spectacular Harvey Kurtzman founded.”
The Harvey Awards Hall of Fame inductees will be recognized at the 35th annual awards ceremony. That will be held on Friday, October 13, 2023, during New York Comic Con. The inductees will also be given their award. That’s a joke about the use of the word “recognized,” in case it wasn’t clear.
Top September Graphic Novels Revealed:
Following up on yesterday’s reveal of the top-selling single issues of September, ICv2 has revealed the top-selling graphic novels of the month. No surprise here: the top slot has once again gone to IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin.
The rest of the Top 10 list by units sold belongs to Batman. Joker One: Operation Joker, Vol. 1, a manga about The Joker taking care of Batman once he’s become a baby, came in at number two. Batman: Justice Buster Vol. 1 was at number three, Batman & The Joker: The Deadly Duo at number four, and the Batman ’89 Batman Day Special Edition at number ten. DCeased: War of the Undead Gods and Dark Knights of Steel, both of which heavily featured Batman, came in at number six and nine respectively.
Only one Marvel title made the list: Doctor Strange: Fall Sunrise. In fact, James Tynion IV had a better showing than the House of Ideas, with Something is Killing the Children Vol. 1 at number 16, and Blue Book, Vol. 1 at number 18.
Maybe Marvel should start publishing Batman books? Just a thought.
How To Observe Banned Books Week:
And our final story of the day: it’s Banned Books Week. Rather than a holiday celebrating banning books, it’s an event to draw awareness to books being banned all across the country. Started in 1982, each year the week serves to draw attention to books that have been banned, explain why, and fight back against censorship in all its forms.
Though usually held in September, this year the week is, well, this week, ranging from October 1 through 7. The culmination of the week is this Saturday on “Let Freedom Read” day, where readers are encouraged to, “help defend books from censorship and to stand up for the library staff, educators, writers, publishers, and booksellers who make them available!”
There’s a whole list of ways to do this on BannedBooksWeek.org, but perhaps the easiest way is to either read a banned book in public, and/or buy a banned book. As Maia Kobabe’s graphic novel Gender Queer tops the list of most challenged books of 2022, that’s a likely suspect. Or as reported multiple times on this podcast, Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper has become the target du jour of bigots all over America.
Also perhaps of note, as Oni Press head Hunter Gorinson told us, every time Gender Queer gets banned, it sells more copies. The message is clear: keep reading, and censorship will keep on losing.
For Comic Book Club News, I’m Alex Zalben. And that’s my secret, Cap: I’m always reading.
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