The Eisner Awards have cut their journalism category for this year’s awards. The next Ghost Rider will be a villain, teases Marvel. Harold Schechter and Eric Powell are reteaming for a graphic novel about Dr. Wertham and the Comics Code Authority. All on Comic Book Club News for January 11, 2024.
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Episode Transcript:
No Eisner Award for journalists?
Ghost Rider is breaking bad.
Dr. Wertham graphic novel coming.
This is Comic Book Club News for January 11, 2024.
Eisner Awards Eliminate Category For Journalism:
In what is clearly a coordinated effort to make sure the Comic Book Club News podcast doesn’t sweep this year’s Eisner Awards, the long-running awards show has eliminated the category for “Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism.”
As reported by PopVerse, who must be relieved they won’t be absolutely crushed by this podcast you’re listening to right now, submissions for the category will still be accepted. Only now, they will compete under Best Comics-Related publication. And despite the nomenclature of the category, the Eisners will still accept online journalism sites.
That just means Comic Book Club News will have the chance to utterly obliterate websites and, I don’t know, a book about Jack Kirby or something.
This isn’t the first time the Periodical/Journalism category has been dropped from the Eisners: it was eliminated in 2001, before returning in 2002. And plenty of other categories have cycled through… To name a few: Best Editor, Best Writer/Artist — Humor, and Best Black-and-White Series, which was eliminated in 1991 when colors were first introduced to the world, Pleasantville style.
This year’s Eisner nominees will be announced in May, and the ceremony will be held at San Diego Comic Con on Friday July 26.
Ghost Rider Will Be A Villain In New Marvel Comic:
Marvel is continuing to tease their upcoming comic Ghost Rider: Final Vengeance, which puts someone new in the guise of ol’ flame head. And as revealed by the publisher, that someone will be a mystery supervillain.
Written by Benjamin Percy with art by Danny Kim, the new book won’t hit until March. But we do know that the Ghost Rider will find a new host, with former hosts hot on his — or her — trail. And in a text page released by Marvel, it teased that the Spirit of Vengeance is looking for someone to help with their war on… Well, something.
Says the text on a page showing a giant, flaming skull: “Who will be my next host? Where is my best opportunity for vengeance? How can I hunt? What war can I claim as my own? I know where to go.”
Marvel promises the villain will be revealed later this week. But in the meantime, we can speculate. Given the “hunt” tease, is it Kraven the Hunter? Or does the use of “war” indicate a pick like The Punisher, not technically a supervillain so much as a vigilante mass murderer? Or, given the Ghost Rider is going somewhere else, what about the funniest possible outcome? In Latveria, and with Doctor Doom? We recently got Thanos riding in a tiny car in his own title, so why not Doom on a motorcycle?
…and this is the sort of crack reporting that’s going to win us that Eisner.
Harold Schechter And Eric Powell Reteam For Dr. Wertham Graphic Novel:
Nobody tell the Comics Code Authority: Eric Powell and Harold Schechter, the team behind the excellent true crime graphic novel Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?, are reteaming for a new book focusing on the infamous Dr. Frederic Wertham.
Titled Dr. Werthless: The Man Who Studied Murder (And Nearly Killed the Comics Industry), the book will focus on the notorious comic book history figure, who was instrumental behind the creation of the Comics Code Authority. However, the book takes a different approach, jumping back in time to show what Wertham did first: opening a clinic for disadvantaged African-American patients, helping desegregate schools, and taking a humane approach to abolishing murder. Specifically, the book focuses on Wertham’s relationship with Albert Fish, a child murderer, molester and cannibal.
Said Powell via press release: “When Harold and I were discussing possible topics for another collaboration to follow Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?, the minute Harold said, ‘What about Fredric Wertham?’,I knew we had something. The history of comics, civil rights and some of the most shocking murder cases in America. And a polarizing, complex individual at the center of it all. I think this book will be fascinating to anyone who is a fan of true crime, American history, psychology or comics.”
The book will hit stores this Summer from Dark Horse Comics, unless Wertham returns from the grave to ban it somehow.
For Comic Book Club News, I’m Alex Zalben. Oh hey, maybe the new Ghost Rider is Frederic Wertham. That Eisner is in the bag.
Got tips or stories you’d like us to cover? Email us at comicbookclublive@gmail.com.
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