The first of an occasional “bullet point” foray into comic news from around the globe, beyond the UK and US this week…
• Milan’s Comic Museum Closes: Sad news from Milan, Italy via Fumettomania Factory: the La Fondazione Fossati has announced the closure of its Comics Museum (“Fumetto di Milano”) partly due to a lack of communication with local authorities, partly because of surety demands. The organisation is already removing assets from the Palazzo Marino, departing 31st July 2025. There’s a news item here from the Milan Post. The organisation still hopes to find new premises in Milan.
• Komiks with a K: Jay Ignacio, film director and comics writer, famously on Alandal, the final magnum opus drawn by Alex Nino before his retirement, has released a 54-minute version of his new documentary about the richness of Philippine comics culture, both past and very much present. Presented at the Philippine International Comics Festival in Manila earlier this month, Jay’s full-length, re-scored, 75-minute version will be released next January on Vimeo. Expert contributors include the late Gerry Alanguilan, Randy Valiente, and Paul Gravett. Here’s the first trailer…
“The Philippines once boasted a thriving, prolific, komiks industry throughout the 1950s and 1960s,” Jay notes. “By the 1970s, there was an explosion of Filipino art in the American comic book industry. Master illustrators such as Tony DeZuniga, Alfredo Alcala, Alex Niño, and Nestor Redondo paved the way for other Filipinos to be showcased on the global stage. Now, 50 years later, how is the Philippine industry of komiks doing? The documentary film Komiks with a K examines the past, as well as the current state of Filipino sequential art.” You can follow the project here on Facebook
• Want to know more about Indian Comics from Kerala state? Then it might be worth giving the Indy Comics Commune a follow on Instagram, a community of comic enthusiasts and creators from Kerala. Follow them for independent comic news and events updates.
• Portuguese publisher Risco Ediotoria is seeking crowdfunding support for its latest collections of the work of Paul Kirchner. In the works are collections of Ônibus 2 + O Espelho dos Sonhos (“Bus 2 + The Mirror of Dreams”). “The Bus” was first published in Heavy Metal between 1978 and 1985. Without physical laws, with objects coming to life and a humor that defies logic, the series soon became a cult among comic book readers and surrealist art. Ônibus 2 brings together, for the first time in Portuguese, volumes 2 and 3 of Kirchner’s series released in Europe in 2015 and 2025 by the publisher, Tanibis. These are all the strips created by Kirchner between 2012 and 2025, first appearing in Heavy Metal.
This just scrapes the surface of international comics, items we’ve caught in recent days. Feel free to drop us news items!
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: Comics, Crowd Funding Projects, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Film, International Comic News, Other Worlds
A great format I think for the email feed!