Charles Hatfield

Tonight @artcenteredu in Pasadena: a panel, a visual feast, a serious chat about Kirby & his groundbreaking 4th World saga! Delighted to join ace moderator @mchldooley.bsky.social
and Kevin Dooley, Alonso Nuñez, Tony Puryear & Jim Thompson for this epic convo!

kirbystudies.org/2026/02/03/f...

Last night @ Laemmle Royal I loved watching Sook-Yin Lee's PAYING FOR IT, based on Chester Brown's graphic memoir, and hearing from Lee & Brown in Q&A. Angelenos into indy film or comix, it's playing Glendale Laemmle tonight (Wed), again w/ Lee & Brown in Q&A, + they're signing at @theshq tomorrow!

Up @kindercomics today, my review of Jose Pimienta's very smart GN "Halfway to Somewhere," one of last year's best middle-grade books.

www.kindercomics.org/blog/halfway...

Stein's work on superheroes as unending serials perhaps suggests some ways in which these internal critiques get coopted or become self-canceling. If the "questions" raised are too radical, people might walk away from the genre, yes? But that's not what usually happens...

"to question the righteousness of Batman..., in turn raising questions about the righteousness of the superhero genre itself."

Yes, but such critiques are generally absorbed back into the genre, becoming part of the endless churn of continuity & revisionism. So, er, I'm pessimistic about this. :(

This a great thread that I'll want to show to my X-Men class this semester! These categories of revisionism could be very useful in opening discussion about the X-Men franchise's changes over the decades!

How to Say Goodbye in Cuban How to Say Goodbye in Cuban .  By Daniel Miyares . Anne Schwartz Books / Random House Graphic, ISBN  978-0593568309 (softcover), 2025. US$13.99. 240 pages.

Up today at KinderComics: another book from 2025 that I missed until now: Daniel Miyares' "How to Say Goodbye in Cuban":

www.kindercomics.org/blog/how-to-...

Flip Happy Dawning of 2026! May this year improve on the last. May  we  improve it. May we stick to our guns and make better things happen. May we work toward a more just and equitable society and a...

Happy 2026! Kindercomics ushers in the new year with a belated review of a book that SHOULD have been in my recent Best-of list for TCJ: Ngozi Ukazu's graphic novel FLIP!

www.kindercomics.org/blog/flip

The best comics of 2025, as chosen by our contributors - The Comics Journal We asked our contributors what they thought were the best comics of 2025 were. Here's what they said.

Once again, proud and happy to contribute to The Comics Journal’s best-of-year list!

www.tcj.com/the-best-com...

Getting ready for @comicartsla.bsky.social tomorrow ❤️

Prepping for tomorrow’s in-class zinefest (Disability in Lit & Culture). #disabilityzines #comicspedagogy #olddognewtricks

Thinking of a dear departed friend at the same time.

Up today @KinderComics: my long-delayed take on a much talked-about book: www.kindercomics.org/blog/cartoon...

This coming Thursday, Sep 18, join us at CSUN for a free talk with graphic novelist and Arvo Pärt biographer Joonas Sildre!

www.csun.edu/humanities/c...

This coming Thursday, Sep 18, join us at CSUN for a free talk with graphic novelist and Arvo Pärt biographer Joonas Sildre!

www.csun.edu/humanities/c...

Happy Kirby Day! A quick birthday toast to the great Jack Kirby, and an update about how I’m teaching Kirby this semester: kirbystudies.org/2025/08/28/k...

Romance comics seem to have influenced that sense of struggle and the increasing interiority of the characters. @jeetheer.bsky.social notes that many of Kirby's early romance comics are also crime comics, linking courtship and excitement with gangsterism. FF complicates the genre-mixing even more.

If I had to pick one mid-1960s comic book cover to distill cosmic Kirby, it would be this one! :)

Andrew, you are too kind! Thank you for revisiting my reading of this story. This past week, my CalRBS class and I visited the Kirby exhibition currently @skirball.bsky.social, and the Surfer was on my mind. <3

RIP to the great singer, songwriter, and band leader Dave Cousins, who fronted The Strawbs and created some of the UK’s best folk rock and progressive rock. ❤️

2025eisnerkids This post is the last in a series of three. Yesterday  I reviewed this year’s Eisner nominees for Early Readers. Today I finish this series by reviewing the nominees for Kids, which in practice...

Up today @KinderComics: my reviews of this year’s Eisner nominees for Kids! 3rd and last in my annual Eisner series.

www.kindercomics.org/blog/2025eis...

Up tonight @KinderComics: my reviews of this year’s Eisner nominees for Early Readers! Second in a series!

www.kindercomics.org/blog/2025eis...

2025eisnerteens This post is the first in a series of three. This year's Eisner Award nominations came out on May 15, and  my most recent post here listed the nominees in categories that especially interest me, in...

Up today @KinderComics: my reviews of this year’s Eisner Award nominees for Best Teen comics. First in a series!

www.kindercomics.org/blog/2025eis...

Blog ​The nominations for this year's Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards (celebrating work published in 2024) were announced a week ago, on May 15 . ​As ever, I'm looking up and seeking out things to...

Now up @KinderComics, the first in a series of posts about this year's Eisner Award nominees in the young readers' categories: www.kindercomics.org/blog/eisner-...

#KirbyLives @skirball.bsky.social — just go. ❤️

Opening this week at @skirball.bsky.social, the career-spanning exhibition, "Jack Kirby: Heroes and Humanity"!

Curated by the amazing team of @djpatrickareed.bsky.social and Ben Saunders.

Read my latest blog post for the deets: kirbystudies.org/2025/04/29/h...

This Wed, April 30. Join my X-Men class and the brilliant @andrecarrington.bsky.social on Zoom!

Next Wed 4/30, groundbreaking scholar @andrecarrington.bsky.social (The Black Fantastic; Speculative Blackness; Audiofuturism) joins my X-Men class for a webinar! Free and open to all. Scan the QR to register!

#ComicsAtCSUN #XMenStudies #ImmortalStorm

Tomorrow, the brilliant Anna Peppard @sequentialscholars.bsky.social joins my X-Men class for a Zoom webinar about sexuality, gender, and... Nightcrawler!

Free and open to all. Scan the QR code to register, or go to:
bit.ly/uncannypassi...

Next Wednesday, April 23, the brilliant Dr. Anna Peppard @sequentialscholars.bsky.social joins my X-Men class for a Zoom webinar. It's free and open to all! Follow the QR code to register. #mutantgenders #uncannypassions #supersex #xmenstudies

Coming in late July: my CalRBS course, to be held at UCLA just after CCI! Join us to explore the social and material lives of comics: how they are made, how they circulate, and how they are archived.

(We'll spend part of the course taking in and discussing the Skirball's new Jack Kirby exhibition!)