Comics

Comic Art Festival offers alternative to trade fair model

Pricier to attend than prestigious fairs such as Art Basel, and with a cap on visitor numbers, the event at Lake Como in Italy highlights a lucrative market niche

The Week in Art podcast | Art’s AI reckoning, the rise of comic art and Degas’ Miss La La

Why the art world must tackle the questions posed by artificial intelligence head on, plus comics celebrated in two European locations and Degas’ portrait of the circus artist Anna Albertine Olga Brown

Across the Koons-verse: artist's balloon animals make cameo in new Spider-Man film

In addition to a Koonsian clash inside the Guggenheim, "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" features a fleeting Bansky reference—just like the film's predecessor

Art marketpreview

From a lively New Deal-era fresco study to an illuminated Rauschenberg edition: our pick of the highlights from February's sales

Plus, a Charles II-era silver-gilt vases, an avant-garde Cuban painting and a rare Tintin comic book cover

Art marketpreview

From a gruesome Old Master to a potential million-dollar superhero: our pick of the highlights from January's sales

Plus, a pair of Thornton Dial assemblages, a rare Chinese bowl and a work made out of flip-flops and suede

Book Clubfeature

How the Beano encouraged generations of artists to break the rules

We asked eight artists about the comic's influence ahead of a new exhibition exploring the publication's history and featuring contemporary art with that "Beano sensibility"

Designinterview

Loki’s production designer on the Modernist inspiration behind the show’s stunning visuals

Kasra Farahani explains why the Time Variance Authority waiting room looks so much like the Breuer building, and how the inside of a Fabergé egg became an alien train carriage

Rejected Tintin cover design sets record for comic book art with €3.2m auction price

Sale of controversial 1936 painting criticised by organisation behind artist Hergé’s estate

Podcastspodcast

The white supremacist art at the heart of the US Capitol

Plus, a $2.2m Batman comic and the artists inspired by political theorist Hannah Arendt

Holy hammer! Near mint copy of Batman #1 sells for record $2.2m at Heritage Auctions

The rare 1940 issue, which marks the first appearance of the Joker and Catwoman, is the second most expensive comic book ever sold

Book Clubfeature

Ka-boom! How art history is embracing the comic book genre

Publishers looking for ways to draw in wider audiences to the lives and careers of famous artists are increasingly turning to graphic novels

Albert Uderzo, the artist behind French cartoon icon Asterix, dies aged 92

"Asterix really showed me that history could be fun and daft,” says the Irish archaeologist Neil Jackman as tributes are paid to the artist

Jewelleryinterview

Wakanda comes to Washington

Douriean Fletcher, who made the jewellery for Black Panther, speaks at the National Museum of Women in the Arts

Art marketarchive

Fritz the Cat comic drawings hot on the art market, but highly rare

Robert Crumb, the creator, is now a cult figure in the contemporary art market