friday july 11
In 2002 the great Neil Gaiman wrote a children's novel, Coraline. Darkly spooky, scary and suspenseful, the book brings to mind a fairy tale, with a resourceful heroine facing daunting odds to save the day. It also brings to mind Alice in Wonderland, where Alice is confused but still seems to know whom to trust and where to find help -- and the way out.
Recently published is the graphic novel, Coraline, adapted and illustrated by the award winning P. Craig Russell. At first I was worried: how could I accept this new version of Coraline, a pre-teen in t-shirt and jeans? How could the atmosphere of the spooky old house and its inhabitants, so well developed in Gaiman's words, possibly be communicated in pictures?
I needn't have worried. Russell brings it all to vivid life, a little bit scarier than the novel was, with pictures lifted straight out of the imagination. This is the everyday brought to nightmare level, with buttons for eyes and confederate cats and souls trapped inside mirrors.
Come along with Coraline...stay...we want you to...
tuesday august 07
The winners of the career-making Eisner Awards were announced the last weekend in July at Comic-Con 2007 in San Diego. These awards, named for legendary innovator Will Eisner, are determined by a panel of five judges; this year, they included librarian Robin Brenner, creator of the excellent reader’s advisory site No Flying No Tights.
In addition to the winners listed below, check out the nominee list for more great graphic reading.
Best Graphic Album – New: American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang. See my post about this first graphic novel nominated for a National Book Award.
Best Graphic Album – Reprint: Absolute DC: The New Frontier, by Darwyn Cooke. The Library has the original edition.
Best Reality-Based Work: Fun Home by Alison Bechdel. See Jennifer’s post.
Continue Reading…
thursday july 12
In all the Harry Potter brouhaha, don't overlook a movie coming out this summer by a fantastic writer, Neil Gaiman. The movie is Stardust, based on the wonderful book of the same name. This is a grown-up fairy tale, with richly spare writing and fantastic imagery.
The story follows Tristran Thorn's quest for a fallen star, which turns out to not quite be what he expected. But then, as we continually find out, things are never quite what you expect in the land of Faerie. As Tristran seeks to fulfill his quest to bring the fallen star to his beloved, he quite naturally finds out whom he really is and what it is that he really wants.
This is again the story of the Hero's Quest, just like Star Wars and Luke Skywalker, The Odyssey and Odysseus, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Dorothy, and so many others, even Harry Potter and all of his adventures.
Stardust is also available as a digital audio book, read by the author.
Neil Gaiman might be familiar to some as a graphic novel author, most notably perhaps being the Sandman series.
Continue Reading…
thursday april 26
You're not imagining things if you've been seeing Imperial Stormtroopers at the library.
In conjunction with the 30th anniversary of Star Wars, we're launching GalaxyCon, an out-of-this-world celebration of all things science fiction.
It hasn't even started yet, and already it's a blast. I've had some great conversations with fans of all ages and families who plan to join us for the stellar events we have planned.
Science fiction is such a part of our culture, in fiction, film, and TV. Were you one of the wide-eyed kids who watched Flash Gordon serials on Saturday mornings, or did you stand in line for Spiderman and its sequels? Did you get your kicks from superhero comics or have your consciousness raised by the sociological sf of Sheri S. Tepper or Margaret Atwood? Are you hooked on Heroes or daffy for Dr. Who?
Even if you're not a techie, a Trekker, or a towel-carrying hitchhiker through the galaxy, how can you resist? (Resistance is futile, you know!)
Continue Reading…
wednesday april 11
Now that we have a new category, Children’s Books, on our blog, I want to post about an enchantingly different book that adults as well as kids will enjoy. It’s already getting plenty of praise, and you may have to wait in line for a copy, but I promise you it is worth the wait. This thick block of a book looks like something you’d use for a doorstop, but open it up and suddenly you’re transported beyond the clouds.
It's The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick, a story told alternately in words and page upon page of black and white sketches. With the magical, herky-jerky stutter of early film scenes, these stop-motion, cinematic pictures tell a dreamlike story of an orphaned boy, a famous filmmaker, and the fantastic machines and still more fantastic visions that draw them together.
Continue Reading…
tuesday april 10
L. Frank Baum's book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a lovely memory of my childhood. Outside the bedrooms in the upstairs hallway of my grandparents' house the walls were lined with old glass-fronted bookcases, filled with my mom's books from her childhood. All 14 Oz books were there, and I spent many happy hours reading them.
Robert Sabuda adapted the first book to his magical pop-up format, staying true to the original illustrations and story.
The cast of characters from Oz would happily surprise any Harry Potter fan: Tick-Tock the Royal Army of Oz, flying monkeys, witches and sorceresses, Ozma, Jack Pumpkinhead, and of course Dorothy herself who would give Harry a run for his money in resourcefulness and courage. The stories were written early in the 20th century but maintain a fantastic sense of adventure that is still enjoyable.
Continue Reading…
thursday march 29
If you talk to a group of young adults in Cincinnati for any length of time, someone is sure to come out with some sort of grand plan for getting out of here. Usually they talk about moving to some very cosmopolitan place like New York, San Francisco, or even Seattle. This isn't just one conversation, ever since the most recent census there have been articles in Citybeat and the Enquirer bemoaning the situation. Even I, though I'm mostly quite happy to live here, sometimes wonder "How would my life be different if I lived in New York?"
A partial answer was just provided to me by Lucky by Gabrielle Bell. Lucky is a collection of the three minicomics plus a special bonus section. Lucky Number #3, one of the included titles, won an Ignatz award in 2004. This graphic novel details the everyday life of Bell including her struggles to find a job and acceptable housing. It's made me grateful to live in Cincinnati, if only for the large cheap building that I call home.
Continue Reading…
saturday march 10
“One hundred nations descend upon us. The armies of all Asia. Funneled into this narrow corridor, their numbers count for nothing. They shatter with each advance.”
300, the film based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel about the 480 B.C. Battle of Thermopylae (“hot gates”), opened this week here and across the country. Typically for Miller, whose talents and concepts are equally extreme, the movie has drawn praise for its power, but also diatribes against its historical and (perceived) political content, as well as Miller’s trademark violence.
The book is certainly a fine example of Miller’s potent, “artful” storytelling, and the story itself can’t be told often enough. Stationing themselves in a narrow mountain pass, 300 Spartans faced certain death to hold the gigantic army of the Persian Empire at bay, enabling the Greek city-states to marshal their forces and eventually rebuff the invaders.
Continue Reading…
tuesday december 12
Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese has made history as the first graphic novel nominated for a National Book Award. Although it didn’t win, the book joins Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus as a graphic novel honored by a major awards organization outside the comics industry.
Yang’s art is charming and beautifully full-colored by Lark Pien. The book’s multi-thread narrative relates three clever, absorbing tales: the adventures of the legendary Monkey King, the struggles of a Chinese-American boy to fit in at school, and the trials of a European-American boy shamed by his visiting Chinese cousin, who is a study in racist clichés.
Continue Reading…
wednesday october 25
The winners of the Ignatz Awards – named for Krazy Kat’s nemesis mouse in the George Herriman strip – were announced on October 14 at the 2006 Small Press Expo in Baltimore. The mission of the annual event is “the exhibition of independent comic books and the discovery of new creative talent.” A panel of five cartoonists sets the ballot, and the attendees at SPX decide the winners.
Some of the Ignatz honorees will be familiar as winners or nominees from the Eisner and Harvey Awards given earlier this year (see my post about the Harvey Awards). It’s been a very good year for Alex Robinson, Andy Runton, and especially Charles Burns, whose legendary Black Hole collected all three prizes for best collection/graphic album.
Outstanding Anthology or Collection
Black Hole by Charles Burns
Castle Waiting by Linda Medley
Drawn and Quarterly Showcase #3
The Push Man and Other Stories by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
Squirrel Mother by Megan Kelso
Continue Reading…
tuesday october 17
Globalization is one of the most exciting developments in contemporary comics, with increasing numbers of foreign-language strips and books being translated into English, and not just from the huge Japanese manga market. Imported European comics are bringing us a wonderful diversity of art and storytelling.
Naturally, some of this diversity is due to different traditions, but a broader range of content and styles is also typical of Continental “bandes dessinées” (“drawn strips”). Since the 1960s, Franco-Belgian (French-language) cartoonists have led Europe in producing comics across all genres for all ages and classes. Thanks to a broad readership, practitioners of “the ninth art” enjoy the freedom, time, and financial security to develop more complex stories and sophisticated art, such as fully painted panels.
In addition, like foreign films, it’s usually the most successful work that’s exported. Most of the writers and artists noted in this post are award winners.
Continue Reading…
wednesday september 27
In a recent post, I headed a list of milestones in modern comics history with Will Eisner’s 1978 A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories. The pioneering writer, artist, publisher, and teacher for whom the Eisner Awards are named marketed this collection of adult tales as a “graphic novel.”
A few months before his death in January 2005, Eisner decided to republish his landmark work together with two other collections set on the mythical New York tenement street that reflects his childhood home. The Contract with God Trilogy: Life on Dropsie Avenue includes the stories of A Life Force, written in 1983, and Dropsie Avenue from 1995, both new to the Library with this omnibus volume.
While A Contract with God and A Life Force portray the world of the 1930s, Dropsie Avenue traces the changes in the neighborhood, especially the succession of ethnic groups, since 1870, when “still there were farms in the Bronx.”
Continue Reading…
tuesday september 12
The 2006 winners of the Harvey Awards were announced Saturday during the Baltimore Comic-Con. Named for Harvey Kurtzman, who is best known for founding, writing, and illustrating MAD magazine, the Harveys have great prestige as the only awards voted exclusively by comic book professionals.
Here’s a list of the nominees, with winners in boldface. Congratulations to Carol Tyler, Cincinnati resident and Library program participant, whose Late Bloomer was nominated in the category Best Graphic Album – Previously Published Material.
Best Graphic Album - Original
Combat Zone by Karl Zinsmeister (Marvel Comics)
The Lone and Level Sands by A. David Lewis (Caption Box) – on order
Night Fisher by R. Kikuo Johnson (Fantagraphics Books) – on order
Tricked by Alex Robinson (Top Shelf)
Wimbledon Green by Seth (Drawn & Quarterly)
Continue Reading…
Most of the leading comics professionals created moving tributes to the events of September 11, 2001. Their work is collected in three anthologies – 9-11: The World’s Finest Comic Book Artists and Writers Tell Stories to Remember, 9-11: Artists Respond, and 9-11 Emergency Relief. In addition, The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón will be at the Library very soon.
But the most cogent and intimate graphic treatment, In the Shadow of No Towers, comes from Art Spiegelman -- appropriately, since Spiegelman is the author of another powerful study of the human spirit grappling with ultimate darkness. Maus: A Survivor’s Tale uses the cat-and-mouse cartoon tradition to tell the story of his parents’ sufferings and heroism during the Holocaust.
An equally significant credential is the fact that In the Shadow of No Towers is also a survivor’s tale: Spiegelman and his family witnessed the destruction of the World Trade Center from their Lower Manhattan neighborhood, and were among the crowds fleeing its collapse.
Continue Reading…
friday august 25
Curious about graphic novels but haven’t taken the plunge yet? Wondering what all the fuss is about? The short answer is – comics are a lot more interesting than they used to be.
The creative explosion of “the ninth art” in the U.S. market began during the 1970s and produced one milestone after another during the next decade. Here’s a sample:
Mainstream comics veteran Will Eisner created A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories (1978), a collection of powerful tales about immigrant life in New York that he called a “graphic novel” to distinguish it from traditional comics.
Underground comix artist Art Spiegelman founded the cutting-edge journal Raw (1980), where he serialized Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, a complex, very moving account of his parents’ Holocaust experiences, which in book form won a Pulitzer Prize (1993).
Continue Reading…
friday august 18
One of my favorite morning rituals is to open up the morning newspaper and jump right into the comics and read the Baby Blues and the For Better or For Worse comic strips. I just can't start the day without 'em.
The McPherson family (Darryl, Wanda, Zoe, Hammie and baby Wren), of Baby Blues, remind me of my family when my brother and I were younger. Darryl even looks like my dad. Most of the time I could swear that Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott (who also co-authors Zits with Cincinnati's own Jim Borgman) were keeping a very close eye on my childhood, just waiting to turn it into a comic strip.
The Patterson family (John, Elly, Michael, Elizabeth and April), of For Better or For Worse, have been around forever (ok, the 1970s) and I've been reading them forever. Lynn Johnston based the fictional Pattersons around her own family and most of the world has watched and read as Ms. Johnston has layered this Canadian family's journey through life. It's unreal to think that a fictional family could entertain for so long. A visit to the strip's website reveals up-to-date information on the comic strip and has letters from each of the main characters, so you can get their perspective on the events going on in their life.
Much to my delight, I can catch up with the McPhersons and the Pattersons with the books of their collected adventures. For the Pattersons, start with I've Got the One-More-Washload Blues by Lynn Johnston. And for the McPherson family, start with One More and We're Outnumbered by Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott. Both families will keep you in stitches!
thursday july 27
Not only is North Korea lobbing missiles in its direction, but also what's going to happen when the billions of American anime and manga fans complete their East Asian Studies degrees and move there. Can the small rather racially homogenous island nation assimilate these new potential citizens?
I am an expert because I spent ten hours with my daughter last week at Ikasucon and also because I read Wrong About Japan, by novelist Peter Carey. Like my daughter, Peter Carey's 12-year-old son Charley is Otaku and plans eventually to move to Japan, but Carey has Japanese connections that help him meet and interview publishers of manga and other involved people on their Tokyo trip. Carey never really gets it.
Continue Reading…
wednesday july 12
C
omics fans and music lovers alike cherished the biographical cartoon strips that Justin Green created for Pulse, a magazine produced by Tower Records until 2002. Happily, the gems Green created for a decade were published the following year in Musical Legends: The Collected Comics from Pulse Magazine.
Himself a legend among cartoonists, Green brought his famous sense of irony and a passion for music to anecdotes about an enormous range of musicians. Both characteristics are apparent right from the start, in Green’s introduction to the collection:
“It was my father's spirit that instigated this cartoon project. I'd done an illustration depicting him personally telling Frank Sinatra to Shut Up! in a Vegas nightclub setting. 'The Chairman' had the nerve to revel with his cronies while my father's lifelong friend, the great Dixieland banjo player and singer Clancy Hayes, had to play over their noise. It was called 'Great Moments in Alcoholism.'"
Continue Reading…
saturday july 01
I must confess that this was the first graphic novel I've ever read- I've always been a littled daunted by the genre, and didn't think it was something I could lose myself in. Reading Fun Home proved me wrong. As Amy Bloom said in a blurb, "If David Sedaris could draw, and if Bleak House had been a little funnier, you'd have Alison Bechdel's Fun Home." That was enough to draw me in to this memoir about the author's closeted gay father who ran a funeral home. Despite his shortcomings as a father, the author establishes a bond with him through common interests, mainly books (he was a high school English teacher as well). Bechdel is as adept with crafting sentences as she is with illustrating them. Readers will enjoy her gothic illustrations as well as her deft descriptions of an unconventional background.
Other notable graphic novels which you might enjoy are:
Persepolis I and Persepolis II by Marjane Satrapi
Cruddy by Lynda Barry
Blankets by Craig Thompson
tuesday june 06
Carol Tyler has been a successful cartoonist since the 1980s, when the underground comix creators and their heirs were launching the alternative comics movement. However, for better and for worse, Tyler’s career was slowed to a crawl by family life and day jobs.
The positive side of Tyler’s detour -- apart from bringing her to live in Cincinnati -- is apparent in the rich story material from those domestic years, some of it released to the world just last year in Late Bloomer. This collection has earned Tyler the kind of acclaim she’s seen lavished for decades on her husband, Justin Green, one of the pioneers of the underground comix era. (More about Green in an upcoming post.) The latest rave comes from the pages of the most recent New York Times Sunday Book Review.
Fans of Late Bloomer include the very best comics creators, such as R. Crumb, Jim Woodring, Chris Ware, and Craig Thompson. According to Thompson: “Carol Tyler is a crucial voice for the medium. She’s lived so many roles – bohemian, artist, mother, teacher, Midwestern housewife, family historian – and imbues her work with all the wisdom of her experience. Poetic, her work is ornamented with detail, yet not flowery.”
Continue Reading…
friday june 02
What can withstand the X-Men? Not even The Da Vinci Code, to judge by opening weekend stats for X-Men: The Last Stand. The third film based on the Marvel Comics series had the highest-grossing debut of the year so far, and the fourth-highest opening weekend ever (the top weekend spot belonging to another Marvel enterprise, Spider-Man).
Moviegoers and critics alike are raving about the film’s great blend of action, drama, and, well, a pretty darn weighty treatment of intolerance, and whether to combat it through violence or peaceful dialogue.
Fans of the comics will expect all this from an X-Men tale. The battling mutants have thrilled and moved readers since 1963, when superwriter Stan “The Man” Lee and superartist Jack “The King” Kirby created the highly diverse charter characters.
If X-Men: The Last Stand leaves you wanting more, the Library has the first two films, X-Men and X2: X-Men United, plus many bound editions of the comics. You can even start with the very first issues, collected in Marvel Masterworks Presents The X-Men: Reprinting the X-Men, Nos. 1-10.
Continue Reading…
I have to admit, I'm not usually a graphic novel person. I was intrigued by the reviews of Persepolis, though, and decided to see what the fuss was all about. I would urge others, even those who scorn "comic books", to give this one a try.
The perspective of a young girl in this book is one of the things that makes it such a great read. You grow up with the character and learn things as she does, so although you receive a lot of information about the politics and history of Iran, it's integrated seamlessly into the plot. The drawings are simple yet expressive, and help convey the the limited viewpoint of a child with their black and white unshaded format.
The novel has a sequel, Persepolis 2, which has also gotten rave reviews. Satrapi has also recently added a third book to the series. Now is a perfect time to enjoy them all!
Most of us are familiar with the X-Men, Superman, Batman, Spiderman, and Wonder Woman. But do we know where they and their lesser-known counterparts came from?
Here are a few books and a DVD to help aid in our discovery of the history of these fabulous heroes:
And for the record...Superman is from Krypton via Cleveland, OH.
