Are you enjoying these binary dates? We are!
§ John Jackson Miller begins to unpack year-end chartsand has decade-long graphs and other points to ponder.
§ At the Savage Critic, David Uzumericatches DC with some of their last-minute creative changes again:
But DC? I’ve ranted about this before, but there’s a serious trend of total creative team changes on titles going completely unannounced. I don’t know the reasons behind this, but it leads to the impression that DC treats creators (and feels their readers do as well) interchangeably other than their frontline talent. Fabian Nicieza and Tony Bedard have both written stuff I’ve liked, for very different reasons, because they’re TWO DIFFERENT PEOPLE. To treat their involvement in a project as irrelevant to its market appeal is foolish and both underestimates the readers’ savvy and dehumanizes the creators’ effort. I’m sure that there aren’t any sinister motives behind this, but this is the effect it has.
§ Chris Butcher continues his look at manga milestones with Raijin Comics, showing that a milestone isn’t always all positive.
§ The Comics Reporter Holiday Interview series wraps up with Bill Kartalopoulos on Kramers Ergot Vol. 4a and before that:
Jog on Death Note
Ben Schwartz on BPRD
Grant Goggans on 2000 AD
Dan Nadel on Boys
Johanna Draper Carlson on Fun Home
Looking back at this series, it’s probably a better look at the foremost critics of the day than comics of the Aughts (the list of books covered is wildly scattershot,) but the whole series made for compelling reading.
§ Fan blowback on Blake Lively as Carol Ferris — frankly, ever since 23-year-old Kate Bosworth played the mother of a six-year-old kid who is already a seasoned reporter, it’s all just water under the bridge.
§ Things seen cannot be unseen…Valerie D’Orazio digs up Superheroine “Real Dolls” on eBay
§ Interview Korner: Veteran editor/creator Carl Potts
…and an oddity: Tom Mason’s 1975 interview with James Childress creator of the comic strip Conchy.
§ Here are a few links from outside the beltway:
At the forum for the Chronicle of Higher Education, A. David Lewis asks: Would you consider using graphic novels in the classroom? and educators respond — most would.
And last year, we highlighted the world of book bloggers and linked to a graphic novel reading challenge. This year, several dozen book bloggers are taking part in the Graphic Novels Challenge 2010— it’s a good snapshot of how readers who love books and are getting into graphic novels from a less fannish viewpoint choose and react to them.
I used to work at the Chronicle of Higher Education and believe me when I say this is huge that they recognize the even possilbe validity of GN’s.
The times they are’a changin’