Magic-Trixie-V3
While Marvel and DC are apparently shipping enough comics to choke a rhino today, may we recommend the quality cartooning of Jill Thompson and the final book in the Magic Trixie trilogy? If there is a finer comic for sale this day, we’d be very, very, very surprised.

1 COMMENT

  2. FINAL BOOK ?!? AAGGGGHHHH!!!

    A charming, fun series!

    As for finer comics… lessee… (haven’t read them yet)
    Fantastic Four Giant-Size Adventures? (Colleen Coover, Herge)
    Brian Bolland’s The Acress and the Bishop? (OMG! Brian Bolland’s Burma Diary!)
    The Radioactive Man crossover? Batwoman in Detective Comics?

  6. Got our family copy today, Emily’s already read it. I’m biased, but Jill really is pretty damned awesome.

  7. Did something change to cancel the fourth book?

    In a July ’08 interview, Thompson stated:

    I’m still working on it. I’m working my way through illustrating #3, and I have four nearly completely written, so I will have to draw and illustrate the fourth book by the end of the year.

    Thompson’s 06/23/09 blog entry mentions future Magic Trixie books, so the trilogy is apparently a matter of packaging content.

    SRS

  8. Thompson’s 06/07/09 blog entry had this:

    Magic Trixie and the Dragon is available this month. Please search them out. I’m have a next to impossible time finding them in the bookstores (SNIFSADSOB) despite the fact that they are published by Harper Collins. I have a feeling that grass roots publicity is in order with me doing the grass rootsing. SO- ALL of the books are available on Amazon.com…and I’ve been nicely supported by some great comics shops. [. . .]

    Hopefully I’ll be able to do more Magic Trixie stories at some point in other shapes and sizes!

    Kids should check out the Magic Trixie blog.

    SRS

  9. Double dose of Jill Thompson today.
    Magic Trixie and the Dragon
    and…….
    Beast of Burden by Jill Thompson and Evan Dorkin graced the cover of the Previews catalog.
    Place your preorders now folks, hitting Green Brain Comics in September.
    Destined for Eisner glory?

  10. Magic Trixie books are wonderful for boys and girls of all ages, including this 46 year-old and his 18 year-old niece.

  12. Marvel had 40 or so titles today. DC had 23 or so.

    Magic Trixie looked like a great book, but it sold out before I could look at it.

  13. I have my copy on pre-order, can’t pick it up until Friday. Now, I don’t know about other bookstores, but chain store Books-a-Million has carried the Magic Trixie books in the children’s department, I’ve seen them there and purchased copies for grand-nieces at my local B-A-M. Then again, my local B-A-M has a better graphic novel selection than the new (now a year old) Borders that was supposed to have the super-duper graphic novel section. My LCS only gets the one copy in for me.

  14. A WorldCat search — http://www.worldcat.org — turned up 154 public and school libraries, 135 in the U.S., that own Magic Trixie Sleeps Over. The Public Library Association has over 11,000 members. I don’t know whether the “Magic Trixie” books were offered through Brodart’s McNaughton program, or what other reasons there might be for so few public libraries owning Thompson’s books. According to the lib-web cats directory, there are 16,887 public libraries in the United States.

    SRS

  15. It could have to do with slashed budgets (and in some cases, nonexistent budgets) for purchasing library materials (books, magazines, DVDs, CDs, etc.). My school library hasn’t had a materials budget for two years. The McNaughton program is mostly for adult materials, as far as I can tell – I’m just the graphic novel selector for Brodart, I don’t know about Marketing and Sales. I can tell you that I’ve made sure the Magic Trixie books have been featured in Brodart’s monthly PRIME catalogs that go out to libraries.

  16. The McNaughton program might have changed in the past few years. When I worked at the Grand Forks AFB Base Library from 1999-2003, I was the library’s book buyer, and McNaughton had a monthly catalog specifically for children’s picture books. The point system was the same as with the other books, but the picture books were bought to own, rather than rent.

    I’m impressed by the sheer number of public libraries. Even if libraries’ book purchasing budgets have been reduced, 16,887 public libraries is still a substantial market. I wonder if there are any studies comparing the turnover rate for graphic fiction (picture books and/or YA books) versus text fiction.

    SRS

  17. I wonder if there are any studies comparing the turnover rate for graphic fiction (picture books and/or YA books) versus text fiction.

    Well, there’s informal evidence that the turnover rate for graphic fiction is higher:

    Among other things, the increase in the circulation of the Juvenile graphic novels is astounding. From July 1 of 2008 through March 31 of 2009, the average copy of our juvenile graphic novels circulated 16 times! By comparison, the average juvenile novel circulated 3 times. That’s more than a fivefold increase, which is a LOT more than I expected. For the Junior High collection, the average graphic novel circulated 6 times, compared to 3 for the comparable text novels. For the YA collection, the circulation of graphic novels is also about double that of the comparable novels. What made this interesting is that until recently, our YA novels included a lot of graphic novels that hadn’t been re-cataloged. THOSE started flying off the shelves once they were moved to the Graphic Novel shelves.

    The topic certainly deserves more research.

    SRS