§ Hero Complex takes a look at THE UNWRITTEN, the new series by Mike Carey and Peter Gross, with an engaging premise:
One of the more intriguing comics on the horizon is “The Unwritten,” a fantasy series that starts off as a dark, smirking riff on the Harry Potter publishing phenomena, then blends in some of the bitterness of Christopher Robin Milne’s life (the real-life model for the “Winnie the Pooh” character chafed under the weight of the literary legacy) and finally soars off into its own unexpected directions.
§ Shaennon K. Garrity celebrates the triumph of nerd culture:
I think I like 20th Century Boys because it’s about my life.
When I was sixteen, my mother was horrified by my Sandman comics; she couldn’t understand why I read such gory stuff, or even why I read comic books at all. Now she asks me if I recommend the Coraline movie and what I think of Neil Gaiman, the Newberry medalist. Watchmen was a secret, thrilling thing passed around the college coffeehouse; now it’s the biggest movie in the country and one of the greatest novels of the last century, according to Time. And manga. Don’t get me started on manga. In the manga business, we knew we were winning when we no longer bothered to keep score.
The impossible has happened, the most impossible thing: teenagers think I’m cool. It’s just happened fifteen years too late.
§ Beaucoup Kevin’s advice to a young woman reading her first graphic novel…WATCHMEN:
The problem with starting reading comics with Watchmen is that it’s like you started watching movies with Seven Samurai or Citizen Kane and suddenly find yourself in a video store that mostly has Michael Bay or Peter Greenaway movies, either too loud and bright or too arty for their own good. On top of that, Watchmen is full of metacommentary and symbolism on the art form, a book as much about superhero comics and their tropes as anything else, and that’s why it’s held in such regard by a lot of people.
Nonetheless, he makes some suggestions.
§ A tradition draws to a close as Ragnell and Kalinara announce that real life has made continuing When Fangirls Attack too time consuming:
That’s why I’m posting. We’re looking for someone/some people who are interested in taking over WFA.
Please note that if you are interested and do agree to take on WFA, you would have carte blanche over the blog. Ragnell and I have no interest in being overseers or managers. If you take over WFA, you’re taking it over completely. Which means you would be free to make any changes to our policies, scope, subject matter that you feel is necessary or desirable.
With the blogo/twittero-sphere getting more and more bloated each day, collating links regarding women and women’s issues in comics would seem to be a task for a squad rather than just a duo; hopefully, such a squad can be found. However. WFA remains a valuable aggregator, especially for its practice of just linking and not commenting.
§ Don MacPherson gets a press release about a graphic novel award and starts asking questions…lots of them
The news release is titled “EYE WITNESS: RISE OF THE APOSTLE FINALIST FOR NATIONAL BOOK AWARD.” The first thing that struck me as odd was the fact that I’d never head of Eye Witness: Rise of the Apostle. While I admit that I don’t know the details about every single title published by major, smaller or even indy publishers in the realm of comics, I do keep up enough on industry news to recognize the titles of much lauded and noteworthy releases. Not only hadn’t I heard of Rise of the Apostle, but it’s apparently the third installment in a series of four “award-winning” graphic novels.
It turns out the awards, given by ForeWord Magazine, are given to entrants that pay a fee, not, in itself an egregious act, but MacPherson finds out other things that are not as they seem; the creator of EYE WITNESS shows up in the comments to explain himself.
Heidi:
I was quite surprised by the nature of Don McPherson’s comments on his blog, Eye On Comics. It really appeared Don might of had either a pre-existing agenda where either ForeWord Magazine was concerned, or maybe just any book award which requires a fee (which now a days includes the likes of the Ippy’s, the Ben Franklin’s et al). Secondly, it seemed Don was determined to point out, that the Eye Witness series couldn’t possibly be a legitimate contender FOR ANY TYPE of book award, since he had not ran across the graphic novels before.
It’s been a real hoot to see how many people have chimed in on both sides of the various issues this posting has raised and though he originally sought to somehow, it seems, diminish my work on Eye Witness, the post has served to drive a number of new customers to my website (www.headpress.info). What is it they say, any pub is good pub?
Well, just to clarify for YOUR readers…Eye Witness, (despite Don’s missing out on the three books released in the series since 2004), has won three book awards to date (Sliver Medal @ the Independent Publisher’s Awards, 2007; Winner at the Hollywood Book Festival, 2007; and Winner @ the USABooknews.com, Book of the Year Awards, 2008…as well as two of the three books being named finalist for the ForeWord Book of the Year Awards for graphic novels, in 2006 & 2008).
In addition, due to the unique nature of the books, (combining a work of Christian historical fiction with a mondern day action-thriller) we’ve generated quite a bit of coverage from sources as varied as: PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, L.A. Times, Washington Post, AP, Dallas Morning News, the Oklahomean, Houston Chronicle, Fox News (12+ Markets), CBS News, ABC News, Wizard Magazine, Comic Buyers Guide, Christianity Today, the Christian Retailer, World Magazine, Readthespirit.com, FamilyNet TV-radio, USA Radio Network, Salem Radio Network…among others).
It seems the series is continuing to build momentum as we move forward toward it’s conclusion with the fourth and final book…Eye Witness: Unknown God…tentatively scheduled for release, July 2010.
The winners from 2003-2007 in the Graphic Novel category, in Foreword’s award competition, are listed. Publishers whose books have been honored include NBM, Tokyopop, Dark Horse, and Archaia.
SRS