Graphic Novels

Every Friday, Omnivoracious will turn the spotlight on one or more graphic novels, with future installments also including news and special features. You can let me know who or what you'd like to see featured by commenting on this post. (In October, Graphic Novel Friday will return to its normal weekly schedule.)

A female firefighter and a Mexican illegal named Rafi form an unlikely bond in the aftermath of a storm-burnt barn in Slow Storm by Danica Novgorodoff. The book juxtaposes the present-day of rural Kentucky with Rafi's memories of Mexico. Novgoroff excels at showing the alienation of both main characters against a backdrop of sullen, moody clouds and fields. Both the Kentucky landscape and the Mexican landscape have a simultaneously rich and barren quality that Novgoroff's nuanced watercolor approach brings to the fore with aching beauty.

In the few gestures these characters exchange as they pass on their way through different journeys, Novgoroff has captured as much or more as any novel or movie. Clearly a contender for best graphic novel of the year.

This weekend, Seattle is Mecca for gamers. The metaphor might not extend to people actually praying in the direction of Seattle (although I wouldn't rule that out) but it is true that gamers of every kind--from casual console players to hard-core boardgame geeks--are traveling from around the world to attend the Penny Arcade Expo, a.k.a. PAX.

PAX is the largest gamer festival in the U.S., the spiritual successor to the now-more-corporatized E3, and it's just a mad-crazy three-day lineup of "freeplay" games, huge LAN combats, exhibitor demos, a variety of tournaments and competitions, panels, movies, and even concerts--from H.P. Lovecraft tribute band Darkest of the Hillside Thickets to nerdcore godfather MC Frontalot.

So what does all this have to do with books and writing? Well, there's actually some reading going on amidst all the gamer craziness. The latest edition of D&D and many of the creative minds behind it will be well-represented, but here are a few even better (and more traditionally narrative) examples:

• A reading and a panel with actor--and now accomplished writer--Wil Wheaton, who has been called "an almost Mark Twain for the geek crowd." (What, you don't read his blog?)
• Panels on "Game Criticism and Old School Journalism," "How to Make the World Notice Your Video Game Blog," and "Writing for Games." (Love the description for that last one: "Bowser takes Peach, Mario chases after Bowser, Bowser falls into some lava, The End. It wasn’t long ago when writing and storytelling were at the bottom of the priority list, but as these industry pros will tell you, the tide has changed and compelling story arcs and tight dialogue are all being used to create and sell games.")
• Many chances to meet and hear from Gabe and Tycho, the genii behind the very sharp and literate Penny Arcade comic (anthologized for your convenience if you need to catch up).

(Cross-posted to Guys Lit Wire.) --Paul

Every other Friday, Omnivoracious will turn the spotlight on one or more graphic novels, with future installments also including news and special features. You can let me know who or what you'd like to see featured by commenting on this post. (In October, Graphic Novel Friday will return to its normal weekly schedule.)

Ah, The Amazing Remarkable Monsieur Leotard--how well I remember you. Your acrobatics displays were such a fine fusion of geometric precision and untamed artistic angst. Your path across the hushed air spelled out in graceful cursive any number of elegant phrases in French.

What a shame you die on page 13 and are replaced by your young nephew Etienne.

But that's the way it is with Eddie Campbell (and story co-conspirator Dan Best)--never happy to leave well enough alone. Thus, a great man dies not at the end of this wonderfully chaotic freak show of a graphic novel, but near the beginning. This provides the catalyst for Etienne's rather unusual and surreal adventures. Talking bears in waistcoats? Check. The Titanic? Check. Calabrian fighting midgets? Of course!

Campbell's light touch with the art--beautiful yet often disturbing watercolors--proves supple and fluid enough to convey scenes of whimsy and scenes of horror. This might just be my favorite Campbell yet--I can't recommend it highly enough.

Of course, he's not done even when it seems like he must be. The last page reads: "Nothing occurs on this page." And so it goes. Long live the amazing remarkable monsieur Campbell!

In this edition of YA Wednesday, we walk the blurry lines between kids and YA, and YA and grown-ups.

The Kids want YA: What's a librarian to do?
Last week, Publisher's Weekly kicked off a new column, Talkback, with kid-lit opinion pieces submitted by readers. In "My Say: When YA Books May not be OK," a children's librarian explains her process of interviewing too-young children who ask about YA titles, to make sure they're ready for the YA room:

"In recent years, the trend in YA fiction has been toward a proliferation of darker, edgier fare, aimed at a more mature audience. As a result, I don’t ever send younger kids to browse “over there” unaccompanied. It feels too much like throwing them into the deep end of the pool."

Roger Sutton questions her tactics, and wonders if they even work: 

"What we don't know from the essay is how easily kids are allowed to dodge the librarian's best intentions entirely and simply go to the YA or adult books by themselves. That would have been my own strategy as a sixth-grader, particularly if I had had a previous encounter with a librarian that made me feel snooped upon or deflected."

The bright lights of Beijing
If watching synchronized diving, impossible gymnastics contortions, and cross-country biking in the rain inspires you (to contort or dive or... read!), check out School Library Journal's YA-recommended list (posted in early summer) of books by or about Olympic champions including: 

Letters to a Young Gymnast by Nadia Comaneci. (Was there any girl in the 70s who didn't want to be Nadia Comaneci, the first perfect 10?)

Venus to the Hoop: A Gold Medal Year in Women’s Basketball by Sara Corbett, which follows the 1996 U.S. Women's Basketball Team all the way to Atlanta.

Gold in the Water: The True Story of Ordinary Men and Their Extraordinary Dream of Olympic Glory by P.H. Mullen, Jr., an "adrenaline-charged account" of the Santa Clara Swim Club in 2000. 

All American: The Rise and Fall of Jim Thorpe by Bill Crawford

Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler’s Olympics by Jeremy Schaap 

(The video here is Beijing Welcomes You, a music-video-style promotion with welcoming messages: "Flowing charms are filled with vigor and enthusiasm." I also highly recommend Stand up, a history of China's Olympic teams, sung primarily by Jackie Chan.)

Still weighing in on Breaking Dawn
Gail Gauthier speculates on one possible reason that Breaking Dawn disappointed some fans--the characters grew up too much:

"Bella and Edward are no longer in high school. They're dealing with grown-up, family problems, not teen problems. When young readers were reading about people they could relate to in the earlier books, they were willing to ignore the way so many characters roll their eyes, chuckle, and snore, the improbabilities regarding plot, and the scenes that went on way too long. But Bella becomes matronly in Breaking Dawn, and Edward seems as if he ought to be out playing golf."

And a few quick links...
The YALSA blog posted this video encouraging people to register for the first ever Young Adult Literature Symposium, "How We Read Now," coming up this November in Nashville. 

Cynthia Leitich Smith (Cynsations) interviewed Zu Vincent, author of The Lucky Place. Vincent talked about influences, challenges, and her experience at the Vermont College MFA Program in Writing for Children and Young Adults (responding to a question that must have been awkward coming from CLS, who's a faculty member there):
"The Vermont College writers' community is so caring and the faculty amazing, you can't help but dig in."

Is Colleen Mondor the busiest blogger in YA-dom? I think so. Her August 2008 Bookslut column, Bookslut in Training, features a wide coming-of-age variety. She particularly recommends Barbara Shoup's Wish You Were Here. 

She also moderates Guy's Litwire, which reminds me that I totally forgot to plug Paul's post there two weeks ago, with three guys from Fantagraphics Books talking about their early comics influences.

Speaking of Seattle-based comics folks, David Lasky signed with Abrams to publish his graphic novel about the Carter Family. It's not YA, but Lasky's earned serious teen cred by teaching at the nonprofit kids' writing center 826 Seattle, where he helped budding teen comic artists create and publish three 826 Seattle Comic Books: All Systems Go!, Family Portraits, and Happiness?. Oh yeah, and it's all volunteer. --Heidi

Every other Friday, Omnivoracious will turn the spotlight on one or more graphic novels, with future installments also including news and special features. You can let me know who or what you'd like to see featured by commenting on this post. (In October, Graphic Novel Friday will return to its normal weekly schedule.)

Alex Robinson's Box Office Poison is one of my all-time favorite graphic novels. Since then, he's published Tricked and now Too Cool to be Forgotten. The noir-ish Tricked suffered from a plot twist that undermined most of the great set-up, but was still definitely worth reading. Too Cool to be Forgotten suffers from a similar flaw, in that Robinson flirts with the "it was all a dream" cliche. It's almost as if since Box Office Poison he doesn't trust himself to tell a great story with great characterization sans structural cleverness. If you can overlook that, however, Too Cool to be Forgotten is a potent mix of nostalgia and longing, with universal high school experiences thrown in as a bonus.

The concept is simple: Andy Wicks has been trying to quit smoking, but can't. This inability to quit is symptomatic of a larger problem: he's leading an unhappy life. When he's transported back to his high school years circa 1985, he gets to relive his past, including the moment he had his first cigarette. During this sojourn, he faces several key turning points in which he has to decide if he's going to follow the desires of his younger self, or rein that younger self in. Despite making Wicks a little whiny throughout, Robinson has, in the core story, created a fascinating snapshot of a lost time that's tantalizingly almost but not quite within reach.

Today at Comic-Con it was announced that the always experimental Stephen King is offering an original 25-episode graphic video adaptation (running approximately two minutes each) of his previously unpublished short story, "N."
Included in his upcoming story collection, Just After Sunset, "N" concerns a shared obsession between a psychiatrist and one of his patients.

Continue reading to watch a preview of "N" or visit the NisHere website for more details. The entire series will be collected on a DVD available in a limited-edition collector's set of Just After Sunset. "N" will also be adapted as a comic book series in 2009. Viewers will be able to purchase "N" online, and in five-episode blocks on Amazon Unbox. The first episode will be available on Monday, July 28, with a new episode shown each weekday through August 29.

King says: "I'm always interested in new delivery systems for stories and always curious about how those systems work with the old storytelling verities. This one, it seems to me, works extraordinarily well."

--BTP

Every other Friday, Omnivoracious will turn the spotlight on one or more graphic novels, with future installments also including news and special features. You can let me know who or what you'd like to see featured by commenting on this post. (In October, Graphic Novel Friday will return to its normal weekly schedule.)

If you like crazy Mexican westerns, you'll love the new graphic novel from the always fascinating Soft Skull Press: Dead in Desemboque, written by E. Arellano, illustrated by W. Schaff, R. Schuler, and A. Thibodeau. Some sections use black-and-white art techniques akin to sophisticated woodcuts, albeit woodcuts with the quality of watercolors. Others use a more traditional approach similar to R. Crumb, conjuring up surreal Day of the Dead celebrations and spaghetti Westerns. There's a storyline running through this melange of imagery, and it's often bawdy and surreal. But it's the art I kept going back to.

Arellano is a Hispanic novelist and indie musician, and Dead is apparently in the tradition of pocket-sized comic books called historietas sold in Mexico to readers of all ages. Soft Skull Press calls Dead the first one to be sold north of the border. Whatever you want to call this very cool graphic novel, it's something readers should take a look at--definitely recommended.

The Amazon editors and writers you read on Omni every day aren't the only ones reading hungrily around here. Today one of our book buyers, Alex Carr, sits in to give us a rundown on the recently released comic, The Umbrella Academy:

There’s a Secret Invasion going on in the comics industry, but it has nothing to do with Skrulls or multiple Earths. The once-quiet (and continuity-heavy) superhero genre is now overrun by celebrities. Buffy creator Joss Whedon recently finished a twenty-four issue stint on Astonishing X-Men, The O.C. and Grey’s Anatomy’s Alan Heinberg revamped Wonder Woman, and bestselling author Brad Meltzer recast The Justice League of America. With superhero film adaptations filling the seats at the superplex, comics aren’t quite as exclusive (or reclusive) anymore.

Gerard Way, the frontman for My Chemical Romance, is the latest entry in the name-in-lights trend of comic writers, as he’s recently published a six issue mini-series for Dark Horse Comics titled The Umbrella Academy.

(Cue massive eye rolling from comics fans)

However, celebrity be damned, Way does have some legit comic cred.

Comics guru and industry living legend Grant Morrison hailed The Umbrella Academy as “An ultraviolet psychedelic sherbet bomb of wit and ideas. The superheroes of the 21st century are here at last…” And then, of course, there are the covers by Eisner award-winning artist James Jean, whose work on Fables lends a monthly air of sophistication to comic racks. Not to mention that before My Chemical Romance, Way worked as an intern for DC Comics.

Way begins The Umbrella Academy by introducing us to a team of seven oddly super-powered children who battle against a berserk Eiffel Tower manned  by a zombie-robot Gustave Eiffel. And it only gets weirder. Just as Way seems to carve a comfortable niche, the story jumps ahead 20 years, where the children—well, most of them—are now re-introduced as adults and have split apart.

As the narrative flashes between the adventures of the children and their reluctant world-saving adult counterparts, Way’s wit is matched by artwork from Gabriel Ba, whose artwork on the trippy spy thriller Casanova made him an easy choice for this series. Ba manages to make the unbelievable look unbelievably good: angry robots, psychotic orchestras, kid ninjas, chimpanzee butlers, etc. It has the potential for the bombastic, but the tight scripting and clean artwork (love those colors by Dave Stewart) allow for a few quiet beats as well, especially between team leader Spaceboy and The Rumor (who has possibly the coolest power yet: the power of suggestion).

By the collection’s end, Way has barely unraveled even a hint of the threads he has in place, but Dark Horse promises a second series will begin before the end of 2008. Here’s to hoping Gerard Way does quit his day job in favor of more issues for this dynamic new series.

--Alex Carr

Every other Friday (or in this case Thursday, because of the July 4 holiday), Omnivoracious will turn the spotlight on one or more graphic novels, with future installments also including news and special features. You can let me know who or what you'd like to see featured by commenting on this post. (In October, Graphic Novel Friday will return to its normal weekly schedule.)

Some children's books are perfect for kids and adults, even if they don't include that kind of winking irony that can be required for that combined audience. In the case of Susan Schade and Jon Buller's Fog Mound: Travels of Thelonius series, there's another synergy going on as well: between comics/graphic novels and traditional kid's fiction. Each book is a combination of comics-with-words and words-with-drawings, the latter chapters being more like a standard illustrated book. This hybrid works very well, as the word-heavy sections are mostly reserved for conversations and the comics sections reserved mostly for action and the introduction of new settings.

The milieu is a post-apocalytic world in which things are coming back to life and talking animals populate the ruins of deserted human cities. Separated from his home during a flood, Thelonius the talking chipmunk, long enamored of human creations, has various surreal and miraculous adventures. The books, from Simon & Schuster are lovingly constructed and should take pride of place on any collector's shelf. The latest, Volume 3: Simon's Dream, was released in May. Highly recommended.