*The Comics Journal* Recaps 2011: "A Year of Comic Ambition"

TCJ has come up with a cleaver way to avoid posting a "best of" list. ;)

AV Club Chimes in with Best of 2011 List

Not quite a top ten list, rather several lists covering different categories. 'Tis the season!

"Comics Worth Reading" Blog Offers Best of 2011

Johanna Draper Carson and friends offer up what they feel are the year's best graphic novels here.

NPR offers Six Graphic Novels that will "Draw you In"

Click here for an article on 2011's salient graphic novels, according to National Public Radio's Dan Kois.

SLJ Publishes Best GN's for 2011 (Kids)

Click here to see School Library Journal's list.

2011 ALA Teen Read Week was Themed "Picture It @ Your Library"

From the website, with my bolds:

"Teen Read Week started in 1998. This year's theme is Picture It @ your library®, which encourages teens to read graphic novels and other illustrated materials, seek out creative books, or imagine the world through literature, just for the fun of it. Libraries across the world celebrate Teen Read Week with a variety of special events and programs aimed at encouraging teens to read for pleasure and to visit their libraries for free reading materials."

Teen Read Week ran from October 18-22.

UTEP Student Newspaper (The Prospector) covers EPCON!

Like a Brick to The Head!

The 2011 Ignatz Award winners have been announced. As we all know, winners receive notification of their honor the same way Ignatz shows his "affection" for Krazy Kat. (Kidding, of course).

EPCON IS THIS WEEKEND!!!

The second-annual El Paso Comic Convention is being held in the El Paso Convention Center this weekend. I'll be moderation the panels on the first day, which will include conversations with stars of screen and TV and academic presentations by 3 UTEP graduate students, two of whom are my former or current pupils! :)

If you're in the area, stop in, spend some cash, and enjoy!! Click here for more info. Chewbacca's gonna be there! Cosplayers! Billy Dee Williams! Local talent from both sides of the border!

Your 2011 Harvey Award Winners

Lots of Jaime Hernandez representation in that list! :)

2011 Ignatz Award Nominees Named

2011 Eisner Winners Announced at SDCC

Raina Telgemeier won the Eisner for Best Book for Teens for Smile, the first book I asked my summer Ya Lit class to read (just days before it was honored in San Diego!).

San Diego Here I Come!

It's been slow around the interwebs lately, as many of my steady news outlets have personnel doing the same as I: Getting ready for San Diego Comic Con! This will be my second-ever SDCC. I went back in 2002(?) as editor-in-chief of the online comics and commentary site Outcast Studios.

This year I'll be going as a panelist, joining Katie Monnin and others in an academic session on comics and writing. I'll be wearing some comics-related clothing, but I will not be in full costume this year. Maybe next year, though!

2011 Harvey Noms are Public!

Josh Elder and the Reading With Pictures anthology are up for several awards. Great to see a comics-and-literacy text get some props!

Shreveport, LA, Librarian Wins Great Graphic Novel Giveaway at ALA 2011!

LeVette Fuller of Shreve Memorial Library won over $25,000 worth of graphic novels for her community! Gotta love these promotionals, sponsored by Bodart, Diamond, and GraphicNovelReporter.

Holy Crap, That's a Lot of Graphic Novel Programming

The American Library Association is showing mad respect! I gotta get in on some o' dat next year!

MOCCA Exhibit Focuses on Eisner's NY, Runs through August 14

Ugh! Too bad my "Jewish American Literature through the Graphic Novel" class won't start until a few weeks after this....

You could win 20 Grand worth of Graphic Novels at ALA 2011!

The first giveaway was at the Texas Library Association. Now, Graphic Novel Reporter, Brodart, and Diamond are targeting the national American Library Association even being held in NOLA (that's :New Orleans, Louisiana" to the unhip) June 23-28. I know a lot of very cool people who are going to be there, and I just wish they could have taken me with them.

Sometimes I feel like I might be a member of all the wrong professional groups. Or maybe just not all the right ones. Anyway, here's to all those sexy librarians who will be rockin' it in the Big Easy, graphic novel style!

2011 Eagle Awards Winners!

Adam Hines Wins Another for _Duncan the Wonder Dog_

This time the graphic novel takes home the LA Times Book Prize for best GN.