YA Graphic Novel Goodness w/ Dr. Carter Come Summer Session 2012

I've already mentioned all the graphic novel's we're going to be covering in ENG 5340, but my YA Lit class is also going to feature several comics. Raina Telgemeier's Smile will be the book with which we open the course. Jeremy Love's Bayou is also on the reading list, as is Faith Erin Hicks' recent Friends with Boys.

That's 3 of 13 texts in the comics format, 4 if we count the cartoon hybrid text in Sherman Alexie's Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.

Several other books will make us of imagetext dynamics as well, such as Jay Asher's 13 Reasons Why and Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

The course will be offered throughout the month of June as one of UTEP's "Summer Session I" classes.

My Summer Pleasure Reading: *Saga of the Swamp Thing*

I've now read 5 of the 6 volumes of Alan Moore's run on Saga of the Swamp Thing, and I just gotta say that I'm loving it.

I don't know if living the Southwest has me yearning for the South, or if the desert and recent humidity has me yearning for bodies of water and marsh, but I've found myself drawn to Swamp Thing since reading Jeremy Love's Bayou and noticing that the eponymous character of that series is a clear homage to Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson's soggy slosh super-hero.

(Did you know that Swamp Thing and Man Thing debuted almost simultaneously, and that both are an homage to an obscure character called The Heap?)

It's also fun to see Moore playing with Watchmen themes prior to releasing that text and seeing scenes and that seem "tested" in this series, as if the bayou of Louisiana became the Brit's natural playground. I enjoy wondering if Moore every visitited the Southern swamps. I enjoy the romance between Swampy and Abbie, the taboo that isn't really.

I also sort of like seeing an elemental character kick the asses of DC's more mainstream capes.

I do think the series could be used in the high school and college classroom, especially as a text to illustrate Southern Gothic literature. I even wrote a rationale for volume 1 of the collected series while working on the Rationales for Teaching Graphic Novels text.

Right now I just want to savor the story's essence, though, as if I don't have allergies and moss makes me feel alive and erotic and connected and free at the same time. Nothing fancy. Just want to say I recommend these volumes.

Seriously, if you like Moore and you like brooding and romance, check out this Mr. Natural/Frankenstein via the Saga of the Swamp Thing collected editions.

WTF??: Zuda Offline

Dammit! Zuda Comics, DC's web comic presence, is shutting down and repackaging how it will distribute its titles. This means no more free Bayou by the page, which sucks. It also means I probably need to rewrite part of an essay again. Hey, you write about the online world, you mess with Lady Change. Wonder if Zuda will be archived and accessible through the Way Back Machine?????

Graphic Novel Reporter Updates

Some intriguing stuff in this week's edition:

* A roundtable discussion on black issues and comics
* News that the Los Angeles Times has added a graphic novel category to their Book Prizes.
* Lisa Coxson teaches comics to ninth-graders in the Bronx.

Two New Must-Reads: A "Quick-Hits" Review

I've just completed two new graphic novels, Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli and Bayou Volume 1 by Jeremy Love. The former is about a professor of architecture who must move beyond his binary ways of thinking to become a whole person, which means reconnecting with the common folk and with his former lover. The latter is being described as a Southern fairy tale.



Both are great reads that are garnering great reviews, and they're both titles that I highly recommend. Asterios Polyp is for mature audiences and is intellectually heady, while high schoolers and onwards should enjoy Bayou, which started out (and continues) as a web comic through DC's Zuda line.

Bayou has won several Glyph awards for excellence in comics among black creators, and Asterios Polyp is a sure award-winner in the making. While I loved Bayou and will read subsequent volumes of the story as they are released in trade form (though I may not follow the strip in its web comic form at zudacomics.com), Asterios Polyp may just be one the best graphic novels ever published.