2013 Eisner Awards Noms Made Public!

Click here or here to learn about the comics nominated for the award consistently referred to as the Oscars of the Comics! Maybe one day I'll get to judge these things. I hear it is a heck of a process! *Hint!Hint! To anyone reading!*

2012 Lynd Ward Award Goes to Chris Ware's Building Stories

Awarded by the Pennsylvania State University's Pennsylvania Center for the Book, the Lind Ward Award goes to an exemplar of comics narrative each year. Chris Ware's Building Stories is a fine, fine choice. Other comics were honored as well. Click here to learn more, and congrats to Chris Ware! I'm a big fan!

ALA's Most Challenged/Banned YA Books for 2012 Surpisingly Comicsless

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund reports that no comics or graphic novels made the 2012 list of most challenged books. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian was challenged in 2012 and is a regular on such lists now, according to CBLDF, and since the Sherman Alexie book has comics elements, let's consider it a prose/comics hybrid text just so the sequential art lovers among us don't feel too left out.

Click here for the story and links to ALA's lists of oft-challenged books.

Satrapi Weighs in on Persepolis Ban

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is keeping this ever-befuddling clusterflub from Chicago Public Schools fresh in our minds by helping share Marjane Satrapi's thoughts on the subject. I am excited to see her talk about the issue, and frustrated that CPS is requiring an ambiguous type of training to teachers before they teach the book. Pseudo-censorship at its finest, laced with half-baked stories and rumors and very little transparent truth from CPS beyond a "We'll do what we want" rhetoric.

ImageTexT Special Issue: "Comics and Post-Secondary Education" CFP

Hi, all. I'm pleased to share with you that I am guest-editing an issue of ImageTexT journal, one of the premiere comics scholarship publications. Former UTEP graduate student (I was on her thesis committee!) and current University of Florida doctoral student Najwa Al-tabaa is co-editing the issue with me.

Please consider submitting your work, and help us spread the word. Here's a link to the actual Call For Papers.

The Clyde Fitch Report Spotlights Columbia U Librarian Karen Green

 Click here to read an interview with the influential librarian who has had much success integrating comics collections into the stacks at that most-excellent of Ivy League institutions!

Persepolis Being Banned from Chicago Schools?

 
Bleeding Cool News is reporting that Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel Persepolis may be experiencing a controversy. According to a post from the principal of Lane Tech College Prep High School, the book has caught the attention of someone who doesn't want the book available to students.

Read more about this possible censorship case here. You can access the principal's email address and send a letter of support for the book's continued inclusion in this and other Chicago-area schools, which is also a letter of support for students' ability to access it, read it, and learn from it.

Here's a copy of the email I just sent:

Dear Principal Dignam,

Hi there. I'm James Bucky Carter, an English Education professor and comics-and-literacy scholar. My work on comics and education has appeared in publications from MLA, NCTE, ALAN and ASCD. I have been a keynote or featured speaker on the subject at NCTE affiliates in NY, NH, OR, MO, NC, IO, and ID.

I'm writing in support of the graphic novel _Persepolis_, which, according to some media outlets, is being challenged in your schools?:
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/03/15/persepolis-banned-in-chicagos-schools/

Please trust me when I tell you that Marjane Satrapi's _Persepolis_ is an excellent graphic novel for inclusion in public schools and libraries. As well, my research indicates that it is one of three graphic novels with which teachers are most familiar at the national level (along with Maus and American Born Chinese). Lesson plans and articles have been written on how to teach it. You might see the Marla Harris chapter on teaching it in my book _Building Literacy Connections with Graphic Novels_, published by NCTE and a best-seller for them. You might see Susan Spangler's chapter on integrating Persepolis into the ELA classroom by visiting the online _Journal of Media Literacy Education_. There is also a rationale for teaching the first volume of Persepolis available on the CDrom/ebook _Rationales for Teaching Graphic Novels_. Alan Webb has some great articles and a book on exploring literature from the Middle East in the American ELA classroom.

Simply put, there is no lack of information regarding teacher's respect for this text or how to use it effectively in a secondary school classroom.

I have recommended _Persepolis_ for secondary audiences for many years. I have taught it in my YA lit classes for many years. While it is true that the book can be seen as controversial from any number of parties (I've had christian students express frustration with it as well as Muslim students), its potential to open dialogue and discourse at a time when our country and the Middle East need to find understandings.... Well, it might be unparallelled.

I encourage you to support this inclusion of _Persepolis_ in your school's classrooms and libraries, to encourage your teachers to support the text as well, and I hope you might share this support across Chicago.

Thank you for the work you do. If I can be of any help, do not hesitate to call upon me.

Sincerely,

JBC

Support the Hernandez Brothers Collection and Get an Exclusive Jaime Hernandez Print!

You can own an exclusive, frame-quality print from Jaime Hernandez and support a good cause at the same time! A little while ago, Jaime gave me permission to print an extremely limited run of an 8.5x11 black and white ink drawing of  his beloved character Maggie Chascarillo. Only 50 of these exist, 25 on cotton and 25 on textured linen. They're going for $50 each, and they're going fast!

Two of the exclusive prints rest of a music stand, awaiting your order!

What's more, your purchase not only gives you or the Love and Rockets fan in your life an amazing print from one of the world's foremost comics art masters, but will help support the Hernandez Brothers Collection of Hispanic Comics and Cartoon Art, housed at the University of Texas at El Paso Library (see the post below for information on this collection). That means that your purchase may be tax-deductible!

Above is a low-resolution photo of two of the prints, the left on cotton and the right on linen. The text reads, in Jaime's distinctive script, from top to bottom, "Thanks For Supporting the Hernandez Brothers Collection! Love & Kisses -- Maggie and Xaime 2011."

If you'd like to own a print, contact me, James Bucky Carter, at jbcarter777@gmail.com for directions on how to fill out a check and where to send it. Once I get your check, I will number your print and get it out to you within a few days. In time, you should also receive a "thank you" note from the University of Texas at El Paso regarding your gift. The first fifty checks received get the print. Act now before they're all gone!

About the Hernandez Brothers Collection of Hispanic Comics and Cartoon Art

On February 23, 2010, James Bucky Carter, an Assistant Professor of English Education  in the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) English Department, organized the second installment of an event series entitled "El Paso in the Comics" (EPIC).

With generous donations from the English Department, the Dean's Office in the College of Liberal Arts, the Center for Inter-American Border Studies, the Art Department, and the Sam Donaldson Center in the Department of Communication, Carter was able to bring together local comics creators and publishers from El Paso and Juarez to discuss and share their work with the Border community.

The keynote speaker for the second EPIC was Jaime Hernandez, a modern American master of the comics form. Hernandez crafts stories featuring Hispanic and Chicano/Chicana characters trying to find meaning in their lives and cultures. His  work and the work of his brother Gilbert and Mario on Love and Rockets and its connected series of books is considered some of the finest comics storytelling of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Gilbert (Beto), Jaime, and Mario Hernandez at Comic Con International, 2012

In talking with Jaime, Carter learned that his mother and grandmother had ties to the Borderland and discussed the idea of creating a space that would honor the Hernandez Brothers' connection to this region.

A little while later, with help from UTEP librarians Claudia Rivers, Nancy Hill,  and Luke Jastrzebski, English Department Chair David Ruiter and English Department Library Liaison Kate Mangelsdorf, the brothers' blessing, and a generous donation from their publisher, Fantagraphics, the Hernandez Brothers Collection of Hispanic Comics and Cartoon Art was founded.

The collection, comprised mostly of pamphlet-style comics and graphic novels, is housed primarily  with the UTEP library's Chicano Collection, though various other artifacts are housed where they are best preserved.

Some of the founding donation from Fantagraphics

Goals:
The Hernandez Brothers Collection of Hispanic Comics and Cartoon Art has three goals:

PRIMARY GOAL: To collect, spotlight, preserve, and make available to the UTEP community and other scholars resources from Hispanic/Latino/a/Chicano/a comics artists and writers, with “resources” defined as comics, graphic novels, and related artifacts (original art, scripts, associated publications and scholarship), and to collect, spotlight and make available to the UTEP community comics and graphic novels that explore issues related to the Hispanic/Latino/a/Chicano/a experience. An emphasis is placed on comics and associated materials emanating from the Borderland.

SECONDARY GOAL: To collect, spotlight, preserve, and make available to the UTEP community and other scholars resources from comics artists and writers of other Spanish traditions, with “resources” defined as comics, graphic novels, and related artifacts (original art, scripts, associated publications and scholarship).

TERTIARY GOAL: To collect, spotlight, preserve, and make available to the UTEP community and other scholars Spanish-language comics and comics-related resources.

Mission:

The mission of the Hernandez Brother Collection is to meet the goals set forth above in the long term, and in the short term the mission is to work with companies, corporations, granting entities, artists, and the personnel at other libraries to procure items for the collection, make space for them in the UTEP library, preserve and protect items as necessary, and to display them in the proper manner.

A. David Lewis Talks Shakespeare and Comics

Listen to this podcast that explores connections between comics and Willy D. Shakes. Ol' Shaggstaff himself! I'm talkin' 'bout Shakespeare.

I LOVE IT when folks discuss comics and Shakespeare because sometimes  elitists hold Billy Shaggy up as the apex while shitting on the concepts of comics in the classroom, visual literacies or multimodal literacies. While, of course, the reality is that Shakespeare is, perhaps, the most visual of our canonical figures. His work can be read but is best understood by reading and viewing it. Ahem... like with comics.

I'm gonna talk about this a little bit at my speaking gig at the Denver Comic and Literacy Convention in June. This online conversation over at "The Mousetrap" makes me so eager!

Plus, this is a good source to share with you after yesterday's sharing of the English Journal article on reading comics and Bill Shacklestick.

May 2012 English Journal Boasts *TWO* Articles on GN's

The May 2012 issue of the NCTE publication English Journal  features two articles on graphic novels. Mary Rice's "Using Graphic Texts in Secondary Classrooms: A Tale of Endurance" is a bit of a rehash of previously and continuously made points, which is doubly frustrating considering the lack of citations for certain figures' work (including mine). But, everyone's at a different point along the comics-and-literacy spectrum, it seems.

It does seem a little odd for NCTE not to take an opportunity to hock its products, though, and I know my edited collection published with them still sells. To be fair, I read the copies via PDF, so maybe there was mention of it somewhere in the journal.  But, I remain frustrated at the political nature of education's "ethos" when it comes to citing previous relevant work.

Paula Wolfe and Danille Kleijwegt's "Interpreting Graphic Version of Shakespearean Plays" is the more intriguing and relevant of the two and features a dose of semiotics and Thierry Groensteen. Folks seem to be getting the picture that Groensteen and Kress  match exceptionally well, and that's a good thing. This article would pair well with one I recently published with Theory Into Practice, in which I discuss psycho-social semiotics and comics-across-platforms. It would not have been available for citing in time for publication, so I'm not implying it should have been.  But, I do like that others are going in directions I think the area of comics-and-literacy should go.

Artifacts from Jack Kirby's Design for Shakespeare Play

Click here to read an article about a California college, Julius Caesar, and the King of Comics! A blast from the groovy past!

Two Awesome Comics Conferences This Weekend!

Sequential SmArt, a conference on comics and education, is taking place at Juniata College this weekend. (Where's the love, organizers??) So, if you're in the Huntingdon, PA, area this weekend, check it out.

Also, the University of Chicago is hosting a Comics and Philosophy Conference at the Gray Center.

GNR Posts Great Roundtable on Girls/Women and Comics

Click here for the interesting read!

2012: Cinco de Mayo is Free Comic Book Day

Looking for a literacy event for you and the kids and teens in your life? Try the annual Free Comic book Day, which is always the first Saturday of May. Say? Aye! Feigh? Nay! Going? Yay! 

Irony Comic via The Oatmeal

Just click the link. You'll enjoy it.

TIME Shows Comics Some Love in May 7 Issue

This week, TIME has articles on Alison Bechdel's latest graphic novel, Are You My Mother? and also features a write-up on Joss Whedon due to his role in the Avengers movie.

Here's a great quote from Whedon: "For genre to be ghettoized in the minds of the big thinkers means that they're not thinking big enough."

I heart Joss.

Please Support The Graphic Textbook Project

Reading With Pictures has launched its second major Kickstarter campaign, this time to support The Graphic Textbook:

"Aimed at grades 3-6, The Graphic Textbook features a dozen short stories (both fiction and non-fiction) that address topics in a variety of disciplines (Social Studies, Math, Language Arts, Science) drawn from the list of Common Core Standards used in classrooms countrywide. The accompanying Teacher’s Guide will include Standards-correlated lesson plans customized to each story, research-based justifications for using comics in the classroom, a guide to establishing best classroom practices and a comprehensive listing of additional educational resources."




To learn more, click here:

Disclaimer: I am associated with Reading With Pictures now. Happy to be so associated, in fact.

Comics Get Political in Malaysia

From an April 13, 2012 story in Malaysia Chronicle:

"KUALA LUMPUR,— Copies of a political comic book extolling the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) government have been circulating among teachers in recent weeks ahead of the 13th general elections, purportedly distributed by state education departments."

Big Questions wins 2012 Lynd Ward GN Prize

"Sponsored by Penn State University Libraries and administered by the Pennsylvania Center for the Book, an affiliate of the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress, the Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize is presented annually to the best graphic novel, fiction or non-fiction, published in the previous calendar year by a living U.S. citizen or resident."

Click the link embedded in this post's title for more information and more honorees.