2009 Eisner Award Winners Announced!

San Diego Comic Con Now Underway....

....which means there should be tons of news pouring out soon. There's an academic conference on comics held at the convention during the event, and I think there are some education panels as well. But, Comic Con is essentially a trade show, an awesome, awesome trade show. I've been once but want to get back someday soon. Anyway, hopefully the comic-and-education-related stories will pick up along with the rest. And, maybe this year will be another record-breaker for attendance.

Soon You Can Experience New Bone

Jeff Smith is going to continue his relationship with Scholastic and keep the Bone goodness coming. The Beat reports some previously-published material will be collected and new stories are on their way as well.

Nelson Mandela: The Authorized Comic

Though getting some poor reviews, this book is significant because it exists. Here is another review of the same book, I think. Details seem sketchy, but certainly Mandela deserves the graphic novel treatment for his life and work. Thanks to MH for sharing the links!

Western Mass Writing Project and Kids Create Comics over the Summer

Maybe we'll get something like this started up in EP one day.

Progress on Artist's Mental Illness Comic

Working with the notion that people with mental illness have enhanced our lives, the artist shares some pages from what looks like a great comics project.

Having reading the pages, I hope he titles the work something like Petting the Black Dog Under the Chin or even just The Black Dog.

TWILIGHT Series to Become Graphic Novels

Why there isn't an on-going Harry Potter comic book is beyond me. It'd rake in the dough. My guess is this will be pretty lucrative as well.

Vietnam Journal to be a Series of Graphic Novels...

....joining series like 'NAM and graphic novels like Will Eisner's Last Day in Vietnam.

"Harvard of the North" Connects with Comics

More Movie Goodness

Quaint but entertaining short film here. Makes me think of how we all need "hero" moments in our life and how few of us probably get them, take them successfully, and get recognized for them by someone who really matters to us.

A Cross-Over for the 21st Century

ICV2 reports that Batman will team up with Islamic heroes The 99. Talk about comics bringing cultures together! This is a smart move and will hopefully be a good read too.

Comedy w/ Victor Von Doom

Not for little kids, but quite possibly joy in a bottle:

Summer Teachin'

I'm teaching a summer session YA Lit class right now, which is why the posts are further apart. We're reading three graphic novels: The Complete Persepolis, American Born Chinese, and Deogratias: A Tale of Rwanda. We'll also look at web comic Persepolis 2.0 since it is somewhat current.

Happy 4th from Cap and Bucky!

No, that's not me in the Cap suite. I would have filled it out more, everywhere, especially in the ass and legs, lol.

On My To-Read List: New Book on Latino Comics from UT Press

Visit this link to learn more about this title from a professor at The Ohio State University. Books like this, which features scholarship on and interviews with Latino comics figures, are important to my work and to helping the UTEP community see the value in comics scholarship. A text like this should help me as I work to establish both a special collections library of Hispanic Comics Art and as I try to make the case for a Comics Studies Program. And that our flagship institution's press published the book doesn't hurt either. :)

New _For Beginners_ Book Available! Ayn Rand

Press Release:
Ayn Rand, author of the best-selling novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, is beloved by millions of readers, and equally despised by a significant number of detractors. Her novels and her revolutionary philosophy of Objectivism have acquired a world-wide following. They have also created legions of readers who are hungry for a deeper understanding of her writings.

Despite her undeniably significant contributions to the literary canon and the progression of philosophy, there has been no simple, comprehensive introduction to Rand’s books and ideas, until now. Ayn Rand For Beginners sheds new light on Rand’s monumental works and robust philosophy. In clear, down-to-earth language, it explains Rand to a new generation of readers in a manner that is entertaining, and easy to read and comprehend.

Andrew Bernstein, Ph.D. has published on a wide variety of philosophical and literary issues based on Ayn Rand’s philosophies including Objectivism In One Lesson: An Introduction to the Philosophy Of Ayn Rand. His book, The Capitalist Manifesto: The Historic, Economic, and Philosophic Case for Laissez-Faire, was published in 2005. Dr. Bernstein is a Visiting Professor of Philosophy at Marist College; he also teaches at SUNY Purchase (which selected him Outstanding Teacher for 2004)--and formerly at Pace University, and Marymount College (which selected him Outstanding Teacher for 1995). He has taught at Hunter College, Long Island University, and many other New York-area colleges. He lectures frequently at philosophy conferences all over the United States; additionally in Canada, England, Belgium, Norway, Hong Kong and Bermuda.

Owen Brozman is an artist who lives and works in New York City. He has an MFA in Illustration from the School of Visual Arts and a BFA in Painting from Boston University. Publications and clients include 3x3 Illustration Annual, Creative Quarterly Journal, Paramount Vantage, Playboy Magazine, Scholastic, and Ninja Tune Records.

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The book will be available in August of 2009 and can be ordered by visiting http://www.forbeginnersbooks.com. The title has ISBN # 978-1-934389-37-9 and retails for just under $15. I have several of the For Beginners books and absolutely love them! They're excellent graphic resources for those of us who like our theory as clear as it can be complex.

Persepolis Remix

If you haven't seen this cut and rearrange job on Marjane Satrapi's classic graphic novel, you gotta see it. Instead of focusing on the events of the Iranian Revolution, Persepolis 2.0 focuses on the ongoing turmoil regarding the recent Iran elections. No word on whether Satrapi approves of this.

BU Comics Scholar Earns Acquisitions Award

This press release warms the heart of someone like myself who has a longterm goal of establishing a comics-related special collection at his home university:

June 19, 2009 - Boston, MA. The Boston University Humanities Foundation has conferred Division of Religious and Theological Studies (DRTS) doctoral student and comics studies scholar A. David Lewis a Library Acquisitions Award by for a new Religion & Graphica Collection. Expanding on the publisher donations already accumulated by Lewis and the DRTS, this collection, to be house in the School of Theology Library, is exclusively dedicated to comics surrounding religion – either its advocacy, its criticism, its satire, or its consideration – the first of its kind in the U.S. despite enthusiasts and scholars' long-time encouragement.

"This is wonderfully encouraging,” said Lewis. “Following the success of last year’s ‘Graven Images: Religion in Comic Books and Graphic Novels’ conference, this collection will help further both student and faculty interest in these frequently intersecting fields.” The Religion & Graphica Collection will feature works including the seminal MAUS, Persepolis, Palestine, Promethea, and Sandman graphic novels, including scholarly works on comics and religion.

Purchasing for the collection has already begun in full and should be available beginning in the Fall semester of 2009. The project is being overseen by Head Librarian Jack Ammerman.
Lewis is also the author of award-winning Lone and Level Sands graphic novel and the upcoming Some New Kind of Slaughter hardcover collection with collaborator mpMann. Some New Kind of Slaughter, focused on Flood Myths from all across the world, arrives in July from Archaia Comics.

The Boston University Humanities Foundation was established in 1981 following the award of a $1 million National Endowment for the Humanities Challenge Grant to the College of Arts and Sciences and the Graduate School. Their mission is to promote and enhance the work of humanities scholars at Boston University. Learn more about the Foundation at https://www.webmail.utep.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://bu.edu/hf.

Review of _Little Mouse Gets Ready_ by Jeff Smith

I could talk about how delicious it is to see Jeff Smith writing a children's comic featuring a mouse for Art Spiegelman and Francois Mouly. I could delight in conjecturing that Little Mouse's nickname around the Toon Book office is "Artie," and I could wrack my brain over how to write a review of a book with less than 3oo total words.

Instead, I'm going to defer to my oldest son, James, 3. After gleefully guffawing over Little Mouse putting on a pair of underwear (complete with tail hole) as part of his preparation for a trip to the barn, only to be told by his mother that mice don't wear clothes, James requested urgently and loudly, "Can we read it again, Daddy?!?"

When a Graphic Novel is Just a Comic

Sweet little article from The Christian Science Monitor on a mom and son reading comics.