Notes from the Field

     The July Booklist is the graphic novel spotlight issue and features, among many worthwhile things, an interview with me on the subject of comics and graphic novels in school libraries, the evolution of the form and its expansive future.  Have a look right here.
    

Mythologies

     Our culture is ever more in love with mythologies: Star Wars, Harry Potter, superheroes.  The more that are invented and the more available they are, the deeper we go.  They're so much fun, it's easy to get lost in them, like we might lose track of the forest for how closely we're studying the trees.

     The forest -- the larger world the trees inhabit -- is important, though, because that's where we live.  We need to judge mythologies based on what they say about the world, on their metaphors and lessons, not just on what they say about themselves.  Relating them to our lives draws us outward and helps us engage with the world.  If we go down the rabbit hole of their invented histories exclusively, then the stories draw us ever inward, away from the world.  The best mythologies have always been about something bigger than themselves.

The Most Important Graphic Novel of the Year

     New Kid is a graphic novel about a boy of color entering a predominantly White private school.  It's handled with sensitivity, intelligence, insight and humor and told with great accessibility.  I spoke with Jerry Craft, the writer and artist of the book.  You can have a look at the interview here.

Comics Literature

From Set to Sea by Drew Weing

     Recently assigned to review the magnificent The Vision by Tom King and Gabriel Hernandez Walta, I got to thinking about what could be considered literature in comics form.  If literature is "writings having excellence of form or expression and expressing ideas of permanent or universal interest" (according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary), then let us say that graphic literature does the same, but in the form of sequential art; not simply excellence of expression in the writing and the art, but also in the power of their synthesis to express those ideas of permanent or universal interest.
     So, this is a list of ten pieces of graphic literature.  By no means complete (shouldn't something from Crumb, Pekar, Hernandez or Morrison be here?  Doesn't Black Hole by Charles Burns deserve a spot? Was "Corpse on the Imjin" by Harvey Kurtzman perhaps the earliest example of graphic literature?  What about more work from other countries?), these are what I reckon to be the core titles of graphic literature, extraordinary works that have been, for the most part, culturally embraced.  The list is in chronological order.

Maus by Art Spiegelman
The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller
Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud
Ghost World by Daniel Clowes
Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Allison Bechdel
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
The Arrival by Shaun Tan

LGBTQ GNs

School Library Journal recently published this article on the growing world of LGBTQ comics, written by my fellow Eisner judge, Brigid Alverson.  Filled with excellent information and insights, it also features a few thoughts from yours truly.

 

March

     A slightly belated congratulations to March: Book Three, the final book in Senator John Lewis's autobiographical March trilogy.  In addition to the Coretta Scott King Award, March: Book Three also won the Printz Award, continuing the graphic novel format's strong history with this award (last year, This One Summer by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki took a Printz Honor and American Born Chinese by Gene Yang won the award in 2007).
     This is on the heels of being the first graphic novel to win the National Book Award.  It maybe worth thinking about why a book with this particular political outlook should be accruing so much acclaim during this period of the country's political life.

Action: Captured Again

     The BookFest continues to provide interesting material.  Here is an article from Publisher's Weekly that covers the entire day in depth.

Action: Captured

     With thanks to panelists Jorge Aguirre, Raul Gonzalez, Deb Lucke and George O'Connor, last Saturday's Capturing the Action panel at BookFest was a delight (speaking for myself, at least).  Have a look at pictures of the whole day right here.

Capturing the Action on KidLitTV

     Capturing the Action: Graphic Novels and Visual Literacy, the panel I'll be moderating for BookFest@Bank Street on Saturday, is going to be live streaming on KidLitTV.  If you can't join us in person, please have a look via the link above.
 

Capturing the Action

     I will be moderating the panel Capturing the Action: Graphic Novels and Visual Literacy at the Bank Street BookFest 2016, which takes place on Saturday, October 22nd.  The entire event runs from 9:00-4:00 P.M.  The panel itself takes place from 2:05-2:50 P.M. and features Jorge Aguirre, Deb Lucke, Raul the Third and George O'Connor.
     If you are in the area, please join us.

Talking with Don Brown

     The September 2016 issue of Booklinks features an article by yours truly which includes an interview with the children's author and graphic novelist Don Brown, a short reading list of his works and several suggested classroom activities.  Have a look here.

In Action

     This is an "action shot" from my recent talk at New York Public Library's Columbus Branch, demonstrating a point about sequential art as illustrated in Shaun Tan's Arrival.  The picture was taken by photographer and writer Miriam Berkley and, I'm pleased to say, I'm in very good company among the many subjects she's captured images of over the years, as you can see for yourself by visiting her website.  Many thanks to Miriam and everyone who attended the presentation.

Multicultural Graphic Novels

     The January 2016 issue of Booklinks features an article by yours truly on the subject of multicultural graphic novels, including a reading list and suggested classroom activities.  Have a look here.

If You Steal

      If You Steal, the latest collection of compellingly off-kilter stories from the Norwegian cartoonist Jason, contains two of the finest comics released this year.
     The first is "Lorena Velazquez" a wordless tale of a costumed hero sneaking into a castle to rescue a captured woman from an impossible array of villains culled from the history of literature, comics, pulps and B-movies.  Jason illustrates in a minimalist style, inhabiting his panels with stoic anthropomorphic animals, all of which pays homage to the history of his art form at the same time that it gets under the form's skin and forces us to look clearly at the deep ironies inherent in its tropes and archetypes.  This story brings that dual homage/subversion to its delightful peak at the same time that it gently suggests that everyone needs help sometimes.
      The second is "New Face," which rehashes the classic pulp chestnut of the falsely accused man on the run and the woman willing to help him.  In this instance, though, Jason subverts both genre and form with a virtuoso twist so powerful, it seems impossible that it has never been done before.  Just as the fugitive's situation reaches its climax, the story told by the words diverges from the story told by the art, each branch offering the opposing extremes of how the tale could have ended.  In this divergence, Jason demands that you consider which has primacy, the words or the art; a profound questioning of the essential unity at the heart of comics.
      You can read an awful lot of comics in a year (in a decade, even) and only seldom will you come by an artist who incorporates an examination of the art itself into the entertainment.  That it's done as effectively as Jason does it here is more uncommon still. 

Satisfaction

     The most satisfying thing about being an educator is seeing a former student achieve well-deserved success.  One of my former graduate students recently posted this piece for the Scholastic blog on a subject close to my heart.  It's nice to know there are such thoughtful and incisive people at the vanguard of this issue.

Banned Books Week

    As a librarian and educator (not to mention an author), I would be remiss in not noting that we are in the thick of Banned Books Week, which runs through October 3rd.  As a supporter of and writer about comics and graphic novels, I would be remiss in not noting here that the format is often particularly targeted by challenges.  Indeed, the Banned Books Week official website's case study focuses on Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi.

     Banning a book is cutting off an idea and ideas are the primary force in our learning and growth.  It's sometimes easy to say "well, sure, but not that idea.  That one's just trouble.  There are so many others to help us learn and grow."  But it's the notions that seem most uncomfortable, most painful at first that often prove to be the ones we need to become something better than we are, as a person or as a society.
      Something to consider as you take full advantage of the indispensable intellectual freedom we are afforded here by picking up a banned book and seeing what all the fuss is about.
    

Nonfiction Goes Graphic

     School Library Journal posted a story about "Nonfiction Goes Graphic," the panel at SLJ's Day of Dialog I moderated a few weeks ago, complete with many illuminating quotes from the panelists. You can have a look at it right here.

Day of Dialog

     As a companion event to Book Expo America, School Library Journal is holding Day of Dialog on Wednesday, May 27th, from 8:30 AM to 6:00 PM.  Day of Dialog will feature panels and presentations on new books and trends in the publishing industry.  I will be moderating the panel Nonfiction Goes Graphic, a discussion about non-fiction graphic novels with Don Brown, Claudia Dávila, Nathan Hale, Maggie Thrash and Maris Wicks, from 3:45-4:30.  The authors and illustrators will present some selections from their upcoming works and we'll get into the nitty-gritty of applying comics art to real world issues.  The event is for librarians only, but if you're in the area, please join us.  You can learn more about the event and register for it right here.

This One Summer, These Two Awards

     A hearty congratulations to This One Summer by cousins Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki for winning both the Caldecott and Printz honors.  Their book is the first graphic novel to ever receive a Caldecott honor and the second to finish in the Printz final circle (Gene Yang's American Born Chinese won the award in 2007).  I should also note, in a shout out to my own former ALA awards committee, that This One Summer was on the Great Graphic Novels for Teens list, as well.
     The first time a form takes one of the top honors in a mainstream awards field, it's a watershed moment and well celebrated.  The second time it happens tends to be slightly less notable, but the very fact that it's not quite as surprising means that the form has arrived, that it's established in the view of "respectable authorities."  For the sequential art form it's been a long, hard climb, and there's still ground left to cover to be sure, but comfortably ensconced in libraries and classrooms and in the embrace of the wider world, the most grueling work has been accomplished.  It's thanks to artists like the two Tamakis, who carry the form to ever greater heights, that it's come so far.  
  

Back to Sea

     Among my very earliest posts, I devoted some space to the graphic novel Set to Sea by Drew Weing, which I hailed as the Graphic Novel of the Year (of 2010).  With several years to revisit it and reexamine it, I believe it may actually be the Greatest Graphic Novel of All Time (though Shaun Tan's The Arrival is a tough contender). 
      Publisher Fantagraphics has given it a new print run, and if you haven't seen it yet, don't hesitate (it's available right here).  Even if it doesn't resonate for you quite as deeply as it has for me, it is a compelling work of art and a quintessential piece of cartooning.