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Summaries of chats and announcements are posted to the right. Use them to add to your own TBR piles and for collection development.
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GalleyChatters
On NPR’s Morning Edition today, cartoonist Ellen Forney talks about her memoir of her own mental illness in the graphic novel Marbles. Several libraries are showing heavy holds on light ordering.
The book is also on the Washington Post‘s list of the ten best comics of 2012.
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D.C. Comics made a splash during a Comic-Con panel yesterday when they announced that Neil Gaiman is returning to his classic comic series, The Sandman. He is planning a miniseries to explain why “Morpheus [was] so easily captured in The Sandman No. 1, and why he was returned from far away, exhausted beyond imagining, and dressed for war.” It will be released some time next year from the Vertigo imprint.
The day before, HarperCollins Children’s division announced that Gaiman has signed a deal for three novels and two picture books. On his blog, Gaiman writes that one of the picture books, Chu’s Day, illustrated by Adam Rex, is finished and will be released on Jan. 8th (9780062017819). He says it is “the first book I’ve ever written for really little kids. Ones who cannot read. Ones who can only just walk.” The second Chu book is written, but there is no release date yet.
Interior art below (Chu is on the far right; click on the image for a larger version):
The other three titles are middle-grade books, says Gaiman, “Fortunately, the Milk (already written), and the next Odd novel (started and plotted) and a mysterious book that I think I know what it is (not even started, won’t be for quite a while, and I think I know the setting but not the story)…”
He is also at work on a novel for adults, Lettie Hempstock’s Ocean, “which should be out in 2013 some time, although contracts aren’t signed.”
The Judge Dredd comics are getting the Hollywood treatment. It’s a classic series for good reason, so I hope the movie brings readers to the source. Unfortunately, it was made into a terrible movie in 1995, starring Sylvester Stallone and Rob Scheider.
The new movie, called Dredd, coming September 21, looks like it will be much better, because it stars Karl Urban, who always brings intelligence, and when necessary menace, to his varied roles. He has quite an acting challenge, since Dredd never goes without his helmet, which covers his eyes. Stallone opted to ignore this characteristic and ditched the helmet. Urban, however, believes the helmet is essential.
Also, Alex Garland wrote the script. He’s no stranger to thoughtful sci-fi given his novel (and the subsequent film) The Beach (Penguin/Riverhead, 1998) and his screenplay for Never Let Me Go, based on the Kazuo Ishiguro novel.
The Dredd trailer released recently and already there is talk of sequels.
Official Movie Site: DreddTheMovie.com
Hollywood is continually signing up comics, with the hopes that one of them will be the next Batman, if you’re aiming for gravitas, or Avengers, if you’re aiming for a lighter tone. The question for library buyers is whether the resulting movies (if they actually come about) will hook readers on the originals.
Most movie fans seem to be happy to enjoy the movie’s universe, with no interest in going beyond that experience. Part of the blame falls on the publishers, who issue lackluster tie-in comics and maintain the currently running series with no obvious ways in to the stories. I find myself sending the few eager readers back to the classics, to those that inspired the filmmakers, rather than the new releases.
In the case of Dredd, I will recommend the collected original series Judge Dredd: Case Files by John Wagner, with outstanding art by Brian Bolland. There are five collections (the fifth was published in June), beginning with:
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The individual titles are available on OverDrive.
Movie tie-in:
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Note: The titles in this collection are available individually from OverDrive
AMC’s Walking Dead weekend marathon, capped by a preview of season 3 (coming in October) brought renewed attention to the Robert Kirkman comics that the series is based on.
Amazon’s sales rankings reveal that there are still newbies to the series. Compendium One rose to #62 from #180. A larger number of fans are looking for the latest in the series; The Walking Dead, Vol 16 rose from #61 to #44.
For more about Kirkman’s series, see EarlyWord Comics contributor Robin Brenner’s earlier post.
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To celebrate the release of Alison Bechdel’s Are You My Mother?, Time magazine offers a slide show of ten other “unforgettable autobiographical comics,” beginning with Art Spiegelman’s Maus.
Several libraries are showing heavy holds on Bechdel’s title.
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As we head toward Mother’s Day, a book about a decidedly non-Hallmark-card mother/daughter relationship, Alison Bechdel’s new graphic novel, Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama, is rising on Amazon’s sales rankings (currently at #29) in advance of its publication tomorrow.
It received an impassioned review in this week’s NYT BR and the author is interviewed in The Barnes and Noble Review/Salon.
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Here’s a great premise: “What if Darth Vader had a 4-year-old?” How would he handle potty time or bedtime stories? That’s the basis for Jeffrey Brown’s graphic novel Darth Vader and Son (Chronicle), which debuts at #10 on the Indie Hardcover Nonfiction Best Seller list this week.
The author was recently interviewed in the L.A. Times and USA Today’s PopCandy blog said, “Something tells me Brown’s latest effort, Darth Vader and Son is going to be quite a hit.”
A few libraries own it in small quantities.
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Yesterday, we wrote that this year’s Super Bowl ads bring new twists; advertisers are using social media both to tease the ads and to make them interactive.
A good example of both trends just appeared on the interwebs; a teaser trailer for the longer Super Bowl teaser trailer (calling M. C. Escher!) of the movie John Carter (based on the first book in the classic series by Edgar Rice Burroughs). The interactive part is signaled by voice-over proclaiming, “For a chance to win tickets to next year’s Super Bowl, look for the exclusive code in the John Carter commercial at this year’s big game!” Viewers can then rush to their computers, pick up their tablets or smart phones to enter the code.
Clearly Disney is pulling out all the stops for John Carter. The first trailer had a “world premiere” on Good Morning America, in early December.
The movie arrives on March 9, with a wide range of tie-ins. Edgar Rice Burroughs’ classic pulp fiction John Carter series, also referred to as the Barsoom series, predates his Tarzan series, and was the basis of several graphic novels. The series began with A Princess of Mars, which was first published as a book in 1917 and is the basis for the movie.
There are numerous movie tie-ins (including coloring and activity books, indicating it’s expected to attract kids).
Disney Book Group is releasing a novelization, which also includes the original text of A Princess of Mars, for ages 13 and up.
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Marvel is releasing a “prequel” (ages “13 to 99” — if you’re 100 or over, you’re out of luck),
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Plus a new graphic novel version (also ages “13 to 99”),
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Aimed at collectors, Marvel is also releasing a pricey omnibus of various classic 1970’s graphic novels based on the series, (ages “13 to 99”),
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Disney Book Group is releasing collections of the original novels (the series is in the public domain, so there are several other editions as well as audio versions available. Ebook versions are available from OverDrive.)
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Other volumes in the series are:
Collected John Carter of Mars, The (Swords of Mars, Synthetic Men of Mars, Llana
Collected John Carter of Mars, The (Thuvia, Maid of Mars; The Chessmen of Mars
Disney is also realeasing an “art of the movie” tie-in,
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How interested are readers in graphic novel adaptations of prose titles?
To consider this question, I looked at recent adaptations to see how well they circulate against my general graphic novel collections.
In my library’s adult collection of over 1,600 titles, none of the top 100 in terms of circulations are adaptations. At number 101, is Nancy Butler’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice. Equally popular is The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born, a series related to but not directly adapted from Stephen King’s popular prose series. Next up is Darwyn Cooke’s adaptation of Richard Parker’s Hunter. The Exile, Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander spin-off graphic novel, R. Crumb’s Book of Genesis and Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series rank in the middle range of popularity.
Adaptations of classics, including JinSeok Jeon’s One Thousand and One Nights and Gareth Hind’s The Odyssey stand on the list just after the far better known Anita Blake, showing that quality and appeal can compete admirably with name recognition.
The losers among adaptations? NBM’s Treasury of Murder series, which is a shame considering the high quality of their adaptations. Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark Hunters series is also a low performer. Interestingly, this is a series I continued to purchase because a reader specifically requested them. In my library, it has a small, but dedicated audience. The Dresden Files adaptations have also sat on the shelf, which is surprising considering how popular the novels are and how open many speculative readers are to trying out the graphic novel format.
On the teen side, there are a few that stand out. Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider, James Patterson’s Maximum Ride, Orson Scott Card’s Ender, and Ian Colfer’s Artemis Fowl adaptations all do tremendously well for the genre. Point Blank, from the Alex Rider series, is right near the top with original works Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball and Raina Telgemeier’s Smile.
The losers for younger readers include NBM’s often lovely adaptations of classic fairy tales including P. Craig Russell’s Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde, the Anne Frank House authorized biography of Anne Frank, Ellen Schreiber’s Vampire Kisses, D. J. MacHale’s Merchant of Death, and Dean Koontz’s Odd Thomas adaptations. That New York Times multi-week best-selling adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight? The first volume ranks at #300 while the second volume has yet to be checked out.
What conclusions should we draw from all of this number crunching?
My thoughts:
What have your experiences been? How much of your budget do you devote to collecting adaptations of prose in the graphic format?
Created for Comics Alliance, as a year-end treat, I present to you the New York Times Graphic Books Bestseller list as an infographic:
Go ahead, click on it, expand it (hit the plus sign to make it fill your computer screen), and take it all in. I’ll wait here.
Created by Wired’s Art Director Tim Leong, this slick representation of the entire year’s data compiled into an easily digestible chart allows us to take stock of the graphic novel market and assess how useful the NYT list is for librarians developing collections.
What did I notice?
The obvious:
Scott Pilgrim and The Walking Dead dominated the charts. Any library worth it’s salt already stocks these titles. Their continuing popularity also happily brought some sturdy new omnibus editions, in the case of The Walking Dead, which can be great when libraries need to catch up or replace tattered, well-loved paperbacks.
To ponder:
Take a good look at that bar graphic of superhero versus non-superhero titles. What does that mean? Are superheroes no longer so popular? Does the NYT list skew away from superheroes? Perhaps, but more likely, it shows that the market is diversifying and that mainstream comics are no longer defined by costumed vigilantes.
Five titles debuted at number one and then disappeared. All are popular titles in my library. They may not have had the juice to last on the official list but they’re still worthwhile additions to library collections.
The top ten publishers are lead by two small houses. Oni Press is #1 because of Scott Pilgrim. Image Comics, as publisher of The Walking Dead, comes in at #2. Oni has been considerate and understanding of libraries, plus they put out a lovely assortment of quality titles for all types of readers. Image has been more scattered, with an impenetrable website and they are just starting to court the library market. The appearance of Scholastic and Pantheon (RH) in the top ten indicates that traditional publishers have made inroads into the comics market.
The fact that only 16 titles were in the top spot points to the limitations of the list for collection development purposes. Once you’ve bought those 16, the list become repetitive.
What conclusions do you take away from this aggregation? What would you like to know from a year’s worth of data?
The premiere of the second season of AMC Network’s [corrected; we earlier referred to it as USA Network’s] Walking Dead drew a total of 11 million viewers and broke basic cable ratings in several demographics.
No surprise, then, that the various compilations of the source comics also rose on Amazon sales rankings. Leading the pack is the seventh volume which arrives tomorrow:
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For those who just can’t get enough of the gore, The Walking Dead Chronicles: The Official Companion Book goes behind the scenes of the first season.
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The comic series creator, Robert Kirkman, published the first in a projected series of original Walking Dead novels last week (more on Kirkman here).
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The NYT, among others, writes today about French singer Serge Gainsbourg, who was an icon in his native country from the ’60’s through his death in 1991. A new film about him, Serge Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life, opens this week.
NPR, however, focuses on the director, Joann Sfar, already well-known as an award-winning comics artist, because he “is as interesting as its subject.”
His books include The Rabbi’s Cat, (Pantheon/ Knopf Doubleday), Little Vampire (First Second/Macmillan) and The Little Prince: Graphic Novel (HMH), which was recommended by Lisa Von Drasek as a “Book to Give Kids You Don’t Know Very Well.” His latest, the fourth in the Night of the Ladykiller, Dungeon series (NBM/ComicsLit) came out in June. Booklist called it “A wonderful addition to the series”
Although some stories claim the movie Serge Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life is based on a comic (it’s even listed that way in IMDB.com), Sfar says it is not, but that he applied “comic book techniques” to the live action movie,
I love [the] Russian way of storytelling, when you put strong picture close to other strong picture, and you expect the audience to do the job….a kind of montage way of editing a movie.
Gainsbourg may be less familiar to American audiences than Sfar. Some identify him only through his muse, Jane Birkin, the ’60’s British actress for whom the Hermes’ Birkin Bag was named (it’s the one Samantha lusted for on Sex and the City), or for the couple’s daughter, Charlotte Gainsbourg who stars with Kirsten Durst in the upcoming movie Melancholia.
Playdates for Serge Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life are listed on the films website, GainsbourgAHeroicLife.com
We are in the full swing of summer movie season, and while there are the major installments we book-lovers have been waiting for (ahem, Harry Potter), this summer is dominated by superhero movies. Marvel keeps churning out film after film in its ultimate mission of releasing the much-anticipated Avengers movie in 2012. DC competes by releasing its own signature characters on the big screen (Green Lantern — in 3D), even though their mediocre entries (excepting the Nolan Batman films) tend to disappoint even die-hard fans.
Other comics-inspired films, like Cowboys & Aliens, opening tomorrow, based on Scott Mitchell Rosenberg’s graphic novel, raise the question: when is it worth picking up the source graphic novel and when, as with the heavily anticipated but ultimately disappointing Green Lantern, (opened 6/17), is it best to wait and see? How do you build your collection to sustain interest as well as anticipate new hits?
In the case of Cowboys & Aliens, there’s a handy 2011 reprint available, and, fortunately, you only have to invest in one book. Few readers have shown interest in my library. For right now, I’m refraining from investing unless the movie proves to be a grand success.
Marvel puts out solidly enjoyable stand alone films from Iron Man (2008 & 2010) to Thor (opened May 6) to the eagerly anticipated Captain America: The First Avenger (opened last week and doing well both at the box office and with critics). The comics, however, require understanding of earlier storylines to grasp and can be impenetrable to new readers. Investing in every potentially relevant Green Lantern comic is a fool’s errand and is ultimately unnecessary. Stick to the solid storylines and authors that are already popular, as with Ed Brubaker’s run on Captain America and Geoff Johns’s run on Green Lantern. Roger Langridge’s Thor: The Mighty Avenger is notable for for penciler Samnee’s clean, bright art and is one of the best reviewed entry tales of the past year, admired by fans, creators, and readers alike. Although the series was regretfully canceled after eight issues, the book still stands as a solid introduction to Thor’s origin and place within Marvel’s pantheon. With all of these purchases, fans will be pleased, books will fly off the shelves, and libraries can stay within their budget.
DC may be losing right now on the movie front, but their books are easier to get into via a convenient entry point. Like Nolan’s Batman movies? Pick up Batman: Year One or Batman: Arkham Asylum (showing movement on amazon — Sales rank: 364, up from 578)
You don’t need to dive in to the current Batman storyline to find a satisfying read with your favorite blockbuster character. Right now, I’m most curious about which Batman volumes I’ll need to collect to anticipate reader interest in villain Bane for Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Night Rises (coming next summer). Catwoman I’ve got covered in her own series (relaunching in fall 2011) but Bane (made all the more exciting because he’s being played by the buzz-worthy Tom Hardy) is more of a mystery. For Bane’s most famous storyline, I’d need volumes one to three of Batman: Knightfall, sadly fallen out of print. Keep your eyes peeled for a reprint, though, as DC knows to count on the movies to generate interest in older titles. Bane has made a more nuanced reappearance in the DC universe as part of Gail Simone’s Secret Six, and her relaunch of this series following a supervillain team is a solid addition to a library’s collection (although be quick, as the six volumes are getting hard to find from vendors and the series has been canceled due to DC’s fall reboot.)
If you haven’t already seen it, check out the teaser trailer for The Dark Knight Rises that briefly features Tom Hardy’s Bane.
Thus, in my library, Batman buzz trumps Cowboys & Aliens. The wind may change, though, and I’m prepped and ready to respond to my patrons if they fall head over heels for Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford battling extraterrestrial threats.
Note: Thanks go out to all my colleagues on the Graphic Novels in Libraries listserv for their help in identifying the best Bane-centric titles.
Beginning in September, DC Comics will relaunch its entire universe — all fifty-two running comic book series — with new number one issues, new character designs, and in some cases, drastic shifts in character origins and line-ups.
These comics will eventually be released in trade paperback. Below is some information to help you figure out which comics to follow and which to buy when they are issued in collections.
Skeptics question just how much reintroducing characters and their origins will draw in new readers. I’d guess not very much, especially since many readers have no idea that such a reboot is in the works (i.e. a significant majority of my library patrons.) Reboots succeed in creating a few fans from folks already frequenting comics shops (and also annoy long-time fans), but I’ve rarely seen such a reintroduction pull in a reader who isn’t already interested in superhero comics. The readers who are eagerly awaiting Craig Thompson’s Habibi or who delight in the gruesome procedural Chew are not going to be won over by shiny new costumes and a bit of new back story. Still, change is good for superhero tales that have gotten mired in relying on hundreds of previous issues for fans to follow along.
The week’s big news in the world of comics and graphic novels is the announced return of Naoko Takeuchi’s Sailor Moon, a much-beloved shojo (or girls) comic, one of the key titles that ushered in manga boom beginning around 2000. Alongside other now out-of -print series like Tokyo Mew Mew and Marmalade Boy, Sailor Moon proved the importance of female fans to a skeptical (and yes, startled) comics industry.
Originally published in 1997 by Tokyopop (known then as Mixx), Sailor Moon is remembered by many librarians for its terrible binding, poor printing and paper quality; the volumes flew off the shelves until they fell apart. Kodansha Comics is resurrecting the series with a brand new translation and a deluxe edition (although what makes it “deluxe” is not yet clear). The series will be released bi-monthly starting in September 2011 and will combine the original 18 volumes into 12 plus one more of side stories.
