The Creator Panel offered an open look into the inspirations and histories of five great comics creators:
Dave Roman, Stan Sakai, Chris Schweizer, Gail Simone, and Raina Telgemeier. Here are some industry-related points that were covered in the discussion:
What is the difference between working freelance and working with a large publisher?
It's easier to acquire an audience when you're writing for a publisher using a title or characters which have already been established, but you're stuck without the creative control you'd have on your own. Most creators seem to be happier with a project in which they retain the bulk of the creative control or create totally on their own. When collaborating, it's best when the writer and the artist know each others' styles a bit before starting so that they can work with each others' strengths.
What audience do you write for?
Stan Sakai started writing Usago Yojimbo for a readership of one: himself. But he gets letters from five year olds to grandparents. Chris Schweizer said he writes for all ages, but is conscious that kids read his work. He said, “there needs to be enough to show that the villain is actually villainous and the protagonist is in peril. I try to make it appropriate for all ages, but I don't feel it's necessary to shy away from those things.” Gail Simone finds that approaching difficult topics in work aimed at kids is a benefit of the medium, “I don't believe in talking down to kids. I think this is one reason why kids went over to manga, because they don't do that.”
Dave Roman talked about the difficulty of appealing to kids when creating a kids magazine, like Nickelodeon Magazine. “When I self-publish I can do whatever I want and write for myself, but the more you meet readers, the more conscious you become of the readers.”
Raina Telgemeier started writing about her own experiences aimed at younger readers but quickly found that some topics, like her having her teeth knocked out when she was eleven, have a universal appeal that a lot of readers can relate to.
How does one get into the system if you can't draw?
The most important part is to write a lot and get yourself noticed. Gail Simone began with a weekly column which developed into a greater project, which led to her being asked to write Simpsons comics.
The process is hard work, but the important thing is to persevere.
Have you ever read a novel and thought “this would make a kick-ass comic book?”
The consensus was that the transition from comic book to a different art form can be good, but the same doesn't really go for moving towards a comic book medium.
Rebecca Krznarich, Reference and Adult Services Librarian, Whitman Public Library
Showing posts with label comics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label comics. Show all posts
Saturday, May 9, 2009
State of the Industry Panel
This panel, moderated by Robin Brenner, consisted of a diverse set of experts in the comics and graphic novel industry including innovative publishers, national distributors and expert bloggers discussing what's going on in the market and what's happening in the comics scene:
Dave Roman: Associate Editor, Nickelodeon Magazine
John Shableski: Diamond Book Distributors
Ali T. Kokmen: marketing Manager, Random House Publishing Group/Del Rey manga
Calista Brill: Editor, First Second.
Brigid Alverson: Freelance journalist, blogger for mangaBlog, editor-in-chief of Good Comics For Kids (School Library Journal) and Digital Strips
I've transcribed the panel as best I could below:
What do you see thats coming up or new things you've noticed in terms of who's reading, what they're looking for and whats exciting? What should we be looking for for our various artists?
Ali: One that just came to me, we are seeing a whole bunch more of webcomics being done created for the “interwebs” which is great. Theres an increasing numbers of publishers being approached for webcomics and that's an interesting phenomenon that started in a void and is coming back to the publishing industry.
Dave: a lot of that content is content that was already published for free on the internet and people have already been exposed to it on the internet so by the time the artist comes out, the readers have already been introduced to it.
John: When you come in with a million viewers per month, your audience is already there when you publish.
Brigid: While webcomics are free, what's not free is comics on other platforms like the iPod. Supposedly apple is coming out with a “kindle-killer” tablet which will make comics easier to access.
How would we advocate for something to be put in a format that could be put on our shelves?
John: Make publishers aware of the need.
Calista: I'd love an email from a librarian saying “we have X number of patrons interested in this certain thing...”
Ali: At Del Ray and Random House, we've experimented with prose novels and gave away the first volumes for free to see how it went. Whats pretty clear ISN”T happening is that it's stifling sales. Giving it away for free encourages people to pursue it further.
John: Dave's with Nick and he and Chris did a survey online about graphic novels, but kids don't recognize that term. But when you talk about the titles, they're interested and want to talk about it. They just see it as a normal book.
It feels like publishers hear a lot from fans and booksellers, but where do librarians fit in and how do we make sure we're heard in a useful way that isn't overwhelming?
Calista: At First Second, librarians in the market are an enormous part of our business focus. We attend a lot of cons, we try to involve ourselves in the library world as much as we'd like libraries to involve themselves in our world. But an easy way to get your voice heard is to start a blog. There are a lot of blogs in several industries that present themselves as a representative of their community. It's also useful to have this outreach from the libraries at conferences.
Ali: in terms of “where do librarians fall in grand scheme of things” As such a tiny part of the huge company that is Random House, I can't really speak for everything, but often the Del Rey manga website, there are forms through which anyone can send feedback, and I read them all. All is taken under advisement. Librarians have been so important to us for graphic novels and manga.
Dave: Comics always been a small manageable industry. It's always been easy to reach out or go to cons and meet people. In other publishing industries, there's a wall of staff keeping people from the powers that be, but most comics organizations are just a few people and it's easy to reach them.
John: We wouldn't be here without librarians. When graphic novels were first coming out, it was thought that comic stores would be the first place they'd be sold, but Librarians came forward and were so passionate about what was being done...
Dave: Libraries really made the difference in expanding the genre. When I first started publishing, comics were mostly sold in comic shops. The bookstores weren't carrying them yet and it was before graphic novels. If a publisher wanted to put out a book but you couldn't get it into a comic shop, that was a deal breaker. Librarians helped expand that. Books that weren't being sold in comic shops were being picked up by librarians and marketed to a different audience. Now girls and kids are reading them more and we're able to sell enough copies to make more things worth publishing.
How do we say what we want? It feels like we've been trying to communicate for a long time and it's taken a while for a response. What do we need to know about how the system works?
Ali: If someone gives you a perfect graphic novel today, how long does it take to run?
Calista: Something like 16 months for color, 8 months for black and white... If there's something that we decide that people need to be reading RIGHT NOW, what “right now” means is that we decide in January and it's out in September. That said, trends don't move that fast either and we're not in the business of picking up on every trend out there. One thing I have observed is the gap in the market for 5-7 year olds. There are submissions for terrific middle grade tween and YA books and the world could not be fuller of richness for them, but anything from 5-7 there's silence. I'm grateful for teen books, but there's so much less for this age group.
Dave: There's no market for it. There seems to be no publishers who want to make books for that age. In the comics industry, saying you want to make comics for kids is like saying “I don't want to sell the book.” You have to say it's for “all ages” because if you say it's for kids, bookstores won't buy it.
Calista: in the world of children's publishing, saying “all ages” is an anathema, it's poison for the book. It's much harder to sell books for all ages in the traditional publishing market.
Dave: cartoonists have a hard time working around that. What makes it hard is that the biggest success stories buck that. Jeff Smith (the creator of Bone) REFUSES to say that he made the book for kids. John: This generation of the comics industry thought that comics should be sold in comic shops, of which there's only 3500, but once they started selling to libraries they realized the greater potential; there's over a million of them.
Brigid: There's almost two different cultures here; traditional comic book culture and the book culture. Comics are small and disposable and you buy them certain places and they're floppy, but I'm thinking of Tiny Titans and it's not that at all.
Dave: The comics thing is huge. We did comics for kids and we found that we had to choose titles that were already there. Diary of a Wimpy Kid is one of the few that were successful without a TV show. Pokemon, Naruto, they're popular because they have a TV show. It was hard to make a kids comic that's an original story that nobody's heard of; you might only sell 500 copies.
Is there any possibility for large print graphic novels?:
Calista: On a practical level, there's an issue of efficiency. Comics aren't necessarily the most efficient way of telling a story, just in terms of the space they take up. There has to be some compromise to tell the story and not take 400 pages to do it. Its something we think about on the production end...
Librarians don't like to withhold anything and there's a lot of debate between which ratings are useful and which are not. What do you think of age ratings?
Ali: If publishers agreed on some form of self-censorship with someone to submit our material, that would be terrifying. It would take so much time and so long to process.
John: There doesn't need to be a label on the book because you will discourage kids, if it says 5-8 and there's a boy who's 12, he won't read it. It's hard for retailers and catalogers when buying them though, to determine who the target is for the books. The publishers need to help librarians figure out where the book belongs on the shelf so they don't get hurt later. It's important to be able to defend the book's place in its particular section at the library.
Calista: I think it's funny that publishers think they have any idea who the intended audience is. We put “adult” in the catalog but not on the books... With graphic novels, the things that are put out for teens, there's no way could be put on a screen. There's content issues in what you can show, they're very different from print publishers...
Ali: There are quantifiable measures you could take for a prose novel. Those are useful tools, but there's not an analogous tool for graphic novels. I just think that the way of taking in that information is different.
Brigid: My daughters are 14-16 and they started reading manga when they were 9, and when I saw it I thought “Manga! that's porn!” and I snatched it away. I read a lot of comics growing up, and when I started reading their manga I realized that it's the same sort of story type.
Ali: Check out http://www.mangablog.net !
Brigid: Other parents come to me about it. Other things about the ratings, kids always rate up. My kids watched PG13 when they were 10 and now they're on to R rated movies. Manga ratings are incredibly conservative and that's fine, but there's nothing there that they're not already seeing on TV. But if you take a book like Fruits Basket and one like Peach Girl and they look alike. As much as everyone hates ratings and they do have flaws in them, they're useful for parents.
Dave: Prose books have the advantage of being hard to read as opposed to comics. You can describe horrific violent illegal activity in prose, but you actually have to read it. With GN its like “There's nipples! There's a panty shot on that page!”
John: The editor is becoming more and more important. You don't want the creator to be chained to the story; the editor might ask “Is that gratuitous?” and unless they can explain why it's important, they might go back and take something out. The great thing about this format is that you can see if its dishonest or disingenuous in any way. It's more important for this format than it is for typical prose.
Calista: Eediting these books is important, especially for younger readers. There's some stuff you would imagine being an issue but things like lettering, text, how hard you want the reader to have to work to read it. It's a skill set you have to learn by screwing up again and again, which is when feedback is useful.
Dave: I don't think ratings are something the comics world is ready to deal with. Nick is coming out with an Iron Man cartoon and they wanted me to put it in the Nickelodeon magazine. Google Iron Man comic and the first thing that comes up is IM surrounded by strippers and he's doing blow in Vegas. I think SuperHero comics are drug dealers. They lure you in with Tiny Titans but they really want you to be reading Dark Knight. It's hard for kids to understand “this is YOUR Iron Man and this is OUR Iron Man. Your Batman, OUR batman.”
With age range, you said that people read up. Some pub will intentionally market things for teens or kids won't read them.
Calista: when I was at Disney, the worst thing you could do is try to do a younger version of something at the same time as an older cause you kill the older audience.
Ali: A huge factor for publishers is the great divide for age buyers. Kids readers used to want regular comics so publishers are highly motivated to make something not look like a kids book... Now there's more stuff that might straddle the line.
Dave: It's not only a censorship thing, it's a marketing thing. If comics sell 5,000 it's huge. Anything you did to cut off the audience is potentially alienating people.
Rebecca Krznarich, Reference and Adult Services Librarian, Whitman Public Library
Dave Roman: Associate Editor, Nickelodeon Magazine
John Shableski: Diamond Book Distributors
Ali T. Kokmen: marketing Manager, Random House Publishing Group/Del Rey manga
Calista Brill: Editor, First Second.
Brigid Alverson: Freelance journalist, blogger for mangaBlog, editor-in-chief of Good Comics For Kids (School Library Journal) and Digital Strips
I've transcribed the panel as best I could below:
What do you see thats coming up or new things you've noticed in terms of who's reading, what they're looking for and whats exciting? What should we be looking for for our various artists?
Ali: One that just came to me, we are seeing a whole bunch more of webcomics being done created for the “interwebs” which is great. Theres an increasing numbers of publishers being approached for webcomics and that's an interesting phenomenon that started in a void and is coming back to the publishing industry.
Dave: a lot of that content is content that was already published for free on the internet and people have already been exposed to it on the internet so by the time the artist comes out, the readers have already been introduced to it.
John: When you come in with a million viewers per month, your audience is already there when you publish.
Brigid: While webcomics are free, what's not free is comics on other platforms like the iPod. Supposedly apple is coming out with a “kindle-killer” tablet which will make comics easier to access.
How would we advocate for something to be put in a format that could be put on our shelves?
John: Make publishers aware of the need.
Calista: I'd love an email from a librarian saying “we have X number of patrons interested in this certain thing...”
Ali: At Del Ray and Random House, we've experimented with prose novels and gave away the first volumes for free to see how it went. Whats pretty clear ISN”T happening is that it's stifling sales. Giving it away for free encourages people to pursue it further.
John: Dave's with Nick and he and Chris did a survey online about graphic novels, but kids don't recognize that term. But when you talk about the titles, they're interested and want to talk about it. They just see it as a normal book.
It feels like publishers hear a lot from fans and booksellers, but where do librarians fit in and how do we make sure we're heard in a useful way that isn't overwhelming?
Calista: At First Second, librarians in the market are an enormous part of our business focus. We attend a lot of cons, we try to involve ourselves in the library world as much as we'd like libraries to involve themselves in our world. But an easy way to get your voice heard is to start a blog. There are a lot of blogs in several industries that present themselves as a representative of their community. It's also useful to have this outreach from the libraries at conferences.
Ali: in terms of “where do librarians fall in grand scheme of things” As such a tiny part of the huge company that is Random House, I can't really speak for everything, but often the Del Rey manga website, there are forms through which anyone can send feedback, and I read them all. All is taken under advisement. Librarians have been so important to us for graphic novels and manga.
Dave: Comics always been a small manageable industry. It's always been easy to reach out or go to cons and meet people. In other publishing industries, there's a wall of staff keeping people from the powers that be, but most comics organizations are just a few people and it's easy to reach them.
John: We wouldn't be here without librarians. When graphic novels were first coming out, it was thought that comic stores would be the first place they'd be sold, but Librarians came forward and were so passionate about what was being done...
Dave: Libraries really made the difference in expanding the genre. When I first started publishing, comics were mostly sold in comic shops. The bookstores weren't carrying them yet and it was before graphic novels. If a publisher wanted to put out a book but you couldn't get it into a comic shop, that was a deal breaker. Librarians helped expand that. Books that weren't being sold in comic shops were being picked up by librarians and marketed to a different audience. Now girls and kids are reading them more and we're able to sell enough copies to make more things worth publishing.
How do we say what we want? It feels like we've been trying to communicate for a long time and it's taken a while for a response. What do we need to know about how the system works?
Ali: If someone gives you a perfect graphic novel today, how long does it take to run?
Calista: Something like 16 months for color, 8 months for black and white... If there's something that we decide that people need to be reading RIGHT NOW, what “right now” means is that we decide in January and it's out in September. That said, trends don't move that fast either and we're not in the business of picking up on every trend out there. One thing I have observed is the gap in the market for 5-7 year olds. There are submissions for terrific middle grade tween and YA books and the world could not be fuller of richness for them, but anything from 5-7 there's silence. I'm grateful for teen books, but there's so much less for this age group.
Dave: There's no market for it. There seems to be no publishers who want to make books for that age. In the comics industry, saying you want to make comics for kids is like saying “I don't want to sell the book.” You have to say it's for “all ages” because if you say it's for kids, bookstores won't buy it.
Calista: in the world of children's publishing, saying “all ages” is an anathema, it's poison for the book. It's much harder to sell books for all ages in the traditional publishing market.
Dave: cartoonists have a hard time working around that. What makes it hard is that the biggest success stories buck that. Jeff Smith (the creator of Bone) REFUSES to say that he made the book for kids. John: This generation of the comics industry thought that comics should be sold in comic shops, of which there's only 3500, but once they started selling to libraries they realized the greater potential; there's over a million of them.
Brigid: There's almost two different cultures here; traditional comic book culture and the book culture. Comics are small and disposable and you buy them certain places and they're floppy, but I'm thinking of Tiny Titans and it's not that at all.
Dave: The comics thing is huge. We did comics for kids and we found that we had to choose titles that were already there. Diary of a Wimpy Kid is one of the few that were successful without a TV show. Pokemon, Naruto, they're popular because they have a TV show. It was hard to make a kids comic that's an original story that nobody's heard of; you might only sell 500 copies.
Is there any possibility for large print graphic novels?:
Calista: On a practical level, there's an issue of efficiency. Comics aren't necessarily the most efficient way of telling a story, just in terms of the space they take up. There has to be some compromise to tell the story and not take 400 pages to do it. Its something we think about on the production end...
Librarians don't like to withhold anything and there's a lot of debate between which ratings are useful and which are not. What do you think of age ratings?
Ali: If publishers agreed on some form of self-censorship with someone to submit our material, that would be terrifying. It would take so much time and so long to process.
John: There doesn't need to be a label on the book because you will discourage kids, if it says 5-8 and there's a boy who's 12, he won't read it. It's hard for retailers and catalogers when buying them though, to determine who the target is for the books. The publishers need to help librarians figure out where the book belongs on the shelf so they don't get hurt later. It's important to be able to defend the book's place in its particular section at the library.
Calista: I think it's funny that publishers think they have any idea who the intended audience is. We put “adult” in the catalog but not on the books... With graphic novels, the things that are put out for teens, there's no way could be put on a screen. There's content issues in what you can show, they're very different from print publishers...
Ali: There are quantifiable measures you could take for a prose novel. Those are useful tools, but there's not an analogous tool for graphic novels. I just think that the way of taking in that information is different.
Brigid: My daughters are 14-16 and they started reading manga when they were 9, and when I saw it I thought “Manga! that's porn!” and I snatched it away. I read a lot of comics growing up, and when I started reading their manga I realized that it's the same sort of story type.
Ali: Check out http://www.mangablog.net !
Brigid: Other parents come to me about it. Other things about the ratings, kids always rate up. My kids watched PG13 when they were 10 and now they're on to R rated movies. Manga ratings are incredibly conservative and that's fine, but there's nothing there that they're not already seeing on TV. But if you take a book like Fruits Basket and one like Peach Girl and they look alike. As much as everyone hates ratings and they do have flaws in them, they're useful for parents.
Dave: Prose books have the advantage of being hard to read as opposed to comics. You can describe horrific violent illegal activity in prose, but you actually have to read it. With GN its like “There's nipples! There's a panty shot on that page!”
John: The editor is becoming more and more important. You don't want the creator to be chained to the story; the editor might ask “Is that gratuitous?” and unless they can explain why it's important, they might go back and take something out. The great thing about this format is that you can see if its dishonest or disingenuous in any way. It's more important for this format than it is for typical prose.
Calista: Eediting these books is important, especially for younger readers. There's some stuff you would imagine being an issue but things like lettering, text, how hard you want the reader to have to work to read it. It's a skill set you have to learn by screwing up again and again, which is when feedback is useful.
Dave: I don't think ratings are something the comics world is ready to deal with. Nick is coming out with an Iron Man cartoon and they wanted me to put it in the Nickelodeon magazine. Google Iron Man comic and the first thing that comes up is IM surrounded by strippers and he's doing blow in Vegas. I think SuperHero comics are drug dealers. They lure you in with Tiny Titans but they really want you to be reading Dark Knight. It's hard for kids to understand “this is YOUR Iron Man and this is OUR Iron Man. Your Batman, OUR batman.”
With age range, you said that people read up. Some pub will intentionally market things for teens or kids won't read them.
Calista: when I was at Disney, the worst thing you could do is try to do a younger version of something at the same time as an older cause you kill the older audience.
Ali: A huge factor for publishers is the great divide for age buyers. Kids readers used to want regular comics so publishers are highly motivated to make something not look like a kids book... Now there's more stuff that might straddle the line.
Dave: It's not only a censorship thing, it's a marketing thing. If comics sell 5,000 it's huge. Anything you did to cut off the audience is potentially alienating people.
Rebecca Krznarich, Reference and Adult Services Librarian, Whitman Public Library
Friday, May 8, 2009
Get With the Program! Teaching, Programs and Hands-On Demonstrations Using Comics
Both Stan Sakai (Usagi Yojimbo) and Chris Schweizer (Crogan's Vengeance) create comics based on events in history and tell the story of the time from the point of view of a unique character; Schweizer's is a young boy and Sakai's is a samurai rabbit. Both say that they don't write for a kids market; Schweizer says he writes for an adult market and Sakai says he writes for himself. Despite this, both create comics with strong youth appeal.
The panel started with Chris Schweizer explaining how comics can help build vocabulary and reading comprehension for young readers. There is something inviting about comics that make them more attractive to kids than traditional prose. Even complex comics can be more interesting for kids to read and are less difficult to comprehend than their prose cousins, despite the advanced vocabulary and plot complexities.
On the surface, comics seem more fun, but it's a strong mode of storytelling defined by forcible exercises in logical deduction. Between two comic panels, the reader must logically conclude the events that are not seen. It's a classic example of Occam's Razor: the reader assumes the least complex and most likely explanation for things not visually presented in the story.
Schweizer noted, “I don't try to age down my vocabulary or sentence structure; I'm confident that readers will be able to discern the clues from the context.” He made the point that through the juxtaposition of words and pictures, comics have the potential to make unfamiliar words accessible due to the contest in which they are read.
Classic adventure books of 19th and 20th century, which were devoured by young boys, are shockingly complex reads today. As pleasure reads, they take a lot of conscious effort. Those same stories in the form of comic adaptations can be a staple for understanding canonical literature classics.
Schweizer's own comics highlight historical facts and showcase how various time periods relate to each other. He noted that kids often look at history as having very clear specific rights and wrongs, so his goal is to show multiple sides of different historical issues.
The best part Chris's presentation was hearing him read several pages of his comic in full voice actor mode. I think he managed to create a different voice with unique accenting for about ten different pirate characters in addition to sound effects.
In the second half of the program, Stan Sakai discussed the process of bringing historic fact into the creation of unique characters.
Sakai's early interest in comics and samurai movies led to creating his comic Usagi Yojimbo. Comics gave him a love for reading and he wanted to incorporate the two into a single art form and thus became a freelance cartoonist.
Usagi's adventures take place in 17th century Japan which is a time of turmoil in Japan and a very turbulent time in history. Sakai explained that Usagi is a character run story. One strong female character in Usagi Yojimbo, a body guard to a young lord in Japan, was based on the wife of a real historical character who, while her samurai husband was dying at her side, jumped on her horse, charged forward, and cut off the opposing general's head. Another character was inspired by a character in Japanese pop culture: a blind swordsman whose amazing sense of hearing led him to be very precise with a sword. The character in the comic is a Samurai whose strength comes from his strong sense of smell.
Stan finished his discussion with a quick comic sketch of what one attendee did on the way to the MLA conference. In the span of a few minutes, Sakai created a full paneled comic page that was clever and detailed.
Chris Schweizer's next book, Crogan's March, based on the French Foreign Legion, will be out in October. Stan Sakai's full color graphic novel, Usagi Yojimbo: Yokai will be out in November.
Rebecca Krznarich, Reference and Adult Services Librarian, Whitman Public Library
The panel started with Chris Schweizer explaining how comics can help build vocabulary and reading comprehension for young readers. There is something inviting about comics that make them more attractive to kids than traditional prose. Even complex comics can be more interesting for kids to read and are less difficult to comprehend than their prose cousins, despite the advanced vocabulary and plot complexities.
On the surface, comics seem more fun, but it's a strong mode of storytelling defined by forcible exercises in logical deduction. Between two comic panels, the reader must logically conclude the events that are not seen. It's a classic example of Occam's Razor: the reader assumes the least complex and most likely explanation for things not visually presented in the story.
Schweizer noted, “I don't try to age down my vocabulary or sentence structure; I'm confident that readers will be able to discern the clues from the context.” He made the point that through the juxtaposition of words and pictures, comics have the potential to make unfamiliar words accessible due to the contest in which they are read.
Classic adventure books of 19th and 20th century, which were devoured by young boys, are shockingly complex reads today. As pleasure reads, they take a lot of conscious effort. Those same stories in the form of comic adaptations can be a staple for understanding canonical literature classics.
Schweizer's own comics highlight historical facts and showcase how various time periods relate to each other. He noted that kids often look at history as having very clear specific rights and wrongs, so his goal is to show multiple sides of different historical issues.
The best part Chris's presentation was hearing him read several pages of his comic in full voice actor mode. I think he managed to create a different voice with unique accenting for about ten different pirate characters in addition to sound effects.
In the second half of the program, Stan Sakai discussed the process of bringing historic fact into the creation of unique characters.
Sakai's early interest in comics and samurai movies led to creating his comic Usagi Yojimbo. Comics gave him a love for reading and he wanted to incorporate the two into a single art form and thus became a freelance cartoonist.
Usagi's adventures take place in 17th century Japan which is a time of turmoil in Japan and a very turbulent time in history. Sakai explained that Usagi is a character run story. One strong female character in Usagi Yojimbo, a body guard to a young lord in Japan, was based on the wife of a real historical character who, while her samurai husband was dying at her side, jumped on her horse, charged forward, and cut off the opposing general's head. Another character was inspired by a character in Japanese pop culture: a blind swordsman whose amazing sense of hearing led him to be very precise with a sword. The character in the comic is a Samurai whose strength comes from his strong sense of smell.
Stan finished his discussion with a quick comic sketch of what one attendee did on the way to the MLA conference. In the span of a few minutes, Sakai created a full paneled comic page that was clever and detailed.
Chris Schweizer's next book, Crogan's March, based on the French Foreign Legion, will be out in October. Stan Sakai's full color graphic novel, Usagi Yojimbo: Yokai will be out in November.
Rebecca Krznarich, Reference and Adult Services Librarian, Whitman Public Library
Friday, May 9, 2008
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Library
A long, long time ago (at least 4 months), I was bumming around the site of the best web comic strip ever and I saw on their calendar that the creators were planning a trip out to Massachusetts to give a talk. I clicked on the pretty blue hypertext to find out where they would be speaking and discovered a broken link. I tried it again the next day and a few days later and then I thought (in that discouraged and somewhat angry tone), well fine, if they don't care enough to keep their links active, I don't care enough to find out where they're speaking. Then a few more days went by and I changed my mind, emailed the creators and got back a very nice email saying "oops!" They cleared up that they would be speaking at the Massachusetts Library Association Annual Conference in Falmouth, MA in May. From that day on I had one mission: to get to the MLA Annual Conference in Falmouth in May. Well, today my desires were satisfied when I sat in Ballroom One of the Seacrest Resort and Conference Center and heard Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum talk about their comic strip, Unshelved.
The session began by satisfying what I guess has been a longtime dream of Gene's, to hit a beach ball around a conference center ballroom. After a bit, a couple of hits in the face and a brief conversation with Bill, they began their session.Unshelved is a web comic strip about a library in the fictional town of Mallville. It centers around
Dewey, the young, male teen-services library (on whom I have a rather significant crush), the rest of the Mallville Library staff and of course, the crazy patrons. Check out the Primer on the website to find out who's who.Gene and Bill kept us laughing throughout their entire presentation. They introduced the staff, told about the history of the strip, explained where the idea and the current story lines come from (many from reader's stories) and hit on topics that are way closer to home than many of the librarians in the audience would like to think about on a day away from the library, and somehow, way funnier when told in pen and paper.
They not only made the audience laugh, but made us feel right at home with them. They practically begged for our stories and were friendly and personable when signing book. After the session a fellow school librarian turned to me and said, "This was the best session I've attended all conference. Thank you for dragging me!"
Oh, and they have a new book coming out, check it out here!
-Sarah C.
Monday, May 14, 2007
More press about MLA speakers
A couple of interviews popped up during the last week with comics creator Terry Moore, who spoke on an MLA panel about Girls + Comix. Last week Terry was featured in this article at Newsarama about ending the award-winning series Strangers in Paradise. Then there was an article this past Sunday in the Houston Chronicle with Terry and his wife Robyn (pictured left) about the independent publishing of comics. Check them out. They're great interviews.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Girls and comics
Robin Brenner, moderator, is asking the panel to talk about how they got into comic book writing/illustrating and what inspires them.
Bettina Kurkoski, the creator/writer/artist of My Cat Loki is speaking ab out how she got into comics little by little over the years and eventually has found Manga. Her inspiration comes the real world, cats, and her wild and crazy dreams
Terry Moore is responsible for titles such as Birds of Prey for DC Comics, Wildstorm's Gen 13, Ultimate Team-Up for Marvel, Darkness-Vampirella for Top Cow, and most recently, Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror for Bongo Comics. He jumbled up all his characters adn threw them into a pot and mixed them up and got his idea for Stangers in Paradise. Also, he reports his view that men and women are 2 different species that are tyring to co-exist on the same planet. He says that in the midst of this chaos, you look for tranquility, love, partnerships. The goal of his series is to leave something of lasting worth in libraries.
Gail Simone is a former hairdresser who has in the last five years become arguably the busiest and highest profile female writer in the comic book industry. She has written comics exclusively for DC Comics, with such high-level titles as Justice League, Birds of Prey, Rose and Thorn, Legion of Superheroes, Teen Titans, Villains United, and their flagship title, Action Comics featuring Superman, among others. In addition, she has written for animation as well, for the critically acclaimed series Justice League Unlimited. She's been an avid reader her whole life and loves comic books as much as any other book. She started with a few parody pieces related to books and comics which lead to a weekly column about comics. Her first work was with Bongo doing Simpsons comics.
Next question - We are growing aware of the role of strong female lead characters. Important to target girls reading comics. How do you reach this audience?
Terry - he was looking for book to read and so he wrote it. He can't explain his demographic - lots of differnt types of people read his work. His writing is really promoted by word of mouth. He is very popular on college campuses and word spreads even tho there was no advertising, no bookstore support. The first ones have sold over 1 million copies and translated into 10 languages all with word of mouth promotion.
Gail - when she sits down to write, she does not aim to appeal only to young women. She tries to appeal to a broad demographic. She thinks that the Internet has leveled the field for girls because comic book stores used to be kind of hard to go into for a girl; it was a male domain. It has become easier for girls to be enthusiastic for comics now - mostly because of the Internet.
Bettina also does not aim only to appeal to young women. She writes whatever she pleases! She has been surprised actually how many boys are enthusiastic readers of her stories.
People seem to think of Manga as a girls' medium although there are certainly enough boys interested.
Question: What do you think about the representation of women in comics - like the pinup kind of pictures of women.
Bettina: She kind of likes the old WW2 representations, however, she feels that today, some of the representations have become tasteless, over the top.
Terry: Earliest pinups were in the pyramids! There has been 'pinup' art over the centuries as a represdentation of popular culture. Downside of course is the putting down of certain types of people. What is the intent of the drawings - that is what is important to remember.
Gail: so much diversity. What one person thinks is pinup art someone else will think is beautiful art. She objects to pornagraphic pictures drawn in the playboy pinup style. She tries to get as much male nudity in as she can!
Question: Do you think that men and women get typecast into what kind of work they should produce? Should men write for men, etc?
Gail: Might have been true at one point in time, but it is really changing now. There's so much varietyt today that you can't fit people into slots.
Terry: The writer needs to be able to write about all the characters. If you're a good writer, you should be able to write about different types of people.
Bettina: She does whatever comes her way. She will pitch an idea to a publisher and if it's accepted, she goes ahead with it. Tries to figure out what the company is looking for and keep it within her own interested. The only thing she tries to figure out demographically is by age.
Question: What can you recommend for people who want to write comics
Bettina: Drawing, anatomy classes. Work on a web comic to experiment. Lots and lots of practice. Look into the Rising Stars of Manga competition. If you want to do it - just do it.
Terry: You do best what you do most! If you want to write, do it every day. Draw? do it every day. He didn't do anything with his writing and art til he was 36 when he decided to show it around. The librarian industry is where people look for book information. Libraries have helped him lots.
Gail says that you put so much of yourswelf into writing it's scary to put it out there. You must let everyone else read it. Then listen for their reactions. If everyone says kind of the same thing, you can probably realize that there is something that needs to be fixed. You improve constantly with practice. Really practice, really listen.
Gail asks a question of the audience. What can the major comic book companies do for you?
Answer. Lots of librarians don't have any idea of where to start with buying these because not everyone has an interest in comics or manga. It's difficult to find comics for young children also. Gail says that there is not a lot of direct distribution, esp. to young children.
Comment - ask the comic book companies to assign a library liasion to handle library sales. Also, comic book companies all go to ALA. When you're there, make sure you give them comments about how they can help you. DC seems to be the best at working with libraries.
Questions from the audience.
Terry's name is gender neutral. Do people think a woman has written his books because they're about women. People are sometimes surprised when they meet him. He kept his gender secret for a while at the beginning of his career.
Do you have a preference - should people call your work graphic novel or comic book or sequential art. Gail doesn't care what is used. Terry says whaever describes it best.
Do you think women in refrigerators is a problem?
Gail: Women in refrigertors was a web site - time in which women were raped, degraded, etc. And people were asking why aren't there more strong women in comics. She thinks that that kind of thing is passing by a little. Now there are more examles of 'men in refrigerators'.
Terry has been talking to DC comics about supergirl. She should be the no. 1 female hero/myth character in the US. If superman is no. 1, why is not supergirl no. 1
There are copies of panel's books for sale outside the room
Bettina Kurkoski, the creator/writer/artist of My Cat Loki is speaking ab out how she got into comics little by little over the years and eventually has found Manga. Her inspiration comes the real world, cats, and her wild and crazy dreams
Terry Moore is responsible for titles such as Birds of Prey for DC Comics, Wildstorm's Gen 13, Ultimate Team-Up for Marvel, Darkness-Vampirella for Top Cow, and most recently, Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror for Bongo Comics. He jumbled up all his characters adn threw them into a pot and mixed them up and got his idea for Stangers in Paradise. Also, he reports his view that men and women are 2 different species that are tyring to co-exist on the same planet. He says that in the midst of this chaos, you look for tranquility, love, partnerships. The goal of his series is to leave something of lasting worth in libraries.
Gail Simone is a former hairdresser who has in the last five years become arguably the busiest and highest profile female writer in the comic book industry. She has written comics exclusively for DC Comics, with such high-level titles as Justice League, Birds of Prey, Rose and Thorn, Legion of Superheroes, Teen Titans, Villains United, and their flagship title, Action Comics featuring Superman, among others. In addition, she has written for animation as well, for the critically acclaimed series Justice League Unlimited. She's been an avid reader her whole life and loves comic books as much as any other book. She started with a few parody pieces related to books and comics which lead to a weekly column about comics. Her first work was with Bongo doing Simpsons comics.
Next question - We are growing aware of the role of strong female lead characters. Important to target girls reading comics. How do you reach this audience?
Terry - he was looking for book to read and so he wrote it. He can't explain his demographic - lots of differnt types of people read his work. His writing is really promoted by word of mouth. He is very popular on college campuses and word spreads even tho there was no advertising, no bookstore support. The first ones have sold over 1 million copies and translated into 10 languages all with word of mouth promotion.
Gail - when she sits down to write, she does not aim to appeal only to young women. She tries to appeal to a broad demographic. She thinks that the Internet has leveled the field for girls because comic book stores used to be kind of hard to go into for a girl; it was a male domain. It has become easier for girls to be enthusiastic for comics now - mostly because of the Internet.
Bettina also does not aim only to appeal to young women. She writes whatever she pleases! She has been surprised actually how many boys are enthusiastic readers of her stories.
People seem to think of Manga as a girls' medium although there are certainly enough boys interested.
Question: What do you think about the representation of women in comics - like the pinup kind of pictures of women.
Bettina: She kind of likes the old WW2 representations, however, she feels that today, some of the representations have become tasteless, over the top.
Terry: Earliest pinups were in the pyramids! There has been 'pinup' art over the centuries as a represdentation of popular culture. Downside of course is the putting down of certain types of people. What is the intent of the drawings - that is what is important to remember.
Gail: so much diversity. What one person thinks is pinup art someone else will think is beautiful art. She objects to pornagraphic pictures drawn in the playboy pinup style. She tries to get as much male nudity in as she can!
Question: Do you think that men and women get typecast into what kind of work they should produce? Should men write for men, etc?
Gail: Might have been true at one point in time, but it is really changing now. There's so much varietyt today that you can't fit people into slots.
Terry: The writer needs to be able to write about all the characters. If you're a good writer, you should be able to write about different types of people.
Bettina: She does whatever comes her way. She will pitch an idea to a publisher and if it's accepted, she goes ahead with it. Tries to figure out what the company is looking for and keep it within her own interested. The only thing she tries to figure out demographically is by age.
Question: What can you recommend for people who want to write comics
Bettina: Drawing, anatomy classes. Work on a web comic to experiment. Lots and lots of practice. Look into the Rising Stars of Manga competition. If you want to do it - just do it.
Terry: You do best what you do most! If you want to write, do it every day. Draw? do it every day. He didn't do anything with his writing and art til he was 36 when he decided to show it around. The librarian industry is where people look for book information. Libraries have helped him lots.
Gail says that you put so much of yourswelf into writing it's scary to put it out there. You must let everyone else read it. Then listen for their reactions. If everyone says kind of the same thing, you can probably realize that there is something that needs to be fixed. You improve constantly with practice. Really practice, really listen.
Gail asks a question of the audience. What can the major comic book companies do for you?
Answer. Lots of librarians don't have any idea of where to start with buying these because not everyone has an interest in comics or manga. It's difficult to find comics for young children also. Gail says that there is not a lot of direct distribution, esp. to young children.
Comment - ask the comic book companies to assign a library liasion to handle library sales. Also, comic book companies all go to ALA. When you're there, make sure you give them comments about how they can help you. DC seems to be the best at working with libraries.
Questions from the audience.
Terry's name is gender neutral. Do people think a woman has written his books because they're about women. People are sometimes surprised when they meet him. He kept his gender secret for a while at the beginning of his career.
Do you have a preference - should people call your work graphic novel or comic book or sequential art. Gail doesn't care what is used. Terry says whaever describes it best.
Do you think women in refrigerators is a problem?
Gail: Women in refrigertors was a web site - time in which women were raped, degraded, etc. And people were asking why aren't there more strong women in comics. She thinks that that kind of thing is passing by a little. Now there are more examles of 'men in refrigerators'.
Terry has been talking to DC comics about supergirl. She should be the no. 1 female hero/myth character in the US. If superman is no. 1, why is not supergirl no. 1
There are copies of panel's books for sale outside the room
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
MLA Speaker Interviewed
Over on MangaBlog, comic book writer/illustrator Bettina Kurkoski is interviewed. You can also find a great article on Ms. Kurkoski here at Newsarama.) Why am I bringing this seemingly random bit of information up here, you might ask? Ms. Kurkoski, creator of the series My Cat Loki, is one of three comic book writers appearing on a panel on Girls + Comix on Thursday, May 3 at the Massachusetts Library Association's Annual Conference. This program on comics, "Girls + Comix: How Comics are Gaining Popularity with Women and How Librarians Can Better Serve their Audience," is one of the truly remarkable events taking place at the MLA Conference, and anyone with even a passing interest in comics needs to be there. Here is the blurb from the conference brochure:
"For decades the comics industry was seen as a "boys club," but more and more women and girls are reading, writing and creating comics. The most visible splash has been made by manga, and Tokyopop's teen audience is 75% female. There have always been women creating and behind the scenes in comics, but only recently have girls and women shown their power as readers. Join an all-star panel of comic creators, moderated by graphic novel advocate and teen librarian Robin Brenner, that will focus on connecting librarians with comics while highlighting the diverse and increasingly vital contributions of women to the industry as writers, artists, three-dimensional characters, and reader."
And who is this all-star panel of comic creators? Well, the afore-mentioned Bettina Kurkoski has become known for her Tokyopo-published series My Cat Loki. Appearing with her is Terry Moore, who began writing and drawing his award-winning comic book series, Strangers in Paradise in 1993. Since then he has produced over ninety issues of the larger than life saga of friends in Houston, Texas. It is one of the most succesful independently published books in the comics industry. Find out how Moore has become known as one of the best writers of three-dimensional female characters in comics. Rounding out the panel is one of the superstars of DC Comics. Gail Simone is a former hairdresser who has in the last five years become arguably the busiest and highest-profile female writers in comics. She has written comics exclusively for DC Comics, with such high-level titles as Justice League, Birds of Prey, Teen Titans, and their flagship titleAction Comics featuring Superman. Next up for Gail is an open-ended run on Wonder Woman.
Mark my words, this is an important panel, as anyone who reads comics will tell you. Best of all, these three panelists will be moderated by Massachusetts's own graphic novel guru, Robin Brenner. It's sure to be a fun and lively high point of the conference.
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