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Author
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Comment
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Heidi
Anne Heiner
ezOP
(5/30/02 11:50:19 am)
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OT: Favorite Graphic Novels
Since we are such a widely read and experienced bunch, I am soliciting help in creating a graphic novel collection for the young adult area in my branch library. Would anyone like to contribute a "must own" list for me? I have asked some of my regular teens, but they mostly just throw out Sailor Moon to me. There is also a subgroup of Neil Gaiman enthusiasts, so I have good reason to add those. I have a basic knowledge, but now I am creating my list and need help remembering what, when, and who.
My budget is also quite small, but I am trying to get together a wishlist budget to take to the Friends and hopefully get more funds.
Any suggestions would be most welcome!
Thanks,
Heidi
Edited by: Heidi Anne Heiner at: 5/30/02 11:51:33 am
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Charles Vess
Unregistered User
(5/30/02 12:30:24 pm)
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There are a few out there...
Heidi,
As of this years edition I'm writting the comics column in the YEARS BEST FANTASY AND HORROR so I've developed quite a long list for this publication, so long that I hesitate to list it here. I think that I'll just email you privately with the entire column worth of informatiuon (approx. 5,000 words!!). It's a lot but I'm very passionate about the subject at hand.
My local library is also setting up a YA section with a large graphic novel section. I'm consulting with them on
selections and have already given them many second hand copies that I had laying around.
If you have any specific guestions let me know I'd be only to happy to help you out.
Charles
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Jane Yolen
Unregistered User
(5/30/02 12:37:55 pm)
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Himself
And in case Charles won't toot his own horn, let me. He has a series of ballads in comic book form. His delicious art, stories retold, fractured, or retro-fitted, by the likes of Emma Bull and Charles deLint and yours truly among many others.
Jane
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Laura
Registered User
(5/30/02 7:17:55 pm)
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Graphic novels
Or as some of them are more properly called, illustrated novels. ;-) The ones I personally own include Gaiman and Amano's _Sandman: The Dream Hunters_, Charles and Jeff Smith's _Rose_, and Charles and Neil's _Stardust_ (an utter MUST!). John Byrne's _2112_ is another favorite. On a directly fairy-tale note, there's a collection for which Charles illustrated Snow White -- anything more about it is escaping me at the moment.
Laura S.
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ZMethos
Registered User
(5/31/02 4:15:56 am)
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Re: OT: Favorite Graphic Novels
Well, the Sandman stuff certainly, and also any "Rising Stars" stuff by JMS--I think there are only two GNs compiled right now, since the series is ongoing. And if you're open to Japanese manga (the Sailor Moon reference made me think you might be), anything by CLAMP is really good (X/1999, Card Captor Sakura, Wish--although Wish may not have been translated into English yet; the other two have been).
~M. Pepper
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Gregor9
Registered User
(5/31/02 4:59:29 am)
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Re: OT: Favorite Graphic Novels
My favorite in the graphic novel department is Enki Bilal. Only a few of his French GNs have been translated, but he has a great style.
I liked "From Hell" as a story but thought the illustration was extremely uneven. The stuff that was traced/rendered over old photographs looked fine, but the "original" drawings were just plain awful.
Afraid I'm something of a purist, most admiring the penciling of Carmine Infantino and Will Eisner. For my money too many people working in the field now disguise the lameness of their craft with so-called experimentation.
Greg
P.S. And Charles, I'd love to see your list, especially after our conversation at WisCon.
Edited by: Gregor9 at: 5/31/02 5:20:39 am
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Carolyn
Dunn
Registered User
(5/31/02 7:31:01 pm)
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Re: OT: Favorite Graphic Novels
I agree with Laura--- I'd have to say any of the Sandman graphic novels I just adore. And Neil & Charles' Stardust (Shameless Fangirl strikes again!). I'm not sure if this falls under the category, but the newer books such as teh Aria series I also am partial too...
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Charles Vess
Unregistered User
(6/3/02 2:44:19 pm)
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Graphic Novel speak...
Firstly, I've a pet peeve to get out of the way.Laura you've already heard this so just skip on down to the next paragraph, okay? Both my own STARDUST as well as the Gaiman/Amano book the DREAMHUNTERS keep being referred to as graphic novels. A graphic novel is a sophisticated form of the comic book. A comic book tells it's story using panel to panel storytelling with it's dialogue usually contained within word balloons. Nowhere in either of these two books will you find that type of storytelling. All they really are is just good old fashioned illustrated books that happen to be published by a comic book publisher.
Okay, onwards...
I was going to post my recommended list of graphic novels that I had written for the up-coming edition of YEARS BEST but even after I had drastically shortened it (from 5,000 words down to 1,8000) I still didn't wont to publicly post this material before publication. So as I've already done this for Heidi and Greg, if anyone would like my list of fantasy and horror graphic novels I will mail it to them privately.
There is so much material out there that I feel it VERY important to help provide a sign post toward the best of medium.
The folk and fairy tale traditions from around the world are such a treasure trove of story ideas that I wish more writer/artists were taking advantage of this genre. Where are the graphic stories featuring Native American myth or African tales or Inuit tales? What I wouldn't give to read some of those stories adapted to this medium.
The graphic novel medium is so visually attractive to kids it is a shame that there is not more in our genre and less of the flashy super-hero type.Imprint those young minds early and just think what they might be reading as they grow up...
Maybe there will be, I certainly hope so...
Charles
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Gail
Unregistered User
(6/4/02 4:52:54 am)
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graphic novels
Charles I would love a copy of your list (storyteller.devos@telusplanet.net). I teach an online course on graphic novels for the library school -- why the comic book form should be part of a school and public library collection, among other issues, and am developing an article ( and now possibly a text) on what I am calling "crossovers" - traditional picture books using comic book elements such as panels and sound balloons and books published by comic book publishers that are essentially illustrated novels such as Stardust and Elektra and Wolverine (I know there is a basic age difference in readership but I am mainly looking at perception). Any thoughts from anyone on this board would be appreciated. Thanks, Gail
P.S. I am also focusing on the storytelling aspects of the comic book format for picture books.
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flewiscalvinedu
Unregistered User
(6/4/02 7:10:01 am)
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graphic novels recommendations
Charles may have mentioned these already in his list, but just in case:
Amy Unbounded by Rachel Hartman would be a great book for a graphic novel collection. She's just put out a graphic novel which collects her earlier minicomics. Great stuff.
Amelia rules by J. Gownley is also a new book just coming out in graphic novel format. It's put out by Renaissance Press? It's based on the experiences of a nine/ten year old girl and her friends. It's great fun.
Barbara McClintock is an illustrator/author who is also using a lot of comic conventions in her works. They are intricately detailed, use word balloons to list story detail, character motivation. She's someone I keep an eye on as an illustrator.
My six year old son is really getting into comics and also graphic novels. He will sit for ages poring over some of the graphic novels we have around the house. He loves to look at Crilley's Akiko books, Star Wars, the Little Lit series, the Scary Godmother books. He and his 4 year old brother created this mass mural/comic strip that they taped together about the story of a robot army. It goes on for about 8? sheets of paper. They each created a page and then taped them together to form a long book.
Whenever I'm depressed and for one reason or another, can't concentrate on print alone, I find that I turn to my graphic novel and comics collection. The combination of words and pictures together put me in another space/mind set that words alone can't.
Francene Lewis
Wishing we had a graphic novels collection so that I could catalog them.
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Gregor9
Registered User
(6/4/02 8:48:13 am)
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Re: graphic novels
Gail,
It's amazing how different the US attitude toward the graphic novel is from, say, the French. (I've had this discussion with Charles in part already.) Actually, illustrators in general are venerated in France, where their work appears in galleries dedicated to graphic novels and illustration. Moebius, Bilal and a hundred others are prominent there, where the format is considered as relevant as any other form of storytelling. Here, I think the comic is a case of arrested development: the idiot "psychological" studies of the 1950s that proclaimed how damaging comics were to our youths seem to have locked us into the era of the superhero. We're well behind the curve in terms of experimentation with the visual form as a result (I'm sure there are many other forces contributing to this, but I just like to kick the legs out from beneath such moralistic nonsense.)
Greg
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Gail
Unregistered User
(6/5/02 4:52:20 am)
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Europe and the graphic novel
Thanks Greg for your response. In my course I look at graphic novels in Europe & Japan as well as in North America -- we certainly have gone a different road in respecting the format. I speak at teacher and library conventions about the viability of the format -- and with listservs such as graphic novels in libraries, I do believe we are turning a corner. The quality has always been there -- but people did not want to, or know where to, look. One of my strongest examples that I talk about is Charles' Ballads. It is the book that got me back into comics. Gail
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isthmus
nekoi
Registered User
(6/5/02 8:53:03 am)
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more suggestions for Heidi!!
Jeff Smith's Bone is also a pleasure to read ^_^
As for manga, I think those by Miyazaki would be great although I've never read them personally... And I'd be careful about the translations. Some companies do a kind of 'hit-and-run' job that does the original a great disservice. Also.... if you're looking at manga, I'd be careful w/the content since it's the YA section. ie. CLAMP's X/1999 is chock full of not-so-subtle homoerotic/sadomasochistic scenes which some parents might object to.
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AM
Registered User
(6/6/02 9:06:39 pm)
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Graphic Novel
You may also want to check out Linda Medley's Castle Waiting: Lucky Road (Cartoon Books), Thieves and Kings (I BOX), Books of Magic (DC Comics), and Bearskin: a Grimm Tale.
-- Anna Marie
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La
Reine Noire
Registered User
(6/10/02 8:57:17 am)
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Aria
I saw a book of illustrations from "Aria" in a comic-book store recently and I was wondering where I might actually find the comic/graphic novel. From the illustration on the cover, it looked lovely.
If we're also covering manga, I'd suggest Inu-Yasha. It's faery tale-esque and really very cute.
~Kavita
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Carolyn
Unregistered User
(6/10/02 1:15:11 pm)
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Graphic Novel speak...duly noted
Thank you, Charles, for the clearing up of misinformation. I will
just re-categorize my recommendations and stick to what I know...
I would also *love* to see more Native and African tales retold in the graphic novel format. There was something I remember that came out in the late 80's, early 90's that was supposed to be Native in origin and it was horrible---so much that I can't even recall the title. I just remember cringing and saying "I can't believe they are allowing that to go to print..."
Who are the publishers of graphic novels these days? (DC? Dark Horse? Image?) With the exception of some of the more famous Native writers (Erdrich, Harjo, Silko, Momaday, Gunn Allen, etc) who would pitch a graphic novel to these publishers? And who would publish a tale from the Native or African experience? I'm afraid I don't know much about African folk tales or writers (help, Midori!) but I am sure there is a wealth of stories that could be told from that perspective. Honestly, call me cynical, but I don't think there's much of a market there for the Native or African based graphic novel...
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Charles Vess
Unregistered User
(6/10/02 3:01:41 pm)
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Diverse cultures and GN...
Carolyn,
But then there by all rights would never have been a perceived market for graphic novel story presentations of:
growing up gay in the south and at the same time dealing with segregation and the civil rights movement (STUCK RUBBER BABY, Howard Cruz),
living through the agony of being born with spinal bifada and having the attending doctors tell your parents to "just let him die" to grow up into a writer/artist and a black belt in karate (THE SPIRAL CAGE, Al Davidson),
linking a story of adolecent child abuse with the imaginings of Beatrix Potter (THE TALE OF ONE BAD RAT, Bryan Talbot),
etc.
If you want to tell the story, if you NEED to tell the story there is always a way to see it into print.
When I decided to self-publish my "ballads" comic everyone thought that I was crazy but I sold about 18,000 copies of each individual issue and 5,000 trade paperback collections.
I guess that it's never going to be easy to sell your "dreams" in whatever form you want them to take, but what's life without a few dreams...
Charles
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Charles Vess
Unregistered User
(6/10/02 3:03:02 pm)
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Diverse cultures and GN...
Carolyn,
But then there by all rights would never have been a perceived market for graphic novel story presentations of:
growing up gay in the south and at the same time dealing with segregation and the civil rights movement (STUCK RUBBER BABY, Howard Cruz),
living through the agony of being born with spinal bifada and having the attending doctors tell your parents to "just let him die" to grow up into a writer/artist and a black belt in karate (THE SPIRAL CAGE, Al Davidson),
linking a story of adolecent child abuse with the imaginings of Beatrix Potter (THE TALE OF ONE BAD RAT, Bryan Talbot),
etc.
If you want to tell the story, if you NEED to tell the story there is always a way to see it into print.
When I decided to self-publish my "ballads" comic everyone thought that I was crazy but I sold about 18,000 copies of each individual issue and 5,000 trade paperback collections.
I guess that it's never going to be easy to sell your "dreams" in whatever form you want them to take, but what's life without a few dreams...
Charles
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Paradigm8
Registered User
(6/10/02 4:24:48 pm)
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A bit darker
Since nobody mentioned it, I'm not sure if it is inappropriate or just unmentioned. I apologize if it's the former.
Mike Mignola's Hellboy is quite mythic and his stories are
often based in real folktales. The compilation called The Chained
Coffin and Others would be a good start, what with it's opening
story of a changeling, a werewolf story based on an Irish folktale
and vignette about a bogum very fond of his "Iron Shoes."
Baba Yaga makes an appearance, too. This is not appropriate for
little ones. I'd guestimate it at PG13.
P8
reading: Little, Big by John Crowley
listening to: the rain
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Gregor9
Registered User
(6/11/02 10:06:41 am)
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Re: A bit darker
Yes, indeed,
I just read the first Hellboy on Charles' recommendation, and it's a stunner. Mignola captures a wonderful essence of Jack Kirby while simultaneously transcending Kirby's limitations by a mile. Beautifully rendered, and a truly engaging story. Any day now, this is going to be sucked into Hollywood. Enjoy it before then.
Best,
Greg
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Sharlit
Registered User
(6/16/02 5:47:55 pm)
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Theives and Kings
!!!
Toronto locals and friends of Mark thank you for the plug! Theives and Kings is *phenominal* and self published. Pick this up, get a free 1st issue (there's a free 1st issue) collect the graphic novels. They are entirely worth it.
www.iboxpublishing.com/
Or visit the Hairy Tarantula in Toronto, Ontario and we'll hook you up. ;D
-charlotte
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