Monday mashup - New York Comic Con meets the Cybils Awards!

Wow. At one point, as Eerily Similar Paula and her family and I were shuffled through a 20-minute maze of baffles prior to entering the exhibits floor at the New York Comic Con, I looked around at the cosplayers in their itchy wigs (ooh if there isn't a band called The Itchy Wigs, there should be), could not help overhearing the ever-so-slightly Aspy teens talking too loud about extremely qualified and abstruse proper nouns, and reflected to myself that I'm probably not the first person to think that they really could've used some Temple Grandin up in there at the Javits Center.

 

It's a horrible building in the first place, sealed off from the sun like a casino, except in the lobby areas, which heat up like greenhouses. Vast high ceilings fade out of perception and giant distant banks of undirected fluorescents ensure that everything is lit with the same characterless light.

I think it's kind of like being on a space station colony, which totally suits the comic con thing. Temple Grandin should design space stations too, when it comes around to that.

But there were highlights! Highlights there were, and here are they:

Just missed having David Petersen sign my Mouse Guard books. Dangit! I really admire that guy - Petersen is one artist whose work proves that "all ages" really is a valid target audience, and that kids will hang in there to read long-form graphic novels, especially if they're full-color and as exciting and fully-realized as these. Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard Volume 1 publishes November of this year.

 

Shook the hand of Jimmy Gownley (it felt all tingly and talented), who showed me the cover of the next Amelia Rules! book, and told me Simon & Schuster has committed to an even dozen of this fun, friendly, not too frantic middle grade graphic novel.

Met Trevor Mueller and Steve Wallace, two of the boys who put out Reading With Pictures (nominated for a Cybils Award in Middle Grade Graphic Novels) which I'm looking forward to reading as soon as I can wrestle it out of my 4th grader's hands! Lots of high-quality artists and characters are represented - Jill Thompson (Magic Trixie), Scott Sava, Raina Telgemeier (Smile), the aforementioned Mr. Gownley, Eric Wight (Frankie Pickle), and lots more. It's an anthology, meant to serve as proof-of-concept that comics can be educational as well as entertaining. As if we don't know that already from, oh I don't know... JAPAN. Anyway, it's a fun book and very well executed.

Speaking of Eric Wight, we did not run into him, but he was there. Eric is awesomely down-to-earth: even if I had seen him, I might have just given him the Vulcan traditional greeting and allowed him to move on. He's at least as much of a fanboy as I am, and totally willing to stand in a long line to get an autograph from another artist. Eerily Similar Paula and I took him out after the Baltimore Book Festival and made him confess that there's going to be a total of at least 5 Frankie Pickle books... what a relief! So happy to tell Frankie fans that there's more coming!

Same with Ursula Vernon, who, as far as I know, did not attend Comic Con, but who slid me an ARC of the fourth Dragonbreath book at the Balto Book Fest. It helped that I had my oldest there, with his big pretty I-love-comics eyes. He loves Danny Dragonbreath, that's for sure!

Annd... Matthew Loux had a looseleaf of his forthcoming Yo Gabba Gabba board book at the Oni Press booth. I shamelessly eavesdropped on him pitching it to a very young fan. His graphic novel series Salt Water Taffy is one series that I think has improved with every volume - I think the pace has become more even, the female characters have improved, and the panel composition has become clearer. And I am still trying to get my hands on a copy of SideScrollers.

Just across the aisle from Oni Press was First Second, a company that, like Oni, has made a strong commitment to producing all-ages, young adult, and kids' graphic novels. And there was George O'Connor just sitting there. Love that guy's work, I swear, from Kapow! on forward. And I'm not the only one - the first two of George's very good Olympians graphic novels have been nominated for the Cybils Award in the middle grade graphic novel category. Here's what I wrote about Athena: Grey-Eyed Goddess in my starred review for School Library Journal:

Grade 5–9—Five myths featuring the Greek goddess are included in this volume. Dialogue is modern ("What's gotten into you, Zeus?" "I wanna bite him!"), while narration, provided by the Fates, retains a more formal tone. A good balance is struck between exposition and action: readers familiar with these stories will enjoy seeing them brought to life with such vigor, while sufficient background is provided so that children reading about the Greek gods for the first time will not find themselves lost at sea. The family tree of the immortals is a useful tool even for the most experienced readers. O'Connor's drawings, full of energetic diagonals and expressive faces, are nicely balanced by spare settings and minimalistic backgrounds. A sophisticated color palette, full of midtones and subtle contrasts, and panel layouts that vary from page to page further distinguish the art. The author's affection for his subject is evident in a chatty note. Profiles of major characters, notes, and discussion questions appear in addition to the usual back matter. An exceptional graphic novel.

(c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc.

Man, it is HARD to write a review in 250 words or less. Look at that choppy stuff.

You can expect a lot more graphic novel reviews from me to come - I am a Cybils judge in that category and even though, as a judge, I am only required to read the finalists, my goal is to read every nominated book. I am underway with this - you can track my progress on Goodreads if you like. I will be recording my reactions to all the nominated books, more like notes than full reviews, 
likely to be a bit unvarnished. I am pretty opinionated when it comes to graphic novels.

After these highlights, Eerily Similar Paula and I hightailed it in favor of addictive perfume, savory steak frites, and the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co. Stealthy, like the librarian superheroes we are.