For our next book club, we’ll be discussing Scott Pilgrim, a comic by Bryan Lee O’Malley. There are four trade paperbacks out, and some of us will have definitely read all of them (you’ve been warned).
Comic Book Book Club
Scott Pilgrim, by Bryan Lee O’Malley
Tuesday, December 30th 7 PM
Marty and Florence’s apartment
This week Florence and Marty discuss Invincible #55, and Ender’s Game #2. As usual, spoiler alert applies.
Invincible #55
Florence: Invincible this week focused on one of my favorite characters, Allen the Alien.
Marty: You don’t think it was also about the dad?
Florence: I DO think it was also about the dad, but the dad isn’t one of my favorite characters. Honestly, I’d forgotten why Allen was extra-strong, why he was in the same place as Invincible’s dad, but I didn’t have any problem going along for the ride. I wasn’t that caught up in the central fight of the story, but I just enjoyed seeing Allen again, and there was an interesting revelation about the Viltrumites that seems like it will advance the over-all story.
Marty: That’s what I’m talking about. FINALLY we’re getting back to the main story. It’s been at least four issues now since we saw Allen or the father. This issue was almost good enough to make up for all the time we had to put up with side-stories and such, but the fight scene did seem to go on forever.
Florence: What did you think of the new lion guy?
Marty: I think he’s actually a tie-in from something. I’m not sure what.
Florence: Something else in image?
Marty: *looking it up* Battle Beast actually just appeared before in issue 19, I don’t think he’s a tie-in from anything else. So never mind. Anyway, yeah, I’ve thought Allen was one of my favorite characters since he was very first introduced. He was pretty bad-ass in this issue. He’s totally invincible now!
Florence: haha…
Marty: There was also a page at the end of the issue with the dad’s face pretty close up, and he had blood all over his mustache. I feel like that was some kind of weird nod to an obscure fetish or something.
Ender’s Game #2
Marty: I felt like this second issue was not nearly as strong as the first. They are really glossing over what were, in my recollection, my favorite parts of the book. Basically Ender’s introduction to all the games at battle school, and then of course his learning about the battle room, which they really only get to at the end of the issue. So maybe we’ll learn more about that (with Ender) in issue #3. I did realize after reading this issue that with only five issues total, they’re really going to have to cram the story in.
Florence: I thought they were too heavy handed about Ender’s importance, and all the behind-the-scenes manipulations that went into bringing him into battle school. It’s possible that I’m being more forgiving to the book, I was much younger when I read it, and remember really loving it, but at the time it felt much more from the point of view of Ender. We weren’t privy to information outside of his knowledge, and we were really immersed in his experience, which made the revelation at the end of the book a very emotional shock.
Marty: I had a similar impression, but I’m really not remembering 100%. I think they right away go into the perspective of the instructor in this second issue, and I don’t remember that from the book at all.
Florence: I remember hearing lots of rumors about an Ender’s game movie a few years ago, and I always felt very protective of the story, and skeptical that they would do it right.
Marty: I’m pretty sure it’s still in the making. I hear something new about it every few years. IMDB has it listed as still in pre-production.
Florence: I have to say, I do really like the art of this comic (especially the color). And, in a way, I’m glad they’re doing it as a miniseries, rather than trying to stretch out the story into a much longer arc. It’s definitely a story that has a beginning and an end.
Marty: The coloring of the comic really reminds me of Orson Scott Card’s run on Ultimate Iron Man. I wonder if the artists are the same. (Looks like it’s the same artist, Pascal Ferry, who did Ultimate Iron Man II, 2008.)
Marty: I feel I should say something about what a bastard Orson Scott Card has turned out to be.
Florence: He’s listed as the creative director, and executive director, but not the script writer for the comic.
Marty: His politics are what damn him.
Florence: …his eagerness to apply his whacked-out religious beliefs to social commentary on his blog.
Marty: I’m still interested in reading the rest of these, and will probably continue to pick them up.
Our book club met tonight to discuss Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight. We had Marty, Florence, Jason, Mike and Susie via Skype. This may be our longest podcast yet, weighing in at more than an hour and a half. As Mike put it at some point, “We have the weight of 7 seasons of episodes on our shoulders.”
Listen to ReadComics.org Podcast Episode #023 (45 MB, 98 minutes)
We’re finally getting around to posting a date for this Buffy Book Club. As usual we’ll be meeting at Marty & Florence’s place, this time on Saturday November 22nd, again around 7pm. Again, this is the latest series of Buffy comics, Season 8, issues #1 through #18. It looks like issue #19, the conclusion of the latest arc should actually come out the following Wednesday, November 26, so we’ll be doing a bunch of speculation about that issue.
BOOK CLUB
–THIS Saturday–
Marty & Florence’s Place
7 PM
Since these will be spoiler filled discussions, we’ll hide these behind a link. This week your favorite married comic-reading couple will be discussing four really good comics that happen to have come out this week: The Authority: World’s End #4, Gigantic #1, Sandman: The Dream Hunters #1, and Top 10 #2. (Not in that order.)
This week we talk about Spike, Angel, Buffy, Wonder Woman, Young Bottoms In Love, Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev, Spider Woman, Mrs. Marvel, Secret Invasion, Grant Morrison, JLA, Gigantic, Rick Remender, Eric Nguyen, Gene Ha, Strange Girl, Prism Comics, Google News, and Mike’s ribbiting belly.
Listen to ReadComics.org Podcast Episode #022 (17 MB, 36 minutes)
I suppose this is not quite a comic, but Patrick Moberg is responsible for this fabulous graphic of our Presidents, past and future. This is best viewed full size.
My co-worker Carie sent out this amazing pumpkin that her friend Buffy (or perhaps Buffy’s husband) carved.
Everyone should check out the preview for this new movie called Special, starring Michael Rapaport, about a guy who thinks he has superpowers because of some new drugs he’s taking. It looks to be both interesting and funny.
I first read about this on IO9, but they heard about it from Biology in Science Fiction, which I had not heard of before.
The movie is supposed to be in theaters on Nov. 21st. I’ll see you there.
This is probably relatively old news (I’ve been meaning to post it for a while), but if you haven’t already seen this livejournal post full of side-by-side comparisons between Kermit the Frog and Christian Bale, you really should go check it out. It’s simply brilliant.
Now, I feel dumb for admitting this, but I’ve have to admit… I don’t know where the Kermit photo I clipped is from. When does Kermit dress up as batman? Was it in Sesame Street? I did some youtube searching, and I can’t seem to find it. Anyone know?
This is the second installment of Florence and Marty reviewing their weekly pull list. Warning: these will be spoiler-filled entries.
Sword #12
Florence: So we’ve been complaining that not a lot has happened in a few issues. Something happened in this Issue that’s going to send ripples… But what happened seems so predictable that I wasn’t really excited about it. And it seems like what’s going to come next also seems incredibly predictable. I would love to be pleasantly surprised. With Girls I never knew what was going to come next. It’s almost as if what happened shocked the characters inside the book, but it didn’t really effect anyone reading it. Reading about people being shocked doesn’t necessarily produce excitement. They set up a big epic fight to the death, and they dragged it out for several issues, so at some point someone had to win, and it was probably going to be the main character. I’m bored.
Martin: What I’d like to say is that I think there’s really no way it can be that dumb. But all signs do indicate that’s what’s happening. I’m not sure he’s really dead.
Florence: It’s even more boring if he’s not really dead.
Martin: Yeah, I definitely see what you mean, then it’s like we’ve spent the last three issues doing nothing.
Florence: It seems like, in their minds (the luna brothers), it was really interesting and creative the things he could do with water. But we’ve all been reading comic books for a long time, being punched with an ice fist just doesn’t strike me as that innovative.
Martin: He had a big floating ice ball too! But I completely agree. I did think the end of the comic was interesting, the fact that this is all publicised and on the news suggests the government organization that had her in custody briefly earlier in the comic clearly doesn’t have all that much influence.
Florence: I did think the last page was my favorite part.
Martin: I think my favorite part was seeing the battle scene from above. It was cool how all the ice spread out from the center point of his death. I hope we get to find out how they got their powers. Because if this is really the death of a god, don’t you think there’d be reprecussions? I mean they just killed water. Now what?
Florence: I never thought they were actual gods, they just had the power of gods, compared with humans. There was an origin story somewhere in there.
Martin: I thought all we knew was that their mother had been an outcast, and gone up to a mountain, and that was about it.
Florence: I’ve forgotten it now.
Martin: Exactly.
No Hero #2
Martin: I can’t help but wonder how much we’re paying for those FIVE pages of Avatar ads and order forms in the back of this comic.
Florence: I definitely felt like the comic ended abruptly, because I didn’t know we were that close to the end with all those additional pages.
Martin: That minor quibble aside, I did really like this. I think the main guy, the inventor of the drug, is naive to think he can be the only one who ever creates superheroes.
Florence: I think he uses his current power to sabotage anyone who comes close to reproducing the formula.
Martin: Obviously. But there was some kind of hint in there that this has been an ongoing struggle. They’ve been “attacked”, and I thought that was clearly by some other people with superpowers.
Florence: I think that attack could have been accomplished by someone without superpowers, and I thought that no one else had reproduced it yet.
Martin: I think time will prove me right on this one. But who knows. I just can’t see taking a super-powered person apart the way they said happened (in Minneapolis no less!) without having other super-powered people on their side. (Try saying “super powered people” three times fast.)
Florence: I think their knowledge of the anatomy is what allowed them to do it, not that they had to have identical powers.
Martin: We shall see. But you’re wrong. Oh, and I do really like the art. I think Juan Jose Ryp is getting a lot better.
Florence: I don’t really like the art. I think it serves the story pretty well, but it’s too brutal and bloody for me to enjoy it.
Martin: There wasn’t even that much blood in this one. Just some vomit, and a sort of blood-spattered hallucinatory orgy at the end. Do you think he’ll survive the induction?
Florence: Yes, or else there wouldn’t be a comic about him. I do think he’s intended to be the main character. He’s just been sort of passive so far. I think his journey is supposed to be the main story.
Martin: I think he’s getting set up to be the one who takes down the whole organization.
Florence: So what do you think the consequences they are referring to are? Is it just the pain and suffering he’s going through now, or that it’s long term? I think it fucks with your anatomy and physiology in ways that are not well balanced. In standard superhero fare, once you get your powers, that’s sort of it, you usually don’t have to deal with long term consequences. It’s just assumed that the rest of your bodily functions remain as normal. But in this, a sort of intentional drug-based alteration of the human body, I think the intention is that the rest of your body isn’t going to compensate in a pleasant way. That one woman was saying that you get the power of flight, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that your kneecaps can withstand the force of landing. I think there are going to be additional consequences that we don’t really understand yet.
Martin: So do you think this is going to be more about him, or more about the political story? I feel like what you’re suggesting could be a really cool premise for an interesting comic. But I think, and maybe this is just because I know this same creative team (Warren Ellis and Juan Jose Ryp) created Black Summer, that this is going in a totally different direction. I actually believe that the story you’re talking about might be more interesting, but that it’s more likely this is not a personal story. I would love to be wrong about that, but I think the frequent TV spots, and talking heads really illustrate that this is supposed to be a bigger story than just about one man.
I’ve been meaning to write something about a whole slew of Watchmen parodies that have started cropping up all over the net in anticipation of the movie, and seeing Kevin Cannon’s Blotchmen today reminded me of this endeavor. Blotchmen was created as part of the 24 Hour Comics Day event right here in Minneapolis. (I should have at least stopped by to check it out while it was happening. Maybe next year.) I think it’s especially cool because as well as parodying Watchmen, it also pays homage to a couple of my favorite children’s books at the same time. Just go read it!
Back when I was looking for this stuff, I discovered the official watchmen movie site hosts a feature/page they call The Gunga Diner, that looks to basically just aggregate all the Watchmen parody stuff it can find. It’s cool, but what I don’t like is that there are a lot of entries that don’t cite their sources. Maybe they just had the stuff emailed to them, but the Watchmen Peanuts sketch they host can easily be found to have originated from Evan “Doc” Shaner’s DeviantArt account. (Looks like it wasn’t a totally original idea, as Jeff Parker did something similar a while back.) Likewise the Lil’ Watchmen comic Gungan Diner hosts can be found (with quite a bit more digging necessary) over at the Silver Rage Archive/TOC.
An image that Gunga Diner doesn’t actually have listed is this awesome Jay Ward’s The Watchmen sketch by Jay Fosgitt, AKA, Four Panel Hero. (Jay Ward created Rocky and Bullwinkle.)
KO Fight Club, who I have linked to before, because it is a board gaming webcomic, has a whole page devoted to how they parody Watchmen (and another page about why).
Here’s a cool illustration of Watchmen Watches.
The Watchmen Movie site also hosts a page that links to a bunch of Watchmen fan films. I haven’t really watched them all yet, so I don’t know if that page is better about sourcing its material.
And finally, if you haven’t seen it already, the Mad Magazine folks made a seven page Watchmen Parody (PDF format) in their signature style. It was apparently distributed at San Diego Comic Con earlier this year.
Florence and I have decided to do reviews of new issues from our pull list as they come out each week. Beware of spoilers, as we’ll be discussing the comics in depth. So far, as you can see, we have a fairly lame and generic title. Let us know if you have any suggestions in the comments.
This week it was just two issues, the new Echo and Invincible. Enjoy.
Echo #7
Florence: Moore’s art has really developed over the years, especially on men, since I’m more used to him drawing women. I feel like he’s doing a good job creating more than one male face. I really like his style, but he does sort of tend to have one face for all women, even though he does woman’s body shapes in more variety, which I really appreciate. I’m most intrigued by the character of Ivy Raven right now. When we were first introduced to her, she was a very sweet and loving mother, and now she’s clearly very formidable. In one panel we see her anger, and it’s scary. It shows that no matter what level of calm she exhibits, she’s dangerous. The last panel of the comic was very difficult to decipher.
Martin: I agree about the last panel being confusing. I won’t describe it for fear of giving it away, but I probably couldn’t if I wanted to, since I have no idea what happened. The old guy on the cover was the only other person at the crash site where Julie got her metal breastplate. Obviously he’s got some of whatever she has stuck to his hand. We only see him for about half a page in the whole comic, which felt weird since he was so prominently featured before we opened the book. I do feel like this was consistent with the rest of the story telling in the series, but the pace seemed to slow down quite a bit here. Not as much happens in this issue, and I guess I was a little disappointed by that.
Florence: That’s really just in contrast to the pacing he’s set already with the other issues in this title. That’s not compared to any normal comic’s pacing. This one has just started big and kept going. He’s set us up to expect that from every issue.
Martin: That’s true, but I guess I did feel like there were unnecessary scenes in this comic. If it doesn’t turn out that there’s a reason for the missing dog, then her asking about it was only to further highlight the stupid pet monkey that’s chained outside their motel room. The monkey got way more panels than necessary, IMHO.
Invincible #54
Florence: It’s your turn to go first.
Martin: Ha! I’m the one typing, and it looks like you were wrong about that prediction! Seriously, WTF? Invincible has sucked for like 4 or 5 issues now. I don’t even remember the last time it was cool. What ever happened to stuff happening in this comic?
Florence: I have detected no deterioration. I think it’s nice that he’s dating Atom Eve. I could have done without the four page spread of their relationship. It seemed to be both past and present. Like a montage.
Martin: I was going to say that, damnit. It was totally a montage! Montages are lame in all their forms. Except when used to make fun of montages, like in Team America: World Police.
Florence: Really though, if this just disappeared and I got twice as many Walking Dead issues, I’d be fine.
Martin: Totally. I never thought it would get to this point. I used to love Invincible SO MUCH. I do have hope for the future though. Maybe someday they’ll get back to the plot line with that one-eyed alien, and Invincible’s dad…
Florence: Now that I think about it, I did really like the future stuff, the stuff with Immortal. It seemed like a plausible path for him.
Martin: I guess this was sort of like a one-off book. I think Kirkman should have written it as an Invincible spin-off with a different title. Maybe another Invincible Presents Atom Eve… No, that one actually had a cool story, and stuff happened in it. Maybe it should have been called Atom Eve loves Invincible.
I’ll admit to having read and dismissed Achewood in the past. As webcomics go, it felt a bit too much like one of those continuing comics where you have to know the characters and have a sense of the whole story in order to “get” what’s happening in the comics. It turns out, that seems to be mostly just Chris Onstad’s wry and absurdest sense of humor at play. When Sharyn asked if I wanted to read The Great Outdoor Fight, I remembered basically nothing about Achewood, and thought, sure I’ll give it a shot.
I’ll also admit that before I read this, but after I read the two mock non-fiction introductions about the history of The Great Outdoor Fight, I didn’t honestly know whether the event was real or not. Yes, I had to google for it. Then, I wikipedia’d for it. The answer: No. It is not a real fight. It is just a funny premise for this comic.
This physical collection is supposed to contain some material not found on the website, including the two aforementioned introductions, and some stuff in the back of the book, like a page of recipes, some fighter/character biographies, and some blog posts written by one of the characters in the comic. If I were an Achewood fan, I would be really happy to own this collection.
Even admitting that I’m not really all that much of a fan, I still enjoyed this book more than I expected to, and would probably recommend it to anyone who wants to read a silly story about a giant brawl that takes place annually over the course of three days.
Tonight we had the immense pleasure of interviewing Thom Zahler, writer artist and creator of Love and Capes. He’s the self-professed “hardest working creator you’ve never heard of”. (It does sound like he works pretty hard. He was still the acting Mayor of his town for the duration of our interview.)
We had a lot of fun talking with him about his extensive experience in the comic book industry, as well as his opinions about everything ranging from sitcoms to the state of comics today. We talked about his inspirations and aspirations for the future. We even got him to sing a little for us.
Listen to ReadComics.org Podcast Episode #020 (26.1 MB, 57 minutes)
It’s going to be all day comics at the St. Paul Central library this Friday, an event they’re calling Comixtravaganza. I don’t really know who organized this, but there’s going to be a whole bunch of local creators in attendance. And free food!
Here’s the schedule and location (as reported in an email from The Source):
CENTRAL LIBRARY
4th floor meeting room
90 4th Street West
St. Paul, MN. 55102
651.266.7000FRIDAY OCTOBER 17, 2008
- 11:00AM – 12:00PM: Comix Panel featuring:
- Marcus Almand
- Becky Grutzik
- Melissa S. Kaercher
- Ryan Kelly
- Aric McKeown & Lem Pew
- Michael May
- Shawn Van Briesen
- 12:30PM – 1:30PM: How to Draw Manga Class
- 2:00PM – 4:30PM: Watch a New Anime Film with the 3 P’s (pocky, pizza, & pop)
A co-worker sent me this link to a Star Wars: The Clone Wars comic in something called the Star Wars Online Reader. There are three parts to it, each one meant to segue between one of the three Clone Wars TV episodes that have been released so far, and that you can also watch on StarWars.com. I’m assuming they’ll also be adding a new comic each week as a new TV episode comes out. Each episode also has a viewing guide (with detailed synopses), and some of them have commentary.
I didn’t actually go see the Clone Wars movie, but some of this stuff is pretty good, and I might have to watch it now.
Bonus link: StarWars.com has some weird stuff. Here’s an article on how to make star wars themed cat toys.
Another political comic book is getting distributed, this one called Steal Back Your Vote!, and you can download it after you donate something via paypal (as little as a dollar). The art is by Lukas Ketner, (who also does this Witch Doctor comic), and Lloyd Dangle, (who has a pretty political comic called Troubletown).
There’s actually a lot more text inside than there is comic book, but you can see a couple of example pages on flickr: Vote Theft for Idiots: Lesson 1 and Lesson 2.
Completely coincidentally, I have been meaning to post a link to The Pain–When will it end?, which is the site for the (mostly political) cartoons of Tim Kreider. It appears to be updated more or less weekly, and the archives are very definitely worth a look. If I had a complaint though, the images are pretty damn large, and scrolling is not really an option so much as an obligation. Good stuff though.
Florence interviews Marty and Jason who talk about their trip to Fallcon in Saint Paul, MN. (They didn’t have to go far.) Mostly we discuss who we met and talked to, but we also talked about what we bought, including New Warriors, Marvel Civil War, Don Rosa, Metal Men, Machine Man, Straczynski’s run of Dr. Strange, Wormwood, Frank Miller’s Give Me Liberty, and Blackgas written by Warren Ellis. Jason has his picture taken with an Aquaman impersonator. We also talked briefly about books in our pull this week, including No Hero and Top 10 Season Two. Get it while it’s hot.
Listen to ReadComics.org Podcast Episode #019 (23 MB, 51 minutes)
Don’t forget that Fallcon is this Saturday and Sunday.
There are going to be over 200 artists in attendance this time around. It’s FallCon’s 20th anniversary, and they’ve moved into the grandstand on the state fair grounds.
Those who arrive early will have a chance to get one of these limited edition sketch cards. Other highlights include panels pretty much all day both days, a wedding on Saturday, a free HeroClicks tournament, door prizes, and much, much more!
The fallcon myspace page has some additional information for those who want to know more.
MCBA FALLCON COMIC BOOK CELEBRATION
October 4 & 5, 2008 – 10AM to 5PM Both Days!
Minnesota State Fairgrounds – In the Grandstand!
1265 Snelling Avenue – Saint Paul, MN 55108
20th ANNIVERSARY 1989-2008Admission is just $11.00 per adult. Good for both days! Children 9 & under are FREE!
Get $1.00 Off Your Admission With A Canned Food Shelf Donation!
This podcast, featuring Florence, Marty, Jason and Mike, was recorded for our third ReadComics Book Club. We talked (for about the first two thirds) about Phantom Jack: The Collected Edition. Just in case you care, there are spoilers.
We also talked about our future picks for Comic Book Book Club (the next book club will discuss the most recent two arcs of Buffy, issues 12-19), House of M: Avengers, DC and Marvel action figures including this Marvel Legends Spiral build-a-figure (via Captain Toy), and the Wizard People voice over thing for the first Harry Potter movie.
Listen to ReadComics.org Podcast Episode #018 (30.1 MB, 65 minutes)
Join us tonight for the seventeenth ReadComics podcast. We talked about the Emmys, Neil Patrick Harris and his boyfriend, Prism Comics, Fallcon, Gaylaxicon, Windy City Comic-con, Echo, Sword, Runaways, The Goon, Spider Man Reign, PS238, Secret Invasion, and Final Crisis. Of course there was other stuff in there. Enjoy.
Listen to ReadComics.org Podcast Episode #017 (30 MB, 66 minutes)
Today marks the anniversary of the last issue of DM of the Ring, a webcomic built from screenshots taken from the epic Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movies. If you haven’t seen this, you really should check it out.
I heard a rumor last night that the same guy had started a new comic doing all the Star Wars movies, but I can’t seem to find it. I’ll post again if he gets back to me with the link.
I work with a bunch of computer geeks, and someone recently sent around the relatively new Sticks and Stones, which admittedly is pretty much an xkcd knockoff, (but I think there’s room for more in this genre, since I love it SO much).
Bonus link, there are a TON of people’s favorite programmer comics in this thread over at StackOverflow.com. That should keep me busy for a while.
UPDATE: Note that this is the 200th ReadComics.org post! W00-H00!
Some of you may remember that Jason and I attended a reading/presentation by David Hajdu last July at the Anderon Library on the west bank of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus. The event was to celebrate John Borger’s gift of almost 40,000 comic books to the Children’s Literature Research Collections department, a gift that was given a bit of press back when it happened.
David Hajdu’s presentation was interesting. He seemed a bit nervous that both Gordon Purcell and Dan Jurgens were in attendance. And while I really had attended the event just to see David Hajdu, I found myself more and more interested in comic book donation, and the implications it had for the University having, suddenly, at its disposal such a glut of comic books.
I had the good fortune, after the event, of finding out I have mutual friends in common with Marie J. Harvat, who is the Library Supervisor in charge of the Borger collection. I soon corresponded with her, and she was happy to answer the following questions I had about dealing with such a large collection, including the process of keeping track of the comics, and her knowledge of implications for the University.
1. Would you be willing to describe the method being used to catalog and keep track of the comic books in the collection? Was there existing database software used for this project, or was a custom database created? Are the comics being scanned with a barcode reader? How many
people are taking part in this endeavor?Marie: The Borger Collection came to us with a copy of Mr. Borger’s personal ComicBase database listing. The CLRC purchased a copy of this software to be able to manipulate the data. While there are some very nice features in ComicBase, its is not something that the Libraries are able to use for patron searching.
It was decided that we would use Encoded Archival Description (EAD), a form of XML, to list the comics in the collection. Rather than type all the information desired (title, illustrator, publisher, character appearances, etc), I have been able to export data from ComicBase into a tab delimited file and into Excel. The staff discussed which “fields” to include and I compared these to established EAD elements to create a template for XML coding. This drove the massaging of the Excel spreadsheet to facilitate using another software to convert from spreadsheet columns into a page of code, thereby eliminating the need to hand code all 36,000 comic issues!
At present, I am the lead staff person on this project. We have one temporary part time assistant who is inputting additional information into a spreadsheet and placing the comics into new acid free boxes (smaller than those donated by Mr. Borger as to be more manageable and fit on the storage shelves better. Each comic is going in an acid free mylar sleeve and has an acid free “tag” slipped in the bag as to indicate its Box #, Folder #, Title, Date, and Issue #. In time we will have a second assistant to help push the project along more rapidly.
2. What is the timeline for making the comic books available to the public?
Selected comics are already available to the public. If you visit:
http://special.lib.umn.edu/clrc/borger/, and click on the left hand “Finding Aid” the list of processed comics appears. This is being updated at least on a weekly basis, and you can probably quickly tell that I have not finished tweaking the display. This project has been a great way for me to learn XML and XSL — but as I’m teaching myself while working this, some things will be a little messy for a while in the name of getting the title and issue numbers for processed comics out to the public.We hope to have processing completed by the end of 2008.
3. I know some Comic Books are already available, what does a person need to do to have access to these comics?
We are suggesting that interested patrons consult the finding aid. Any item listed there is currently available to be read in our reading room — 6 issues may be had on the table at one time; patrons may only have a laptop and a few sheets of paper with a pencil on the table while comics are in use. At the librarian’s discretion (read: if I can make it happen), other titles might be available and users are encouraged to inquire at clrc@umn.edu if they would like to see something that isn’t yet processed. In general, we strongly suggest making an appointment in advance notice for use of the Borger Collection. Again email clrc@umn.edu. A picture ID will be requested upon registration with the collection (a simple form), so don’t forget a wallet!
4. Does the library have any plans for accepting additional comic book donations? What if another donor came forward?
J. Randolph Cox has been donating comic books for a couple of years and will continue to move his collection to the CLRC in smaller batches. These titles do not often overlap with those collected by Mr. Borger thus the collections shall compliment each other well. Collection decisions are made by the curator of the collection in consultation with other Libraries administration based on issues of condition, collection development policies, funds for processing, and space for storage, among other criteria and usually on a case by case basis.
5. Has there been academic interest in the using the collection? I’m especially curious about what departments are interested… cultural studies? english lit?
One of the U of MN philosophy instructors has been in touch with the CLRC about a freshman seminar he will be leading in the spring term. We will be more actively reaching out to other departments as more and more titles are processed and ready for use.
Special thanks to Marie for taking time out of her busy schedule to answer these questions.
Both Florence and I have iPhones, so it seems natural to want to view comics on them… however, Florence has said she doesn’t think it makes sense for anything other than strip comics, because the screen is too small. But a couple of applications are trying to get people to read comic books on the iPhone, and while I have yet to install the 2.0 upgrade that allows you to add 3rd party applications to your iPhone, (so I haven’t tried either of these out), I thought I’d mention them here anyway.
The first is perhaps the most interesting because there is quite some controversy. Infurious Comics has created an app for the iPhone that allows you to view their comic Murderdrome. They tried to have it added to the iPhone application store (app store), and were denied, because it’s not suitable for all audiences (via Hypergeek). Here’s the video of the comic in action:
But Infurious didn’t let the Apple’s denial (some are calling it censorship!) stop them. They were, after all, developing a comic book application. So now sometime soon they’re releasing a new comic called Eye Candy. You can watch one of the developers demo that comic on youtube or the Infurious Blog. They added some new features to the app itself, including the ability to color the comic pages. They’ve also said they have more comics in development. Oh, and Eye Candy is going to cost $.99 in the app store.
There is another comic book application on the iPhone called ClickWheel that’s trying to be more of a comic book platform rather than just single issue comics. Check out their online demo (which is pretty amusing, but took me a few minutes to realize you could click and drag the comic to get to the later panels). Or you can watch this (not so flattering) demo off youtube:
I’ll probably try both of these out at some point in the near future, and I’ll report back if I find anything else interesting about them.
Yesterday, while reading Neil Gaiman’s blog (which is often written in the 3rd person, and probably not by Neil himself), I stumbled onto several interesting links, not the least of which is this song/poem titled “I Google You“. Follow the link for both a youtube video of someone performing the song, and also (in the comments) Neil himself has posted the lyrics.
In case you were wondering where this image came from, Neil has a new book coming out soon called The Graveyard Book. It’s another full length young adult novel, and is about a boy who grows up in a cemetery, raised by ghosts. Click the title for a lengthier description.
Bonus links: Neil answers questions at the Mouse Circus FAQ. The latest issue of ImageTexT, (“a web journal dedicated to furthering comics scholarship in a variety of disciplines and theoretical perspectives”) features “The Comics Works of Neil Gaiman”, which basically means a bunch of scholarly essays about Gaiman’s comic books. I find this sort of academic BS hard to read, but maybe there’s some interesting stuff buried in there.
Mike has selected the book for the next ReadComics.org Comic Book Book Club! We’re going to read Phantom Jack: The Collected Edition. This can be found on Amazon for cheap, and you can read a bit about the series on the Phantom Jack page at wikipedia. There is more art on the mini-series homepage.
We plan to meet at Marty & Florence’s place, around 7pm on Tuesday, September 23rd 30th. That only gives you two three weeks to read the entire TPB!
UPDATE: The date didn’t work for Florence, so we’re pushing back a week to the last day of September, Tuesday the 30th.
Florence was a fan of Babylon 5 and had also read other comics by J. Michael Straczynski, so when she saw this TPB at Wizard World she decided to pick it up. Little did we know that Mike had most of the rest of the series collected from the original run sitting in a long box at home.
From the big pile of things we bought in Chicago this summer, this was very near the top for Florence, and from exactly page 14, she knew she had to read the rest of the series. Essentially, this first TPB is about the origins of 113 people known as “The Specials”, who were all in utero in the same region in the US when a meteorite flew overhead and gave them the potential for superpowers. Because of some plausible paranoia by the U.S. government, these kids are eventually all rounded up and raised together under close supervision. Page 14 depicts 5 of the main characters in three stages of their lives: ages 6, 16, and 30+. Seeing this transition, along with the knowledge that Straczynski tends to plan for the long haul with his stories, promised to be a satisfying read.
I’ve only just finished this first TPB, (containing Issues #1-8) but Florence is about to read the final Issue of the series, #24. Coming at it from the beginning as I am, I think there is definitely a lot to find compelling about the series, but that it’s not all that original, from a superhero graphic novel kind of perspective. Perhaps I’ve been spoiled by stuff like New Universal and the Authority/Planetary universe (where a bunch of powerful folks were born in 1900). Florence tells me the Authority parallels do continue, but that it still feels like its own story to her.
Rising Stars is really about how The Specials’ powers and their upbringing and social roles amongst each other really combine to form the path they choose in life. Neither Florence nor I found the government’s imagined reaction to these superpowers to be terribly far fetched, and by the end of this first TPB, things are set into motion that really liven up the playing field. Florence warns that there is a very wordy setup for the next arc, but if I can get past that, things will start moving fast again. (There were a few pages in the middle of this TPB too, that were mostly words, and felt a bit out of place in this otherwise standard comic book.)
From Florence’s perspective, nearing the end of the series, she says there are definitely distinct arcs within the larger story, and that it feels like it is going to come to a definitive end. When we looked it up, there was evidence of splinter arcs (not written by Straczynski, and thus less compelling to Florence). She really likes the character-driven nature of the comic, and is looking forward to the closure, allowed by the arrival of the second to last issue in our mailbox today. We already had the last issue sitting on the shelf, and Florence is going to go read it now.
Listen to us!
The sixteen-thousandth ReadComics.org podcast was recorded by Jason, Florence, Marty and Susie (via Skype). Marty bored everyone by talking about monetizing websites, but there is actual discussion of comic books… after Jason, Susie and Florence bore Marty by talking about which male character was the hottest in the “buffyverse” (and whether Andrew is/was gay). Other topics included Drawing Words & Writing Pictures, Superman and Brainiac in the latest Action Comics, James Marsters in Torchwood, Sky Doll, Wonder Woman, Runaways, Animal Man, Final Crisis, 52, Lobo and Wolverine.
Listen to ReadComics.org Podcast Episode #016 (30 MB, 64 minutes)
