Who's Who In The CBU Update 2008
Who are... Park and Barb?
Barbara Lien-Cooper writes the comic GUN STREET GIRL at Panel 2 Panel, was an original founder of Sequential Tart, is the managing editrix of the 2004 Eisner award-winning print magazine COMIC BOOK ARTIST, and was named by Mark Millar (The Authority, Ultimates, Wanted) as one of the three most promising new talents in the next wave of comics writing.
Park Cooper started writing about comics at the now-defunct DC FANZINE website.
As You May Have Noticed
Well, we’re back from San Diego, but as soon as we got back, I had a substitute teaching job to do, so the San Diego column isn’t ready just yet. On the other hand, we have an ever-so-slightly time-dated column from Barb. On the gripping hand, it’s just a little shorter than our columns usually are, so let’s use this time right now to talk a little about our friends.
--We met Steve Bryant there, face-to-face for the first time, where he gave me a copy of the Convention Cover version of a book I edited, ATHENA VOLTAIRE: FLIGHT OF THE FALCON from Ape Entertainment. Please buy it.
http://brokenfrontier.com/headlines/details.php?id=1672&PHPSESSID=c817339c44a387223cb20f0b17183348
http://www.athenavoltaire.com/
--Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition: Ursula Vernon, who is where GSG used to be, on Graphic Smash. She didn’t win the Eisner she was nominated for, but you can still buy DIGGER volumes 1 and 2. Sadly, we didn’t meet Ursula – by the time we realized she was there, it was Sunday, and they told us she’d already left. But congratulations to you, Ursula.
--And as long as I’m talking about the Eisners: Best Limited Series, Best New Series, Grant Morrison (cheers to Frank Quitely, too!) Good on you, Grant (and Frank)—nominated, and won. Sorry we forgot to tell you at the con – but I’m not sure we even knew about the wins yet when we talked to you.
http://www.sofawolf.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=51
http://www.sofawolf.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=57
-- Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material: Joann Sfar – of The Rabbi’s Cat, Dungeon, and the Little Vampire series. Two good bodies of work we enjoy, and we look forward to reading The Rabbi’s Cat.
--Finally, we want to say a very basic hello to our new friends at Bloodfire Studios, particularly Josh Finney and Kat Rocha of UTOPIATES. We’ve read #1, and we really approve of what they’re doing. Look for it in stores.
http://www.bloodfire.com/products/comics/utopiates/
http://www.bloodfire.com/
And now, the regularly scheduled column…
As you may have noticed, we have a new all ages column at SBC, written by no less than Mike Pellerito, Adventure Series/Manga Editor for ARCHIE COMICS. Here's the link if you haven't seen it:
http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com/allages/index.htm
In the first column, Mr. Pellerito asks if comics are as fun as they used to be and where all the comics for children went to. My answer is, yes, I'm having a great time reading comics lately---and that some of it comes down to the all-ages comics that are have been out there the last few years. NBM have the comic Dungeon, which comes out in graphic novel collections, as well as some kids' tales adaptations. Amy Unbounded got a Xeric. Our friend Jane Irwin's comic Vogelain is available in quite a few libraries I frequent. Colonia was picked up an indie publisher awhile back. Marvel's been doing some younger reader comics, such as the Fantastic Four comic that SBC's Brandon Thomas wrote, as well as the Runaways series.
But, if you really want to look for where the fun is in terms of many, many comics for children, you have no further to look than most magazine stands. We, of course, know about Archie digests, but have you noticed that comics are making a come back in stores that sell magazines. Sure, we've seen more graphic novels in book stores, but I've been rather pleased to see flimsies in stores, too. Now, I'm very pro-independent comic book store owners and do not wish to see them hurt, but there's something just plain heart-warming to see comics in the magazine stores again.
And chief amongst these heartening comics isn't a graphic novel or a flimsy. Instead, it's a huge, incredibly popular magazine filled with age-appropriate but never boring material. Since Mr. Pellerito is a manga editor, he probably already knows this, but since a word to the wise is sufficient…
I'm talking about Shonen Jump magazines, obviously. Even though I mostly read mature titles, I also read several of the Shonen Jump graphic novel collections. Our bookshelves are filled with copies of Naruto, One Piece, Hiraku No Go, Whistle, and on and on. And we're not the only ones that's true of. My husband recently met a magazine editor for a well respected weekly events magazine. The whole family, including this professional man of words and letters, were hard-core Naruto fans. Nothing like a high kicking kid ninja to bring a family together, right?
And it's not just action adventure stuff, either. Try reading comics like Yotsuba or Azu-Manga-Daioh , two works as sweet and wholesome and just plain adorable baby lambs and tell me that comics no longer have anything for the innocents. Heck, Yotsuba's such a sweetie, she makes Little Dot look like a natural born killer in comparison.
Anyone who thinks the cause of children's comics is somehow dead in the water or even ailing owes it to him/herself to take a look at the manga shelves of the book stores. On the good side, you just have to look at, say, those cute little Fruits Baskets key chains at Hot Topic to know that there is an audience for comics that can appeal to younger fans of sequential work. You only have to look at the well worn copies of Shonen Jump in libraries or the little ones sitting on the floor of Barnes and Nobles reading manga graphic novels to see that kids are reading comics.
All-ages friendly fare is just another place where we in American comics are going to have to show some real American ingenuity to keep up with the Japanese. Fortunately, this is an area that I honestly think we can be real competition. See, we have a great legacy of all-ages comics from just about the dawn of comic book history. Times may change, cultures may change, kids might grow up more quickly and have ways that are harder to understand than before, but kids are still kids. If you really want innocent comics from a more innocent age for the innocent ages, what's wrong with reprinting old comics?
Unca Scrooge is still Unca Scrooge and still as sparkling as ever. Archie still charms after all these years. You see where I'm going?
What's wrong with following the path of a Gary Groth and re-publishing Pogo and Peanuts comics? Or a Dark Horse, who just committed to re-publishing Marge's Little Lulu? What's wrong with the Archie Digests that republish old material with impunity?
You know what I'd love to see, speaking of Archie? A big black and white phone book version of the complete Little Archie, just like Marvel so wisely publishes the old “Essential” Spider-man and X-Men books and other things, and DC does with its SHOWCASE stuff. God knows I've stubbed my toe enough times in the night tripping over some of those books left on the ground, read and left handy to read again.
Maybe we could learn something from Shonen Jump---if you want to hook kids on action-adventure comics, they are not going to turn down a big affordable phone book of old adventures of reliable comic book characters.