Congratulations to Raina Telgemeier's Smile, which was just named a 2010 Boston Globe Horn Book Award Honor Book in the nonfiction category. I remember first meeting Raina back in December at the GNR holiday party, and I told her I couldn't wait to read her book. Once I did, I was in love with it and tried to share it with friends and acquaintances. I'm so glad to see she's gotten this distinction from the Boston Globe. The book really deserves it.

Writer Eric Hobbes and artist Noel Tuazon are the creative team behind The Broadcast, a new graphic novel about the night Orson Welles terrified radio listeners with his rendition of War of the Worlds (it's also included on our Hottest Graphic Novels of Summer 2010 list). The two creators are sponsoring an interesting contest in promotion of their book. Their book is about a town in rural Indiana that loses power before its residents discover that there is no alien invasion, and the wild events that transpire as a result.

I'm a little bit late in breaking this "news" (two months late, give or take), but tonight I'm going to the Children's Choice Book Awards, sponsored by the Children's Book Council, so I have to give a shout-out to the graphic-novel-related authors being honored. Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute by Jarrett J.

Earlier this week, I posted a blog item about a special email address that Titan Books had set up for readers to send their birthday wishes to Peter O'Donnell, on the event of his 90th birthday. I deleted that blog post, though, when I heard the sad news that O'Donnell, the creator of the Modesty Blaise strip, had passed away in England this past weekend. I'm sorry to hear the news. O'Donnell was a force in comics for decades, beginning in the late '30s, but Modesty Blaise, a kind of female James Bond, but with an even sexier twist, remains his best-known creation.