Kirkus Reviews Unveils Its Best of 2010

Kirkus Reviews has published its excellent lists of the best books of 2010 for children and young adults, and both categories have a section for graphic novels. Since there was a bumper crop of good titles to chose from, it was no doubt tough for them to narrow it down. They made some excellent choices.

-- John Hogan

GGNFT Nominations Are Out

The great people at YALSA (the Young Adult Library Services Association)--many of whom are friends and/or contributors to GNR--have released their annual list of Great Graphic Novels for Teens nominations. The 2011 list is a fantastic cavalcade of what makes comics great and really showcases the diversity that is more and more becoming inherent in graphic-novel publishing. This is an impressive list of awesome books, and I encourage everyone to check it out.

-- John Hogan

Lynda Barry on Talk of the Nation

Celebrated comics artist and creator Lynda Barry will be on NPR's Talk of the Nation today to discuss her works like Picture This and What It Is. With the explosion of graphic memoirs that have come out recently, particularly in the wake of her how-to books, it's sure to be an interesting conversation.

-- John Hogan

Toon Takes on Bullying (and Offers a Contest)

Toon Books is helping kids address the issue of bullying by allowing kids to make their own comic strip based on their experiences. The larger program, which involves kids, teachers, and parents and helps create discussion, also gives entrants the chance to win a new iPod Touch and a set of Toon Books for the classroom. The contest is only open to kindergartners, first, and second graders in New York State, though. Full details can be found here.

-- John Hogan

Graphic Novels for Reading Groups: Do You Do It?

Through the years, I've been a member of several reading groups. Unfortunately, they've rarely involved graphic novels (and when they did, it was at my suggestion). This is why I've always loved events like comics conventions: By and large, the vast majority of my friends and family do not read comics, so conventions were always a chance to meet with like-minded people.

-- John Hogan

Unemployed Man Saves the Day

USA Today features a fun and interesting review of a new (and, for better or worse, very timely) new graphic novel: The Adventures of Unemployed Man by Erich Origen and Gan Golan. The $14.99 book is from Little, Brown. (The names of the villains made me laugh: The Man, The Human Resource, and the killers Nickel & Dime.) It's unfortunate that the book fits in with society's ills right now...but maybe it's better to laugh.

-- John Hogan

Zombies Are Invading

The Walking Dead is coming to TV this Sunday (Halloween), and walking dead zombies are invading 26 cities around the globe tomorrow. So get ready! The undead will be wreaking havoc everywhere from New York to Athens to Rome. That's a lot of zombies and a lot of carnage. Read on for more details, including the press release.

-- John Hogan

The Walking Dead Are Coming

I'm a huge fan of Walking Dead, so I'm understandably excited about the upcoming TV series on AMC. It's debuting, appropriately enough, on Halloween (if you couldn't guess by the title, it's a series about zombies). It's also a graphic and emotionally shocking series (at least in comics; I'm incredibly curious to see how closely the TV show will hew to the source material and how well that will play out with a TV audience if they do). Actor Andrew Lincoln seems like a nice choice to play the lead.

-- John Hogan

More Events at MoCCA

New York's Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art is having a busy fall. They're starting their fall lineup of courses in the coming week, including the Anatomy for Cartoonists Workshop and How to Write Funny Comics and Gag Cartoons, and coming up October 21 at 7 p.m. is Artist Talk with Denis Kitchen. This will tie in with MoCCA's new exhibition, Denis Kitchen: An Oddly Compelling Mini-Retrospective (which itself ties in with Denis's new book, The Oddly Compelling Art of Denis Kitchen). Check them out if you're interested! 

-- John Hogan

Reflections on New York Comic Con

I'm a little late in getting this posted (due to an unfortunate week without internet connectivity), but I wanted to post some brief musings on the wonderful world of comics that occurred last weekend. It began with the excellent ICv2 conference on Thursday (put on by Milton Griepp), which covered the current state of the industry. In brief, it turns out individual monthly comics sales are up slightly, manga sales are down for the third year in a row, and digital sales are up tremendously.

-- John Hogan