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Finally! A Defender of Fashion!!
by anned
Who has supersonic feet, x-ray eyes, and a brain that can mix and match hundreds of outfits in a second? It's Fashion Kitty!!!!
Regular cat by day (if you consider wearing clothes, walking on two legs, attending school, and speaking regular for a cat), Fashion Kitty by night. Super nice Kiki is always ready to answer a call of despair and use her super powers to save other cats from making fashion faux pas . Don't miss her exciting origin story in Fashion Kitty and watch her take on the evil Fashion Queen in Fashion Kitty Versus the Fashion Queen! It's nonstop sparkly pink action!
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A Dungeon Too Many
by anned
What happens to the Keeper's lucrative business of luring, plundering, then massacring adventurers when a competing dungeon (complete with balloons, cotton candy, and puppet shows) is built next door? Get an inside look at the workings of a fantasy dungeon, run CEO style by a bird in a top hat. Full of heroes such as Marvin, an anthropomorphic vegetarian dragon who loves to bake, and Herbert, a timorous duck. Joann Sfarr has teamed up with other French cartoonists, Lewis Trondheim, and Manu Larcent to create the wonderful universe that is Dungeon. Larcent's panels are dense with informative details. Including gory cartoon-violence! The subtle jokes involving Grogro the monster are particularly wonderful.
Cliquez ici pour visiter le site officiel du Donjon (en Français).
Blog Post
Manga Drawing Contest Winners!
by erin
Our first annual Manga Drawing Contest Award Ceremony was last night @ 7:00 at the Downtown Library - I'm sorry you missed it! Over 70 kids and teens in grades K-12 entered the contest and ALL of their work is currently on display in the Downtown Youth Department and will be for the month of August - check it out! Our fabulous judges, Fred Gallagher and Jerzy Drozd had a daunting task - they spent HOURS last Saturday making their decisions and writing comments and feedback for each and every piece of artwork. Over 70 kids/teens/families/friends attended the award ceremony to hear WHO got Wizzywig gift certificates, the Olympic-worthy medals and more... Most importantly everyone got to meet and greet with Fred and Jerzy! And the winners are (click read more for the complete list):
Grades K-2:
1st Place/Duaa Aljirafi; 2nd Place/Runner-Up/Domonique Littlefield; 3rd place/Honorable Mention/Samuel Wasserman. Best Fan Art/Kristen Umbriac; Best Original Character/Sophia Cho.
Grades 3-5:
1st Place/Agnes Cho; 2nd Place/Runner-Up/Samantha Linn; 3rd Place/Honorable Mention/Bernadette Lamb. Best Fan Art/Lillian Xie; Best Original Character/Charlotte Cardon.
Grades 6-8:
1st Place/Lena Ji; 2nd Place/Runner-Up/Kylah Thompson; 3rd Place/Honorable Mention/Kyle Mink. Best Comic Strip/Andrew Hacott; Best Fan Art/Emily Ji; Best Original Character/Jessica Maronen.
Grades 9-12:
1st Place/Xin Gu; 2nd Place/Runner-Up/TIE/Brittany Adams and Donovan Adams (not related); 3rd Place/Honorable Mention/Michelle Lin. Best Comic Strip/Stephanie Mannheim; Best Fan Art/Desha Stewart; Best Original Character/Kaitlin Casternino.
Blog Post
Courtney Crumrin
by anned
Not sure what to read now that you've finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (or while you wait for your copy)? Still haven't had your fill of magical creatures and spells? Then Courtney Crumrin might be for you. Courtney's family moves to Hillsborough to care for her eccentric Great Uncle Aloysius and she soon finds that things are not what they seem. Uncle Aloysius is far from decrepit and mysterious creatures are lurking in the nearby forest. Courtney learns that knowledge of witchcraft runs in her family and Uncle Aloysius has plans for her education. Courtney is a bit more pessimistic than Harry, but Ted Naifeh has done a wonderful job of taking the edge off of darker moments by mixing stylized characters (such as cute and noseless Courtney) with some more realistically rendered designs--reminiscent of Arthur Rackham.
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Justice League: A New Beginning
by anned
Back in 1987, following the DC Comics LEGENDS crossover event, a new Justice League was born. Not only was it under the creative team of Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis (with new artist Kevin Maguire), but it featured a cast of "second stringer" heroes such as Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Black Canary, Captain Marvel, and the macho-jerk Green Lantern known as Guy Gardner. What's more, this particular league's stories focused a lot on the humor found in the down-time between their inter-dimensional monster fighting adventures. Some have even compared the Giffen/DeMatteis run on Justice League to how a sit-com is structured. The biggest surprise of all was when it became the top-selling comic in the late '80s and early '90s. Issues 1-6 of Justice League and Justice League International 7 have been collected in A New Beginning,which is now available at aadl.
The humor and humanity of this title is further emphasized by the artwork of Kevin Maguire, master of the expressive face. Maguire's art takes comics character acting to new heights. Though they're wearing costumes and calling each other by code-names, the characters register as real people and the comedy speaks to all ages.
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Road Trip Reads: The Doom Patrol Archives, Vol. 2
by anned
A cover to one of the issues in this collection features a French-speaking gorilla who is piloting a giant purple robot that is swinging a submarine at a 50-foot tall woman wearing SCUBA gear. This is the madness that was the Silver Age of comics, and it's never been more fun than in The Doom Patrol. Join Robot Man, Elasti-Girl, Negative Man, and The Chief as they struggle against evil adversaries such as Monsieur Mallah (the aforementioned French-speaking gorilla), The Brain (literally a talking brain in a jar), and Madame Rouge (a woman who can mold her face like putty to look like anyone she wants). Adventure has never been weirder, nor more thrilling. Best of all, it can be enjoyed by the whole family.
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A good sketch is better than a long speech
by N3RD
I've been in to picture books, comics, manga, graphic novels or what ever you prefer to call the medium of artistic story telling for a long time. I remember trying to explain my appreciation for graphic novels to my parents. They looked at me with slightly puzzled, slightly worried looks...
"...so are they called graphic novels because they are violent?"
"Some are some aren't, but thats not important"
"... so are they called graphic novels because they have naughty pictures?"
"Some do some don't, but that's not important"
".. so is it the foul language that makes them graphic?"
" NO!, they are called graphic because of the art work."
I grew up with weekly comic book anthologies where I got to follow many stories by different writers. These stories some times had dedicated artists some would change artists and styles from weeks to week. I'm sure just about everyone has heard the proverb about the textual value of a picture and with with artistic story telling a picture is worth even more. With so many changes I came to a realization that I can forgive a bad plot if the art is good but if the art is bad the plot better be 'super fantastic' to continue holding my attention.
I had my favorite writers like Pat Mills, John Wagner, Alan Grant, Garth Ennis, Grant Morrison and Alan Moore and when they worked with my favorite artists of the time like Carlos Ezquerra, Ian Gibson and Massimo Belardinelli then they could do no wrong in my book.
Over the years I've come to experience many differing forms of artistic story telling and my list of favorites is long and twisted. I remember the first time i read Arkham Asylum : a serious house on serious earth, such a dark story it left me a little disturbed. Whenever I return to it I'm amazed at the levels and detail in the work.
OK at the risk of totally undermining anything I've said above, I'll let you into a big secret. One of my other favorites even surprises me. Its not my usual fare but when I accidentally flicked through a copy of the book my eyes caught the mix of photographs and drawings and I actually stopped and took the time to read it.
Knuffle bunny, is a young children's picture book, very short and the art works so well to draw you into the story. Now having said that if you where to stop me on the street and ask me about it I'll deny everything... but really I did enjoy the book ;0)
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Road Trip Reads: Essential Fantastic Four Vol. 1
by anned
20 issues of the series that launched the Silver Age, plus the first annual are collected in this volume. In 1961, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby changed the world's perception of what a super-hero was by creating the Fantastic Four, a family of heroes with real human problems. Meet the monstrous yet lovable Thing, the hot-headed and impetuous Human Torch, the compassionate Invisible Woman, and the dashing scientist known as Mister Fantastic. While their inter-personal conflicts reflect real world problems and concerns, their rouges gallery is a cast of wonderfully overstated characters.
Dr. Doom is monarch of an Eastern European country with a metal mask and a penchant for mixing scientific gizmos with the dark arts; The Puppet Master, father to the Thing's main squeeze Alicia Masters, molds mind-control puppets out of radioactive clay; and Namor (my personal favorite), king of Atlantis, whose contempt of humanity is only outmatched by his love for the Invisible Woman.
Non-stop, non-ironic fun for all ages is available for that long summer road trip. As Stan Lee would say: Excelsior!
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Road Trip Reads: Showcase Presents Superman
by anned
With the current comics industry rushing for mainstream acceptance and critical acclaim, one could almost forget that there was once a time when comics was mostly entertainment for entertainment's sake.
Thankfully, DC Comics has begun releasing their Showcase Presents Library of Classics. In the first volume of Showcase Presents Superman, we're reintroduced to the box-chested Man of Steel as envisioned by Silver Age artists Curt Swan and Stan Kaye. It's unpretentious, over-the-top adventure, featuring villains such as the green-skinned, pink leotard-wearing Braniac, the imperfect duplicate of Superman known as Bizarro, Titano the super-ape, and even Mr. Mxyzptlk (pronounced mix-yes-pit-lick).
At a whopping 500 pages, this volume is perfect for that long road trip and fun for the whole family.
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Persepolis animated film premieres at Cannes
by eli
Fans of Marjane Satrapi and her popular and acclaimed graphic novels, and Persepolis 2 may be interested to see this french trailer for an animated film based on the books which is premiering this week at Cannes. It includes voice acting from Catherine Deneuve and Chiara Mastroianni, and will surely see a US release. While you wait, you might try Satrapi's lesser-known Embroideries or Chicken with Plums, or view this video of the author's visit to the Seattle Public Library when Persepolis was the subject of their 2006 community read.