Books!
Whoo, lots of book news for you today — Raina Telgemeier‘s SMILE is now street-dated for February, Hope Larson‘s Mercury for early January, Chris Baldwin’s third Little Dee collection went off to the printer yesterday, and Chris Hastings (helped ably as always by Kent Archer, Carly Monardo, and Anthony Clark) will soon be able to give us a date for the third Dr McNinja collection. Note to self: buy more bookshelves.
- Everybody see where Penny Arcade has a job opening posted? As of this writing, it appears that applications have probably passed the 500 mark.
- So for those of you wondering if you could ever have enough comics shows in your life, there’s a new one on the block: this October will see the first iteration of the Long Beach Comic Con, perhaps filling the void of the defunct Wizard LA show. New show, unknown at this time how the “feel” of it will play out, but I was encouraged by this bit from the show’s homepage:
We love everything about the medium and the message – from Silver Age bottle cities, to indy mini-comics based on poetry. We want you to experience it all. That’s why we’re lining up more than the trendy guests and sneak peeks that Hollywood wants you to see (though we’ve got that, too!).
We’re getting the best, the coolest, the most experimental and the … well, quite simply, the grooviest stuff we can.
West coast creators of indy/web comickry, take note.
- If memory serves correctly, one of the criticisms that Mr T made about the state of webcomics in his book (three years back, which is about 37 lifetimes in this medium) is that too many webcomics didn’t take the opportunity to provide more cultural context for their world-wide readerships.
I wasn’t convinced that such ambassadorships are a necessary thing to occur, but the argument came back to me as I started flipping through Odori Park, which tells the story of an American/Japanese couple and their multilingual toddler, and which bears absolutely no relationship to the life of the creator, who is part of an American/Japanese couple with a multilingual toddler.
Specifically, I thought that this comic might make both me and T happy in its approach to such cultural issues — they’re addressed, but in a nicely organic way that serves the story rather than being explicit exposition. Hooray for middle grounds, and check out Odori Park — it’s good. (time from publication to T showing up in the comments starts: now!)
Edit to add: TIME! 13 days, 9 hours, 34 minutes. You’re slipping, T.
[…] the first: Gary Tyrell at Fleen.com has provided a thoughtful and flattering reviewlette at his site today. Thank you! Please check it out if you’re not already a Fleen reader. […]
By Odori Park » Archive » Belated Blogulations :: A webcomic comedy of culture shock in love, life, and family, by Chris Watkins :: on 06.10.09 5:51 pm
Mother pus bucket!! NOW Long Beach decides to do a big comic convention, when I’m leaving the area to head back to the east coast.
By Pete on 06.10.09 8:56 pm
Well, yes, it DOES strike me as an example of a “doing it right:” it’s never preachy and the characters are never replaced by “messages.” I’ve added it to a generally shrinking feed list.
I’m not sure my theory was quite what Gary thinks it is. I hope I never advocated perfunctory-feeling exposition or comics essays that begin “My culture is…” Being dreadfully BORING is a far greater sin than resorting to benign stereotype or generic setting. Frankly, if you make a comic no one will want to read, whatever else you do with it is moot.
If I had to guess how this argument, and maybe some of my others, got twisted around into “comics should be boring,” I’d say that when you call a certain artistic idea “important,” people hear that it’s “no fun,” because of all the “important” things they were forced to learn in high school, and because artists convinced they are doing “important” things are often SELF-important, which makes their work impotent.
That said, I really do think this kind of “ambassadorship” is important. Google “contact hypothesis” to find out why.
By T Campbell on 06.23.09 11:19 pm
That’s flattering, T. Thanks!
By Chris Watkins on 06.29.09 12:19 pm
[…] The blur on the left is PA business guru Robert Khoo. The blur on the right is Brian Sunter, who prevailed over 800 other candidates to become the new trade show/supply chain guy. The written test that they described defied […]
By Fleen: Try Our Thick, Creamy Shakes » It Appear That I Can, In Fact, Post From My Phone — Truly We Are Living In The Future on 07.22.09 11:02 am
[…] check out Odori Park when you get the chance. And heck, we told you to check out the strip what? Four months ago? Somebody’s slipping on this whole I tell you to do things and you do them deal we have, […]
By Fleen: Try Our Thick, Creamy Shakes » Beginnings on 11.04.09 2:11 pm
The above comments are owned by whoever posted them. The staff of Fleen are not responsible for them in any way.