That is, the New York Times has, after nearly three years, righted a grievous wrong:

Today The New York Times Book Review announced changes to the Best-Seller Lists, in print and online. The Best Sellers team will begin tracking Mass Market Paperbacks (genres including romance) and a combined list for Graphic Books (fiction, nonfiction, children’s, adults, and manga).

I cannot think of another situation where gatekeeping fell by the wayside in such a bullshit manner. Allow me to sum up:

You will recall that in January of 2017, the Times decided to discontinue the feature that we thought of as Raina Telgemier presents the Graphic Novels Bestseller list featuring Smile¹. The fact that the Times has come around surely has nothing to do with the fact that Raina’s newest, Guts, showed up in the #1 best seller position at USA Today yesterday, a week after launch.

Not #1 in childrens, or #1 in graphic novels. #1, period, above the latest from Stephen King, Margaret Atwood, Malcolm Gladwell, and Delia Owens in positions 2 through 5 respectively.

The Times can’t ignore her, but they can’t put her in Children’s Middle Grade Hardcover, since Guts mostly isn’t. Can’t be in Children’s series (although Gale Galligan is there for her continuation of Raina’s work on Baby Sitters Club) or Children’s Picture Books since it’s not either of those. If they don’t bring back a list for graphic novels, she’ll end up sullying the regular old Fiction lists with her stupid fake books for loser kids.

You know, the fiction list that mysteriously shows King, Atwood, and Owens in the top three positions. Hmmmm².

Previously tracked by the Best Sellers franchise until 2017, these lists are returning due to continued reader interest and market strength. These monthly lists will begin publishing on October 2 (online) and October 20 (in print).

All Best Sellers lists are available at nytimes.com/books/best-sellers.

In other words, waiting two full weeks after Guts launched, and you know what? She’s still going to show up there, and her other books are still going to sit there. But now they can include her again without acknowledging that she’s outselling and outlasting the real books. But those of us that look down on neither the MG/YA space, nor graphic novels know the deal. Raina can’t be ignored, and a bunch of other folks will get to join her on the list, where the imprimatur actually does catch the attention of libraries and booksellers, a promotional tool they’ve been lacking for 33 months now.

And speaking of welcome returns, Angela Melick³ is making one:

Wasted Talent is BACK… on Webtoon! https://buff.ly/2m1xwLc The BEST OF Wasted Talent — from the very beginning — will be updating on Tuesdays and Thursdays from now on. More: https://buff.ly/2noMIT1 Thank you!! :))

Smart move heading to Webtoon for discoverability, but those of us that still go to individual sites, Wasted Talent dot CA is also showing the reruns, starting here. I think I’m gonna add WT back to my RSS feed and update the links over there to the right. We missed you, Jam, welcome back.

Spam of the day:

The solution to your hair problem It uses LED light and infrared waves to stimulate hair growth.

So … heat? You’re selling a warm comb?

_______________
¹ It’s sorta like Precious: based on the novel “Push” by Sapphire, only with Raina regularly occupying at least two slots and frequently as many as six.

² To be fair, Amazon has Guts at #4 in fiction this week. Point stands — different channels with different methods of calculation, and only one doesn’t include her at all instead in right next to Atwood, King, and Owens (in that order). Also Gladwell is in Nonfiction, which is sort of hilarious given the way he pulls things out of his ass.

³ Engineers 4 Lyfe, yo.

SPX was pretty excellent this year, everybody. I saw too many wonderful folks (and forgot to include some on the list while I was waiting for a burger, like Jamie Noguchi, Boum, MK Reed, Patrick Lay, Lucy Knisley, Maia Kobabe, Britt Sabo, Lauren Davis, Kori Bing, Blue Delliquanti, Kori Michele Handwerker, and Melanie Gillman, plus I hadn’t run into George, Raina Telgemeier, and Andy Runton yet), a side effect of the concentrated nature of excellence:space that the North Bethesda Marriott engenders.

But the trip took on an actual reporting task, as the common perception of Kickstarter’s actions last week skewed nearly 100% to They’re unionbusting. The near-universal consensus of everybody I spoke to hit several repeated points:

• Kickstarter’s upper management does not reflect the community-interface folks, who were spoken of with warmth and support. It was pointed out that the Kickstarter representatives as the show were, themselves, involved in the unionization efforts.
• Creators indicated that they’ll be looking to the Kickstarter Union folks for guidance and will follow their lead. Boycotting right now has not been requested, and would very likely be counterproductive.
• Several acknowledged the difficulty of finding a platform that could serve to replace Kickstarter if the Union calls for a boycott.
• There’s a willingness to lend voices of support to the unionization effort, to the extent that personal involvement with Kickstarter might hold any moral authority or ability to sway management’s decisions.

Speaking of the second and fourth points above, Taylor Moore (one of those ousted last week) is currently tweeting a call to action, asking creators to sign on to a petition to Kickstarter management. Not being a project creator myself I am not the intended signatory, but I’ve noticed more than a few webcomics folks retweeting and stating they’ve signed, so maybe take a look.

Specific responses when I asked if there were comments about the situation for the record:

I’ll just end on a couple of personal notes: I had a couple of people come up to me on Saturday to thank me for this page³, and one woman who told me that she took a photo of me at MoCCA 2018 to use as reference for a painting, which she showed me on her phone (and which she’ll be emailing to me soon, I hope; I’ll share it when I get it). Thanks very much, Susan, John, and Qu.

Congratulations to Colleen AF Venable and Ellen T Crenshaw, who found out this morning that Kiss Number 8 is longlisted for a National Book Award.

And congratulations to Rosemary Valero-O’Connell on your three (!) Ignatzen for Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me. I told her when I met her that her already-strong work was going to become world-class; I told her on Saturday to make room in her luggage for three bricks. So far I’m two-for-two. Back her Kickstarter, which I guess brings us full circle.

Spam of the day:

Every my part are getting hot when I see you

I am a sexy, sexy man, it’s true.

_______________
¹ They had a bunch of balloons and I saw similar critters on half the tables on the show floor. They were … yeah.

That’s mine in the picture up top. I call him Bob The Unsettling. He lives on the shelf above my computer, with my Stupid, Stupid Rat Creature. The Rat Creature has a quiche as an accessory!

² I noticed later that Evan Dahm similarly editorialized on the balloon at his table.

Oh, and that’s not a silver wang in the background, pervs. SPX has helium balloon letters of the alphabet floating above each table pod, and that’s Pod J, listing to the side.

³ One added it had been their homepage when I was in high school, which I took as a tremendous compliment. There’s all kinds of things you fixate on at that age, and a hack webcomics pseudojournalist wouldn’t make the top 1000 most popular online topics among highschoolers. Thanks for that, and for the mini — it’s good work.

One of the things I love about the SPX exhibitor listing is that it’s geographic in nature rather than alphabetical by name. You can see who’s near who, and plan out which of the blobby pods you want to hit first (even though the floor is small enough that you can see everybody pretty easily). Here, then are the folks we at Fleen noticed on the 650+ deep exhibitor list, which was due for final update today.

Pod A
Britt Sabo (A5B), Collen AF Venable (A9), and onetime Fleen scribe Anne Thalheimer (A11B).

Pod B
Kevin Czap and the associated Czap Books folks (B4B), Ananth Hirsch and Yuko Ota along with George Rohac (B9; I wonder who they had to bribe to get that table spot).

Pod C
Lauren Davis (C3); I’m not saying Pod C is a bad place, just that I didn’t recognize names.

Pod D
D1 Ben Sears (D1), Eric Colossal and Jess Fink (D2), Megan Rose Gedris (D4A), Becky Dreistadt and Frank Gibson (D9), and Gigi DG (D12A).

Pod E
Keith Knight (also the Ignatz MC, E1), Beth Barnett (E4A), Mike Holmes (E5B), Ben Passmore (E10B), Darryl Ayo Brathwaite (E10B), Ronald Wimberly (E12A)

Pod F
MK Reed (F1), Paulina and Savanna Ganucheau (F8), and Bianca Xunise (F12A).

Pod G
NBM Graphic Novels, including Jessica Abel (G1-2).

Pod H
Sara and Tom McHenry (H12), and Evan Dahm (H14).

Pod I
Shing Yin Khor (I4A), Julia Gfröer (I5B), Sarah Horrocks (I6A), Katie Skelly (I6B), Tony Breed (I7A), Monica Gallagher (I8), Penina Gal and Radiator Comics (I9), and Carta Monir and Diskette Press (I14).

Pod J
Maia Kobabe (J4B), Emi Gennis (J5B), and Kory Bing (J10).

Pod K
Carla Speed McNeil (K1), Gemma Correll (K2), Audrey and Jamie Noguchi (K9), and Drew Weing (K10-11).

Pod L
Retrofit Comics (L2), Danielle Corsetto (L8), Eleri Harris, Matt Bors, Matt Lubchansky, and Sarah Mirk, which is to say, The Nib (L9).

Pod M
Annie Koyama and Koyama Press, including Connor Willumsen, Daniel Nishio, Ed Kanerva, and Emily Carroll (M1-2).

Pod N
Dustin Harbin but not his bike (N2), and Secret Acres (N3-4).

Left Side Wall
Drawn & Quarterly including Ebony Flowers, Eleanor Davis, Kevin Huizenga, and Sylvia Nickerson (W1-4), Jessica Trevino (W7A), ShortBox (W8), Carey Pietsch (W9A), Cathy G Johnson (W9B), and Meredith Gran (W10A).

Back Wall
Hope Nicholson (W19), Self Made Hero including Sam Humphrey (W23-24), Mari Naomi (W27A), Box Brown (W27B), Kori Michele Handwerker and Melanie Gillman (W30), TopatoCo featuring Abby Howard, Chris Yates, Elliot Jasper, Holly Rowland, KC Green, and Tom Siddell (W31-33), Out Of Step Arts featuring Rebecca Kirby, Rosemary Valero-O’Connell, and Venesa Del Ray (W38-39).

Right Side Wall
Alison Wilgus (W41), and Fantagraphics featuring Jaime Hernandez (W50-54).

Front Wall
Top Shelf including James Kochalka, Kim Dwinell, Leigh Walton, and MK Reed (W56-59), Ru Xu (W60A), Natalie Riess (W60B), a contingent of Danish comic book artists (W68-69), Steenz (W71A), Blue Delliquanti (W71B), Iron Circus including Amanda Lafrenais and C Spike Trotman (W72-73), Lucy Knisley (W75), and the CBLDF including Alex Cox, Chris Ware, and Raina Telgemeier (W80-83).

As always, I very possibly missed you or your favorite; drop us an email and we’ll update.

The Small Press Expo runs Saturday, 14 September (11:00am-7:00pm) and Sunday, 15 September (noon-6:00pm) at the Bethesda Marriott North in Bethesda, Maryland.

Spam of the day:
Your very own portable oxygen concentrator
I do not suffer from CHF or other respiratory conditions, and besides, I can get the pure stuff in the green cylinders. It’s good for hangovers.

As Jon and Amy Rosenberg’s Kickstarter From A Multiverse successfully concludes at the high end of the expected range (the FFF mk2 had the midpoint of the range right about at the goal), and C Spike Trotman launches her … I want to say 22nd? … campaign for her latest anthology.

You Died is an anthology of what happens to us after death, and for my money the big news is not the participation of Raina Telegemeier (contributing to a story called A Funeral In Foam) or Caitlin Doughty (and could there be a better choice for the foreword than America’s favorite mortician and scholar of death?), but the price point.

In typical Spike fashion, it’s a simple campaign: the two tiers allow you to get a PDF only, or a PDF and print copy (an early bird tier offered free domestic shipping and cheap international shipping, but is otherwise just the print tier); the one stretch goal (a cover enhancement) kicks in at US$5K over goal (which is the same level that the Iron Circus creator page bonus starts at). Two weeks for the campaign and if I know Spike, the art’s in and the production’s ready to begin the day the payment clears. All of this is bog-standard operating procedure.

But that one tier (okay, and the early bird) that gets you a physical book? It’s ten bucks less than Spike’s ever done before:

A thing I’m compelled to point out: As YOU DIED ((link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ironspike/you-died-an-anthology-of-the-afterlife?ref=djikjm) kickstarter.com/projects/irons…) demonstrates, black-&-white Iron Circus anthologies will now be $20 a pop. This is a 33% price reduction.

The reasons for this: Printing larger runs, distro sales on the back-end, and the Hesitation Point.

No, I don’t mean the vista in the Brown County State Park in Indiana (although it IS lovely). I mean the price point at which potential buyers unfamiliar with ICC’s output will no longer outright reject a book before consideration.

$30 was fine when we were a small press that primarily self-distributed, or sold online and at cons. But now, The books have EXTENSIVE lives after the Kickstarter and con season.

Like… I essentially sold 4 figures (unit count, not dollar amount) in one day, last week.

When you’re moving volume, you print in bigger runs. And when you print bigger runs, the per-unit cost craters. Which is why a mid-range publisher can print, say, 10k units and charge $10 each, but a boutique pub maybe puts out runs of 1500-2000, and the same book would be $20.

All the feedback I get from the distro I work with (and sometimes from the folks I have at the ICC booth at shows) is $30 was too much for a book someone was wishy-washy on getting. I wanna convert the wishy-washy folks into customers. That’s what price cuts do.

And goofy as it sounds, the psychological angle is advantageous, as well. Take the price down ten bucks, and suddenly it’s only one bill out of someone’s wallet instead of two.

Weird? Yeah. But Totally A Thing Regardless? Absolutely.

All those scales and side-effects from distribution will make one other thing noticeably different about You Died vs all previous Iron Circus anthologies: delivery isn’t scheduled until September 2020. When you work at distribution scale, you have to give plenty of notice about your offerings. If Spike turned this book around in six to nine months like previous offerings, a fair number of clients might not be able to take it because they’ve already planned their budgets and spending around books that were announced a year ago.

And if they could place an order that quickly but something (cough, cough, trade war, cough) were to delay the books a week or two past the promised date? Promotions budgets, space on bookshelves, even warehouse stock space would be disrupted. And those buyers that got burned would think twice about ever taking another Iron Circus title.

Spike’s in a whole different world now, and I’m pleasantly surprised to see how well she’s done so far. The number of people that can take a company from one-person garage startup to part of a global supply chain with dozens of inputs and thousands of outputs and not screw the pooch is vanishingly small. Those are completely different skillsets, and the managerial mindset necessary for the post-transition business (especially the importance of delegation) is about 173° out of phase with the fast hustle that’s needed pre-transition.

It’s part of why so many start-ups (not to mention mega-huge Kickstarts that keep growing in complexity) crash and burn — the kind of person that can run the one-person endeavour is usually not only really bad at management, they usually are even worse at recognizing the things that they can’t do (or at least, need to do differently). So sincere kudos to Spike for beating the odds in yet another way; it’ll give her detractors one more thing to cry into their Cheerios over.

Spam of the day:

GET YOUR DONALD J TRUMP COMMEMORATIVE COIN TODAY! Best wishes, Your patriotic friends at Ape Survival

So that’s an Australian prepper supply site getting badly misreading my interests in commemorating anything about Donald Trump other than the monumental crap I’m going to take on his grave someday.

[Editor’s note: Disclaimer time again. The purpose of these recaps is to get at the gist of what was being said and by whom; to the extent that direct quotes occur, they will be italicized. And just because you don’t see somebody’s name doesn’t mean they weren’t in the middle of the conversation; it just means that I need to learn shorthand, or go back to typing these things.]

So you want to get comics into the classroom (which was a recurring theme of the sessions being held at the San Diego Public Library, which is a magnificent facility bee-tee-dubs), so what better way than to be able to have a nearly entirely question-driven session with creators (Jimmy Gownley and James Parks, with Ben Costa in the audience because the table was full), academics (Talia Hurwich and Meryl Jaffe, authors of Worth A Thousand Words), teachers (Derek Heid and Tracy Edmunds), and publishers (Mark Siegel and Gina Gagliano, who was honored by Publishers Weekly today)?

It was rhetorical, but the answer is There is no better way.

The questions from the audience ranged from the purely physical (How do you keep graphic novels from getting shredded in circulation?, a librarian wanted to know) to the application of theory (Teachers wanted to discuss leveling, the process of determining reading level for materials, and why graphic novels are consistently rated too low), with the ever-popular How do you get buy-in from parents/colleagues/administrators? along the way. Let’s take that last one first.

Jaffe admitted that she used to be one of those parents/teachers who thought that graphic novels weren’t useful in the classroom; she credited the kids in her class who did an intervention with me. She noted that because there is so little text on a page, the vocabulary tends to be advanced, with an extremely high incidence of metaphor. Gownley supported this point, noting that the most garbage Marvel superhero comics are written to the same level as the New York Times. Parks added that comics stretch the reading skills further, in that they — uniquely — allow readers to interpret what happens on a page more broadly than other forms of reading.

We noted a couple recaps back that the Common Core standards require students to examine a work classic literature in at least two different media; Heid stressed that to read text only is not teaching to standard, and Edmunds pointed out that graphic novels are specifically listed in those standards as a media type to be used in¹ fifth grade.

Siegel was happy to note that parents are the last pockets of resistance, when they think that their kids are getting short-changed or being given half measures. Librarians (and this is a recurring theme with Siegel over the years) have been ahead of the curve, obtaining and pushing graphic novels².

When there is still resistance in the community, he recommends putting up a display of books with all the shiny awards stickers on the front — the National Book Awards don’t have a category for graphic literature, after all. But, he allowed, it gets a little tiring to keep having the same conversation about format. Gownley had the ultimate solution: These people will get old and die someday.

Heid remarked that teachers are pretty much onboard, since they saw how large the medium (not genre!) is, but is ticked that at education conferences, there’s no panel on Novels In The Classroom. Nobody even thinks to question their inclusion, but somehow the absolute equivalecy of novel:=literature persists to the detriment of other media.

Let’s jump back to the circulation question; the answer was at least partly to adjust expectations. Gagliano pointed out that the typical graphic novel binding will hold up to about 60 circulations, which is as good or better than prose. The librarian admitted that they’re seeing about 75 circulations, so there you go.

Gagliano also mentioned specialty bindings for libraries from outfits like Perma-Bound and Bound To Stay Bound to increase durability (Gownley chimed in that they aren’t as pleasing to read, but they hold up). Siegel noted there’s an increasing number of simultaneous releases of hardcover and softcover, specifically with libraries in mind.

The discussion around leveling fascinated me, because it was clearly of great interest to nearly everybody in the room, but also completely new to me. The discussion began when a teacher said she had no problems with her elementary principal, librarians, fellow teachers, or parents. Her issue was that the district wants comprehension tests after every book, and she needs both documentation that kids aren’t reading below grade level and a mechanism to evaluate how well the students are reading (NB: The teachers and teacher-adjacent in the room would refer to what I saw as two things almost interchangeably).

Edmunds jumped on the leveling issue: the grade level assigned by the most common leveling rules/services does not accurately reflect the complexity of the reading. The levels, and most tests available to teachers, are algorithmically generated and only take into account the text. Gagliano mentioned that publishers are constantly in communication with the test-generation folks to more accurately reflect the material and the leveling.

Gownley almost hopes that a solution isn’t found — when the books are outside the official curriculum, there’s no test, no proofs of proficiency, a slight hint of being forbidden, then reading becomes more fun.

But returning to why there isn’t a leveling tool that incorporates words+pictures, Edmunds explained that it’s difficult to to. Leveling is the province of computers, not humans; Jaffe added that it’s done by people who aren’t in classrooms. Siegel expressed some sympathy for the lack of accurate leveling, in that the entire idea of visual literacy is hazy right now. As noted a few days ago, we’re all just waiting for McCloud to give us the vocabulary to have the conversation that we need to have in order to come to a consensus on this complex and constantly changing landscape.

The last question of the session³ was about how to incorporate graphic novels along with nongraphic novels, rather than instead of. Heid jumped in to say it depends on what you’re teaching, but using both allows all kinds of discussion. For example, To Kill A Mockingbird presents the climactic verdict scene with a focus on Jem, but the graphic novel adaptation shifts it to Tom Robinson, with each Guilty shifting his expression from shock, to horror, to the sure knowledge it was always going to be this way. After your kids have read both, ask them, Why did Harper Lee focus on Jem and the graphic novel focus on Tom?

Jaffe says the contrast between text-only and graphic novels allows you to explore questions with students that you couldn’t otherwise. Contrasting the different formats allows investigation into concepts like How do you communicate? Gagliano focused on the fact that a lot of literature teachers may not have a background/training in art, but they can learn with their students; you can think about why a page was designed the way it way, why the choice was made to use color or B&W, what job each panel has to do. Asking the questions and seeing what answers they come up with will spur a teacher’s own education.

And that education continues: Hurwich is working on her PhD (graphic novels and other media in the classroom and their effect on student literacy) and Heid his Masters (on education standards and how graphic novels fit); Gagliano and Siegel keep seeking out the best books they can, and Parks and Costa keep figuring out how to make their series more entertaining and relevant for kids. None of them will ever stop trying to do more for their students or their readers.

Spam of the day:

Get Vivint.SmartHome monitoring now and sleep well

You’ve got some damn nerve pushing this on me the same week as a tremendous security disclosure around embedded systems like those featured here? Remember, kids: The S in IoT stands for Security!

_______________
¹ Or possibly starting in fifth grade, rather than solely fifth grade. My notes got a little rushed, and any teachers familiar with the Common Core are welcome to clarify for us.

² Asked in a follow-up when the librarians started pushing graphic novels, Gownley perkily answered Thursday! to general laughter. Gagliano remarked that the annual YALSA Great Graphic Novels For Teens list started in 2005, which she described as the tipping point. American Born Chinese would be nominated for the National Book Award the next year, and once SMILE took the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for nonfiction, the momentum was pretty much irreversible. Edmunds half-lamented that it’s almost not possible to keep up with all the good graphic novels being published today.

³ Well, second to last; the last was Where will we see you after this session?, which prompted the best response from Gownley: The Crowne Plaza sushi bar.

Sometimes, panels don’t lend themselves to traditional write-ups (or, at least not write-ups as I do them; everybody’s got their own style, after all), and the preview of all-ages comics from Scholastic/Graphix is a prime example. It wasn’t so much a discussion as an opportunity to talk about what Graphix has coming up in the near future, with creators talking about their current/forthcoming projects. Thus, the disclaimer I normally start with on these panel recaps is missing, since there’s not so much the opportunity to confuse quotes with paraphrases. Okay, there’s one quote coming up, you’ll know it when you see it.

Instead, I’m going to talk about some of the work that was previewed, with little things that caught my eye. For example, Jim Benton is half graphic novelist, half IP licensing machine, and Catwad straddles that line. Benton actually first came up with Catwad years ago, but similarities to a slightly more recent cat with grumpy tendencies¹.

Tui Sutherland talked about the process of adapting her book series, Wings Of Fire (thirteen books and counting!) to graphic novels (third one coming soon). Particularly, she’d like to note that while it’s all very easy to describe an arena full of dragon-type beings as far as the eye can see, it’s quite another to expect Mike Holmes to draw that over and over (Sutherland: Sorry, Mike!). And since I don’t see her credited on the series page (or even on the covers, for goodness sake), I’ll note that the colorist is Maarta Laiho, who has her own challenges — rainforests, chameleonic dragons who change color, leading to completely different colors from panel to panel — and deserves a bit of recognition here.

Jon J Muth’s adaptation of The Seventh Voyage by Stanislaw Lem was included in the giveaway bag at the Scholastic party on Thursday night, so I can tell you that it’s smart, charming, funny, and very, very different from any other graphic novel you’ve read or are going to read this year. Lem’s ability to lambaste Poland’s political institutions and society without running afoul of governmental authorities is legendary, and you’ll see a prime example of his skill as Ijon Tichy struggles to resolve a life-or-death situation despite the interference of a bureaucracy of himself² doing its damndest to prevent anything from actually happening. And the space suit³ is hilarious.

Raina Telgemeier let her audience know that Guts is different than her previous work (her exact words were Wake up, ’cause we’re going to talk about anxiety!), but in a way that let them know that’s okay. That she had a hard time dealing with the stressors in her life at their age, and sometimes still has those feelings, but she got help. And if they feel overwhelmed and anxious, they can get help, too. She’s really our best ambassador to the middle grades, the one that remembers what that time was like and can converse with those who live their in terms of their own experiences. As I told her when I got to read an advance copy back in April, I wanted very much to travel back in time and hug Young Raina and tell her it would be okay.

The only question I noted was when a girl, about ten years old, came to the mic to ask Miss Raina, what happened to Amara’s snake? Readers of Sisters may recall that Raina’s younger sister had a snake who got loose and lost, only to be found six months later under the seats in the minivan (or at least, a snake similar enough to the one that was lost as to make no difference). In the meantime, their mom had gotten Amara another snake and when that one got loose, Raina said I left the house. It was time for college, but the snake was definitely part of the decision. Like I said, she know how to speak Middle Grader.

Release dates:

• Glitch by Sarah Graley is available now
• Guts by Raina Telgemeier releases 17 September
• Sunny Rolls The Dice by Jennifer Holm (words) and Matthew Holm (art) releases 1 October
• The Seventh Voyage by Jon J Muth and Stanislaw Lem (translation by Michael Kandel) releases 1 October
• Wings Of Fire: The Hidden Kingdom by Tui Sutherland, Mike Holmes, and Maarta Laiho releases 15 October

Spam of the day:

I reaiiy need to find a friend with benefits.

Yep, this is wholly appropriate for a post discussing all-ages comics. Yeesh.

_______________
¹ Who, it could be argued, primarily went viral because of a mash-up with a Kate Beaton punchline. Speaking of Beaton, she’s got a new diary comic up, featuring doggo Agnes with a supporting appearance by daughter Mary Lou. It’s a treat.

² Or, more precisely, himselves, as they are all time-displaced instances of Ijon Tichy thrown together and forced to try and cooperate.

³ Baggy, shapeless, five sizes too large at the very least, stubby-legged, and featuring an umbilical attached in the middle of a buttoned-up buttflap.

If there’s one thing you’ll never run out of at SDCC, it’s the range of human experiences that go from extreme to extreme. I listened to the replay of Armstrong stepping off the lander pad last night while preparing for drinks with friends. The moon hung bright and inviting as it must have 50 years ago and I swear I could taste the Tang that I drank back then¹, a sense memory that couldn’t be further from the rather sublime single cocktail I enjoyed in a dark room with a taxidermied ostrich over the door and a wall made out of 3D-printed skulls salvaged from an old Rob Zombie video.

Tang vs fine Italian bitters. Buttoned-down serious men with pocket protectors in their own dark room half a century ago, fussing over a computer being overwhelmed by a handful of extra bytes every few seconds vs some goofball in a t-shirt and jeans holding a supercomputer in his right hand, scrolling through pictures of his even goofierball greyhound.

Or, to provide an even greater contrast:

On Friday while waiting to interview Jim Ottaviani, I had the great pleasure to make the acquaintance of Phil Plait², who couldn’t have been nicer. It was only for a few minutes, but it was a genuine honor to talk to a person that spends all their time trying to spread knowledge about how the world works.

On Saturday while walking my way through the Gaslamp towards the convention center (also while on a lunch run, several hours later), I had the great misfortune to encounter a slient parade of utter wankers in Guy Fawkes mask/hat/cape combos, some lining a section of street, some silently processing between, some silently handing out literature, all holding giant placards decrying (in the most vilely truthless manner possible) the dangers of vaccines.

One tried to hand me a flyer and I said out loud Do not touch me, you pathogen-ridden vector. You’re a very, very lazy child killer. It was suggested to me later that they may have been doing some kind of bit — although I do think it was sincere — but I don’t care. On the literal anniversary of the day we, as a species, first landed on the gosh-darned moon, which I count as the second greatest thing we, as a species, have ever accomplished, these assholes are out critiquing an achievement that contains within it the only greater achievement humanity has managed³.

So, yeah. Within a period of 24 hours I experienced the sheer joy of scientific literacy and willful ignorance with almost unlimited potential for harm. Don’t be anti-vaxxers, kids; vaccines cause adults.

I only got to one panel yesterday, but it was a humdinger — a collection of publishers, creators, and teachers had an Ask Me Anything session about using comics in the classroom. I love hearing teachers and librarians on this topic, I just can’t get enough of it. I talk about it more once the notes are pounded into shape, but one thing that stuck with me is for all the discussion about how comics are helping students develop visual literacy, there’s no real agreement on what visual literacy is or how to define its boundaries.

Fortuitous, then, that shortly before closing Scott McCloud came by to talk⁴ and I asked him how his next book — on visual literacy! — was coming along. It’s going to be a while yet, but I mentioned the discussion from the panel and told him, Hey, no pressure, but the world is kind of waiting on you to give us a point of reference to discuss this stuff so we can figure out what it all means. Good thing you’ve done that before. He laughed, but also may have muttered Oh God in there. But I made up for it by sharing the story Tillie Walden told in Alaska about how she’s making comics because he encouraged her, so he’s got that going for him.

There was also a quick talk with Gene Yang at a signing, where I was one person too late to get a galley copy of Dragon Hoops. One of the things that I really appreciate about Yang is his prodigious memory for people; he has no reason to remember me, we’ve done one interview three years ago and maybe three times since then a quick handshake and two minutes chat, but he always does. This time, we spoke about how much I’m looking forward to his Raina Telgemeier turn (This book is about me he said, sounding a little surprised himself) and he asked if I’m a basketball fan. I told him I’m not, and then the fervor he brought to challenging kids to read outside their comfort zone came into his voice: Neither was I, but it’s great!

Like pretty much everybody associated with :01 Books, he’s a treasure. Mark Siegel and the people he’s worked with have done tremendous things for comics, and with their alumni moving into other publishers, they’re an incubator for the industry (I suggested metastasizing, which did make Siegel laugh, but we decided it was maybe not quite the word you want associated with your brand).

Pictures:
I lost a couple of photos in getting them synced from phone to laptop — thanks, technology! — but that’s the way things crumble. It’s not quite cosplay, but Peter Porker made some notable appearances. I think this may be the same group as earlier in the week, but with Porker instead of a bagel. This puppet was magnificent — she made it! — and I particularly like the posing she did in the photo up top, rearranging the fingers into the proper thwip! position.

You can’t see it because one of the photos I lost was the front of this pair, but Russell is holding a stuffed Dug in the Cone Of Shame.

But the best of the day had to be a three-way tie between Gizmoduck (the wheel was cleverly done), Gwenpool (when I told her I was going to send a copy of this photo to Christopher Hastings, she squeed a little), and The Landlady from Kung Fu Hustle, who had the most genuine and pleasant smile when not in character. Kudos, all around!

Panels to watch for:
I haven’t yet decided if I’m going to the panel on introducing younger readers to comics (noon, Room 28DE), the roundtable on combining tech and magic in your stories (1:00pm, Room 25ABC), or the short form comics discussion (also 1:00pm, Room 28DE). But I will be scouring the NPR website, because my wife texted me to say that Dylan Meconis was on Weekend Edition Sunday and she sounded great. Audio will be up here later today.

_______________
¹ There are only two things from my childhood that I’ve lost and truly regret — one being the Linotype slug that I’ve mentioned. The other is tied to what I believe is my earliest concrete memory; Tang for a period of time sold their powder in a plastic jar that, when placed on a cookie sheet in the oven at a particular temperature, would deform and reform itself into a fair simulacrum of the Apollo Lunar Module.

I remember seeing the commercial and dutifully drinking the goo every morning until the jar was empty, I remember thinking it couldn’t possibly work, I remember watching it twist itself like magic, I remember being told No, I couldn’t play with it because it was still blisteringly hot plastic, you silly child.

² Thanks to Zach Weinersmith for the assist; after telling Plait that I enjoy his work, I mentioned that we had you as a friend in common, which prompted a handshake and a pleasant conversation.

³ I speak of the eradication of smallpox. It is an unalloyed good, and something that every person alive can be glad and proud of. Third greatest achievement of humans is dogs, and I think we have to share that one with the dogs, who were and are our willing partners in a monumental act not of domestication, but cross-species friendship and mutualism.

⁴ Speaking of contrasts, I was probably standing about 3 meters from where I first met McCloud, when his very kind words about this page sent me over the moon (callback!). If you’d told me that day that not only would I meet McCloud, but achieve the kind of familiarity where I would see him and say Oh, hey Scott instead of OMG OMG OMG that’s Scott McCloud!!!, I never would have believed you.

Getting caught up, what with yesterday being a holiday and all. The Thursday programming list went up a little while ago, and here’s what’s happening at Comic-Con two weeks from today.

Friday
The Factual And The Actual
10:00 — 11:00, Room 32AB
Starting things off early on Friday, with Randall Munroe, John Hendrix (The Faithful Spy), Don Brown (Rocket to the Moon! Big Ideas That Changed The World #1), Dylan Meconis (Queen of the Sea, review coming soon), Jim Ottaviani (Hawking), and Rachel Ignotofsky (Women In Art) talking nonfiction and nonfictionish comics, moderated by Judy Prince-Neeb (Chula Vista Public Library).

Comic Book Law School© 202: Let’s Make A Deal (or Three)
10:30 — 12:00, Room 11
The legal education continues, with this session on income-related topics: licensing, and agreements covering merch, manufacturing, and distribution, and how contracts govern it all.

Bedside Press: What’s Next?
12:00 –1:00, Room 25ABC
Remember yesterday when I thought we’d never see Scott Kurtz inside the San Diego Convention Center again? Well, today it’s Kris Straub that’s returned, talking about projects coming from the Canadian small press, along with fellow creators Amanda Deibert, SM Beiko, Steenz Stewart (editor extraordinaire, hire her after the Lion Forge implosion fiasco), Lilah Sturges, Ashley Robinson, and pubisher Hope Nicholson.

Feminist Comics That Rock
12:00 — 1:00, Shiley Special Events Suite, San Diego Central Library
Meanwhile, we’ve got a just as compelling session in the same timeslot as the Bedside talk, over at the library so it’s pretty much impossible to hop between the rooms and catch half of each. Raina Telgemeier, Peggy Burns, Claudia Aguirre, and Jennifer Holm, moderated by Candice Mack (LA Public Library). Not that I’lll get to either, as I’ve got an interview lined up at 12:15. Grrrrr.

LGBTQ+ YA Graphic Novels
1:00 — 2:00, Shiley Special Events Suite, San Diego Central Library
If you were at the library for the noon slot, stick around for Rosemary Valero-Connell (Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me), Sarah Graley (Kim Reaper), Claudia Aguirre (Morning In America), and Lilah Sturges (Lumberjanes: The Infernal Compass) in discussion with Amanda Melilli (ALA Graphic Novels And Comics Round Table).

Steven Universe
1:00 — 2:00, Ballroom 20
But if you’re a Steven Universe fan, you weren’t in any of those sessions listed above, because you’ve been in line for Ballroom 20. Shelby Rabara (Peridot) moderates, with Estelle (Garnet), Michaela Dietz (Amethyst), Deedee Magno Hall (Pearl), and Rebecca Sugar. Songs! Laughs! Trailer for the movie!

America’s Best Comics Editors And What They Do!
1:30 — 2:30, Room 8
I love the nuts-and-bolts discussions of how thing get made. I can’t think of anything that would keep me from listening to Jann Jones (Legendary), Henry Barajas (Top Cow), David Mariotte (IDW Publishing), Chynna Clugston Flores (Image Comics), Shannon Eric Denton (WildStorm/DC Comics), Sarah Gaydos (Oni), and Elizabeth Brei (IDW) talk about the editorial process!

Spotlight on Ursula Vernon
1:30 — 2:30, Room 24ABC
Godsdammit! Except this. Because as I believe I have established, I loves me some Digger, and everything else that Ursula Vernon creates.

A Conversation With Sonia Manzano (AKA “Maria” from Sesame Street)
2:00 — 3:00, The Theater, Comic-Con Museum
No lie Maria was one of the moral lodestones in my early education. Unfortunately, the Comic-Con Museum is like 5 miles away at Balboa Park, so this ain’t happening. Just as well, I need to get lunch sometime today.

Graphic Novel Or Illustrated Book: You Make the Call
2:00 — 3:00, Grand 12 & 13, Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina
It is one of the rules of this page that you should see Karen Green, Columbia University librarian, speak whenever you get the chance. She’ll be talking with creators William Stout, Armand Baltazar, and Mark Wheatley, along with JC Vaughn (VP Publishing, Gemstone). Unfortunately, I’ll still be at the Vernon retrospective.

Kids And YA Graphic Novel Publishing: Behind The Scenes
2:00 — 3:00, Shiley Special Events Suite, San Diego Central Library
I am becoming convinced that somebody said, Hey, let’s put every single panel Gary would want to see overlapping in one big block on Friday, at the far corners of the city! Why else would I miss out on hearing :01 Books publisher Mark Siegel, with Tracy Hurren (Drawn & Quarterly), Maya Bradford (Abrams ComicArts), Andrew Arnold (HarperCollins) and moderator Carla Riemer (librarian, Claremont Middle School).

Science And History in Comics
3:00 — 4:00, Shiley Special Events Suite, San Diego Central Library
This is getting ridiculous. Maybe if I find food I can eat on my walk from the Vernon retrospective on my way to the library, I could hear Jim Ottaviani, MK Reed, Ben Fisher, Emily S Whitten, and moderator Tracy Edmunds.

Spotlight On Kurt Busiek
3:00 — 4:00pm, Room 28DE
Mentioning because the spotlight will be controlled by Scott McCloud, who besides being a genius has been buddies with Busiek since middle school. Nothing better than watching two old friends catch up and shoot the shit.

Graphix Fix: Great Graphic Novels For All Ages
4:00 — 5:00, Room 32AB
Scholastic Graphix superstars including Jim Benton, Sarah Graley, Jennifer Holm, Varian Johnson, Shannon Wright, Jon J Muth, and Raina Telgemeier. I suspect the room may be too small.

Comics Law: Disney, Malibu, And The Uncensored Mouse
4:30 — 5:30, Room 24ABC
This sounds legit fascinating: a discussion of a court case where Disney stomped on a publisher for printing public domain Mickey Mouse newspaper strips. Tom Mason (editor of the reprints), Dave Olbrich (publisher of the reprints), Nat Gertler (About Comics publisher), and Michael Lovitz (IP attorney).

Best And Worst Manga Of 2019
6:00 — 7:00, Room 4
I’m not making it to the show floor at all on Friday, am I? This one’s always fun, and features Brigid Alverson (my good friend and fellow pixel-stained wretch), Christopher Butcher (who has a birthday today, go wish him a happy one!), Megan Peters, Rob McMonigal, and Deb Aoki. Lots of experience and impeccable taste on this panel, find out what they loved and what they hated.

Creator Origins: A Candid Conversation On LBGTQ Comics Creation
6:00 — 7:00, Room 9
I’ve lost track of how many panels have caught my eye today … twelve? Fifteen? [Editor’s note: this is number seventeen, and we’ve got a still to go.] Megan Townsend (GLAAD) taking to Joe Glass (The Pride), Clive Hawken (Delver), Spike Trotman (Iron Circus Comics), and Ivan Salazar (comiXology).

Comics Of The Internet: The Memes, the Myths, The Legends
7:00 — 8:00, Room 9
It’s about comics that go memetically viral. Sounds a lot like one that happened last year on Sunday, and even also features Hope Nicholson, this time with Jose Sagastume, Ivan Salazar, and Kris Straub.

MAD vs New Yorker Cartoons: Which Are Funnier?
7:30 — 8:30, Room 24ABC
Oof. Too soon?

TGIF Keenspot Panel Party Hosted By Rob Potchak
8:00 — 9:00pm, Room 28DE
I’m not entirely certain that Keenspot shifting from their traditional very last timeslot of the con is actually doing them any favors, considering they’re now up against Friday night food, parties, and the friggin’ Eisner Awards.

The Girl Genius Radio Play
8:30 — 10:00, Room 8
Yepper, somebody is bound and determined to ensure that Phil and Kaya Foglio don’t get to bed at a reasonable hour at all this year.

The World Of Drive
9:00 — 10:00, Room 9
Oh, come on! Look, I stand second to no man in my love of Drive, and the work that Los Angeles resident Dave Kellett and his colorist Beth Reidmiller have put in to make it such a great strip. And I really, really love what happens when LArDK talks with his directing partner, Fred “Not The Beethoven One” Schroeder. But if I’m awake after this day at 9:00pm, I’ma be wherever the impromptu Comics Camp reunion is happening, with booze close to hand.

Spam of the day:

I horny as fuck and need that sweet reiease I’m e2/f with pouty lips and a tight pussy.

Is e2 something like twenty-exty-six?

But a week in which The Nib finds its existence is in upheaval-slash-transition is anything but rational. That being said, better late than never with the news: Gene Yang’s next book has a release date. We’ve known about the title (Dragon Hoops) and the elevator pitch (the story of the basketball team from the high school where Yang used to teach in Oakland) for years — he shared them when we spoke back in Aught-Sixteen.

But now we get the full launch announcement, in Entertainment Weekly¹ no less, with quotes from Yang and a set of preview pages. Yang’s art has lost no steps in the years that he’s let others do the drawing (Sonny Liew on The Shadow Hero, Mike Holmes on the Secret Coders series, Gurihiru on the Avatar: The Last Airbender series, various artists on Superman and New Super-Man), and the story …

The story’s different. It’s not just the story of the basketball team at the Oakland high school where he used to teach, their history, and their run for a state championship. It’s a story about his relationship to comics and creativity, to teaching, and to sports. It’s treading into Raina Telgemeier territory and that is terrific news. Yang put a lot of himself into the stories in American Born Chinese but this time he’s literally on the page, captions talking to the reader about what’s going through his mind as he acts out his life on the page.

It’s particularly an interesting tack to take, making Dragon Hoops not just about the team, but also his struggles to find a story — then finding a story just across campus in the gym — while simultaneously admitting that he’s never been a sports guy and actively shies away from the culture of captial-S Sports. I think it’s not coincidence that Yang breaking out of his comfort zone would have coincided with his term as the fifth National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, where his efforts were summarized in his Reading Without Walls Challenge:

• Read a book about a character who doesn’t look or live like you.
• Read a book in a format you don’t typically read — graphic novels, poetry, audiobooks, plays.
• Read a book about a new subject you don’t know much about.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see this theme in Dragon Hoops; we’ll all find out together on 17 March 2020, when 448 pages (!) of comics wisdom drops from :01 Books.

Spam of the day:

Thank you for registering at Hotel Tino – Ohrid

Blah, blah, click the link, set up your account, blah. Ordinarily, I’d chalk this up to a clumsy attempt to get me to go to a virus-ridden hellsite, but it appears to be a legit business. Looks like one of the other Garies Tyrrell has forgotten again that my email is not their email. Hope they get their reservation honored.

_______________
¹ Remember when a new graphic novel announcement would trickle out with maybe a small mention in Publishers Weekly or at The Beat? Now it’s the Los Angeles Review Of Books, or EW, or Premiere, or some other mainstream culture publication, if it’s not Washington Post or New York Times. Don’t ever tel me that comics as a medium is dying.

Hey. Question for you. Why are women so damn good at comics? I mean, why are there literally so many more women whose work I am excited to follow than dudes? Is it because dudes held the entire industry to themselves for so long, only letting in other dudes that looked and thought and wrote like them, resulting in staleness and homogeneity? And women, long excluded, had to up their game and be so much better than dudes who could get published just for showing up?

• Case in point #1: Dylan Meconis. She has a wicked edge to her stories, one that treads the line of humor and messing with you for being a chump, whether she’s exploring the French Revolution (via vampires), the Age Of Reason (via werewolves), or comic/SF convention culture/cliche (via the apocalypse).

  And today, her latest graphic novel hits the stores:

  This book is full of:

  • cool nuns
  • 16th century infographics
  • recycled folklore
  • embroidery trash talk
  • questionable chess strategy
  • shameless pandering to the lutist community
  • identity crises
  • dubiously symbolic flora
  • mysterious pinnipeds
  • loud young redheaded women

  There is also:

  • one (1) nun who’s kind of a jerk
  • one (1) hot lad who probably knows how to do Sword Stuff
  • one (1) fake saint and her relic, which is in point of fact a dried fish head

  Not to mention your standard royal exiles the inconvenient alternate claimant to the throne that would be the lead talking point in most elevator pitches. We’ve seen that before, but embroidery trash talk? Yes, please. There is more raw creativity in that description than in most ten-year runs of dude-centric comics.

  Additionally, I can state unreservedly that it’s gorgeous, having been present to see some of the pages painted in late April 2018. Queen Of The Sea is part of Candlewick’s expansion beyond children’s books and YA prose into the graphic novel space, and they are not screwing around. Grab a copy as soon as you can and join me in reading it.

• Case in point #2: Shing Yin Khor, who wrangles watercolors, powertools, and emotions with equal facility. Their memoir of traveling the historic Route 66 releases on 6 August, retelling a road trip with their dog Bug in search of their passions in life (including, but not limited to, giant muffler man statues, roadside dinosaur statues, and what it means to be American). They’re working on her next book, a graphic novel about the Chinese contributions to the American west, particularly in and around lumberjackery. And they just got announced as one of the featured guests for SPX this year:
  

  #SPX2019 SPECIAL GUEST: Ignatz winner Shing Yin Khor @sawdustbear, a Malaysian-American cartoonist and installation artist exploring the intersections of race, gender and immigration. Their forthcoming graphic novel, “The American Dream? A Journey on Route 66” is out in August.

  #SPX2019 SPECIAL GUEST: Cartoonist Rosemary Valero-O’Connell @hirosemaryhello who’s opening eyes with her latest, Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me w/ writer, @marikotamaki. Past works includes Lumberjanes. Her illustrations work has been shown in galleries internationally.

  #SPX2019 SPECIAL GUEST: @marinaomi is the award-winning cartoonist of 4 graphic memoirs and the Life on Earth YA graphic novel trilogy as well as founder and admin of the Cartoonists of Color, Queer Cartoonists, and (soon) Disabled Cartoonists databases. http://MariNaomi.com

  #SPX2019 SPECIAL GUEST: Ignatz Award winner for Promising New Talent, @biancaxunise! Her body of work focuses primarily on the daily struggles of identifying as a young black feminist weirdo in modern society and has been featured in The Washington Post, The Nib, BBC and more.

  Checking out the Special Guests page at SPX, there’s a dozen names so far, more than half of whom are women — Emily Carroll is there, Eleanor Davis, and Raina Telgemeier. The dudes there are interesting, too — Eddie Campbell and Jaime Hernandez are essential in any conversation about comics, Box Brown does astonishingly detailed documentary comics, Ed Piskor and Kevin Huizenga are amazingly accomplished — but the women are the ones whose next work I’m dying to see.

• Case in point #3: Abby Howard does comics that hit that Kate Beatonesque sweet spot. Just detailed enough to get across the story point or emotion she’s shooting for, just esoteric enough in topic that nobody else is doing the same thing, and absolutely hilarious when funny is what she’s shooting for. Her long-running autobioish Junior Scientist Power Hour may not always be true to life — I’m not convinced her cat Spoons really went on a hero’s journey that took place in a magical realm entirely contained in Howard’s ass — and it may have been fallow while Howard was working on her utterly charming Earth Before Us trilogy, but it’s always been great reading.

  And now, it is coming to an end. She’ll keep up the journal comics on her Patreon, and the previously-uncollected JSPH strips are getting the print treatment, courtesy her new Kickstarter campaign. If you didn’t pick up her first JSPH collection, you can get it along with the new one at an advantageous price!

  It’s been a while since we busted out the Fleen Funding Factor, Mark II, but the math projects that JSPH2 will finish in the range of US$39K-58.5K (on a goal of US$30,000), with stretch goals ranging up to US$65K. She’s at 41% of goal since launching yesterday and 28 days left to go, but I need anybody with an interest to pledge so that this one completes, because if it doesn’t I might not get the original art I pledged for, and that would be a tragedy.

Spam of the day:

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss! Get a FREE Backpack While Supplies Last
This message seems dangerous

Similar messages were used to steal people’s personal information. Avoid clicking links, downloading attachments, or replying with personal information.

I was going to do a Seuss-rhyme her to express my ire, but man that’s one hard style to emulate. Guess I’ll have to content myself with Fuck you, scamming scum.