tweet and ning

Follow me on Twitter, if you'd like. I don't tweet that often, except like yesterday from the NJLA conference (#njlaconf09).

http://twitter.com/redheadfangirl

We had a successful presentation on the "Year's Best Graphic Novels 2008", about 70 attended - every giveaway gone and most handouts. It went real fast with four presenters.

If you are on NING, here are a lot of links for review sources from that presentation:
http://www.ning.com/redheadfangirl

Wednesday!

I'm gonna BEA

BookExpo America May 28-31.

I just bought my librarian one day tag. Now of course I read actually books and not just comics-- but don't overlook BEA as a great time to meet graphic novelists. Just the Friday autographing schedule includes Dash Shaw, Adam Rapp, Laurie Stolarz...and 1500 exhibit booths. I even saw redhead Julianne Moore will be there with her Freckleface Strawberry children's books.

I've never been to BEA, but I know that librarians come home loaded with advance copies from publishers. Well, I do know Javits from my NY Comicon adventures so we'll see how it goes. $55 for a one day ticket, and that's the early bird rate.

Fast & Adorable

This week's fast and adorable comic is Tiny Titans 15.
Aw Yeah, Pet Club! Yet another pet club meeting at Wayne Manor goes awry in the cutest way...this time with bunnies! Supergirl comes to pet club, Zatara too and his wand Ka-bunnys!

Also, the Tiny Terror Titans! They want really hot nachos.

Next month: It's Robin's birthday party, and you're invited! See what the Tiny Titans get him for the big day

Year's Best more

More suggestions from next week's presentation on Year's Best Graphic Novels 2008.

LOCKE & KEY, vol. 1 ADULT/YA 9781600102370

Joe Hill is the author of the novel Heart Shaped Box and the short story collection 20th Century Ghosts. What's not promoted is the fact that he is the son of Stephen and Tabitha King. Thank goodness the apple doesn't fall far from those trees. Locke & Key is an ongoing comic book series from IDW Publishing and focuses on the bizarre experiences of a family in a New England mansion called Keyhouse. Stunningly original artwork by Gabriel Rodriguez.

THE SWORD, vol. 1 ADULT/YA
9781582408798

Dara Brighton is a college girl whose life is changed forever when three strangers show up on her family's doorstep and demand a mystical sword. This event propels her into a dangerous quest. This is Volume 1 of an ongoing comic book series by The Luna Brothers (Joshua and Jonathan Luna, authors of Ultra and Girls).

THE ALCOHOLIC ADULT
9781401210564
Part quasi-autobiography and part stunning noir-realism, The Alcoholic is the story of Jonathan A. and the origin of his addiction to alcohol, the consequences of alcohol and substance abuse on his life and his eventual self-realization. Written by Jonathan Ames with art by Dean Haspiel. Published by DC Comics' Vertigo label.

THE TWELVE Adult/ YA

Yesterday’s Men of Tomorrow—Today! Thought lost to the pages of time, a dozen Mystery Men from the “greatest generation” of World War Two find themselves thrust into the morally-gray world of the 21st century!

ROBOT DREAMS YA/Juvenile
9781596431089
This moving, charming graphic novel about a dog and a robot shows us in poignant detail how powerful and fragile relationships are

THE ARRIVAL YA 9780439895293
Shaun Tan's stunning The Arrival chronicles -- in a wordless, wondrous pictorial narrative -- an immigrant's parting from his family and journey toward the future in a new land that is simultaneously ominous and hopeful.

ACHEWOOD: GREAT OUTDOOR FIGHT Adult 9781593079970
This handsome hardcover compilation of the popular Web comic Achewood follows the strip's most epic story arc and should win many new fans. When Ray Smuckles, a thong-clad anthropomorphic cat, discovers his father was a champion of the Great Outdoor Fight, a yearly competition held in Bakersfield, Calif., he decides to enter the nearly ruleless three-day fight.

TWILIGHT ZONE series ADULT/YA 9780802797131
This adaptation is a deliciously creepy reworking of the TV classic and offers a timeless slant on this tale. Equally engaging is The Odyssey of Flight 33 (9780802797186)

LOCAL ADULT/YA 9781934964002

Local brings together 12 issues of a comic book series reprinted as a hardcover graphic novel. Each of the twelve chapters are individual moments of Megan McKeenan's existence as she wanders from locality to locality in the United States, searching for her life. Brian Wood is the author of the critically acclaimed comic book series DMZ.

ZOT!: Complete B & W Collection, 1987-1991 ADULT/YA 9780061645129

Scott McCloud’s comic book series Zot! was originally published from 1984 to 1990 by Eclipse Comics.The first 10 issues are in color and, unfortunately, out of print. This volume, however, collects #'s 11 - 36, all of the black and white issues, and can be read as a self-contained story. Zot! is the story of Jenny and her friendship with a superhero from another world.

link o's

Michael Chiklis to create Olympus
as a long time fan of The Shield, this could be good. He was good as The Thing.

Sleeper
an old post from '08, not sure if I linked to this. One of my favorite series ever, they better damn well get it right on screen!

Doctor Who and Tennant's last hurrah
i'll miss his crazy eyes and wild hair!

Dollhouse and Sarah Connor Chronicles
i'm still watching both, but not for long??

...and with Brian Austin Green in SCC...will he be Hal Jordan next?

Fringe symbols meaning

DMZ and Air

DMZ #40

First of all, it's great that DMZ continues to be a series at Vertigo. Issue 40, and going...and I think the trades sell well so keep it going! With 100 bullets ending at Vertigo, and Y long gone, there are a few posts (like Fables) to hold up the franchise, plus the strong back titles, to bring in new series and talent.

Air #7 is only $1 if you are cheap bastard and want a way to jump in to the series. The trade for issues 1-5 is also out now to begin reading one of the most complex comic series out there.

In DMZ-- Matty transforms in this issue. Starting as the young, intern journalist dropped and stranded in the DMZ...to meeting all sides from Trustwell, military, Parco Delgado's nation. He begins to question what he wants from the experience and the people he has 'served'. He grows up and we'll see where he heads in the future.

bfast

star trek opens may8th

jokey Monday

from Joke of the Day...
A guy sits at a bar in a skyscraper restaurant high above the city. He slams a shot of tequila, goes over to the window and jumps out.

The guy sitting next to him can't believe what he just saw. He's more surprised when, 10 minutes later, the same guy walks back into the bar and sits down next to him.

The astonished onlooker asks, "How did you do that? I just saw you jump out the window, and we're hundreds of feet above the ground!"

The jumper responds by slurring, "Well, I don't get it either. I slam a shot of tequila, and when I jump out the window, the tequila makes me slow down right before I hit the ground. Watch." He takes a shot, goes to the window and jumps out.

The other guy runs to the window and watches as the guy falls to just above the sidewalk, slows down and lands softly on his feet. A few minutes later, the jumper walks back into the bar.

The other guy has to try it, too, so he orders a shot of tequila. He slams it and jumps out the window. As he reaches the bottom, he doesn't slow down at all. SPLAT!

The first guy orders another shot of tequila. The bartender shakes his head. "You're really an a**hole when you're drunk, Superman."

The end of the beginning

Birds of Prey 127

While I haven't had the enthusiasm for the Birds of Prey series, even at the end of Gail Simone's run, I'm still sad to see the story end. All female supes, led by the brilliant and beautiful Oracle, it was sassy and sweet about friendship and evil and good and teamwork. From Huntress to Zinda, to Black Canary..the women were hot as per usual in comics, but at least used training and their brains too. And adding new female characters - Infinity, Judomaster, Manhunter- gave those DC girls much more exposure across the DCU.

I can't buy into the Calculator as a grand villian, despite the last issue of robot-tech-gone wild.
But Oracle saying goodbye to Charlie-Misfit - was touching. We'll see how that Oracle:The Cure miniseries is.

It almost made spit though to see the Chris Brown (abuser) milk ad in this issue of strong females. The irony! I know it was pre-Rihanna beating, but I didn't care about him before, and now don't want to see his mug at all.

other stories

Sharing more choices from another librarian for our presentation of the "Year's Best Graphic Novels 2008"

JAMILTI by Rutu Modan ADULT
Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly (September 30, 2008)
ISBN-13: 978-1897299548

Set in Israel during various eras throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, Modan's short stories are evocative and haunting. The themes of these simply illustrated stories range from revelations of disturbing familiy secrets to portrayals of tragic beauty amid political violence.

HELLBOY LIBRARY EDITION,
Volume 1: Seed of Destruction ADULT/YA
by Mike Mignola and John Byrne
Publisher: Dark Horse; Library ed edition (May 14, 2008)
ISBN-13: 978-1593079109

Drawing upon occult mythology and 20th century history, Mignola has created a hero who embodies the American ideal of self-invention. Brought to earth in a Nazi occult experiment and nurtured by American GIs, Hellboy rejects his ties to the underworld as he chooses to be a force for good and fight all manner of demons and other supernatural beings.

J.EDGAR HOOVER: A Graphic Biography by Rick Geary. ADULT/YA
Publisher: Hill and Wang; 1st edition (January 8, 2008)
ISBN-13: 978-0809095032

Geary's detailed and engaging account of J. Edgar Hoover's rise within the FBI is an informative history of the agency itself.

NAT TURNER by Kyle Baker
Publisher: Abrams (June 1, 2008)
ISBN-13: 978-0810972278

Kyle Baker illustrates Nat Turner's own description of the largest organized rebellion of enslaved people in the first half of the 19th century. Baker's black and white drawings make the violence and brutality of this event explicit.