Daily Thoughts 9/22/2009

Wasserkriche als Stadtbibliothek; Zeichnung von Franz Hegi, 1845

Daily Thoughts 9/22/2009

Today, I have been working on various things which are designed to boost circulation. We have been putting up more displays lately. We currently have a display of graphic novels, a display of current events, a display of books on Africa and Egypt from our storage section, and a display of oversize art books. This is in addition to the "new arrivals" section. It is something which we have to keep up every day and make sure there are fresh materials added. Displays seem to work best when people can take the materials directly. I spent some time this afternoon moving the Playaways to the "new arrivals" section. Playaways are a form of preloaded electronic audiobook. They are very easy to use.

I also spent some time going through the purchase alerts list which is what our patrons have been putting on hold. The more requests there are for an item, the higher it is on the list. It has been changing considerably since we put in the new arrivals section and started ordering more books for the job information center and many new books. Some of the sections of books which are doing well are graphic novels and manga , urban fiction, job information center books, young adult series novels like the Vampire Diaries, cookbooks, diet books, and martial arts.

I also have been copying down requests from our patron request sheet where we track what we don't have that our patrons ask for. This makes our library a little more responsive to what people need. I have been thinking about how to better advertise that patrons can request what they are interested in having us purchase for all formats of materials.

This afternoon I spent some time filling requests for different books to go to the book mobile; books about Maine, toy trains, and Norman Rockwell. The book mobile serves a lot of people in nursing homes and the material we send out is often very nostalgic. I also sometimes pick out large print books, mysteries, and biographies for them as well.

I finished reading The United States Constitution A Graphic Adaptation. It is a flawed, but interesting graphic novel. I found the artwork to be rather bland. The colors were in rough earth tones which I did not like. Also, I found the drawing to be not that well defined. It was a little better than what you might find in a comic like Classics Illustrated. There were some interesting gimmicks in the art though, like having a supermajority in Congress represented as a superhero with an American flag on its chest and the head being the congressional building. Every page had a different visual gimmick on it..

The text was far better than the drawing. It was well done. The story was presented in a chronological order from the first constitutional convention, bill of rights, and each of the amendments. This covered a complete history of the United States as seen through the constitution. Numerous prominent Supreme Court cases were briefly described including Brown Vs. Board of Education, Miners School District V. Gobitis (1940), and many others . There was also coverage of the Emancipation Proclamation and many more important events in American history. I have to say the writing was better than the pictures. Read it for the history. I think I learned a few things.

Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art 6/6/2009

James Montgomery Flagg, creator of the famous, I Want You For the U.S. Army poster featuring Uncle Sam.

Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art 6/6/2009

I am going to the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art festival today, 6/6/2009 at the 69th Regimental Armory in Manhattan. The show starts at 11:00 a.m. so I can get up and relax for a bit before I go. I am looking forward to this. I have gone to every one of these shows. http://www.moccany.org/

When I got there, there was a long line to get in. The place was packed with people. I mostly walked around and looked at the different tables. I saw some interesting books and merchandise. Criterion is coming out with a new dvd for Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon.

I also saw a new paperback of edition of Marjane Satrapi's Chicken With Plums. There were a lot of really interesting new alternative press comics. A number which stood out were Skyscrapers of the Midwest by Joshua Cotter, I Saw You... Comics Inspired by Real Life Missed Connections by Julia Wertz, Bayou by Jeremy Love, Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow by Brian Fries, and About Dogs by George Booth. George Booth is a very excellent cartoonist.

David Berona is coming out with a book called Wordless Comics in around 2011. I reviewed David Berona's other book, Wordless Books a while ago. DC Vertigo is going to release its first DC novel. There have been novels produced by other publishers with DC characters, but this will be an in house novel. Bill Willingham is writing a novel based on his Fables graphic novels series called Peter and Max in October.

It was kind of fun wandering around looking at all the different independent publishers; Top Shelf, Fantagraphics, Bodega, Fanfare, DC Vertigo, Last Gasp, NBM Publishing, Pantheon, One Percent Press, and many others. I was surprised at the number of individual producers that had their own tables at the conference as well. There were a lot of people who were just producing a few comics on their own and selling them. I think this has become much more possible because of the internet and the easy ability to get things printed on demand.

There was also a Scandinavian and an Eastern European table for independent comics. The variety of comics was very nice. They even had the dinosaur comic I sometimes see on Wikipedia called Qwantz http://www.qwantz.com/archive/001479.html Ryan North has the comic printed as a full length book.

I went to the panel Selling Good Comics In A Bad Economy from 3:00-3:50 p.m. It featured a number of producers, Alvin Buenaventura from Buenaventura books, Mats Johnson from Gallago, Tom Neely, Brett Warnock from Top Shelf, Julia Wertz from www.fartparty.org, Dylan Williams from Sparkplug Comics, Chaired by Heidi McDonald of the Beat ( something produced by Publishers Weekly. A lot of the panel had come from Book Expo America the week before.

I am not going to write everything they said. I learned a few ideas from the panel. The first is that the independent comics industry is not that big, so the downturn in the economy has not affected them as much as larger industries. There was a general consensus that they had to find some other way than Diamond to distribute their comics because of the economic downturn.

The panelists pretty much agreed that if you want to be in comics you have to attend a lot of shows and be prolific and consistent. Brett Warnock wants his artists to produce a lot of work and go to shows to promote themselves. Julia Wertz said that she goes to a lot of shows, so did everyone else on the panel. They also say that they get a lot of their sales from the internet, it is important to have a website. Tom Neely says it is like the music industry. You go on tour if you are in a band. A few of them mentioned that they were helped by Tony Shenton one of the few independent sales representatives in the industry. http://www.snackhack.com/shenton/

There were a few mentions of blog reviews helping sell comics. Apparently, the internet has been very helpful for the independent comics industry.

What surprised me was that no one had figured out what to do about Kindles and Iphones for comics. The Kindle ereader is not conducive to comics art. Also the Iphone is a fast approaching thing which is on the radar but not figured out. There was a brief mention about almost all the old Marvel comics being scanned into bit torrent as pirated works.

I liked the panel. After the panel, I went across the street from the 25th street armory to a small vietnamese sandwich shop called Baogette which was pretty good.

I rarely buy anything for myself at these things. I might go back and order a few things for my library which I saw. I plan to ask DC Vertigo for a few advanced reading copies. They had them at their table. I got several free comics from DC Vertigo, and got a signed copy of Madame Xanadu. I also bought a poster from this years show for $5. It was an entertaining show.

There was the usual collection of knick knacks, a catalog from Fanfare, several postcards, a catalog from Zudu comics, and several business cards. I am a paper magnet sometimes.

Thoughts For Today

Juan Gris c1919 Stilleben mit Gitarre, Buch und Zeitung. it is abstract figure it out for yourself. I like it.

Thoughts For Today

This morning, I sat in the diner drinking coffee and reading the paper. Nothing was particularly striking in the news. It was relaxing to watch people go by the window. It was raining outside so the diner had a comfortable warm feeling to it.

I have the day off because I am working this Saturday. I am going on a road trip tomorrow. I had my car washed this morning after I went to the diner. Then I went back to the Barnes and Noble in my neighborhood and spent some time looking at computer books. Digital photography is considered to be part of the computer books. I am not sure which cameras are the ones I should order books on. I also have to order books on digital video. I'll have to figure this one out. I put some books down to order on a list.

I'm back home now sitting at my computer. I have been doing the exercises from the Yoga RX book every morning. They are very relaxing. I feel a little less wound up than usual. I am one of those people that likes to be constantly doing things.

I finished reading The Media Savvy Leader. I will probably let it sit in my head for a day or two before I start writing my full review. I like to put things down for a bit before I write the full review.

I read The Ginger Star by Leigh Brackett. It is classic science fiction from the 1940's featuring Eric John Stark who is a combination of wild man and adventurer. Remember "beware the dark man of prophecy." Leigh Brackett is a very interesting writer. She has many movie scripts to her credit. This is a nice little summary of her life. http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/brackett.htm

I finally recieved a copy of Iron Man on dvd from the library. I had been waiting for it for about two months. The film is solidly pleasing. Nothing spectacular, but still very entertaining. It is of course a retelling of the creation of Iron Man for a more modern audience. The film and special effects were interesting to watch. I like that Iron Man was recreated in Afghanistan.

They also included some interesting things from the comic. They properly portrayed Tony Stark as an alcoholic which he is in the comic. I also liked the cameo where Robert Downey Jr. who plays Tony Stark says "Is that you Hugh Hefner?" to Stan Lee the creator of many comic books. Stan Lee is known for creating Spider Man, X-men and many comic book characters. If you watch the marvel films closely, Stan Lee is in many of them with cameo appearances.

I read the mass market novelization of the film done by Peter David. It pretty much follows the film closely. Peter David is one of the better comic book writers.

I also liked the trailer which was include on the dvd for the movie The Incredible Hulk. Apparently Tony Stark makes a brief appearance in the Incredible Hulk.

There is a rumor that there is going to be an Avengers film. This would include a variety of characters. In order prequel this, they might have to cross pollinate some of the films which are coming out with characters from all over the "Marvel Universe."

Watching superhero films is kind of nostalgic and immature. I rather like going back to my childhood sometimes. It makes you remember when you were little reading comic books, or swapping them with your friends.

I ordered a couple of the large collected works, The Essential Iron Man, Volume 1 for our library. It was $16.99 for 512 pages of comics. The Essential series are very long 500 plus pages each. They cover all the old marvel superheros series. There are other series like this in both comics and manga. DC has a similar series called Showcase Presents which compiles major superheros into large trade paperbacks of 500 plus pages which are not that expensive.

Darkhorse has Omnibus editions of Aliens and Predator that are in full color. They are about 400 pages each and cost about $24.95. I think they also have Star Wars Omnibus Edition.

There are also some manga collected works. Fruits Basket has "Ultimate Editions" which combine three manga into one volume in hardcover for a reduced price from buying the manga separately. Battle Royale also has "Ultimate Editions."

One of the reasons I like buying these things for libraries rather than smaller editions is that they are bigger and a little heavier. They are easier to shelve and not as flimsy as many of the thinner comics. The collected editions in paperback are also usually a little cheaper.

I read some of The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. Neil Gaiman has a wonderfully fantastic imagination. This book is for young adults, but it is reachable for all audiences. It is a fantasy about a little boy raised by the denizens of the graveyard. There is a kind of magical, otherworldly quality to the writing. Dave McKean illustrates the book.

Good Morning

You too can cartoon!

Good Morning

I was going to watch another dvd, but it was scratched from the library. So, I ended up watching Art School Confidential written by Daniel Clowes and directed by Terry Zwigoff. There was a lot of humor in it. The film was set at Strathmore College. I rather liked the film. It reminded me of Daniel Clowes comics brought to life on the big screen. I think I like Clowes comics much better than his films. The humor was very dark.

I don't usually watch films in the morning. I am not going to go into a deep review, other than saying it had some very nice acting.

This is my 500th post. It must mean something, but I have not figured it out yet. Congratulations to me for writing endlessly, practically every single day.

I went to the mall at noon. There were not as many people as usual. Most of the stores had sales going on. It was very easy to find parking. Most of the time there is very little parking. I went to Barnes and Noble Bookstore. I spent some time looking around the store. I bought one book for myself, a paperback by R.M. Meluch, The Sagittarius Command, A Novel of the U.S.S. Merrimack.

I did not buy The 500 Essential Graphic Novels by Gene Kannenberg. However, I did spend some time looking through it for comics which we did not have in our collection. It contains 500 one page descriptions of graphic novels in full color. We have many of the selections. Some of the items which I am thinking of getting are Malcolm X: A Graphic Biography, Death The High Cost of Living, Scott Pilgrim, Planetary Vol. 1, Avengers Kree Skrull War, The Big Book of Hell, Aliens Omnibus, and Iron Man: Devil In A Bottle.

I walked around the store a bit and went to the computer books section. I am thinking that we may have to get some computer certification books, MCSE, CCNA, CCIE, and Comptia exams.

Then I walked around the mall for a while and a got a slice of pizza and a glass of water. It was not a bad afternoon. The restaurant was very empty. I remember going to the barber last week and the barber telling me that he usually had 40-50 people come in each day, and now he has 10-15 people coming in each day.

While wandering through blog land, I learned about a new title that is both intriguing and frightening. I read the review in the magazine, The Economist, for Hitler's Private Library by Timothy W. Ryman. I placed it on hold. I think it will be very interesting reading this book.

Sometimes if you watch blogs on libraries and listen carefully, you can pick up where the wind is blowing in terms of funding and financing. This is a recent article from Library Journal.

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6609686.html .

I think there is going to be a lot of funding coming available for job related books and financial literacy materials. We already have a career counselor who comes to our library. We also have lots of job books. The financial literacy part is a challenge.

The strongest value of libraries in a down economy is that most libraries have a EJIC (Education Job Information Center). This provides a lot of value to the community. We have sections for resume books, civil service test books, professional test books, county job listings, annual reports, and general job and small business books.

Morning Thoughts, Afternoon Thoughts

This image was taken by a government employee. I think this image is in the public domain. Anyways, there it is a great photograph of Elvis with Nixon.

Morning Thoughts

I don't know what happened to me yesterday morning. I couldn't get myself to write anything at all. Right now, I am drinking my coffee a little bit before noon. I read a little bit of Snopes this morning. A little odd and humorous news.
http://www.snopes.com/daily/index.asp

I am trying to do very little. I went to the laundromat yesterday and read some more of Manga The Complete Guide by Jason Thompason. Jason Thompson is an editor for Viz publisher which publishes manga. It was a very interesting book to read through. One of the huge faults with this book is that it only reviews manga from Japan that has translated into english. There is no coverage of original American manga from companies like Tokypop, Del Rey Manga, or Darkhores. There is now a lot of manga style comics being written by authors from others countries than Japan like Korea, China, and Canada.

Still the book is quite interesting. It reviews manga from the very beginnings starting with Four Immigrants Manga all the way through 2006. It uses a star rating system for the different manga comics with stars and half stars. I think it is pretty accurate. There is a lot of material covered Ranma 1/2, Lone Wolf and Cub, Iron Wok Jan, Harlem Beat, Sailor Moon, and a huge variety of subjects are covered.

In addition to the coverage of individual reviews there are two page overviews of different subjects in manga like Cooking, Crime and Yakuza, Fantasy, Japanese History, Otaku, Martial Arts, and many other subjects. This is quite interesting. It also includes discussions of the more risque material in manga, cross dressing, gay and lesbian, and sex.

There are separate review sectsions for Yaoi and Gay Manga, and Adult Manga. As part of its rating system, the book discusses many of the issues with differences in culture. The Japanese have very different taboos about nudity than westerners or people in the United States. They also have a tendency to include sexual innuendo about little girls. This is something we are careful about in our library.

We have had some interesting issues with Sailor Moon and older men (There is even a "Sailor Moon" fan made dating sim which is quite creepy.) Because of the issues of sexuality, we have to be very careful when ordering things for teenagers. Some of the material goes right to the adult section where there are less problems.

Ranma 1/2 for people in the United States also has some interesting connotations. When water is thrown on him, he turns into her. For some people in the United States this is more x-rated than sex. It would be no problem in the adult section, but some people sometimes object to it being in teen section or getting the book at all.

Still even in the adult section, the material can be quite explicit. I was surprised at how explicit Path of the Assassins was. It is on the top 50 bestselling manga by Diamond Comic Distributors. Just because something sells well does not make it non-explicit.

There is a glossary and an artist index. The artist index includes the titles they have published as well as links to their website if it is available.

The book has numerous black and white illustrations of covers. The back has a photo credits section. There are also a few panels from different manga in the book.

I think that this is an excellent guide to Japanese Manga. The key here is that it only covers manga in translation to english from Japanese. This is an awful lot of material.



Afternoon Thoughts

I looked at 101 Ways To Promote Your Website by Susan Sweeney, C.A. . In a way I was not impressed with the book. On the cover it says "Main Selection of Computer Books Directs book club" I wanted to see if this club still existed, so I looked it up and the membership is closed. There are also a lot of complaints Computer Books Direct from various people. This knocked the book down a little bit in my mind. I also read the very short section on blogs and was not impressed with her suggestions for promoting blogs. They were very basic. So, I am putting the book down for now.

I also took a few minutes to start reading, Wikinomics How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams. It seems entertaining so far. They have a blog promoting the book which has a nice fluffy branded feeling to it. http://www.wikinomics.com/blog/

I went to my local library today. However, I got there a bit late. The computers were closing in fifteen minutes so I decided to take a pass. I picked up a few items to read, The Darkness, A Vampire Huntress Legend by L.A. Banks and The Discworld Graphic Novels The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett. I am hoping this will have a nice dose of humor in it. I also picked up a DVD, Inuyasha, I have not watched any of the television series anime, I have watched quite a few anime movies that are stand alone. So, this will be a slightly different experience for me.

Entrecard is still not working on my home computer. I wish they could tell me what was wrong with it, but they have not been able to.

Today' Thoughts

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Alphart_rodier02.jpg

The author (Yves Rodier) does not claim copyright over this work. The album in its entirety is prohibited because of the illegal use of Hergé's characters, but this image does not contain character by Hergé, so it can be considered as free.

Today's Thoughts

Today was my first day of vacation. I lazed around a lot today. I finished reading Reaper's Gale. I liked reading the book because of the character Karsa Orlong. I did not care for a lot of the other characters. This character really made the book for me. Sometimes, just one character can hold my interest.

I didn't do a huge amount today. I went for an evening walk. I sat around the house a lot. I didn't go shopping or do the laundry.

I went to the local Barnes and Noble today. I had a cup of coffee there and a bit of lemon cake. It was actually pretty good. The coffee was a bit too strong though. Starbucks is a little bit strong...

I didn't buy any books. I found one book which looked good though. It is called:

500 Essential Graphic Novels: The Ultimate Guide (Paperback) by Gene Kannenberg (Author)

The book is $24.95. It came out on August 5, 2008 so the reviews are very recent. It is comprehensive and contains comics lit, alternative comics, manga, and superhero comics. Each graphic novel has a color illustration of the cover and a basic description. I am definitely going to order this for my library. I am hesitant about getting it for myself.

I finally had the time to sit down and write a brief review of Saturn's Children.