Daily Thoughts 1/22/2010

Library of Wat Tung Sri Muang, Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand library; picture taken by User:Markalexander100, Gnu Free Documentation License (GFDL) I found the image interesting. It was on Wikipedia. I think the license is correct.

Daily Thoughts 1/22/2010

I have been planning what conferences I intend to go to during the next six months or so. I have a list of things which I hope to attend.

FASTforward Enterprise Search Strategy Summit: Reflecting User Thinking - Controlling Business Outcomes, March 11, 2010, New York (By Invitation) -- This is by Microsoft

Web 2.0, Social Networking and Libraries Conference 2010 http://unabashedlibrarian.com/ul-conferences/2010-conferenceTuesday, March 16, 2010. This conference is presented by ILIAC which is an international association of librarians. There usually are a number of Russian librarians attending.

Westchester Library Association Conference, May 7, 2010, The conference for Westchester County, New York Libraries, http://www.westchesterlibraryassociation.org/

New York Is Book Country, Sunday, May 16, 2010 This is a book festival done in New York. They are restarting this year. http://www.newyorkisbookcountry.com/events/home.jsp

Book Expo America May 25-27, 2010 Jacob Javits Center, This is the largest publishing and bookseller trade fair in the United States. http://bookexpoamerica.com/

Book Blogger Convention, May 28, 2010 http://bookbloggerconvention.com/ This should be an interesting convention of book blogs. Many are going to be at Book Expo America as well.

Web Bits

I was looking around the web and found the site for the Westchester Journal News books section. It lists a lot of events with local authors. http://books.lohudblogs.com/

I read James Mankelow's book, Manage Stress. I am not sure that I want to recommend it. It is the kind of book that is a long series of self revelatory exercises. You will get exactly what you put into it out of it. There are dozens of self reflective checklists, questionnaires, charts, and other tools.

If you like to question yourself and what you think, you might like the book. It is perfectly in line with his website, Mindtools. http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/jnm.htm This site is basically a skill building site focused on mental tools; speed reading, filing, goal setting, memorization, time management, mind mapping, brainstorming, leadership skills and other career oriented mental tasks.

Terminator Salvation, Cold War by Greg Cox

Right now, I am reading Terminator Salvation, Cold War by Greg Cox. He writes series books having written for Alien, C.S.I., DC Comics, Ironman, Star Trek, Superman, Underworld, and now Terminator. I remember the first book which I remember him editing was Tomorrow Sucks, an anthology of vampire science fiction. It was pretty silly. The book is no longer in print. It was printed in 1994.

He certainly seems to have gotten formula writing down pat. I didn't even know there was an International Association of Media Tie In Writers until I looked at his website. The author list is kind of interesting http://www.iamtw.org/about.html, This makes him a working writer. This is his list of publications. Basically entertaining, a bit silly, and fun. http://www.gregcox-author.com/bibliography.html

This book occurs just before the movie, Terminator Salvation. This is the third movie in Terminator series. It is part that setting. There are a whole new series of books in that setting done by Titan Books. They appear decent starting line up of writers; Alan Dean Foster, Timothy Zahn, and Greg Cox all have a solid track record writing science fiction.

There is a certain appeal to series books. They are predictable and the good guys always win. The bad guys never disappear of course. That is the strength of these kinds of books.

Terminator Salvation, Cold War, is the story of the beginning of Skynet. The artificial intelligence, Skynet launches nuclear missiles in the beginning of the story. Then the machines start attempting to kill all of humanity. I rather like that in the beginning people are not sure who started nuclear war.

The nuclear launch is during 2003, so it is definitely an alternate history setting. The story jumps between 2003 and 2018. This adds to the setting of not being quite the same as our time.

John Connor is not that prominent in this story. The heros of the story are Molly Kookesh an Alaskan survivor, and a Russian submariner named Lusenko. The machines are the ultimate enemy so we can look at most people as heros.

What surprised me is that at the end of the book, there is a brief bibliography of nonfiction works that the author used to write the book. It includes Tom Clancy with John Gresham Submarine: A Guided Tour Inside A Nuclear Submarine. Tom Clancy wrote a whole series of nonfiction books on the military.

The writing is solid, smoothly written and easy to read. It shows a practical workman like craft which makes for a good story. I like to occassionally read series.

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.

New York Comic Con

Today is New York Comic Con day. I get a free pass today to wander around and look at graphic novels. Hopefully, I will get a chance to pick up some free graphic novel donations as well as numerous catalogs and bookmarks. We like to get bookmarks to give away for the teenage programs. Last time I was there they had free DC and Marvel bookmarks which we gave to the teenagers. Hopefully there will be some free manga material we can use in our manga program at the library.

I am going to get a chance to see a lot of people that I recognize or know when I go this morning. My pass is ready. I have to pick up a convention book. There is a screening of a film on Will Eisner which I want to see. I'll probably walk the whole convention floor. The last time I was at the show, there were also several science fiction publishers, a few gaming publishers, and a few oddball exhibits.

I am a bit tired from the workshop yesterday, but I am really looking forward to this convention. I hope they have a lot of freebies. I actually bought a few things last year.

I am going to concentrate on writing my experience at the convention today. I already have finished reading the Rabbi's Cat 1 & 2, and am about to start reading The Ten Cent Plague. However, I think it might be interesting to write my experience of seeing the big convention.

Hopefully a few of you people will be there. Look for me anonymously. Anyways, I am off to start my day. The Jacob Javits Center where the convention is being held is positively enormous. It will take me the whole day to look around.

I never did see the film on Will Eisner, I did get to see some other panels, though. I got there at nine o'clock a.m. The floor did not open until 10 a.m. I spent some time organizing which booths I would go to by floor location. This way, I could visit the booths I wanted to see first then wander. Here is the order
Darkorse (Comic Book Company) #823
Activision (Game Company) #1048
Wizard (Magazine) #1056
Marvel Comics #1141
Publishers Weekly #1164
Diamond Comics Distributor #1231
Tokyopop (Manga) #1321
Image (Comics) #1407
Oni (Comics) #1413
Tor Books #1533
DC Comics #1627
Nickelodeon #1657
Harper Collins #1814
NBM #1917
Penguin #1941
Random House #1920, 1921
Fantagraphics #1948

I basically was looking around to see what they had which we might get for our library. I was surprised by the number of publishers that said that I should look at their website, they no longer sent out catalogs. I ended up giving my address and name at six different places to request paper catalogs and free samples of material. I also picked up a variety of free items which will most likely be added to our collection. I picked up two hardcover books, a dozen free paperbacks including a star wars and several star trek paperbacks, the 30 Days of Night Adaptation to novel form from the movie, and four graphic novels.

This is nothing like Book Expo America, last time I was there I paid to ship 100 pounds of free books and material back to my library. Compared to the book industry, the comic book industry is quite parsimonious. Most of the time they ask you to pay for things at a discount.

I found a really interesting press, Dorchester Publishing which was displaying the hard case crime series, I ended buying a Max Alan Collins Paperback, Deadly Beloved, The first ever Ms. Tree Novel. Ms. Tree was a famous syndicated hardboiled mystery cartoon written during the 1980s and 1990s. It is one of the better black and white mystery noir comics that I have seen. Max Allan Collins also wrote Road to Perdition which was turned into both a graphic novel and a movie. I rather enjoyed the graphic novel.

I ended up walking around for some four hours total. I looked for something to eat, but a sandwich costed $8.00 and I decided it would be better if I just ate when I got home. Drinks were still $3.75 for a soda which was a bit outrageous.

After walking around for quite a bit, I sat down and rested my feet. By that time it was 2:00 P.M. I decided to go and see a few of the panels that they were doing. The First panel was a Choosing The News, The Changing Face of Online Journalism:
Quoting the catalog description:

It's a fact - journalism has changed. With more outlets than ever, more demands from news sources, and comics increasingly covered by the mainstream, how do comics news sites navigate the uncharted waters? Join Matt Brady (Newsarama), Richard George (IGN), Rick Marshall (ComicMix), Brian Heater (Daily Cross Hatch) and others for this engaging discussion, moderated by The Beat's Heidi MacDonald.

Most of the discussion was not focused so much on actual news but what the process was. They said basically, you have to put out news every single day, those who work harder are the ones who win in the end. Also, you have to produce more original content, it is too easy to just take a press release and stick it on your site. This is really a waste of time because it does not have any unique opinion. They pointed out that hype is read a lot more than real journalism, people basically want to be entertained more than get good criticism. Also, you have to watch viral announcements, it is like giving away free advertising and you don't want to do that necessarily.

The next panel which I saw was at 3:00 P.M. It was a set of comic books legends. I am going to list and summarize what I think each one said from:

Joe Simon: Joe simon is most famous for creating Captain America with Jack Kirby. We should bring back the spirit of Captain America without his shield and all the extra gadgets just like he was before. Captain America is the symbol of American spirit and we really need that right now. My brightest student was Stan Lee, and Stan Lee andJack Kirby were the best team together.

Joe Sinnott: The greatest person is Stan Lee I have been working with him for over 58 years. My favorite comic book work was on the Beatles and Babe Ruth.

Murphy Anderson: I worked in the production department in DC comics. I think the greatest comic book artist was Will Eisner.

Jerry Robinson: I remember curating a show at The Kennedy Center. They spent $100 for my picture of the joker, and across the room was a pop art picture of the Joker by an artist named Ramos that was insured for $300,000.

Stan Lee: My greatest contribution will be determined by posterity in the future. My real greatest contribution was paying my wifes allowance. Jack Kirby was the greatest comic artist, he had a tremendous ability to tell a story.

Ramona Fradon: There was never any discrimination against her in the comic books industry. But, sometimes it got a little scary in the afternoon in the bullpen when everyone was yelling. Her most important influence was a woman named Linda Fight. She drew aquaman, plastic man, and Brenda Starr.

Dick Ayers: I had nothing left from Marvel or DC, they still had all of my work. I was writing an autobiography because I wanted to write a story, but I couldn't I could only draw it. When I was contacted by publishers to see if I had any work, I ended up producing my autobiography. I started as a magazine editor. Gene Colan was my the best artist.

Irwin Hayson: When I was drawing Wonder Woman, it drove me to go out with a lot of really tall women. Dondi, my syndicated newspaper strip was a labor of love.

Carmine Infantino: John Infantino, my son is doing marvelous work, much better than I ever did. He also got in in time to get the benefits which we never had during the silver age of comics. My greatest influence was Milton Caniff, I tried to draw like him but never could.

At the beginning of the panel, everyone was clapping and cheering for the artists and editors as they were heading to the stage. There were at least five people with cameras shooting footage of the show. In addition people were taking pictures and using their cell phones to take pictures. A few people were on their laptops typing things up.

This panel was truly incredible to watch. It represented from the beginnings of the comic book industries until the present day.

The last panel I attended was from 4:00-5:00 p.m., Weird Tales-- 85 Years, 85 Storytellers. This panel was on the history of Weird Tales magazine. The panelists were several people from the latest incarnation of weird tales. There was also an archival specialist who was working with Weird Tales. Weird Tales was the first magazine exclusively focused on science fiction, horror, and fantasy. Originally, the stories were not called that. They were simply stories about weird things. It was the source of H.P. Lovecraft (Modern Horror), Robert E. Howard (Swords and Sorcery, and Clark Ashton Smith (Fantasy Poetry or gothic tales.)

I would contest this one, I think Sidney H. Sime, although not as well known as Clark Ashton Smith was the precursor for gothic poetry.

Weird Tales has started adding comic book inserts into the magazine. The panelists said that many of EC Comics stories during the 1950's originated in Weird Tales.

They suggested the March/ April 2008 issue was available at Table D 33 for sale for $5.00. I think the lady was worried that I was going to ask for it for free. I paid the $5.00. The issue is kind of interesting. I am looking at the 85 Weirdest Storytellers of the Past 85 Years article on Pp. 24-41. I haven't actually read it yet.

Anyways, I finished the convention and sat down for a little bit. Then I went to catch a taxi. The taxi man wanted $20.00 for a trip from 34th street to 42nd street. I decided to take a pass and walk to the subway. On the way home, I read a little bit of a star wars paperback in one of the bags which I brought home with me.

I got home and sorted the books which I would keep at home and those which I would bring back to work. I put all of my publishers catalogs, nick nacks, and bookmarks in a separate bag for work. I put this bag in my bag with the books I am bringing in tomorrow.

What I have left is a bunch of Advanced Reading Copies which we are not supposed to add to the library. Adding them is forbidden by the publishers. Some of the Advanced Reading Copies or Advanced Uncorrected Proofs are The Dangerous Days of Daniel by James Patterson and Michael Ledgwick, Little Brown, Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link, Little Brown, The Twelve Kingdoms by Fuyumi Ono, Tokypop, Chalice by Robin McKinley, My Incredible Wonderful Miserable Life by Adam Nimoy (Adam Nimoy is the son of Leonard Nimoy), Daniel X Alien Hunter, A Graphic Novel by James Patterson and Leopoldo Gout, Little Brown. This is the first advanced reading copy of a graphic novel which I have seen.

I also received an interesting graphic novel designed for literacy. It is called The Word Eater by Michael Dahl. The RL is: 2.9 2nd grade, 9th month. The main character is a librarian. He is the hero. I rather like this idea. It is quite appealing.

A Collection of Convention Name Tags.

Like many people I have attended a number of conventions throughout my career. I have saved the name tags for many of the conventions I have attended. I have a nostalgia for these things. There is something memorable about attending professional conventions even if you are not part of the profession at the convention. Also, the name tags have little or no value in and of themselves.

Collecting name tags is like collecting free bookmarks, they are inexpensive, interesting, and bring back memories. People wax nostalgic about what they have done, even if it wasn't so great when they were doing it.

I keep them in a plastic ziplock bag. It is an old ziplock bag and does not preserve their condition. But, this is not why I am keeping the name tags. I am not thinking that my name tag collection will one day have astronomical value and be prized by collectors the world over.

I like going to conventions. I find them interesting. I will now name some of the convention name tags I have.

I attended my first library convention in 1991, I was a page working in the library as well as a college student. I know, it sounds funny, usually pages are often teenagers with acne. It was the California Library Association. I wasn't sure yet that I wanted to be a librarian. Being a page is a funny experience. You put books on shelves, pick up books off the tables and do little odd jobs for the librarians.

The next library convention I attended was in 1992 while I was volunteering at SPD-- Small Press Distributors in Berkeley, California. I wasn't in library school at the time. I went as an exhibitor with Small Press Distributors. I don't particularly remember the convention that well. All I know is that I have the name tag. I shelved the books in back at Small Press Distributors. I always have been good at shelving books. I tried to do the basic office work, but I really wasn't that good at it. I'm not the best at office work.

I didn't go to library school until 1993. At the end of library school, I attended library legislation day. I still have the name tag from Library Legislation Day in Penssylvania. I went to speak to Diane Feinstein and got to talk to her briefly about the importance of libraries. I remember being scared out of my pants and being very zealous at the same time.

In 1996, I went to the International Space Development Conference as an exhibitor, I was helping a small bookstore which has since folded. It was quite interesting. The best part was the astronomical art. You could get really beautiful photographs of space for very cheap.

I also have a button which simply says Exhibitor Mystery & Science Fiction Book Fair. I have no idea what the button is for. It is just a curiosity. I have been to lots of small book fairs. One of my favorite small book fairs was the paperback collectors association. They had a lot of old paperbacks. My favorite old paperbacks are the ACE doubles-- two science books in one printed in the 1960s.

The next convention button I have is from when I was working at an ISP during the internet boom. It was for PC Expo 2000. PC expo was very interesting. There was a ton of hardware and software, most of it didn't make much sense because it was during the internet boom. I remember wandering around the Jacob Javits Convention Center and thinking how humongous the place was. Also during 2000, I went to Internet World. This was a weird experience, there was a lot of experimental stuff for the time, micropayment systems, online photo sites, and a lot of stuff that never saw the light of day.

My next button is from 2005, it is for Book Expo America, the largest book exposition in the country. I went as a librarian. It was a lot of fun to go and look at the different publishers.

I am going to the New York Comic Con in April 2008 as a professional. They give free passes to professionals. If you are a librarian who is interested in comic books or graphic novels this is a lot of fun to attend. Like Book Expo America, you can get a lot of freebies to bring back. They also give out lots of little knick knacks, book marks, pens, and other things. You get to see a lot of the professional comic book artists. They had panels for librarians on manga, anime, and graphic novels in the library.

When I go to conventions I usually plan a little bit beforehand. I get a floor map of the exhibits and circle which exhibitors I am goint to look at and ask my colleagues if there is anybody they would like to me look at. I also plan which panels I am going to watch in advance. I try to go in early the first day so I can get an idea of what the convention will be like. I always like to check to see if there is a restaurant near the convention before I go in. Convention food prices are always too high except for the reserved areas with coffee and bagels for attendees. I also pick up a lot of stuff. The stuff I don't want, I'll leave for my colleagues to look at sometimes. I'm often asked to summarize what I learned at the panels so I take a notepad and pen with me.

I try and walk the whole convention floor so I can see all the exhibitors, even if only for a brief time. Sometimes, I'll collect business cards just to have them. I also try and get to the more popular panels about an hour early. There have been a few times where I still haven't been able to go in and see the speakers.