New York Comic Con 10/13/2011

House ad, Fiction House (defunct magazine & comics publisher), 1940s

New York Comic Con

On October 13, 2011, I went to New York Comic Con.  It was very entertaining.

I am only describing what I thought was useful.  There was quite a bit more said.  I also included some commentary of my own.

I went to the following panels:

Digital Comics & Libraries Past, Present, and Future  Digital 12:00-1:00 p.m.

This was an interesting session.  They talked about the Ipad.  Many readers are reading digital comics on both the Ipad and the Android.  I learned that New York Public Library circulates Marvel Comics as ebooks through Overdrive.  People can also subscribe online to services like Comixology.  In our own library, I see a number of the teenagers using our computers to look up manga.  As we switch to more Ebooks, this is something to consider.

Video Game Collection Development 1:15-2:15 p.m.

I learned the biggest barrier to video game collection development was the lack of distributors for libraries.  People either used Amazon or Ingram.  They talked a lot about tying the collection together with books, graphic novels, films, and other media.  For example with Halo, we have graphic novels and a whole series of books in the science fiction section.   This is in addition to the game.  I have never played the game, but I have read the books and read the graphic novels.  I also learned that most libraries checked out video games for one week.  This was enough time for people to finish the game.

In addition, there was a description of a variety of programming using Guitar Hero, and other video games for teenagers.  In our programming we have done Guitar Hero and other games for the teenagers.  There was also a talk of intergenerational programming using older video games.  There was also some description of video games as a form of storytelling.

The book Video Games in the Library by Eli Neiburger was cited as the most up to date material on using games for programs.  They also mentioned that School Library Journal has a column on video games.  If you want a laugh take a look at http://www.8bitlibrary.ocm/

National Gaming Day at Your Library: Using Video Games as Library Outreach Tool

2:3-3:30 p.m.

The speakers also mentioned Free Comic Book Day which is on May 5, 2012

http://www.freecomicbookday.com/

National Gaming Day was on October  12, 2011 http://ngd.ala.org/ .  This would be a way to promote our collection of games in our library.

American Library Association now has a Gaming Roundtable as part of their membership which is $10 a year to join.  The name of the roundtable is Gamert.

The speakers talked about how games pulled people together.  They also discussed multipart programs using games, dvds, and books.  For example, one of them did a discussion of the book Watchmen, showed the movie, and then played the game.

They mentioned how graphic novels can be used to lure in male teenagers which would not normally come to the library.  One of the series they mentioned was Scott Pilgrim which has a movie, graphic novel, and game.  We have the movie and the graphic novel series.  They also talked about how to use graphic novels as a way to teach non-native readers how to learn English.

The final panel was:

Graphic Novels and Libraries: Beyond the Basics

This was a very well organized panel.  They spent some time describing what circulated best for them.  There were a few titles that I had not heard of; Fairies Landing and Big Gun.  Most of the titles were familiar, popular titles which we had like Fruits Basket, Naruto, Bleach, Vampire Kisses, Full Metal Alchemist, Fables, Scott Pilgrim, The Losers, The Runaways, and Powers.

The panelists talked about how it was important to display the graphic novels in a prominent area.  There was some discussion of putting the graphic novels and anime together.  Queens Public Library puts their anime and manga together.  They also described a trend where the new books are not the most popular comics.  The big compilations with whole sets of comics put together are very popular.

I learned that Columbia University has

Alexander Street

’s database of Underground and Independent comics which is quite interesting. http://alexanderstreet.com/products/comx.htm

Most of the people in the panel said they prefer the print versions because most of their customers cannot afford the devices like the Ipad to download comics on.

I had a chance to walk the show floor in the evening.  I stopped by the American Library Association booth and went to most of the major comic book vendors to see what they had to offer.

I also picked up a variety of swag including bookmarks, comics, and posters.  I gave a lot of it to the  young adult librarian for programming (especially the anime club) and I put aside some for my graphic novels club in the future.  I added two books to the collection as well which were free.  I rather liked the paperback Star Wars Old Republic Fatal Alliance by Sean Williams.  They also had paper hats for the comic Naruto and Cookie Monster from

Sesame Street

.

There was also a very dark free uncorrected proof of a graphic novel called My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf.  It is the story of Jeffrey Dahmer the serial killer during his high school days.  The graphic novel is not easy to read.  The author wonders why the adults did not see what was happening while Jeffrey Dahmer was growing up.  The story is very creepy.  The uncorrected proof is put out by Abrams Comicarts.  The graphic novel is due out in March of 2012

I saw a variety of excellent books including Habibi by Craig Thompson, The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man by Michael Chabon which is a childrens comic, volume 2 of the Twilight graphic novel, the graphic novel adaptation of The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.  I also had a chance to look at the young adult books by Rick Riordan.  They plan on releasing more of his books as graphic novels.

It was both entertaining and interesting.  I stopped by the American Library Association booth.  I saw several colleages at the convention.

Midtown Comics

Midtown Comics

Yesterday afternoon, I went to the License Express of the Department of Motor Vehicles in Manhattan which focuses on giving mostly drivers licenses and vehicle registrations. It did not take long for me to get my license.

On the way back to the train home, I stopped off at Midtown Comics, one of the larger comic bookstores in Manhattan. Like many comic bookstores it occupies the second floor of a retail building. I hadn't been by this store in a very long time. It is two floors of comic books. The stock seems more focused on graphic novels now than comic books.

There was a very large alternative comic books section. I was not very impressed with their science fiction books section. Their graphic novels section was really fantastic. I had a chance to look at a number of books. The one that initially interested me most was Fogel's Underground Comix Price Guide printed in 2007. Unfortunately, the book cost $39.95 which was a little expensive for a trade paperback. It lists most of the underground comics.

However, it was also oddly focused on sex comics like Omaha and Cherry Poptart which I really don't consider to be very underground. The most expensive items listed were Robert Crumb's early works, and the East Village Others Gothic Blimp Works which is the first of the underground comics in New York.

My favorite new book in the place was an illustrated oversize version of Frankenstein drawn by Bernie Wrightson who is possibly the best of the horror comics artists alive right now. http://www.wrightsonart.com/

I spent quite a bit of time looking through the new books. There were a few other books which were kind of interesting. Will Eisner, A Life In Pictures, a book of autobiographical comics and The Official Handbook of The Marvel Universe A-Z. There was also a book called How To Make Web Comics by Scott Kurtz, Kris Straub, Dave Kellett, and Brad Guigar which looked interesting.

As usual when you visit a comicbook store or bookstore, I felt obligated to buy something. I bought copies of Steven King's The Stand which has just been put out as a comic book. The art is fantastic and it is very true to the original book. I also asked about the Starship Troopers CGI animated series because they had a very large collection of animated movies.

Midtown Comics has a nice website. It was interesting seeing both the store and the website. http://www.midtowncomics. The store is as clean and well organized as the website. The staff were helpful and attentive. They were willing to answer my questions.

Reading A Book For Specific Content Rebel Visions (Patrrick Rosenkrantz)

Rebel Visions (Patrrick Rosenkrantz)

Today, I spent some time reading Rebel Visions The Underground Comix Revolution 1963-1975. This book is the history of underground comics. I did not read it for that specific content. I am very interested in "ground level" comics, alternative comics that come in at the ground level to the comic stores, that are not distributed through mainstream channels. These are not necessarily drug comics, or comics about the counterculture.

Quite frankly, drug comics bore me. They are repetitive and they often have a single minded focus of getting high then escaping from the police. The themes are very juvenile. There is not much literary merit in comics like The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers . Even Robert Crumb's early comics can get kind of repetitive and boring on occassion. I like some of his stories, but as a person he is quite strange.

The movie Crumb which is an excellent film is a showcase on how disturbing he can get. So can counterculture fantasies with no connection to reality. I think if you are selling underground comics through headshops which were the first venues for these comics, it limits the audience

I like comics with a story like Maus, Slow Death, American Splendor, and similar works. Being able to buy comics out of small stores and bookstores is a tremendous advantage over when underground comics first became available.

Also the shock value in some of the underground comics has worn away. You know what you are getting when you pick up a 1960s style underground comic. Hazy sex filled stories like Fritz the Cat. Even the authors sometime tire of them and let them go. Robert Crumb killed Fritz the Cat.

There is a lot of material on the development of major figures in comics. The book talks about the life of Art Spiegelman, Robert Crumb, Kim Deitch, Trina Robbins and many contemporary artists who started out as part of the underground comics movement. There are quite a few illustrations in this book which contain extreme sex, violence, and drugs

We also get a sense that a lot of them attempted to emulate Harvey Kurtzman's Mad Magazine, and draw elements from the precode comics like EC comics.

At the same time, there are some very interesting stories spread throughout the book. Not all of the history of underground comics comes from San Francisco and the hippies. The book covers the story of the magazine, The East Village Other in Manhattan, New York which is surprising. Some people like to think of the counterculture coming from San Francisco.

There are also bikers (S. Clay Wilson), hotrodders (Ed "Big Daddy" Roth), and surfers who play a role as well. Rick Griffin who drew underground comics was also instrumental in creating the logo for the Rolling Stone Magazine. Robert Crumb drew record covers for Big Brother and the Holding Company.

The story is one of artists who lived cramped lives working in greeting card companies like American Greetings, doing sign painting, working for bubble gum trading card companies like Topps, then suddenly having a powerful mix of new technology and psychedelic drugs made available to them. The real start of the Underground Comics story is in the creation of new offset printing technology in 1965 which allowed small runs of tabloid newspapers at affordable prices. Add in a strong welfare state with a more permissive society and you get an interesting mix.

The artwork in this book is nothing short of astounding. It contains a very wide variety of artists. There are many full color comic strips in addition to psychedelic rock posters, photographs of the artists, cover art of comic books, and single frame cartoons.

The book is written in chronological order. It is very male oriented like most underground comics with the exception of Trina Robbins who wrote some interesting feminist underground comics. There were not as many lady artists as there are today.

I slogged through the biographies of dozens of artists until I found the bits I wanted. Vaughn Bode who wrote Cheech Wizard did not appear until 1967 which is four years into the underground comics story. I consider him to be one of the founders of the type of comics I am interested in. This is a short animation of Cobalt 60 one of my favorite Vaughn Bode stories. http://www.hollywoodcomics.com/cobalt60.html

In 1970 we see Gary Arlington try to revive the tradition of EC Comics by creating an alternative comic series called Skull. Also at about the same time, we see the arrival of a similar comic called Slow Death. This creates a venue for new science fiction comic books to start appearing. The star of these comics is Richard Corben who is one of my favorite comic book artists. I especially like Corben's work in the comic books called Hot Stuff . This is a gallery of some of Richard Corben's work. http://www.corbenstudios.com/Corbenstudios/comgallery.html

Just prior to this we see a few images of this type of work in the underground comic Gothic Blimp. There are images of the covers in Rebel Visions. There are a few pictures with artists I recognize; Gothic Blimp April 1, 1970 #2, Michael Kaluta, Artificial Limbs, and Gothic Blimp #6, featuring a story by Bernie Wrightson.

In 1973, Bill Griffith lead a backlash against Richard Corben, Slow Death, and Skull. He calls the books juvenile with strong adolescent male sexual fantasies. I have mixed reactions towards Bill Griffith's comic work Zippy the Pinhead and Young Lust. It did however help create a separation between the underground comix and the alternative or ground level comics.

I think this backlash ultimately allowed a separation to occur between very deeply underground works focused on sex, drugs, and the counterculture, and plain alternative comics. What Bill Griffith did may have had unintended consequences but ultimately allowed more variety to flourish in the alternative comics scene.

Also in 1973 we see fanzines like Witzend being produced. Wally Wood is partially absorbing some of the counterculture elements into his work. I have a few copies of Witzend which I have read. It is a mix of alternative and mainstream comics.

The end of the book summarizes in a few paragraphs the biographies of the artists in the book. It tells where they are now. This is interesting if you want to learn who were the people who created the underground comics story. There is a recommended reading list for each artist. I noticed there wasn't much for Richard Corben. If you can find it, Richard Corben Flights Into Fantasy by Fershid Bharucha is an excellent overview of his early works.

This book is for adults. There is a lot of explicit content. It may upset some peoples religious and ethical mores. The comics being talked about in this work almost always break a lot of taboos. However, it does have quite a bit of artistic merit that is quite relevant and valuable. Art Spiegelman wrote Maus which won the Pulitzer prize, Kim Deitch's work has appeared in the New Yorker and Details.

Savage Sword of Conan, Volume 1, 2, and 3, Dark Horse Press-- Thoughts

Savage Sword of Conan, Volume 1, 2, and 3, Dark Horse Press-- Thoughts

I have been reading the Savage Sword of Conan compilations. Volume one contains issues 1-10, Volume 2 contains issues 11-24, Volume 3 contains issues 25-36. Savage Sword of Conan was a magazine size comic book produced during the 1970s. Roy Thomas is the writer of all these stories. Roy Thomas essentially popularized Conan for the comics format. This was after L. Sprague De Camp started creating new Conan stories for the paperbacks.

These collections are a veritable whose who of fantasy and comic artists. Some of the cover artists represented are people like Frank Brunner, Ken Barr, and Boris Vallejo. It is a veritable who's who of fantasy artists. The internal artists in these books are also very interesting, Barry Windsor Smith, John Buscema, Gil Kane, Neal Adams, Alfred Alcala, Gene Colan, Carmine Infanto and Others. The cover art on Volumes one and two is by Boris Vallejo. Almost all the stories are beautifully drawn.

It is Conan in his classic form. The first volume is mainly Roy Thomas adapting the original Robert E. Howard stories for the comic book format. This is the classic barbarian with a sword tales. The stories are predictable full of violence, gold, monsters, and all those fantasy things which expect in a classic swords and sorcery sense. The whole set is very nostalgic, very predictable, and very fun to read. The third volume in the series has Roy Thomas adapting a number of the L. Sprague De Camp Conan stories to comic book form. L. Sprague De Camp is my favorite writer of the derivative Conan works.

Conan lives in these works. He lives for fighting, women, gold, strong drink, song, revenge, rage, and all those manly man things which makes him the king of swords and sorcery characters. The monsters in the stories are the things which crawl out of the pit, skeletons, giants, snakes, spiders, winged demons, and unnamable slithering horrors from before time. Also the dangerous jungle things, the giant apes and cats are of course represented. The tribes are the afghulis, the vanir, the picts, the kushites. He goes by many names, Amra the lion, Conan the Throat Slitter, and King Conan.

This series focuses mostly on when he is a wandering adventurer, thief, and mercenary. There are some episodes about when he becomes King of Aquilonia. Conan mainly discriminates against civilization, preferring to be with the wild fighting men of all races and cultures. It is machismo at its fullest. Women are not treated well in these stories. I would call some of these stories quite misogynistic. The exception are women who can use a sword, or who help Conan escape from danger. He turns Zenobia a slave into his queen in Aquilonia for saving him. He does not believe in slavery and keeping women as slaves.

Conan faces a variety of adventures with traps, tricks, and skulduggery. There are all the things you would expect, poisoned wine, pits with snakes, giant magnetic tables which trap swords, evil wizardry, treacherous thieves, sinking boats, deserted islands, long lost civilizations, and slavery. Conan is not a good guy, he is in it for his own ends. He kidnaps princesses for ransom, steals jewels, practices piracy and raiding, and fights for whoever who will pay him initially.

He however, does have a sense of honor, hates wizardry, hates monsters, hates slavery, and ultimately sides with men over the things from the pit or the dark past. In other words he has a well developed sense of character.

There is also an underlying rage in the Conan character. He is a berserker and often cannot stop himself from fighting. This rage fuels him to constantly seek new people to fight with. Also in his early life, he cannot hold onto wealth spending it freely on strong wine and women. There is a certain tragic sense to the character which many people do not see. His life is one of anger at having lost his family at an early age. He rages against the Vanir who raided his hill village. He is very much drawn with heavy eyebrows and a deep, dark brooding look in the comics.

One of the main differences I see between Conan and many characters is people assume the stories are only about fighting. Conan uses subterfuge, trickery, and his skills in hiding, tracking, and climbing to escape from his enemies many times. His instincts keep him alive on many occasions. He is often captured, beaten down by groups of men, and must escape.

In the books, Conan is not described like a bodybuilder. He does not look like Arnold Schwarzenegger who I thought butchered the role in some ways. There is some of this in the comics, but not as much as in the movies. He does not pose in bodybuilder positions in the comics. He is described as being lithe and moving like a tiger. I especially like how John Buscema draws him.

If you like swords and sorcery, high adventure, or machismo with a sword you might like these stories. They are classic stories and are very nostalgic. You might have read these stories if you were a teenager or adult during the 1970s. These stories are definitely not for children. The comics were not restrained at all, they did not bother to follow the comics code when they made these comics.

The only drawback with the series is that the covers which are shown are not in color like the originals. Also, the original size of Savage Sword of Conan was larger than the collected books. This causes some shrinkage in the size of the pictures and makes the print smaller making them a little less detailed. Also, these reprints only contain the main stories, not the smaller side stories in the original magazine size comics.

Still, this is a very complete series. You get 544 pages of comics in Volume 1 and 2. For the price of $19.95 it is a good deal. I am surprised that Marvel comics which owns the rights, let Dark Horse comics print the books. These books were on the Diamond Comic Distributors list of top 50 bestselling graphic novels.

Iron Man-- Peter David

Iron Man-- Peter David

This is a paperback novelization of the movie by Peter David. Because it is a novelization of a movie, it has to stick to the story in the movie. The paperback was released a month before the movie was released. There is a picture of Iron Man's face on the cover. The goal of these type of paperbacks is to encourage you to go out and see the movie.

The story modernizes the comic book iron man. Iron man was retired in comic book form a while ago. Marvel comics is reviving the franchise.

Tony Stark is a world leading weaponry salesman. His goal is to sell weapons to the United States so the United States military can be the best in the world.

Stark makes a trip to Afghanistan and is driving in a convoy when it is hit by insurgents. He is captured. The terrorist insurgents demand he fix some of his own weaponry so they can use it against American troops. He sees firsthand that the enemy is using his weaponry.

Instead, Tony Stark builds a prototype of his iron man suit and fights his way out, escaping to freedom. He makes a vow to stop selling weaponry the world over. His experience creates a change of heart. Also, he gets shrapnel near his heart signifying a physical change. He has to have a magnetic chest plate put in to stop the shrapnel from entering his heart.

The story is very straightforward, the writer, Peter David makes it come across easily. There is not a lot of angst or deep thought. It is action oriented and about change.

When he gets home, he announces the change in his company. However, many people in the company don't want to change. They plan for Tony Stark's downfall. Thus we have the classic Judas story, where there is a traitor in the midst.

Tony Stark builds a new more powerful iron man suit and goes to defeat the terrorists, destroying the weapons which were manufactured by Stark Industries.

When he gets home, he must face the Judas, an appropriately named villain, Mr. Stane. Mr. Stane has built a suit similar to Iron Man's which he plans to sell as a weapon of war, the Iron Monger. A major battle ensues where Iron Man destroys the Iron Monger.

This is very straightforward action. Iron Man even plays Metallica and Black Sabbath rock music while he is fighting the villains. Peter David does a good job creating a straightforward story of good versus evil. Tony Stark starts out as a millionaire playboy without a conscience and gets a conscience through directly experiencing the bad guys.

The book was quite easy to read. I finished it in about two and a half hours. It is the kind of thing which you can read in an afternoon.

Peter David has written numerous Star Trek novels, for Babylon 5, for Marvel and DC comics, as well as a few of his own novels like Tigerheart. Tigerheart is advertised on the inside front cover of the Iron Man paperback. He is an entertaining bestselling writer.

Ordering Graphic Novels, Hot Text

Panel From Krazy Kat by George Harriman

Graphic Novels Ordering:

Good afternoon, life has been quite busy. I have a small reprieve, I spent most of the afternoon ordering graphic novels about a $1000 worth. First, I looked through the bestseller lists from Diamond Comic Book Distributors for the last several months. They list the top 50 bestselling graphic novels for each month. Most of this is superhero comic books which would be sold in comic book stores.

After I looked through the Diamond Comic Book Distributors list, I took some time to look at the bestselling graphic novels on Amazon. Again, this is mostly superhero comics. People are focused on a few characters, Batman, Superman, Spiderman, the Hulk, and Ironman. Then it switches to teams like the X-men, and the Justice League of America. There is a small sprinkling of other material like DMZ, Sandman, Fables, and slightly alternative titles.

Following Amazon, I looked through Publishers Weekly and chose the graphic novels with starred reviews in their review sections. Following this, I went to the award sites. There are three major comic book awards, the Harvey Award named after Harvey Kurtzman the founder of Mad Magazine, the Eisner Award named after Will Eisner, one of the creators of Captain America and the Spirit, and the Ignatz Award which is an alternative comic book award, it is named after Ignatz Mouse in the cartoon Krazy Kat.

I took a minute to look at Fantagraphics and Pantheon two of my favorite alternative comics publishers. Most of the material being presented was pretty boring. There was an interesting book on Fantagraphics called Rebel Visions The History of the Underground Comix Revolution 1963-1975 by Patrick Rosencrantz which looked quite interesting. I also took a minute to look at the Midtown Comics website. Midtown Comics is in Manhattan. Virgin Comics is putting out a revised version of Dan Dare done by Garth Ennis. I was a little surprised at this.

I tried to create a mix of alternative, slice of life, superhero, and comics lit in the inital order. I have to wait and see how much of the order will be out of stock, out of print, and back ordered in a while.

Tomorrow, I think I will probably start looking at the computer books I have to order. I really have to take some time to visit a place where there is a lot of manga and look around carefully before I order any manga books. I don't know manga as well as I do graphic novels.

____________________________________________________________________

Hot Text

I finished reading Hot Text Web Writing That Works by Jonathan and Lisa Price on the train to work. This book has a lot of material in it. The book describes how writing for the internet is very different than writing for the printed page. The attention span of the reader on the web is much shorter, people do not like to scroll through pages of stuff, and want their answers much more immediately. I am going to start working on a review of the book, either tonight or tomorrow in the morning.

Thoughts for The Day.

Stan Lee's Soapbox. This is from playcole. The voice is Stan Lee's. It is kind of interesting to listen to.


I spent a little bit of time looking through the Comic Values Annual 2007. I like to look through the price guides before I visit a comic book stores. The prices are often not what I am looking for. The titles are what I am looking for. I make a list of titles I have not read or seen so I can look at them when I visit the shop.

For example, when I next visit a comic book shop, I will probably take a look at Aliens, Earth War, Usagi Yojimbo (one of my favorite comics), Cosmic Heros, Prince Valiant Monthly, and Spirit The Origin Years.

There are so many different comics which the Comics Value Annual reminded me about. Some of my favorite comic artists are Richard Corben, who created Den from Heavy Metal, Vaughn Bode creator of Junkwaffel, Alan Moore creator of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Stan Sakai creator of Usagi Yojimbo, The Brothers Hernandez creators of Love and Rockets, and Larry Gonick creator of the Cartoon History of the Universe. All of them had comics listed in the Comics Values Annual.

Also, I found some of the newer science fiction titles that are still affordable, Alien Worlds from 1982, Alien Encoutners printed between 1985-1987.

It was fun looking at the Comics Value Annual to see if there was anything which I might be interested in looking at. They even had a few humorous titles which I like Milk and Cheese, and Reid Fleming World's Toughest Milkman.

It was a nice day out so I didn't spend my whole day inside. I took a walk earlier for several blocks to stretch out my legs and also went to the produce market to buy some watermelon.

I went for another walk. It was a very nice day out. There was a parade through the neighborhood by the Catholic Church, today is Corpus Christi a day celebrated by the Italians in the neighborhood. It was a bit surprising to see a police car slowly wending through the neighborhood in front of the procession to clear the streets. I also saw one of the tiny little smart cars zipping through the neighborhood with a bald guy driving behind the wheel.

Tomorrow we will have the big parade on the main thoroughfare. The mayor was here on the last Memorial Day parade. It is kind of interesting watching the marching bands.

I spent a little bit of time fooling around with social networking. I am playing around with Twitter today. I am currently following six people on my twitter account. This is my account: http://www.twitter.com/bookcalendar . Apparently there is a search engine which searches members on twitter and adds a bunch of functionality to twitter, http://www.twhirl.org/ . I don't like having to download programs to my desktop so I am taking a pass. Sometimes, people go overboard with these things. A few minutes ago, I looked at a website called The Wall Tweet Journal, a blog about twitter. Apparently someone is turning on and off their lights using twitter... http://www.walltweetjournal.com/

Thoughts For Today

Tomorrow is Mothers Day. Happy Mothers Day. Don't forget to get a card and possibly some flowers.

This morning, I added two people to my Facebook account that were mentioned yesterday at the conference, Gerry McKiernan, and Free Range Librarian.

Today has been pretty slow. I am going to go pickup a few books which I reserved at my local library in a little bit.

I am resting after quite a long week.

I went to my local library and sat for a little while using the computers. I heard something rather amazing. The first twenty pages for printouts are free. We charge a flat rate of 10 cents per page where we work.

I did a little bit of looking at blogs and fooling around with Entrecard. I also took a look at the magazines section. The periodicals person had asked me which comics we want to purchase. At my local library we have Action Comics (Superman), Batman, The Ultimate Spiderman, The Ultimate X-Men, and Wolverine. For manga there is Shonen Jump and Shojo Beat. I am going to suggest Action Comics, Batman, The Ultimate Spiderman, and The Ultimate X-Men. I might also suggest Shonen Jump.

I picked up a book on reserve which I am going to read from my local library. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Socially Responsible Investing Put Your Money Where Your Values Are by Ken Little, it is a new book, c2008, Alpha, an imprint of Penguin USA

I also think I will probably pick up a book on haiku so I can try my hand at writing a few haiku poems.

Superlibrarian The Display

I am putting together a lobby display for the library called "The Librarian As Superhero." It is a bunch of different pictures mainly. Giles from Buffy, The Librarian: Quest For The Spear, Batgirl, Rex Libris, Nancy Pearl and her action figure. I actually got two copies of the Super Librarian comic book from the New Jersey State Library Association, one in spanish and another in english. I think the display should be kind of interesting. They also sent me a bookmark.
The Super Librarian comic book is here:
http://web.mac.com/ndowd/iWeb/Super%20Librarian%20Free%20Comic%20Book%20Day/Welcome.html

Last night was rather interesting. I sat with a new part-time librarian at the reference desk for two hours, and did two tours of my sections, law, business, and the job information center. It was kind of different showing people around.

I've been reading Earth The Sequel on the subway this morning. It is about different companies that are developing renewable energy solutions to our current dilemma with oil and global warming. The book talks about quite a few breakthroughs which I had not heard about. It also talks about a company that I am invested in, Finavera. It also writes about Greenfuel Technologies, Verenium, and other new ventures. Two people were talking energy policy on the train in this morning. I was sitting next to them while I was reading my book as they bantered back and forth. It was kind of entertaining.

I've taken a few minutes to look at Batman, The Dailies, 1943-1946, Sterling Publishers, c2007. The syndicated strips are far more different than the comic books. The first part is that they are stories about crime. Batman gets captured, he gets beat up by thugs, he makes daring escapes. He uses his brain a lot. There are very few supervillains. Most of his opponents are pirates, gangsters, grifters, and assorted criminals. There is a brief appearance of the Joker who uses laughing gas, but that is about it. The dailies are in black and white. This is Batman as he first appeared without all the bells and whistles done as his creator intended. The cover is a bit misleading, there is no Catwoman, no Two Face in the black, and no Pengun in the black and white comic.





In Batman, The Sunday Classics, 1943-1946, Sterling Publishers, c2007, the Penguin, Joker and Two Face make brief appearances. I rather like the style it is done in. The drawings are a lot simpler than the modern comic books. They have a more cartoonish quality to them. There is the bat cave, but it is not as complicated. There is the bat car, the laboratory, and the bat plane. The utility belt of Batman and Robin don't have a million devices in them. They have a bat walkie talkies, matches, and simple things. Bob Kane is often the penciller. They have a set of brief one page biographies on the artists. The Sunday edition is in full color.

The Ten Cent Plague -- David Hajdu -- Review

The Ten Cent Plague The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America by David Hajdu is about comics book censorship in America. Comic book censorship occurred at about the same time as McCarthyism. This is a book about morals and aesthetics. Specifically, it talks about how and why comic books were challenged. We get to read arguments against teaching criminal stories to childen, as well as sexual impropriety, and grotesque horror. Only superhero comics and funny stories seemed to be unaffected by this short period of censorship.

It was not uncommon for patriotic organizations, school organizations, and civic organizations to have comic book burnings during this time. Police would also raid the newspaper stands to confiscate comic books with sex, crime, or terror. Even Archie was considered salacious by the Catholic church. Many police organizations viewed comic books as encouraging juvenile delinquency. The comic books of the time often portrayed how crimes were committed and told cops and robber stories.

There seemed to be a cycle where first crime comics were challenged and many were removed from the newsstands, then romance comics were challenged and removed from the newsstands, and then horror comics were challenged. Romance comics were challenged because they represented a chance to escape from parental control and in some cases attempts at sexual freedom.

A classic claim about juvenile delinquency was that if a child saw someone rob someone in a comic book they would do it. Or if they saw someone attempt to hang someone, they would hang themselves. It is no different than saying if a child reads Superman, he might put on a cape and jump off the roof.

There is quite a bit on the famous book, Seduction of the Innocent by Fredric Wertham, a German emigrant psychiatrist who spoke out against comics. He claimed that Batman was homoerotic, Superman was fascist, and Wonder Woman was kinky. The last bit about Wonder Woman was actually true. William Moulton Marston, the creator of Wonder Woman was into sexual dominance and submission and believed that the United States was drifting towards an Amazonian matriarchy. He was a classic crackpot like many of the people for and against comics.

In order to tell the story, the author writes a lot about the the history of comics. He tells the story of Bob Kane, Will Eisner, and many other famous comic book artists. This story is centered on New York where comic books were first created. Comic books were started as an original American art form much like jazz. One of my favorite pieces in the book is the story of the first "picture novel", a book length comic called It Rhymes With Lust printed in 1950. With titles for stories like "The Laughing Sadist" n Crime Does Not Pay, we can almost understand why parents would object to some of the material.

In the 1940s and 1950s comics were sold to children at a dime apiece. They were not marketed to adults. At my library, we separate the comics for adults, and the comics for teenagers. We don't buy a lot of comics for very little kids. Most are simply too violent or sexy. A lot of what was written for teenages like Tales From The Crypt, and Haunts of Fear we would place in the adult section. A lot of the EC comics can be bought as repritns. Some of the EC science fiction titles are really fantastic and include stories from writers like Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov. A comic book with a picture of severed head and a man holding an ax is not appropriate for little kids.

The book describes legislative hearings where comic books are derided as smut and legislation is encouraged to put criminal, sexy, and immoral comic books out of the hands of children. Between 1954 and 1956 more than half of comic books disappeared from the newsstand. The number of titles published dropped from about 650 to some 250. In 1956, EC Comics closed its doors. Bill Gaines revamped his business keeping one title, Mad Magazine.

An earlier step had saved the industry, the introduction of a censorial governing body by the industry, the Comics Code Authority. Artists were no longer able to show things like hypodermic needles, pools of blood, drugs, racism, disrespect to policemen and teachers, broken families, and other things.

We sometimes forget that this period in the history of comics still affects us today. DC stands for Detective Comics, it produces mostly superhero comics. Most of the comic books produced today are still superhero comic books and funny books. I rather like the revival of comics lit and slice of life comics that has happened recently.

There is a black and white picture section in this book. They even have a picture of people burning comics. There is also a 15 page appendix of comic book artists that no longer made comics after 1956. The book is well researched; it includes extensive notes, acknowledgements, a bibliography, and a comprehensive index. The website for this book is http://tencentplague.com

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.

Kirby King of Comics-- Mark Evanier-- Review

Kirby King of Comics by Mark Evanier is a biography of Jack Kirby one of the founding fathers of modern superhero comics. Kirby is known for his dynamic action sequences and strong lines in his drawings. Jack Kirby grew up in a tenement house in Manhattan. In a way, his childhood is similar to another comic great, Will Eisner.

The impression you get of Jack Kirby is a hard working creative artist willing to go the extra mile for his employer. Apparently, he was deeply affected by the depression and always wanted enough to take care of his family. He also at the same time seemed to have very little business sense. To give an example of how hard Kirby worked, he produced between 1962-1964 for Marvel Comics, 3,130 interior pages and 285 covers for comic books. He was known to his editors for saying, "I can do that."

Jack Kirby is credited with creating Captain America with Joe Simon on December 20, 1940. Kirby mainly did the panels and words, but not the coloring of his comics. He is also credited with creating at Marvel, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Thor, the Avengers, and the Hulk. While at DC he created the New Gods.

Like many people in the comics business, he got little return for his money until they started returning the original artwork he drew for Marvel and DC which he sold to support his family. He did not get any health benefits until he moved to California and started working in animation.

Kirby was not a particularly independent person. He always worked for someone else. Still, he produced a lot of dynamic art work. This book, Kirby King of Comics is filled with cover art and internal pages. It is quite interesting.

There are pictures of Sergeant Fury and His Howling Commandos which he drew from his war memories as a private in World War II, and numerous other pieces of art. The variety of material in this book is really interesting: Blue Bolt, Young Romance, The New Gods, Rawhide Kid, and an incredible variety of comics are shown here. There is a semi-autobiographical comic book piece on pages 24-33 called Street Cred about getting in fights in the tenements, as well as an interesting collage on P.174 of one of the "New Gods".

This is a wonderful book if you like superheros. It is an oversize coffee table book. The illustrations are the best part about the book. You won't be disappointed.



This is a short interview with Jack Kirby.

Thoughts for Today. Graphic Storytelling And Visual Narrative-- Will Eisner-- Recommendation

Good morning,

I put the calendar poster from the Russian Public Library of Science & Technology in our staff room. It was from the conference yesterday. I also took a moment to look at http://www.sivacracy.net/ this morning.

I tried to read Mo Yan, Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out, but found it to not be to my liking. The setting was very caustic. It also made constant references to other works by Mo Yan in the middle of the text which I found rather distracting. The writing was good, but I didn't particularly like the story. The main character was a self-righteous , arrogant, workaholic who got on my nerves. I could not relate well to him. I decided to return the book this morning.

Right now, I am taking a few moments to think about a few things. Sometimes people recommend titles without reviewing them extensively.

A title I can recommend highly if you like graphic novels is Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative by Will Eisner. Will Eisner is considered the father of "graphic novels". His book, A Contract With God And Other Tenement Stories, is considered by many to be the first graphic novel.

Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative is based on Will Eisner's class at the New York School for the Visual Arts. I can recommend it highly because although, it is how to write comic books, it covers a lot of material on how to create action and activity in your writing. This is one of the few books which I have read more than once. The style he shows is original and is not based completely on superhero comics.



Two new titles came in today through reserves Victory Conditions by Elizabeth Moon and The Somnabulist by John Barnes. The Somnabulist looks quite interesting, it is a fantasy novel set in Victorian England. Victory Conditions is the fifth and final book in the Vattas war series.

Goodbye Chunky Rice-- Craig Thompson-- Review

Goodbye Chunky Rice by Craig Thompson is a short graphic novel. It is done in an eclectic black and white style. There are a mix of cute animal characters and people. The story is not particularly violent. It has an oddball feeling to it. There are a few strange characters like a siamese twin on a boat. The main part of the story is about the freindship between Chunky Rice, a turtle, and Dandel A deer mouse.

Chunky and Dandel are freinds. They go to the beach together and camp out and build sand castles. When Chunky Rice looks at the ocean he gets an overwhelming urge to travel. In contrast, Dandel says, "My home is right here." This has a wistful memorable feeling to it.

Chunky packs a box and heads out to sea on Chuck's ship. Chuck reminds Chunky to travel light and get rid of excess baggage. He throws a number of Chunky's things in the ocean in a series of memorable cartoon panels.

The ocean is vast, seemingly endless in the narrative of the story. Dandel takes to throwing bottles with letters in them into the ocean which drift outward on the currents.

This graphic novel, (another fancy name for comic book), is about memory, freindship, and wanderlust. I really enjoyed reading it. Craig Thompson the writer has won three Ignatz awards. http://www.spxpo.com/ignatz.shtml This is a prestigious comics lit award. It is named after Krazy Kat drawn by George Heinman. He also has won two Harvey awards. The Harvey Awards are named after Harvey Kurtzman, the founder of Mad magazine, one of my favorite comics. http://harveyawards.org/

If you are looking for good choices if you are a librarian or bookseller these list very interesting and high quality titles to look at. The Ignatz Awards are more alternative press, and the Harvey Awards are much more mainstream and will include many superhero comics.

A pictureless image from Amazon:

High Noon, Commerce and This Site

Today, one book came in for me. It is a tome of a fantasy book by Patrick Rothfuss, Name of the Wind. I think it is by a new author. It is 653 pages long. It looks like the classic fantasy serial. Maybe it is like the Wheel of Time series or the Malazan Book of the Fallen, very long, convoluted, and complex.

I took a few minutes to look around in the periodicals room. I signed out some Mad magazines from desk to look at. One of my favorite cartoonists is Sergio Aragones, who does cartoons without words in mad magazine. I really enjoyed his work on Groo the Wanderer, a fantasy comic book about a barbarian hero who is a complete and total idiot. I find his work to be quite funny.

We are getting Wizard also for the library as part of our young adult periodicals. It should be put out for the public in a week or so to use.

I don't read a whole lot of magazines. I find most magazine articles to be too short for my taste. There is not a whole lot of substance to most magazines. I might glance through Popular Science of Popular Mechanics. I much prefer websites and blogs over magazines for light reading.

For serious searching for articles, online magazine databases are almost always superior to print magazines. I usually search Proquest or Ebsco for most patron requests for articles. A separate magazine department is becoming more and more antiquated. It is like relying on phone books for phone numbers. worldpages.com and other sites are superior to most phone books.

I put a book on reserve after reading Kirkus Reviews by Mo Yan, Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out.

There is another title which looks very interesting. It is one of those nearly perfect titles. How To Rule The World: The Coming Battle Over The Global Economy by Mark Engler. It is a leftist diatribe about globalism, but it sounds like it could be a supervillains plan for world domination, or a secret plan for control of the economy be a cabal of business and political leaders. I am rather disappointed that they did not have it at the library yet.

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After a while, I have figured out that this is basically not a commercial site in any way. I have earned in 3 months, two dollars and forty cents from adsense, about 56 cents from Project Wonderful, and 48 cents from Amazon. Considering the amount of hours I have put in, this is not a commercial success. I sold two books from Amazon, How To Start Your Own Blogging Business, and The Elements of Style Illustrated.

I think I will let the Adsense go. It is not worth 80 cents a month for traffic. I will leave Project Wonderful and keep the Amazon inserts.

Now, I am blogging for pleasure and to keep track of what I am reading. I should relax a a bit and enjoy what I am doing.

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Random Thoughts.

Andrew Carnegie, Patron of Libraries

I am going to start reading the Djinn In The Nightingales Eye by A.S. Byatt on the way home on the train tonight. Hopefully, it will be well written like most of A.S. Byatt's work.

Today is library tour day. I had to walk a couple people around the building and show them things. I showed the whole building top to bottom. This includes all the nooks and crannies. Where I work is a very old building it was built in 1904, it is a giant old Carnegie building which has truly seen better days. If you walk downstairs we have two floors of mezzanine with many last copies of books from the last hundred years. The building has a kind of creaky character all of its own.

The train is on a repair schedule, they are putting in new signal equipment, so I have to leave a little early today. It gives me a longer time to read, but it also takes longer. I can't stand it that they have to repair things while people are on the same line. The conductor announced the train will be continued to work on until February 29.


I put in my professional association memberships. ALA-- American Library Association, with the subdivisions RUSA-- Reference and User Services Association, IFRT-- Intellectual Freedom Round Table. I also joined my local library association. I am debating whether I should shell out money and pay for the CBLDF-- Comic Book Legal Defense Fund membership http://www.cbldf.org/ . It is a rather unusual organization. Their website is really interesting. They document all of the legal cases against comic books which are occurring all over.

Of the organizations, I have found RUSA to be the most useful. They have a nice magazine which they put out every quarter-- Reference and User Services Quarterly, and they also have various online classes for improving reference and collection development skills that are inexpensive. My particular strengths in librarianship are reference and collection development.

I really enjoy looking through catalogs of books to order. I like the feeling of looking in the Baker & Taylor ordering system. Book catalogs have a nice glossy feel to them.

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Today, I am trying out a new advertising system. I wonder if it will work. The advertising is based on bidding for spots on my website. I put four spots up. The site is called Project Wonderful. Currently, the ads at this point cost nothing.

Right now, like most of the stuff I have for advertising purposes it is in the experimental stage. I am cheering for an initial 75 cents so I can buy a can of selzer from the staff vending machine.

Ideological Neutrality, The Best American Comics-- Chris Ware Editor, Pennyroyal Caxton Bible (Barry Moser Illustrator)

One of the central tenets of working in a public service agency is that a public agency does not endorse a particular religion or political party. The library is supposed to serve all ideologies. This is quite hard to do in some cases.

This means for official purposes we cannot support a particular candidate for mayor, or hold to a particular viewpoint. Thus we have "Holiday Parties" and either use inclusive symbolism or no symbolism at all. I am sure this angers some people, but in a way it is necessary.
It is also frustrating at times. One of the most frustrating examples of this was having to get books on eugenics that we have kept for historical purposes like "The Task of Social Hygiene" by Havelock Ellis for people, or get occult books for teenagers. Getting the eugenics books for the guy was quite hard, because he also asked for books on ethnophysiology.

Despite being neutral in service, many libraries have a tendency to order books on a liberal basis. We don't get a lot of books by Jerry Falwell, or books endorsed by Focus on the Family for example. People have a tendency to select items which they like based on their values.

Another issue which we run into is having to talk to very religious people. While it is wonderful to do this, it is also very hard sometimes when you are supposed to be ideologically neutral in service. The first words that you hear are "God bless this Christian nation." Or in one case, "Have a nice day, you are the beloved."

Part of the ideological neutrality is the concept of inclusiveness in religious and ethnic material. We have to order at least some material on sikhism, buddhism, baptists, christianity, islam, American Islam, occultism, atheism, new age material, and other religious material. Another change is that we no longer have a "black heritage" collection we have a "multicultural collection" where we also order books on hispanics, asians, and other minority groups.

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I am enjoying reading The Best American Comics 2007, edited by Chris Ware. I am not going to say the comics I didn't like, that is the advantage of collections, you can say which parts you happened to like. I liked the autobiographical comics by Jeffrey Brown, they are about his collecting music cds and his relationship with his girlfriend. He seems to be as obsessed with collecting cds as I am with books. I liked the comic by Adrian Tomine, his statement about people from Berkeley California liking Manhattan, New York is absolutely on the money. Charles Burns has a really beautifully illustrated piece on relationships. My favorite comic strip in the whole book is Wimbledon Green by Seth. It is another autobiographical piece about growing up.



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This is a rather personal thing. I have a copy of The Pennyroyal Caxton Bible illustrated by Barry Moser. It claims to be the first fully illustrated bible in the last one hundred years. The illustrations are quite beautiful, and the text is very readable. The illustrations are black and white woodcuts. It is both a work of art and a bible. Barry Moser has illustrated many of the classics of literature.

My father gave it to me on my birthday. Things were a bit difficult at the time. This is a link to information on the work.

http://www.pennyroyal-caxton.com/illI.htm

Starting the Day (Poetry)

An Illustration by Edmund Dulac of the Rubayyat of Omar Khayyam. This was done in 1909.

Here is the verse that goes with it from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam translated by Edward Fitzgerald:

Look to the blowing Rose about us-- "Lo
Laughing," she says, "into the world I blow,
At once the silken tassel of my Purse
Tear, and and its Treasure on the Garden throw."




I've finished reading Apollo's Fire: Igniting America's Clean Energy Economy. The next thing for me to do is go back through it and take notes on a few different points so I can write the review. I usually like writing long hand notes for the review, not on the computer. Then I put it into the computer.

I put Rumi: The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing on reserve. I am more interested in the poetry than the religious writing. I like some religious writings for their poetic content. I'll read the Tao Te Ching for example in a secular sense because I enjoy the poetry. My favorite part of the old testament is The Song of Solomon for the same reason. I really enjoy the poetic quality of the writing. Very philosophical poetry is deeply interesting to me, De Rerum Naturae (The Nature of Things) by Lucretius is one of the books which I have read several times. Right now, I have the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam rendered into english verse by Edward Fitzgerald in front of me. It is appropriately illustrated by Edmund Dulac, one of my favorite illustrators.

I feel as if I am just waking up for the day. I'll write a few more lines as I think of other things.

I've spent quite a bit of time today ordering phone books from Verizon and Yellow Book. Verizon will charge for certain books outside of the county where I work so I have to be careful which books I order. Yellow Book charges if you order more than two different books, $2.50 per additional book past the first two titles. I have a selection list from the last time I ordered phone books. There is a law about how many phone books you can order for a specific location listed in the New York Code of Rules and Regulations. Some people still prefer to use the phone book to look up local numbers. They don't want to use the internet.

I also spent a lot of time requesting annual reports over the internet. I usually first contact the company from their website. If there is no email or standard computer request form for annual reports I'll end up calling them. Requesting annual reports by email is much easier to do than phoning the companies. You don't have to deal with call waiting. Most of the companies are in the New York area. I still have quite a few to contact. In a way it seems to be a waste. Every company has reports online now.

I read a bit more of the Fables graphic novel series. I am going to give some spoilers. Gepetto who made Pinocchio is the adversary. Pinocchio makes a very interesting character, Pinocchio is stuck permanently as a small boy. The art is very colorful. There are a lot of very bright colors used. They are bringing in different settings to the story now. There is the land of the Cloud Giants and the Arabian Nights. You also have some tales set during different historical periods. Hansel is a witchhunter. Bigby Wolf (The Big Bad Wolf) helps the allies in World War II. Fables has won quite a few Eisner awards.

At A Loss For Words. (Randomness)

Right now, I am at a loss for words. I am not sure what to write about. I have gone through my comments sections and responded to people. I have gone to look at the three places where I go to generate extra traffic, entrecard, blogcatalog, and fuelmyblog.

I am still reading my book on the subway and probably won't finish it until the day after tomorrow. It is a fairly substantial book.

"The Uneasy Supplicant" who posted earlier told me that it would be quite difficult to write something new every day. He is correct in this. There are numerous subjects which I could pick out of a hat and just start writing, but I would rather be focused.

There are minor ideas floating around my head. Things like the idea of combining the GreenFuel Technologies method for scrubbing carbon dioxide from a smokestack and a cofiring coal and biomass plant. The idea would be to add biomass pellets to coal production then scrub the carbon emissions with algae. Greenfuel Technologies is supposed to reduce carbon emissions from smokestacks by 45%. Coal biomass cofiring reduces emissions from coal power plants by 25%. Combining the technologies could create a coal powerplant with more than a 50% reduction in emissions. At least that is what I think might happen, I am not an engineer.

I read about how they are going to stick the carbon dioxide from coal plants in the ground through sequestration. It sounds kind of weird and unworkable to me. This seems like a better cheaper option in many ways. I know it has nothing to do with books. It is one of those things that I'm pondering.

I'm doing a display at work today for graphic novels. I've made several color photocopies of graphic novel covers and a banner that says "Graphic Novels in the Library." I've picked out a number of graphic novels to put in the display case. I'll put the smaller graphic novels towards the front with the larger books in the back to give a staggered look. I've also chosen several movies to add to the display based on graphic novels. Things like Ghost World, Fantastic Four, Sin City, American Splendor, and a few others. I'm going to lay the videos flat in front of the smaller books.

There are display shelves which can be added to put shelving at eye level. I am going to put a few medium size graphic novels on them. Nothing too heavy that might fall over.

Mixed media displays are always more interesting than just books. People will be able to take out the material in the display. I'll be replenishing it when I am available.

Someone suggested I read Rumi, the Sufi poet, it would help me understand the world better. I might read some of his poems.

Starting A New Book To Read

I am starting to read Apollo's Fire, Igniting America's Clean Energy Economy by Jay Inslee and Bracken Hendricks, foreword by Bill Clinton. This book is another platform for a new energy economy. So far it has been very similar to the agenda of the book Freedom From Oil, and has mentioned very similar technologies being sold on the stock market as clean technology. The book is a political platform for the http://www.apolloalliance.org/ a liberal slate of energy legislation. I have found some interesting things to critique as I read the book. There are of course huge holes in the policies being presented, but they are fascinating to me.

I also looked through a core collection book for graphic novels recently called Graphic Novels A Genre Guide to Comic Books, Manga, and More by Michael Pawuk with a foreword by Brian K. Vaughan (Genreflecting Advisory Series, Libraries Unlimited c2007). This is a collection guide for libraries to select comic books, manga, and graphic novels. It lists core selection titles which should be in libraries as well as award winners. There is an author, title, and subject in the back as well as a suggested list of websites to look at for selecting manga and graphic novels. The book is broken down into different sections of graphic novels-- superhero, action and adventure, crime and mystery, horror, romance, manga, science fiction, western, coming of age/slice of life, humor, biography, and history are covered. If you are looking for a selection list covering up to late 2006 and want to choose titles that have stood the test of time, this book is quite comprehensive. However, the reviews are not very deep.



For a nice introduction to the world of graphic novels, try the 101 Best Graphic Novels by Stephen Weiner. It gives short clear descriptions of a broad selection of graphic novels. The book is printed in 2006, so it is not that dated. It is also fairly inexpensive for a reference book, $9.95.


Both of these books are examples of core collection lists. They would help you build a collection from nothing. Essentially, they list what the author thinks are the central graphic novels in a collection. From these selection lists, you might pick out several of the older titles that are the most recommended and purchase them. There are core collection lists for all kinds of books, everything from business to womens studies.

After you had selected your core titles, then you might look to see what the community might like. This might involve visiting some of the other local libraries or bookstores near you and seeing what they are buying for their customers or patrons to read. This would give you an idea of what your community might like. This is often different from bestseller lists.

After you went through core collection lists, you might go to a specialty magazine like Previews which is the magazine which most comic book stores order from. http://previews.diamondcomics.com/public/ . It lists all the bestselling manga and graphic novels in the last month inside the magazine. This might give you an idea of where to find very popular titles. There are other specialty magazines and sites which focus on specific types of literature, Locus Magazine for science fiction and fantasy, Romantic Times for romance.

Then you might decide you needed some quality titles, maybe some comics literature. http://www.tcj.com/ The Comics Journal might have a few interesting titles or articles.

Every genre has its high end or eccentrically tasteful group of people. For Science Fiction, there is the New York Review of Science Fiction. I don't subscribe to them for the same reason I don't subscribe to The New York Review of Books, it is a bit oddly literary for my tastes. http://ebbs.english.vt.edu/olp/nyrsf/nyrsf.html