How to use this Page

Well I'm really excited because ImaginOn just picked up a new Comic Book Series to carry and man is it fun!!!! I just got finishing reading the first issue we received, so I thought I would write about it:

Marvel Adventures Superheroes #12 "Featuring" Captain America by Scott Gray, Matted Lolli, Roger Langridge and Craig Rousseau - This issue features Captain America in both the past and present. In the first story we find Cap trying to find his way in the modern world after he has been rescued from being frozen in time sense the end of World War II (1945). His friend and government assigned liaison Rick Jones is trying to explain modern computers and the internet to him when a terrorist organization known as HYDRA strikes. Cap and Rick are sucked into HYDRA's Web Page and find themselves fighting for their lives in a virtual world that is to strange to describe. The second story takes place during World War II and stars Cap and his teenage sidekick Bucky. While on leave from the War, they run into a sadistic German killing machine right here in the good old U.S. of A. Two fun stories that I really enjoyed. If you can get ahold of this comic at a library or comic book store, I highly recommend it.




Another thing I'm excited about is another Bone book by Jeff Smith that has just been put out by Scholastic.


Rose by Jeff Smith and Charles Vess - I thought the series was over with Volume 9 Crown of Horns, but Jeff Smith wrote a prequel to the series with Charles Vess doing the art work entitled "Rose." Now if the name Rose does not sound familiar how about Gran'ma Ben (Rose is Gran'ma Ben's name). The story basically focuses on Rose and her sister Briar. They are both in this story training to master the ways of the Veni-Yan who are seers into the Dreaming. Rose proves to be more adept in learning their ways much to the displeasure of Briar. The Veni-Vang have felt through the Dreaming the coming of an emancipator of "The Lord of Locust" and fear that Rose or Briar may be this entity. Through the story we learn who the emancipator is and the events that lead up to the first Bone GN Out from Boneville. What is really special about this story is we get more insight into Gran'ma Ben's relationship with her sister Briar and we see the mistakes Gran'ma Ben makes that lead to her becoming the heroic figure we know from the Bone Series. We also get to see some familiar characters in The Red Dragon, a young Lucius and the Rat Creatures along with meeting some new ones in Cleo and Euclid (Rose's two hounds that she can talk to) and the evil River Dragon Balsaad. I highly recommend this book for both Bone fans and those who are not yet.

Well that's all I have for now all you hepcats so peace,

Bill

It's starting to get difficult to remember what day it is... Up late into the nights and the day activities just run together like a surreal stream-of-consciousness art dream...

Today we heard from Dennis Nolan and Gary Lippincott - both children's illustrators whose work I have admired for years. Have any number of their books on my shelves at home. Charles Vess also gave a presentation this evening (he is always fabulous to listen to). Got to talk art, watch art, think about art and *do* art.

It took me a bit of doing to get my drawing printed out on the correct paper, but once that was done I was finally able to start getting some color down.

I've decided to go with the psychedelic flying-monkey approach. :-)

More later.

(Thanks, Jennifer)

-has just opened registration for its 2009 incarnation. I debated and deliberated a bit - it not being that many months since the *last* one, but have decided to register for this years' as well. Partly because it was just a terrific, creative kick in the pants, and partly because Charles Vess is coming as faculty this go 'round.

I've made it through more than half of the goals I came back with from the last one, and am working on most of the others. If nothing else, it should help me to continue to refine and focus my professional energies and direction.

All good.

Let's see. Recently I've written an introduction to a book on The Twilight Zone, and am currently doing my editorial pass on the galleys of INTERWORLD, a young adult book that Michael Reaves and I wrote some years ago that we're currently bringing out of mothballs, dusting off and sending to meet the nice people.

I also got swept up in a small adventure that turned me into a giddy twelve-year-old comics fan, and about which I shall say nothing more until the time is right. And possibly not even then. It was all Jonathan Ross's fault, anyway.

And now the weather forecasters are predicting the mother of all winter storms for us in the midwest this weekend. Ten inches of snow. Freezing rain. An ice storm. Everyone is making contingency plans and buying several months' suppies of toilet paper, and I'm being English and am convinced it won't happen. Interesting weather almost never does, not when they say it will.

This just came in from Charles Vess, who wonders if any of you have any of the STARDUST art he's looking for...

From Charles Vess:

From June until September of this year I'll be mounting an exhibition
of my Stardust art at the the William King Regional Art Museum in their
premium exhibition space.

A LOT of people will be seeing the exhibition and I want to put my best
'face' forward. So I'm looking for various pieces of Stardust original
art that I've sold over the years and would like to borrow that art back
for this show. The names of the donors will be included in various
publications concerning the exhibit as well as being on the identifying
labels themselves.

In particular I'm looking for these full page illustrations:

(All page numbers refer to the trade paperback edition)


1. (page 46) The couple on the hill (with the Village of Wall in the background)
beside a tree looking up at the falling star.

2. (page 52) Tristran in his bowler hat entering the deep woods surrounded by
various fairy types.

3.Cover art to mini #2 with all of the Lords of Stormhold floating in
the air around the dark rocks of Stormhold.

4.(Pg #96 -97) The two pages of multiple panels with Tristran's first candle walk
between worlds.

5.(Pg #104)Tristran and Yvaine walking in the wood. She has a crutch.
6.Tris and Yvaine riding the unicorn through woods with gnarly
creatures in the fore ground.

7..(Pg #161) Small figures of Tris and Yvaine looking up as galleon passes
through golden clouds above them.

8. ( Pg #188)Tris passed out on ground w/ Yvaine sitting beside him. A dark
haired woman (his mother) stands above him. Red goblin creatures frolic
in the fore ground tree limbs.

9.( Pg #193)Tris in a sitting room w/ Victoria Foster surrounded by nick nacks
and green men. A cat sits on the rug beside him.

10.( Pg #205) Yvaine gives Tris the medallion. Dark haired Mom looks on. The air
around them is filled with all manner of people and beasties.

11. ( Pg #209) Looking down at the fair w/ the Village of Wall off to the left.
Very small figures of Tris and Yvaine walk off thru the field. In the
far distance the mountains of Stromhold rise w/ Flying Galleon beside them.

12. (Pg #213) Last piece in the book. Colored pencil on black paper. Yvaine
stands amidst dark stones and raises her arms towards her 'sisters' that
dance through the night time sky above her.

Here's my e-mail if you have any information on the location of these
pieces: [email protected]

Thanks!

Charles

...

The previous post drew a lot of responses -- most of them agreeing with me. A few articulately disagreeing, and I thought I'd post a couple of them....

Mr. Gaiman-

If I may, a few comments about today’s posting about the appearance of the word “Scrotum” in the children’s book.

1. A few librarians in this NY Times article were quoted out of context from e-mails taken from LM_NET, a listserv for school librarians. In fact, LM_NET postings are subject to copyright and librarians were not contacted by the Times in response to their quotes.
2. All librarians are not tight-bunned, tight-assed “Shh-ing” maniacs. (I know, I am one—a librarian, that is, not tight-assed.)
3. Given the current climate of education in the US, you can’t blame a public (or private) school librarian for being incredibly sensitive to this issue. Unfortunately, we live in a period where it’s easier to throw away books and tell kids to “just google it” rather than keeping librarians on-staff. Each of us fights for our credibility and necessity every day. One conflict with a prominent community-member over (an admittedly) ridiculous matter such as this can end a career, as it’s easier to drop a staff member’s salary than fight a legal battle over censorship. While there are those of us who are willing to throw our chins out and fight, there are many battle-scarred vets of the library wars who have been cowed by the system and will quietly drop it rather than fight anymore. The public school librarian is fighting to keep of the endangered species list.

While I’ve been an ardent fan of yours, I could not let today’s journal slide without some commentary.

Yours,

Harry F. Coffill
Library Media Specialist
East Grand Rapids Middle School

I'm afraid that just because something is "copyright" it doesn't mean it can't be quoted. It can. It's called Fair Use. And I don't see why the Times would have to contact the people about their quotes -- if it's written down, that's all you'd have to show the fact-checker, if there is such a thing... Once you've said it, it's out there. (This blog is copyright me. Doesn't mean it doesn't get quoted, or that I'm consulted about it when it is. Here's an example of one time it happened. If you're going to say something in a semi-public forum, you're quotable, or misquotable, and that's just how it is.)

Hey Neil,

Speaking as a librarian, I happily bask in your general approbation.

Speaking as a librarian, I detest the idea of censorship, and the thought of choosing not to purchase a Newberry-winning book simply because of a single word.

Speaking as a librarian, I must also point out that the issue is, unfortunately, perhaps a bit more complicated than that, and that referring to those librarians who choose not to buy the book as "rogues" who've gone over to the dark side is likely to be an unfair oversimplification, at least in some cases.

Are there prudish librarians who have knee-jerk reactions to "bad language" and "inappropriate content?" Of course. We're only human, and therefore only flawed.

However, in many cases...using, as an example, the librarian cited as saying that SADLY, they will not be purchasing the book...it is likely NOT the librarian's own personal choice or even preference to exclude this book from their collection, but is the decision of the library director, library board, or school itself, based upon community outcry and patron pressure. In many cases of books being challenged, the challenge never goes as far as a banning. However, there are still cases in which otherwise excellent books are banned due to some small piece of "questionable" content. Don't forget, one of the most challenged and banned authors of all time is Judy Blume, the author of well-beloved, classic, but very frank (and therefore "dangerous"), children's and young adult books.

Librarians, as much as anyone and everyone else in this country, are subject to mob rule at times, and are always always subject to the workings of bureaucracy and politics. It's sad, but it's true.

...which I understand, but both of which emails leave me thinking that surely saying "It won the Newbery Medal. We order the books that do that. It's been the most respected guide to quality children's literature since 1922," would fend off most threats to a school librarian's job... wouldn't it?

Ah well. My next children's book, the one I'm currently writing, is very unlikely to have any rude words in it at all, but people I've read the first few pages to tend to look at me with a concerned sort of look and say "Is this really a children's book? I mean it's scary and then that stuff..." and I say yes, and I'm sorry but that's how the book goes and there's nothing I can do about it. Of course there is -- I could cut it out and write a book that wasn't as good. And I can hope that anyone who gets past the first couple of pages will find it very hard to put down. I can hope. But I'd understand any school librarian who was worried.

And I also got this from the "Higher Power of Lucky" post, which made me smile...

Hey there, Neil.
I illustrated "The Higher Power of Lucky" (although it didn't occur to me to provide a picture for the minor scrotum incident). Thanks for weighing in on the whole kerfuffle. Coincidentally, I read "Endless Nights" yesterday, absolutely loved it, and made some sketches this morning which I posted on my blog:
http://planetham.blogspot.com/
I'm also a Writers House client, so maybe I'll see you at some swanky cocktail reception sometime (if they even have such things).All the best,matt phelan

Well worth checking out Matt's cool artblog, if just for the masonic raccoon... And alas, while I have been a client of Writer's House for almost 20 years, I've never been to a swanky cocktail reception there yet (although they once threw a lovely bash with nibbly bits at the Franfurt bookfair for all my foreign publishers).

...

I get a lot of appeals for good causes in and I long ago sighed and decided that I can't post all of them. But this one has camels in it...

Not a question, so much as a request. There is an amazing thing going on in Kenya involving librarians, generosity, and of course, camels. The link is http://camelbookdrive.wordpress.com/ if you could post it for the fabulous readers of this blog. If you have already mentioned it, I apologize. It's been awhile since I've visited, although now I seem to have spent about 3 hours reading past posts. Damn.

Beth (librarian in training, who, for the record, is perfectly happy about the word scrotum in any book)

consider it posted. And I'll see if I can't put together a bunch of books for the camel library...

And finally, another article from Nerve's comics issue. This one's about the Gordon Lee case and the CBLDF. I've written about it here before -- I've been writing about it for years. But if you've missed it, or you thought it was over... http://www.nerve.com/dispatches/clark/gordonlee/

Still deadlining. Have lost a bunch of weight now, hurrah. I've now got to that place where I'm comfortable with just not eating as much, while eating more veg, using grapefruit as a snack food, drinking more water, all that. Just trying to make up for a year spent eating on the road, really. (There are four tubs of jeans in my closet, each a different waist size. I'd reached the tub at the far end, and they were getting tight. Am now at the next one down from there. And one more size to go before I'm back at my proper BMI wossname. As I learned a couple of years ago, if I get to the jeans in the thinnest tub at the end, people point out that I'm looking gaunt. And this is probably the last post about weight because a) it's boring and b) if you mention losing weight in a blog post people start sending you emails telling you that you're contributing to the current epedemic of Anorexia and ruining the self-image of the young.)

Anyway, this post is about Pan's Labyrinth -- as seen and discussed in http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/2006/09/sunday-morning-cinema.html -- and is to congratulate Guillermo on winning the Critics Prize.

Guillermo del Toro's gothic fantasy Pan's Labyrinth has been named the best film of 2006 by the National Society of Film Critics.

Guillermo is the executive producer on the DEATH movie, which appears to be beginning to possibly think about perhaps seeming to come back to life, maybe, so I'll congratulate him soon enough in person.

But it's nice to do it here.

And I know I meant to link to this Charles Vess blog post, showing the stages of the Stardust sculpture he's been working on, but I don't think I did. Lots of pictures... http://greenmanpress.com/news/archives/98

Just a heads up -- some time in the next couple of days the Stardust Movie site is going to go live. It's been up at www.stardustmovie.com for a while, but hasn't had any content until now.

I've just been sent a preview of the first round of content, and it's really fun -- there's a gallery of Charles Vess Stardust art, much of it previously unseen, there are video interviews with me about the origins of Stardust and about Charles Vess, and I answer the first five Stardust questions...

(The http://www.beowulfmovie.com/ site still only has the flames-and-cast-list-and-shield on it.)

While I'm being a rubbish blogger, let me point you to this Horn Book article on the use of Mary Sues in school fiction, this Stewart Lee article on humour, a wonderful Ursula LeGuin article about fantasy from the New Statesman, Jane Espenson's blog filled with terrific writing tips, and, in case you missed it, an article about a recent case of human hibernation. Also Terry Jones on the sums of war. Oh, and a Good Omens Lexicon.

And I forgot to mention here that Sir Ian McKellen will be doing the narration for the Stardust film.