On the Radio
If you're in the San Francisco area this Thursday, January 14, I hope you'll tune in to KALW for the program Your Call. Their topic that day will be nonfiction graphic books, and I'll be one of their guests. Also on the show will be Joe Sacco (Safe Area Goražde), and I think it will be a very interesting discussion. The show runs from 11 to noon. Hope you can listen!
-- John HoganStorm Wins
Congratulations to Matt Phelan for winning the 2010 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction! His Storm in the Barn took the win this past week, which means he earns the $5,000 prize. Good job, Matt!
-- John HoganMaking Spirits Bright?
I just realized I spent a good portion of my recent holidays in some very dark places. Namely: Creepy Archives, Volume Two, The Walking Dead, and Strange Suspense: The Steve Ditko Archives, Vol. 1. I'm not sure what that says about me. But I'm pretty sure it's a bit of an oddity that at a time of rest and relaxation I turn to the cold comforts of horror. Whether they're your holiday cup of tea or not, I still recommend all three to you. Reviews of these collections to come soon, too!
-- John HoganSurveying the Decade
My friend Bethanne Patrick (also known as the Book Maven) regularly writes about and reviews books and is one of my favorite resources for the best in literature being published today. Her blog is a must-read for book lovers, and she recently brought out her list of the top 20 books of the past decade. It's mostly a prose list, but three graphic novels made her cut, which is why it's important here. What made the cut for Bethanne?
-- John HoganAnd We're Back!
Hello there! After a couple weeks off for the holidays, we're back here at GNR and getting set up to review and preview the best new graphic-novel content out there. I hope all our readers had a wonderful holiday and are starting out the new year with a bang. I'm still exhausted from it all, but I'm jumping at the chance to get back into everything comics. Everybody ready? Keep checking back all week for more to come....
-- John HoganAnd Now for Something Completely Different
Yes, it's one more best-of list, but Pop Candy's Whitney Matheson has a whole different take on her year-ending list. (No. 1? That spot is held by Kiminori Wakasugi's Detroit Metal City, Vol. 1. That's something you're not going to see on too many other lists. Whitney definitely throws some much-needed female perspective to her list (and I'm glad to see Refresh, Refresh, The Eternal Smile, and A Drifting Life make the grade).
-- John HoganAnd Today...Two More Lists
Obviously, it's that time of year. That time when all the best-of-the-year lists start trickling through. Today, we've got two more, one from Amazon and one from Barnes & Noble. Amazon also released its list of the bestselling graphic novels of 2009 (two Diary of a Wimpy Kid books occupy the first two slots, followed by R. Crumb's Book of Genesis Illustrated.
-- John HoganA New Best-of List
Matt Price over at Nerdage has posted his top 10 graphic novels of 2009. Great list, and one that I really agree with. Several of the books you'd expect make the list, but it's also nice to see George Sprott, High Moon, and The Big Kahn make the grade. Check the link for the full list and Matt's descriptions of his picks.
-- John HoganMark Waid Has Another Great Series
Writer and Boom! Studios chief Mark Waid has one of the more interesting takes on superherodom. I like his views on what makes a hero and what makes a villain (most famously explored in his current Irredeemable series and of course in Kingdom Come.
See a Sneak Preview of Zeus: King of the Gods!
George O’Connor, the artist of Ball Peen Hammer, has a new series coming out in January 2010—but you can sample it here first! The Olympians series kicks off with Volume One, Zeus: King of the Gods. Get a look at it here!
