The Amazing Screw On Head and Other Curious Objects by Mike Mignola

The Amazing Screw-On Head and Other Curious Objects by Mike Mignola

The Amazing Screw On Head was originally a one shot comic book printed by Darkhorse in 2002. It won the humor category of the Eisner Awards for Best Humor Publication in 2003. In this volume which includes several other stories with similar themes, Mike Mignola describes how he created the story based on the idea of a childrens toy robot with different bodies and a scew-on head. There are several new stories added to this volume.

You could say that many of these stories satirize steampunk which is often very satirical. The stories have a dreamlike quality to them. The villains have a ridiculous theme to them; Emperor Zombie, Dr. Sharp, Gung The Magnificent, the bug eyed martians, and the monster at the top of the beanstalk.

The drawings use lots of dark shadows, browns, blacks, and reds. They look somewhat like the Hellboy comics which Mike Mignola draws, but with a much less malevolent feeling to them. The stories have a fable or fairytale quality to them. The heros are more odd and curious than heroic.

The stories made me smile. They were magical, filled with irrational objects, and worth laughing at. This book was on the Diamond Comics Distributors Bestseller List for October 2010.

Joann Sfar The Little Prince Adapted From The Book by Antoine De Saint-Exupery.

Joann Sfar The Little Prince Adapted From The Book by Antoine De Saint-Exupery.

This is a graphic novel adaptation of The Little Prince. Joann Sfar is french and has drawn over one hundred books. I especially loved his graphic novel, The Rabbi's Cat about a cat that eats a parrot and then can talk. The Little Prince  is translated from French into English by Sarah Ardizzone.

Joann Sfar's drawings are vibrant. They are very good at showing emotion. I like the flow of how he draws the characters in the story. The colorist Brigitte Findaklay uses lots of earth tones mixed with some very deep reds, sky blues, and bright greens. The characters have a lot more color than the backgrounds which makes them stand out.

The panel layout is two columns of three panels. This is very easy to follow. The lettering has a neat, small hand drawn quality to it. The characters have a slightly exaggerated faces with bigger eyes, ears and some fantastic qualities, especially for the flower people.

The Little Prince has a surprising amount of philosophical depth for a childrens story. Joann Sfar successfully translates the writing which is often very surreal into clear, beautiful pictures. 

I especially like the drawings of the Little Prince talking to flowers, the fox, and the snake.  Each character the prince talks to has a seemingly simple philosophical message.

This is worth reading, especially if you like fairytales or fables. The novel, The Little Prince is a childrens classic

Daily Thoughts 8/18/2010 ( Bring on the Books, graphic novels )

Reading room of the library, U.S. Naval Academy, 1901, Detroit Publishing Company
Daily Thoughts 8/18/2010

I finished reading Bitter Angels last night.  It had a surprise ending and a unique story.  It is something I'll definitly be writing a review on later in the week.




Today was another steady day.  I read over some of the requirements for a conservation grant.  There are a number of questions I have to find out before applying.  It was interesting finding out what people wanted to know.  I also learned that I  will be using the acquisitions module directly built into our catalog.  This allows EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) of our orders.  It also shows when items are on order.




I had the Graphic Novels Club today.  We are getting more people coming to the club.  I think we ended up with fourteen people today which is not bad.  There were quite a few books checked out.  They picked out a few books on cartooning, Battle Angel Alita, Naruto, Inu Yasha, Scott Pilgrim which just came out as a movie, The Incredible Hulk versus X Force, as well as a few art books which I had brought in-- one on Mucha, and one on Maxfield Parrish as well as a book on How To Draw Manga.  One person brought their sketch book.  We also gave away free comics from Con Edison called The Power of Green  Go Green Save Some Green featuring the Green Lantern about saving electricity.




I also got a book on interlibrary loan called Bring On The Books For Everybody How Literary Culture Becomes Popular Culture by Jim Collins. It is an academic title.  I am finding the book very entertaining.  He is writing about how Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Oprah Winfrey, beach reading, book superstores, and digital culture are creating a new open view of literary reading.  It is a different approach to the classics with a different vision of the meaning of literature. He asks why the Pulitzer Prize puts a book on the New York Times Bestseller list.  

Daily Thoughts 8/17/2010 (Bitter Angels, Westerns, Programs, Graphic Novels )

Owen Wister friend of Theodore Roosevelt and author of the American Western-style novel, The Virginian photo from the Owen Wister Collection of the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming. 

Daily Thoughts 8/17/2010 

I finished reading The Outlaw Josey Wales by Forest Carter on the train to work today.  It looks like there might be a little bit of a resurgence in interest in westerns, especially Max Brand and Louis L'Amour who are still both very popular.  There is a set of reviews for westerns in Library Journal online.  http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/home/885858-264/collection_development_not_ready_for.html.csp




Another article How Libraries Ensure Ongoing Freedom In America by Martha Randolph Carr.
http://politicallyillustrated.com/index.php?/news_page/iw/1654/  I rather like the cartoon.




Today was a bit busier than usual.  We had the final Adult Summer Reading Game which is the first time we are doing this.  We talked about the books we read during the sumer, had punch or tea, raffled off a bag of books and bookish items, and gave away a few books to attendees.  It was a nice afternoon thing to do.



I also got ready for tomorrow, picking out a number of graphic novels for the program tomorrow.  This time I went into the storage area and pulled out some of our older material; Peter Arno, Chas Addams, Gary Trudeau, Herblock, Gahan Wilson, and a few other classic cartoonists.  We even had one of the old fashioned cartoon instruction books from the 1930s.  I like to pull material that is related to graphic novels, not just graphic novels, record cover art, illustration, fasion design, storyboarding, drawing comics, and writing comics.



I also finished going through the trade paperback fiction to make sure things were in the right place.  We now have a much expanded section for African American fiction.  I'll probably be going through the hardcover fiction section next.



I also have some work to do with BWI to check on the Electronic Data Interchange.  Our first orders are going through them soon. 



On the way home, I read some of Bitter Angels by C.L. Anderson which is a science fiction novel which mixes space opera and espionage.  There is a blurb by Linnea Sinclair on the cover who writes romantic science fiction.  Linnea Sinclair is an author which I like a lot.

Daily Thoughts 6/23/2010

Reading In The Forest, Oil On Canvas, 1880, Paris, Public Domain, Wikimedia, Eva Gonzales

Daily Thoughts 6/23/2010

I have been reading more of Coupon Mom's and looking at the website. There is a little bit of money to be saved, not a huge amount for the effort involved. The online coupons are kind of interesting. I don't buy most of this stuff.

This book is proving to be about much more than coupons. She describes the advantages and disadvantages of shopping at big box stores, supermarkets, discount stores, health food stores, wholesale clubs, and bare bones stores. I liked some of her ideas.

She reminds us that it is not good to buy giant packages of junk food from wholesalers, this leads to overconsumption and an unhealthy lifestyle. She also tells us that it is cheaper to buy fresh herbs and bulk food products like nuts from produce stores and healthfood stores than supermarkets. Stephanie Nelson follows the maxim that we must watch what we put into the refrigerator to make sure we are buying what we need, 15%-40% of food in refrigerators goes to waste in the United States.

The author tells us that it is cheaper to eat vegetarian on occassion. Vegetables, rice, and beans are cheaper than meats or cheeses. I am about half way through the book and am enjoying reading it. I have sent ten online coupons to my email inbox for things which I purchase regularly.

There is something different about writing about practical books. Most reviewers will not describe their experience using practical books; books on homeownership, power tools, carpentry, plumbing, personal finance, and other practical subjects are often not reviewed enough. Maybe, there isn't enough intellectual cachet in it.

Today has been quite busy. I have been working on a few things. The new display advertising for the playaways came in. We now have new bookmarks, signage, and posters for our playaways section and will soon have new packaging for the playaways. I also printed the Chick Lit bookmark today.

We are almost ready for the Adult Summer Reading in July and August http://www.summerreadingnys.org/. We just put together a banner for adult summer reading and I am working on creating a flyer for the events associated with the summer reading program. We have two author events in July, two brown bag book talks, and a literary tea planned so far.

One of my colleagues suggested a graphic novel, Rabbi Harvey vs. the Wisdom Kid, A Graphic Novel of Dueling Jewish Folktales In the Wild West by Steve Sheinkin. It came out in March 2010. Another book came in for me, Much Fall of Blood by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint, and Dave Freer. I especially like the writing of Dave Freer. I put in a request for a weird western graphic novel, Iron West by Doug TenNapel which I saw from this list http://www.morevikings.com/recs-and-rants/weird-west-reading-list/

On another thought, acccess to our library catalog will soon be available as an Iphone App http://www.sirsidynix.com/iphone/apps/bookmyne/

I finished reading The Coupon Mom's Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills In Half by Stephanie Nelson. It has an old fashioned thriftiness to it. The author tells us she uses baking soda, vinegar, borax, and rubbing alcohol for her cleaning needs. She also makes a recommendation that you should grow your own vegetables, even using the term "victory garden". It has a homespun feel to it in parts even though it is very much touting coupons from major brands.

I started reading Much Fall of Blood by Mercedes Lackey, Dave Freer, and Eric Flint. Each author has numerous fantasy novels to their name and a decent following of readers. They somehow mesh well writing this novel. This is the third novel in a series. The first two are The Shadow of the Lion and This Rough Magic. It is set in a medieval Europe filled with magic both black and white. The characters are drawn from historical figures like Madame Bathory, Prince Manfred, and Prince Vlad Duke of Valahia. It starts nicely, moving between Venice, the Carpathians, and the tents of the Golden horde.

Daily Thoughts 6/16/2010

Pierre August Renoir, Camille Monet Reading, Oil On Canvas, 1873

Daily Thoughts 6/16/2010

I finished reading Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card on the train to work. It is the book which made Orson Scott Card's career. The book won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards. It is on the top 100 books to read for young adults by the American Library Association. If you like science fiction, you should read it. The book speaks for itself.

We moved a lot of books in the storage area today including law books and fiction. It is moving along very nicely. Also, I looked at magazines for ordering; booklist and publishers weekly.

I had the graphic novels club today. It went alright. The anime club from the high school borrowed two dvds, Steamboy and Kiki's Delivery Service, both which are fun to watch.

I had a little bit of time to pick out some poetry books for Saturday. I picked out books by Edward Hirsch, Nikki Giovanni, Langston Hughes, Charles Simic, Rita Dove, Alice Walker, Diane Wakoski, Jack Kerouac, and many others. I made sure that the new poetry books were ready for Saturday. I am looking at two poetry books right now, Bright Wings An Illustrated Anthology of Poems About Birds Edited by Billy Collins with Paintings by David Allen Sibley and Jorge Luis Borges The Sonnets. The Sonnets is a dual language edition with Spanish on one side and English on the other. Both of these books are copyright 2010.

The Viscount Who Loved Me was truly awful. It surprised me that it was one of the books which was requested for my Readers Advisory 101 Course. It was better than Danielle Steel, I'll give it that much. I am not a fan of her writing. Sometimes, we are asked to read things which we don't like to understand what patrons want. I read a few urban fiction novels when they were first coming out to see what the genre was about. Omar Tyree is a fairly entertaining writer of street literature. I still have not read any chick lit. I probably should.

Daily Thoughts 4/13/2010

Goya, Reading. 1820-1821. Oil on plaster mounted on canvas, 126 x 66 cm. Museo del Prado, Madrid.

Daily Thoughts 4/13/2010

I read some more of Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks. Agatha Christie would arrange her plot outlines using an initial alphabetical format, then switch the sections around. I found it interesting that in addition to plays and radio plays, she would also arrange mystery treasure hunts.

Today has been another quiet steady day. I picked up books for the Bookmobile which goes out on April 14, 2010. People wanted books on the navy, treasure diving, art, books by Anne Coulter, Danielle Steel, Nicholas Sparks, and romantic biographies. Comfortable books to reminesce on. They also wanted romance audiobooks, biographical audiobooks, and videos of masterpiece theatre mysteries like Miss Marple or Inspector Lewis.

I also placed orders for graphic novels. I looked at the Diamond Comic Distributors bestseller list and New York Times graphic novel bestseller list to pick out some popular graphic novels. Stephenie Meyers has a Twilight graphic novel and there is a Halo Helljumpers graphic novel written by Peter David.

I also spent some time looking at the Indienext Bestseller List and the Bestselling Science Fiction titles list from Locus Magazine this morning this morning as well as the Staff Picks section online on the Strand Bookstore and Powells books.

A copy of Linnea Sinclair, Rebels and Lovers came in for me to read. I also picked up a copy of Louise Erdrich, Shadow Tag.

Daily Thoughts 2/1/2010

Poets Corner, Westminster Abbey, taken circa 1900.

Daily Thoughts 2/1/2010

My first thought for the day is that Barnes and Noble in its Business to Business accounts has a library accounts section. I find it kind of interesting. They are starting to compete with the large book distributors. http://btob.barnesandnoble.com/bn-at-school/library-services.asp?btob=Y&cds2Pid=17562&linkid=1444099

I met with a gentleman to discuss doing a poetry program in April for the library. I am going to try and do it on a Saturday afternoon. This way, people will be able to come to the program. Usually, about two months is about the right window to advertise and promote a program so people come. This will give me time to write the flyer and get it out to the newspapers and community organizations. On another thought, I am planning to do a Shojo (girls manga program this month.)

We had a meeting discussing how we might reduce costs. There was quite a bit of talk about recycling paper and what to do with our discards. We also talked a bit about donations to the library. We will probably also be doing more ordering in bulk.

I designed two fliers today, one for my poetry program, and one for the graphic novels club. I am hoping that they will turn out well. There has been quite a bit of interest lately in poetry at the library.

I have picked out a number of books to read, Poe 19 New Tales Inspired by Edgar Allen Poe, edited by Ellen Datlow, Starship Flagship by Mike Resnick, The Lazy Environmentalist on a Budget Save Money, Save Time, Save the Planet by Josh Dorfman, and The book of Dead Philosophers by Simon Critchley. I also picked up two dvds to look at, the Disney Pixar film UP, and Mystery of the Nile produced by Orbita Imax. Hopefully this will be as good as the dvd Dinosaurs Alive which was narrated by Michael Douglas.

I have started reading The Book of Dead Philosophers by Simon Critchley on the train home. It is an overview of philosophy giving the account of some 200 different philosophers and how they died. Each entry varies from a few sentences to a few pages. The book is full of wonderful tidbits of useless knowledge. There is a legend that Pythagoras was killed because he refused to cross a beanfield even though he was being chased by his enemies. There are asteroids named after Lao Tsu and Kongzi (Confucius). In the 14th century Aesop was considered an important philosopher in the Western philosophy. This book is a reflection on philosophers and their deaths. Some of it is ironic and funny. Other parts are reflections on how to live well and die well. It is enjoyable reading.

Daily Thoughts 1/30/2010

Caricature of Ben Hecht by fellow Chicago Daily News reporter Gene Markey, 1923

Daily Thoughts 1/30/2010

Calamity Jack By Shannon and Dean Hale, illustrated by Nathaniel Hale.

Calamity Jack is a sequel to the graphic novel Rapunzel's Revenge. In this story, Rapunzel returns to Jack's hometown from out west. Jack is a fairtyale trickster character, a combination of Jack from Jack in the Beanstalk and the classic western tall tale character, Calamity Jane.

The story is full of constant action. There is lots of fighting, trickery, and sneakiness in this story. There are giant ants, giants, giant pigeons, and many other critters. The setting is a kind of fairytale dreamland in the Victorian era. There is the giants castle, but it really is not quite a floating castle, but a sumptiously outfitted airship.

I liked the variety of creatures in the tale. There is the guard jabberwocky, and the guard bandersnatch. Also there are pixies, brownies, pig people, dwarves, the goose that laid the golden egg, and other creatures in an ornate victorian setting.

The story is drawn in full color with lots of ornate detail. It is a retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk where the giants are extorting protection money and goods from Jack's mother and the local city. There is a wonderfully done picture of the beanstalk with Jack chopping it down.

I think the story can be read by pretty much anybody. We have copies of Rapunzel's Revenge in both the childrens and the young adult section. I read it three times. It is quite captivating. Shannon Hale won the Newberry Honor award for her book Princess Academy.

Star Trek Mirror Universe, The Sorrows of Empire by David Mack

This is a novel of the Mirror Universe where there is no federation, but instead a dark empire run by humanity. Spock is Faustian, touched by a brief encounter with Captain Kirk from the other universe and seeing hope for a federation in his own universe, he sets out to change things.

This is Spock as a calculating villain. He murders the crew of the enterprise, assumes command of the enterprise, and systematically rises through the ranks to seize the empire. It is a very much the ends justifies the means type story. Brutal, cold, calculating, and intriguing.

Spock must not only face the Romulans and the Klingons, but also the empress of earth and the machinations of an evil empire. I like Spock as a villain. This book has a machiavellian quality to it. The way he attempts to reach good ends, a free society, are utterly wicked.

A different take on Star Trek. Quite refreshing.

Daily Thoughts 1/26/2010

"Our Three-Volume Novel at a Glance", a cartoon by Priestman Atkinson, from the Punch Almanack for 1885 (which would have been published in late 1884). This is a jocular look at some clichéd expressions which were overused in the popular literature of the time. It contains absurd literalistic interpretations of a number of conventional metaphors, accompanied by some outrageous visual puns. In the nineteenth century, popular novels often appeared in three-volume editions when first published, in order to allow three customers of commercial "circulating libraries" to be reading parts of the book simultaneously. I've abridged the second and third "volumes" of the cartoon in this scan. From Wikimedia.

Daily Thoughts 1/26/2010

This morning, I took some time to look at Microsoft Word 2007 Quicksteps on the train so I could familiarize myself with the new version of Word which we have on the public computers. Another day, I'll probably sit down and check the program some more.

I also read some more of The Medieval Craft of Memory. It makes me think how much we take certain things for granted. For example we have a specific numerical order to the alphabet which we are taught as children, we are also taught to associate each letter of the alphabet with a specific picture like a for apple.

We also use sequential numbers for street addresses. This makes it easier for people to find and remember where an address is. We create to do lists in sequential order to get things done. Many of these are techniques to make us remember. Right now, I am reading the section called The Art of Memory by Jacobus Publicius. This section unlike the others is not focused on religion. It has a more general approach.

I think this is a book which is very interesting, but is not likely to be reviewed in the popular journals. One of my colleagues has asked to read it after I am done. It is the kind of book which is very hard to review. The content is quite philosophical in nature. I am not sure I could give full justice to some of the content. Much of the content is on how to memorize large portions of the bible. There are some very striking images on how to memorize the parts of the gospels. There are supposed to be three steps in memory, first the memorization of poetry, then memorization for oratory, then memorization for the law and religion.

Most of the content was translated from latin. It is very hard to find similar material. It also opens people to a very different view of the world. This material was written for practical use by teachers, priests, academics, and intellectuals during the middle ages. This makes the book a very specialized subject. Some of it still has relevance for our time.

I picked out some graphic novels for the graphic novels club this afternoon. I also chose some books on Thailand to go out to the book mobile. This morning, I had a chance to read through the latest New York Times Book Reviews as well as Publishers Weekly.

I planned on doing the graphic novels club for teenagers and adults. I had one of those unexpected things happen. A lot of the ten to fourteen year olds ran in to look at the graphic novels. I made some adjustments in my selections of graphic novels. The tweens. They mainly came in for soda. They took out a number of them, including a few dvds. X-men was the favorite comic. One of the dvds was Max Fleischer's Popeye. Also, Baby Mouse was popular as well as some of the shojo-- ladies manga. There were a number of girls who wanted more girl superheros. I'll have to look for more comics with lady superheros.

I started reading Jeff Vandermeer, Finch. This feels like a very experimental novel. Jeff Vandermeer has been building a fairly strong author website. His blog announces the promotion of his wife, Ann Vandermeer to Editor in Chief of Weird Tales. http://www.jeffvandermeer.com/2010/01/25/breaking-news-weird-tales-announcement/ . I find this rather interesting. It reminds me a bit of the marriage of C.L. Moore and Henry Kuttner who both wrote fantasy novels.

The novel Finch is published by Underland Press, http://www.underlandpress.com . This is a relatively new press. It has a brand new set of authors, many of which I am first seeing. I found the opening dialog to be quite different in style than many books I have read. I think the book has quite a bit of experimental content in it. I think some people may like it. It is a mix of urban fantasy, weird tale, and detective story with a bit of psychedelia thrown in to make it stranger.

Daily Thoughts 1/25/2010

Stadtbibliothek Essen, German Public Library Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Germany Photo Taken March 2004 by Baikonur. It has a nice modern feel to it.

Daily Thoughts 1/25/2010

Today has been a nice quiet day. I put in an order for supplies. I also made sure the displays were in order. We are showing a movie this afternoon for the graphic novels club. We have a blanket license to show films from a number of studios which we pay for each year for our library.

I also requested days for different conferences I plant to attend. Hopefully, it will turn out right.

We are having our second graphic novel club meeting. I am going to try and pick out different graphic novels from each age level. We keep Baby Mouse and some of the more innocuous Superman and Batman comics in the childrens room. There are also some fairytale graphic novels like a version of Sundiata Lion King of Mali by Will Eisner.

We also separate the young adult graphic novels and manga from the graphic novels and manga in the adult section. For example we have Inu-Yasha, Spiderman, X-men, Naruto, Maus which is a high shool assignment, Barefoot Gen and a number of teen titles in the young adult section.

There are some more adult titles like Alan Moore's Watchmen, Black Jack by Osamu Tezuka, American Splendor by Harvey Pekar, or Fun Home by Alison Bechdel which we keep in the adult section. We try and separate graphic novels by age categories. This makes it both easier to manage and more appropriate. Throwing all graphic novels in the young adult section is not a good idea.

Not all of the graphic novels end up in the graphic novels section. Robert Crumb did a book called R. Crumb's Heroes of Blues, Jazz, and Country which is in the music section, he also illustrated a biography of Kafka. Larry Gonick's The Cartoon Guide to Physics is in the physics section.

The Cartoon History of the Modern World Part 2 From The Bastille to Baghdad by Larry Gonick

The Cartoon History of the Modern World Part 2 From The Bastille to Baghdad by Larry Gonick

This book is the final book in a long running series of cartoon histories by Larry Gonick. I remember reading the first one when I was in high school. They made history very entertaining. The cartoons drawn by Larry Gonick did not leave out the juicy parts of history; intrigue, thievery, murder, affairs, and human foibles that were not often in the high school textbooks. The way he describes history leaves no group spared. He is out to expose humanity in all its glory from every corner of the globe.

I found the first half of the History of the Modern World to be better than the latter half of the book. Larry Gonick seems to do a better job with the older history. I think this is because he uses a lot of primary source material. History before World War I is less open to interpretation, partially because most of the people from that time period are dead. The second half of the book includes many people who are still alive.

There is a definite slant to the left in this book, especially in his coverage of the Vietnam war and the war in Iraq. However, he does not spare any group when he writes about them. He writes about China, Indonesia, France, Austria, the United States, Nigeria, the Congo, Colombia, and places all over the globe. He attempts to skewer every group when he does his cartoons.

His description of the cold war is different than most. He describes it in a much larger historical perspective which springs from colonialism and earlier history. His take on Russia, China, and the United States is quite interesting. There is quite a bit on the rivalry between Mao and Stalin. Neither communism nor capitalism are spared for their philosophical background.

The subjects in this book are quite diverse, they cover the globe, the Ottoman Empire, Imperial Japan, the end of the slave trade, Napoleon Bonaparte, Stalin, Nixon, World War II, the war in Afghanistan, and many other subjects are covered. He tends to focus on specific incidents where great personages are involved in conflict. This makes the story interesting. The book is meant to be an overview not in depth coverage.

The drawings are in black and white with a traditional panel layout. Many of the panels are annotated and there is a lot of dialogue between historical figures. This often includes historical quotes portrayed in a humorous manner. In addition to larger page layouts, he sometimes include smaller stretches of the panels covering a short incident during a historical time period at the bottom of the pages. Absolutely everything is backed up with an extensive bibliography which includes primary source material and classic historical texts.

There is also an extensive index. The cartooning is excellent. Between chapters he uses the device of a time machine and a professor to explain some of his decisions in cartooning each chapter. The Cartoon History of the Universe Part III won the Harvey Award for comics which is very prestigious in the comics industry. Larry Gonick has also written a wide variety of nonfiction cartoon books, The Cartoon Guide to Statistics, The Cartoon Guide to Sex, The Cartoon History of the United States, and many others. His website is at http://www.larrygonick.com/

Daily Thoughts 12/31/2009

Edward Burne-Jones (left) and William Morris (right) in the garden of Burne-Jones's home the Grange, Fulham, 1890. Scanned from Waggoner, Diane, The Beauty of Life: William Morris & the Art of Design, Thames and Hudson, 2003, ISBN 0-500-28434-2. The image is c1890. Found on Wikimedia

Daily Thoughts 12/31/2009

Tonight will be New Years eve. It is snowing outside right now, so I am not planning on going anywhere. I am reading book III in the Vulcan's Soul trilogy, Epiphany right now.

Took a break and read some of Publishers Weekly online. There is a nice article on Turning Classics Into Comics. http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6712404.html

I finished reading the Vulcan's Soul trilogy. It was nice light and fluffy entertainment. My favorite character in Star Trek is Spock. He is the most interesting character in the show. "Live long and prosper." I do like watching the show sometimes. It is a chance to escape away from the mundane.

Grandville A Detective Inspector Lebrock of Scotland Yar Scientific Romance Thriller by Bryan Talbot

le loup Et le Chien drawn by Jean Ignace Isidore Gérard (September 13, 1803 – March 17, 1847), otherwise known as J.J. Grandville. This picture is very similar in style to the graphic novel.




Grandville A Detective Inspector Lebrock of Scotland Yar Scientific Romance Thriller by Bryan Talbot


The drawings in this graphic novel are amazing to look at. They are in a style that combines art deco with steampunk. The details are interesting and the color is vibrant. You can see things like theater posters, art lamps, and victorian art in the background. This makes the vividly drawn animals stand out even more. The variety of talking animals is rather amazing; talking fish, baboons, pit bulls, rats, cats, rabbits, frogs, moles, and other creatures. It is not at all like anime furries. The style is much closer to Beatrix Potter or illustrated children's fairytales. The image above is fairly close to the graphic novels style.


There is a lot of action and the main character is very much a fighter. The content also has some fairly strong language, sex, and mature themes in it. The French in the story do not like the British. There is a rather funny touch in the story where humans are called doughfaces and generallly act as servants or drivers for horse drawn carriages.


The story is clearly well thought out. Detective Inspector Le Brock must investigate the death of a diplomat, Raymond Leigh-Otter who is of course a talking otter. He is accompanied by his trusted companion, Ratsi. What follows is a trip to Paris in the Grandville district. The action never stops, there are chases, break ins, visits to drug dens, and a conspiracy to uncover.


The devices in the story are pure steampunk. There are automated robots, sword canes, old fashioned carbines, and of course trains. The animals are mostly drawn in period costumes from the Victorian era. I especially like how the turtle diplomat is drawn.


The setting is a Europe where Napoleon has conquered the continent and is firmly ensconced in power. England has gained its independence by guerrilla warfare. There are many references to the British being thought of as anarchists or terrorists. They even make reference to a "ground zero" where the British are thought to have blown up the French Robida tower. Not surprisingly there is a lot of political commentary and intrigue in this graphic novel. There is even a scence where people are protesting the communards in French Indochina.


This is a great story with wonderful art. Bryan Talbot is considered one of the first comic artists for steampunk. He is known for his story, The Adventures of Luther Arkwright. I think Grandville is his best story to date. He has drawn many graphic novels. Another one I can recommend by him is The Tale of One Bad Rat.


If you like comic art you will love this. Even if you don't like comic art in general, this book is exceptional in its quality. I can highly recommend it.

Daily Thoughts 12/4/2009

David Laing, 1862, by William Fettes Douglas (1822-1891), National Gallerys Scotland, Accession no. PG 2041, Medium: Oil on canvas, Size: 25.50 x 63.50 cm; Credit: Given to the Royal Scottish Academy by the artist 1862; presented to the National Gallery of Scotland by the RSA 1910 and transferred to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery 1964

Daily Thoughts 12/4/2009

I spent some time ordering books this morning. I read the latest New York Times Book Review and Kirkus Reviews. I also looked at reviews from various sites again. We have a large year end cash infusion to order a variety of materials. This will allow me to order some graphic novel sets instead of individual issues and pick out some of the better quality titles I missed during the year for literature as well as get some newer computer books.

I am also starting the process of creating a "Graphic Novels Club". I just got a new library card for the club and put a bunch of Neil Gaiman's Sandman on hold. I see lots of book clubs at libraries, but no graphic novel clubs. Another name that was suggested was "Manga Lounge". I think "Manga Lounge" would work better for teenagers.

I read some more of Trust Agents by Chris Brogan during lunch time over coffee at the local diner. Chris Brogan has a real knack for describing nonintrusive methods for networking. He describes how to maximize contacts instead of pushing on individuals. This evening, I finished reading it. If you read carefully, he makes some useful suggestions for social media. I used a few of his suggestions to clean up my twitter account partially.

Daily Thoughts 9/11/2009

Idealporträt des Johann Faust (oil on canvas, 117 x 88 cm), Anonymous German Painter

Daily Thoughts 9/11/2009

This morning, I finished reading Graphic Novels Now Building, Managing, and Marketing A Dynamic Collection by Francisca Goldsmith. Francisca Goldsmith is a young adult librarian at Berkeley Public Library in California. It was an enjoyable quick read. The summaries of concepts on graphic novels were well done. I also liked the internet site lists for graphic novels. I rather like http://www.artbomb.net/home.jsp Artbomb, and Grovel http://www.grovel.org.uk/category/review/ .

The book includes places to find sample collection development policies, an index, a short selection list, and some excellent simple descriptions on the basics of what a graphic novels are. It is a nice introduction for librarians who are starting to add graphic novels to their collections. It is also short, being 114 pages in total.

Today has been a solid predictable day. I did more weeding in the 800s, selected some fiction to order, and had a meeting with a publisher this morning. It was rather interesting. They published political books on the left of the spectrum. There were some books on Africa, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and other places which I don't think I could have gotten anywhere else. We try not to endorse a particular political viewpoint.

There is something almost stoic in having to include a variety of different viewpoints which you may not agree with in fact which you can be in direct opposition with. Epictetus is very good for understanding phhilosophical detachment. It is almost fundamental to understand the idea of understand your opponent so you can overcome them. I sometimes take a minute to read philosophy when it gets to be a little bit much. Marcus Aurelius seems to be good for this, so do things like the Tao Te Ching, Chuang Tzu, or Rumi. It distracts you and takes you away from things.

Daily Thoughts 9/10/2009

Cartoonist Will Eisnerat the Inkpt Awards ceremony at the 1982 San Diego Comic Con (today called Comic-Con International).Photo taken by Alan Light from Wikipedia. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.

Daily Thoughts 9/10/2009

Right now, I am reading Graphic Novels Now Building, Managing, and Marketing A Dynamic Collection by Francisca Goldsmith. This book is about graphic novels in libraries. It is short and easy to read. The book is 114 pages long and is very direct. I am in the second chapter now. It has already mentioned Art Spiegelman's Maus and Will Eisner's A Contract With God.

I walked to my local library after I got a haircut. It is nice outside. The public internet computers were not working, but I did pick up a book. It was something that I had also ordered for my library Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 The Authorized Adaptation by Tim Hamilton. This is the graphic novel version of Fahrenheit 451. It is sitting in front of me. I just read the introduction to the graphic novel by Ray Bradbury. Think of why you would want to save books and what they mean to you.

I enjoyed reading the graphic novel. It is very different than reading the book. It changes the way you see the novel, because there are visuals that go with the words. You see the television rooms, the bibles, the mechanical dog, the books being burned with kerosene, and the hunted fireman. It clarifies the story and makes it very different.

The message is even more relevant today. Physical books are becoming a niche product. More people read on computers and look at computers than read books. Is this the same as looking at books? Are books cultural objects made of paper with a specific design that is different than what is on a computer screen? What is interesting is that firemen who burned the books had manuals on how to burn the books. I liked the detail from a picture on page 34 that Benjamin Franklin was a book burner in graphic novel of Fahrenheit 451. It shows how distorted things can get

The graphics are in muted colors, blue greys, reds, greens, whites, and blacks. The colors add a very dark edge to the graphic novel which is completely appropriate. There are numerous captions on the panels with descriptions that come directly from the original novel. Also there is a lot of dialogue. What is truly interesting is that there are very few thought balloons, the written content is mainly captions and people talking to each other.

There is also a much greater sense that it is the future than the original novel because there are pictures of some futuristic things. It is not a bright future. It is a very dark future. The firemens job is to burn books. It is the idea that people will willingly turn to entertainment instead of the written word because it brings "happiness". This is a world of engineers where people learn how to do things the societies way rather than why the world works. There is only debate among the book burners, the "firemen". There are also some themes I missed when I read the printed novel, pedestrians in Fahrenheit 451 are considered strange. You are supposed to drive everywhere. I rather like being a pedestrian.

I also like in the introduction to the graphic novel, Ray Bradbury asks us to find a book which we would like to memorize. This adds to the ending of the novel where people who live on the edges of society memorize books so they will be preserved for when they can begin printing them again. If they are caught with a book it will be destroyed. This is an excellent adaptation of the book to graphic form. I think it is well worth reading.

Something to remember is that graphic novels are more than just words, they exist in two places, text and visuals. It is interesting that Ray Bradbury in Fahrenheit 451 says people still read comics, they are not considered books. They are, just in a different sense.

Daily Thoughts 8/21/2009

Gore Vidal at age 23, November 14, 1948, Carl Van Vechten Photographer, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Daily Thoughts 8/21/2009

Today was a nice quiet day. I spent more time weeding the poetry section. There are a lot of books with literary merit, many of our poetry books are part of the Pitt poetry series, the National Poetry Society Awards, the Yale Younger Poets series, and from various university imprints. There are also a lot of recognized names like Allan Ginsberg, Diane Di Prima, Billy Collins, W.S. Merwin, Jack Kerouac, Theodore Roethke and other poets.

Tomorrow I am going on vacation so I spent a little bit of time making sure everything was in order. We had a rastafarian poet teach a poetry class last night. There were nineteen people there. A large number of them were from the local youth shelter which was a surprise. We also had a business computer class in our computer lab which has eight terminals. It went pretty well.

I am thinking about how to do a graphic novels club. One of our library aides reviews manga. Hopefully, it will be a success. I have to figure out what to do right now for the club. We are also thinking about getting a poet who can slam. I know a bit about poetry, but I think a slam poet might draw a larger group of interested people.

Web Bits

100 best twitter feeds for the librarian of the future. http://ow.ly/kznE

Daily Thoughts 7/20/2009 ( Talent Is Overrated ) ( Kreativ Blogger Award )

This was an appreciation award given by William Bentrim http://bookrevues.blogspot.com/

Herodotus and Thucydides

Daily Thoughts 7/20/2009

We created a new section for citizenship books and material next to the ESL books. I think it is the right practical thing to do. I also have been checking for books to mend and clean. They are mainly replacing plastic covers on books.

My orders were put in for the month this morning for July. I am putting in fiction orders for August. I like to be well ahead of time on ordering things.

Right now the computer technician is setting up a laptop with a handheld scanner so I can check the shelves without bringing the books upstairs and downstairs. It will make things go much faster.

They are shifting books to make room in the 700s. Hopefully, when they are done, I think there will be a little extra room and I will be able to merchandise the graphic novels.

We have a new part time librarian who came in today. I am looking forward to working with him. It has been a nice quiet day today at the library.

Sometimes I don't have a huge amount to say. I read some more of Talent Is Overrated by Geoff Colvin. I am learning about the difference between practice and "deliberate practice". Deliberate practice is practice focused around improving specific skills using expert instruction. This is what separates the practice of experts like Jerry Rice, the football star, and Ben Franklin who spent hours every single day practicing his writing.

An example of how I might use "deliberate practice" to improve my writing skills would be for me to read Fowler's English Usage and then The Elements of Style, followed by learning more about wordprocessing software, then taking O. Henry's short stories and rewriting them in my own words.

As a condition of the award, I have to list seven of my favorite things.

1. Walking, I try and walk a lot on the weekends.
2. Libraries ( I go there a lot)
3. Bookstores (Especially ones like the Strand)
4. Conventions ( Comic and book conventions are best )
5. Reading ( I even like reading labels on cereal boxes )
6. Cartoons (The old ones are best, Superman, Betty Boop, Popeye )
7. Coffee ( I drink too much coffee)

My favorite blogs:

1. Joe Wikert's Publishing 2020 Blog http://jwikert.typepad.com/the_average_joe/
2. Kimbooktu http://kimbooktu.wordpress.com/
3. Read Street http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/books/blog/
4. I'll Never Forget The Day I Read A Book http://residentreader.blogspot.com/
5. The Thin Red Line http://libdrone.info/
6. Cromely's World http://cromely.blogspot.com/
7. Pick of the Literate http://bookrevues.blogspot.com/
   
   

Daily Thoughts 6/26/2009

Portrait of a Man of Noble Birth With a Book by Hokusai

Daily Thoughts 6/26/2009

Today has been a pleasant day. I read some more of Ad Nauseam on the subway to work. It is a rather entertaining critique of advertising. A lot of it is very funny. I especially liked an interview on an extreme fan of the Little Mermaid. People are devoted to commercial products in extreme ways.

This morning, I have been organizing things a bit to prepare for next week.

I also learned that the American Library Association has a Wiki. There is a section on it for graphic novels which is something I enjoy a lot. http://wikis.ala.org/professionaltips/index.php/Graphic_novels

Today was a rather quiet day. We are labeling in the sorting area for books. We are also rearranging the shelving. I pulled some more gift books to be added. We are creating another bookmark this time for books on autism.

I took a break this evening and watched some of the Max Fleischer Betty Boop cartoons on dvd. I checked it out from the library. Fleischer Studios has some fantastic old fashioned cartoons. I find the music and artistic quality to be better than many of the more modern cartoons. Small Fry by Fleischer Studios is one of my favorite cartoons.