Elizabeth Bird

Fusenews: Puppets Puppets Everywhere and Not a Drop to Drink
May 14, 2008

• We've seen webcomics make the successful leap from the screen to the page (Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Jellaby amongst others).  Now things are working the other way around, with publishers suddenly seeing the potential in creating webcomics on their sites.  Not a bad idea, really.  Says Publishers Weekly, "Indie comics publisher Top Shelf Productions will launch an all-new webcomics site on Friday, May 16, spearheaded and edited by Top Shelf publisher Brett Warnock and his co-editor, Leigh Walton. Top Shelf, best known for publishing such inventive and literary graphic novels as Alan Moore’s Lost Girls and From Hell , has titled its new online initiative Top Shelf 2.0. " Makes perfect sense to me.  Publisher puts webcomics on website.  Kids become fans of certain comics.  Those comics become books.  Very simple stuff.  I've included an image here from a webcomic called Love Puppets.  Nuff said.

• More graphic novel news.  There's a nice article in SFGate (can I be forgiven for thinking the SF stood for Sci-Fi and not San Francisco?) that talks about a Stanford class where the students' final project was to create their own graphic novel.

"In a normal writing class, you'd write a poem or finish a chapter and you'd own it," Kealey said. "In this class, we had to collaborate every step of the way, every idea, and make compromises. It was the most difficult and rewarding class I ever taught."

Thanks to Sharon Levin for the link.

• And you thought memes were just for children's literary blogs?  Not so!  The illustration bloggers have been passing around a meme simply called "Draw Yourself as a Teen".  A Dave Valeza started it and has compiled the ever growing list of submissions.  Thanks to Drawn for the link.

• What the.... huh?  From Cynopsis Kids:

There have been endless rumors, but it seems Fraggle Rock is indeed headed to the big screen.  The Weinstein Company (TWC) is working with The Henson Company to bring Jim Henson's Fraggle Rock to the movies, according to Variety .  Produced by Henson, from a treatment developed by Ahmet Zappa and slated be written/directed by Cory Edwards (Hoodwinked), the movie will be distributed by TWC.  The movie will be executive produced by Zappa and Brian Inerfeld.

(Zappa?) Other info is here.

• Interestingly enough, for "Elizabeth Bird":

But for "Betsy Bird":

So there you go.  Thanks to Tea Cozy for the link.

• I never find Daniel Handler (a.k.a. Lemony Snicket) more interesting than when he's reviewing picture books. Re: The latest in Mo, ". . . Willems proves once more that crayoned ornithology and impassioned monologues to the reader — picture, if you possibly can, a production of Eugene O’Neill’s 'Strange Interlude,' directed by Big Bird — can roost indefinitely in literature’s rafters."  A sublime writer.  Perhaps my fav. . . Wait . . . wait, cancel that.  My REAL love is still the one and only Roger Sutton.  Here is a man that will take on dribble without fear. Roger, I salute you.  Thanks to Big A little a for the link.

• There's an exhibit up at Ohio State University's Wexner Center for the Arts Bone and Beyond, the works of Jeff Smith.  Better still, this site shows pics of the show being put up, including the one to the right here. Thanks to Kids' Comics for the link.

• Sure you can come!  Just, for God's sake, don't try to sell anything.  That's the attitude Vicki Cobb has faced when performing school visits in her capacity as an author.  Now on I.N.K. (Interesting Non-fiction for Kids) she presents a piece she wrote for the SCBWI Bulletin About the Selling of Books at an Author's School Visit. I can see both sides on this one, really, but it's interesting to get Vicki's take on the matter.

• Alison Morris takes a look at some new children's book covers, taking time to mention the inherent lameness of The Hunger Games look (my words, not hers) and fan conspiracy theories over why Percy Jackson has short hair on the Battle of the Labyrinth jacket. 

• Fine, fine!  I admit it!  I absolutely love and adore Query Shark.  Are you happy now, you vultures?  Seriously though, Query Shark is completely and utterly fabulous.  The concept is a public service in and of itself.  You merely e-mail Query Shark a query you would send to a potential agent or editor and the Shark will critique it down to a nub of its former self.

• Color me baffled but... bookstores put black authors in separate African-American interest sections?  A new blog called Amistad Confidential looks at the issue.  I don't know of anywhere that does this with children's books (do you?), but it's a hot button topic just the same. Thanks to Galleycat for the link.

• Daily Image:

Looks like Neil Gaiman is a doodling kind of guy.  The National Doodle Day auction is currently going on at eBay.  All proceeds are going to benefit Neurofibromatosis, Inc. Here's what Neil has contributed for potential purchase.  You can find one here and one here.

Posted by Elizabeth Bird on May 14, 2008 | Comments (7)