The Written Nerd

If you have zero to do today, or you're one of those people who can listen to talk radio and work at the same time, here's a little something: BookExpoCast: "What’s Hot, What’s Good, What’s Next in Graphic Novels" This is a panel I sat on at BEA with others far more expert than I: Nick Smith, a librarian with the Pasadena Public Library, Atom Freeman, the extremely knowledgeable owner of Brave New World Comics in L.A. County, and Tom Flinn with comics/pop culture trade rag ICv2 . Milton Griepp of ICv2 was the moderator. Aside from hearing the slightly annoying (lispy/boyish) sound of my voice, you might learn a thing or two about what's been doing well in various comics markets, and what to look forward to. This was where I learned about the Starman Omnibus , which I read with pleasure this summer, and it cemented my desire to read Scott Pilgrim , which has become a teensy obsession. Happy Friday!

Happy Labor Day, all you bookish types! I'm sure anyone who works in an office is far away from a work computer at the moment -- more power to you. For us retail types, it's a work day -- we're taking bets on whether the bookstore will be dead because all the New Yorkers are on vacation, or jumping because all the tourists are on vacation here. With gas prices and the Euro being what they are, my bet's on a sales uptick, but it's anybody's guess --we'll see at the end of the day. It's also my first official day back from my August hiatus -- and I'm surprisingly eager to jump back into the swing of things. You can read about the progress of my bookstore plans on my other blog by tomorrow or so, but today I want to fill you in on some of what's caught my eye over the past month elsewhere in the world of books. * 7/29 A venerable Brooklyn bookstore is moving - but not closing! * 7/30 Danny Fingeroth has a pretty legit list of his top 10 graphic nov...

Like birthdays, I think BEA should just go on and on... so my coverage will continue throughout this week. Graphic novels were a bigger deal at BEA 2008 than they've ever, ever been before. There's been buzz about this crazy new category for several years, but this year comics really came into their own; they didn't need to apologize, they owned the show. It started for me at our Emerging Leaders party on Wednesday night, when I met comics icon/guru Scott McCloud , who opened all our eyes with Understanding Comics and has continued to expound upon the format with humor and erudition. He signed my copy of Making Comics provided by HarperCollins, and by the time I wandered away to continue mingling he and Diamond rep John Shableski (who blogs as The Graphic Novels Guy on Buzz, Balls, and Hype) were both talking a mile a minute about their mutual passion. (Diamond, if you don't know them yet, is the biggest distributor of comics to comic shops and bookstores -- they...

Folks, let's not forget tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day ! Click on the link and enter your zip code to find a shop giving out yummy cartoon goodies near you. And in honor of that (and because I've had an astonishingly good run of comics reading lately), I'd like to present my take on three great recent graphic novels. (Please note I'm starting a new convention of linking to the publisher pages for books I review. That way you can take a look and find out more about the book, and you don't even have to go to Amazon. If you want to get yourself one AND make me happy, I recommend clicking over to Booksense.com to find your local indie bookstore.) American Elf: Book Two by James Kochalka (Top Shelf Productions, February 2007) At the panel on comics and interstitiality at MoCCA the other day, the question of web comics came up (they do kind of fall between your traditional publishing categories, yeah?) and I realized that two of my favorite comics of the last year st...