Word Out 2010

What would it be like being protected by a band of superpower youth?

In the popular manga series The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumia, an average high school freshman, Kyon decides to join a school club. This club only takes in members who have hidden superpowers and its secret mission is to protect the beautiful Haruhi Suzumia.

You can find out more by checking out the manga series! :) I wonder what it would be like to be protected by a group of super youth? What about you?

What a Wonderful World by Inio Asano - Graphic Novel

Do you dream about being a rock star?

Are you being chased by an evil-demon?

What's life like as a teen in Japan?

What a Wonderful World! is the first volume of Asano's two-part manga anthology. Each individual story in this manga is thought-provoking and intriguing. You can relate well to some characters while hating some others but each story is memorable and believable even if the ending may not be what you expected.

Why I Read Why I Killed Peter

If you've read my other posts it's probably clear that I'm a big comic / graphic novel fan.  I was thus especially interested to read Olivier Ka and Alfred's Why I Killed Peter for Word Out.  This is a wonderfully illustrated graphic novel (semi-autobiographical in nature) about the very serious subject of child sexual abuse by a trusted authority figure.  The art is astonishing in its ability to convey the emotional states of the narrator as well as the physical setting and the people in his life.

I recommend very highly, but be aware that this one is pretty intense.  Here's a long review with a number of panels so you can see just how great the art is.

If Kathryn Immonen had Super Powers...

Thanks to author Kathryn Immonen (Patsy Walker: Hellcat)  for agreeing to give us an insight into the life of a comic book writer!

Word Out! (WO!):  So Kathryn, what did you like most about writing the Patsy Walker Hellcat series?

Kathryn Immonen (KI):  The process of getting to know a character during the course of writing a story is absolutely one of the most satisfying experiences and it's always full of surprises.  I think it was Neil Gaiman who said something about learning to write the book that you're writing.  Characters who you think going into it would get along, really don't seem to.  You turn a corner, literally or figuratively, and there's someone, or something! just waiting for you to get there and get to know them.  I've been such a fan of Patsy Walker from way before she ever became Hellcat and right from her first appearance, she's been full of spirit and fun and sarcasm and confidence.  You couldn't stop her with an army of tanks.  But she will stop for lunch.  Right up my alley!

WO!: Do you have any advice for teens that would like to write comics?

Writer's Block Really Sucks...

I’m suffering from writer’s block.  I don’t know what I want to write my Mercury about.  I’ll just use my old stand “blogger starter.”  I just write out the topic and see where this leads me…

I have to write a blog about Mercury by Hope Larson, and I struggling on how I can start this out… I liked the story, but really I got caught up in the artwork more.  I would stare at a panel and think about the different ways in which I could re-interpret it, and wondered if I was “reading” the story right. Was the Mom too paranoid?  Was she right on about her suspicions about the wanderer?  I love graphic novels, and I’m so amazed at the level of care and thought that goes into a Graphic Novel.  I remember pouring over one of the panels in the Graphic Novel and was amazed at how a little change of an eyebrow could alter the entire expression of a face.

In a nutshell, that’s why I love graphic novels.  The beauty is in the simple details of the drawings.  I can pour over a graphic novel and find something new the next time around that could completely change my opinion of the storyline.  It is really hard for me to get passed this road block, but it passed my bench mark for a good read.  Like Alan H., I have a long --- commute to and from work, and I spent the majority of that time reading. 

I know a book is good in the following ways

1. If I miss my subway stop.

2. When I look up from the book, I realize that I’m already at Kennedy and I wondered where exactly did that time go.
 3.  If I want to prolong my journey so that I can finish the book.

Just to finish up the story, I took the subway to Kipling to finish the story.

Hmmm.. what do you know?  I did bang out a blog entry without entirely knowing what I was going to write about… I rule!!!!

How do you guys judge a good book?

Who is “Friend”?

  
 

Manga has always been my all time favourite. Written by the three-time recipient of the prestigious “Japan Shogakukan Manga Award” Naoki Urasawa, who also wrote another popular title, Monster, introduced us to a world filled with adventure, mystery and the unknown.

Meet Tory Woollcott, author of Mirror Mind: Growing Up Dyslexic

Tory is a graphic novelist who just published her first novel.  Mirror Mind is a personal story of her experience growing up with a learning disability. We met at her studio on Markham Street in Mirvish Village.  Check out the final cut:

 

In the interview Tory tells us that her favorite branch is Lillian H. Smith because she likes the architecture and special collections.  What is your favorite branch and why?

Can a Canadian graphic novel series become a summer blockbuster?

I was introduced to the Scott Pilgrim series by a colleague in the first year that I worked at the library. She dragged me to a signing at some bar near Christie Pits. I had never heard of Bryan Lee O’Malley, let alone ever heard of the name Scott Pilgrim. I went to be her moral support and to keep her somewhat entertained as we waited in the longer than I had expected line. She showed me her copy of the first two novels and how they both contained scenes at a Toronto Public Library. I had to admit I was somewhat impressed that this author had included scenes at two different libraries. There must be something to him I mused.

I went to work the next day and I found out that Scott Pilgrim was much more popular than I thought, I was going to be waiting a good long time until I got my copy of the first book “Scott Pilgrim: Precious Little Life”, but my branch did have a copy of one of his other works entitled “Lost at Sea”.