Circus and Allied Arts

Circus and Allied Arts

long time no see...

No blogs lately, I've been working on the world's longest annotated bibliographies for the reading I've done so far this semester! I still have 17 annotations to write and found several titles I hadn't included on the bibliography last night. I'm also writing a separate professional bibliography in addition to my bookmarks on Delicious. Its the end of the semester!

On the positive side - I am looking forward to the May 4th release of Otomen 6 and Black Bird 4!

Neil Gaiman Fairy Tale Instructions Book Trailer

I vote this gets included because I love N.G. and its one of the coolest book trailers I've ever seen.

Patty Briggs! Patty Briggs!

So it was another exciting night this week at Murder by the Book. Patricia Briggs was there to sign books, speak, and answer questions. It was great to hear her talk, not just because I'm a big fan, but because she also talked about her graphic novels. She discussed the hold up she has been dealing with producing more graphic novels, caused by a falling out with her graphic novel publishers. She has parted ways with the original company, and is working with a new group who she says are much more professional than the last group.

One of the fans there asked her about how she got interested in writing books about werewolves and the other mythical beasts she writes about and ironically enough (at least for my purposes) it turns out the first time she read about werewolves was in the old Marvel title 'Werewolf by Night.'

I had fun chatting with her one on one about the differential in quality in the graphic novelization of so many of the paranormal titles, and we snickered over my flat out declaration that another novelists manganization was a train wreck. She said she felt like that particular author was very good at describing women's fantasies, which might not translate well into illustration. She also mentioned that part of what made Sherrilyn Kenyon's work so well was that one of her family members was in charge of producing it. It was a great night, and I enjoyed talking to the author and hearing her perspective, along with the highs and lows of getting her work out there.

Look! It's Patricia Briggs, and she's signing my graphic novel!

Photo by moi.

Jim Butcher Book Signing

Look, it's Jim Butcher, and he's signing my graphic novel.

Photo by moi.

Tonight I went to a Jim Butcher book signing and Q&A at Murder by the Book in Houston. Butcher's graphic adaptation of his Dresden Files series have made it onto the YALSA Great Graphic Novel list for 2010. It was a fun night, and he mentioned how much harder the graphic novel had been than he expected it to be. To paraphrase him 'They say a picture's worth a thousand words, and now you have to come up with 15 words to go with six pictures. Except you're the guy who originally came up with the six thousand words that got made into the six pictures.' I thought that was a clever way of looking at it, turning your book into a graphic novel is kind of like super editing for the author isn't it? It was a memorable night, and I made it out with my books by 9:51, which considering I was line #127 was awesome. I wonder when line number 250 will get to go home finally?

Makes me say "Meh."

Okay, first there was Charlaine Harris. She began writing about a plucky gal named Sookie.

Then cam Alan Ball, the guy who sexed up funeral homes on HBO.

Alan decided Sookie and her paranormal pals needed to be sexed up on HBO like funeral homes.

What could be next for Sookie - books, tv... oh, wait, of course... a comic book!

True Blood Comic Announced

This goes back to my whole theory of beating a dead horse till you get every penny out of its hide. Whap, Whap, Whap. When you constantly retell the same stories it can keep other artists unpublished even though they have great stories to tell. My whole reaction to this announcement was "Meh." I like the Sookie books, I like True Blood, but I've read the books and I watch the show... do I really need comics too? Its like the George Lucas business model applied to everything.

PRINTED IN FLIRTY PINK INK!

I finally got my hands on one of the manga titles from the Harlequin Ginger Blossom line that has been released by HQ and Dark Horse. I was vaguely terrified. You would think they had a recipe for success... two power house publishers working together, good illustrators and a story by a famous romance novelist. The illustrations are beautiful, but the plot is really thin (which is a generous description).

In summary: Girl meets Prince when her mother wins a date with him through a raffle at a romance convention. They fall in love immediately, but unfortunately, the prince must marry a wealthy girl to save his bankrupt country! Duty before love! They can never see one another again! Wait! It turns out the wealthy girl is secretly in love with the prince's personal secretary! Next they discover a diamond mine! Hurray! Now the prince and the commoner can fall in love forever!!!

The best part... the whole book is "PRINTED IN FLIRTY PINK INK!"

I can safely say that I have never read a Debbie Macomber novel, and never will after this. This imprint is just a bunch of wasted potential, the dialogue is stilted, the story is too stream lined to be believable, the FLIRTY PINK INK is obnoxious, and its expensive! The Bachelor Prince is about half the length of your normal manga, is 9.99, and treats its readers like they have the IQs of chihuahuas.

The Harlequin Pink imprint is aimed at ages 12 and up, there is another imprint (Harlequin Violet) for ages 16 and up. I don't know if those are PRINTED IN FLIRTY VIOLET INK!

Ashame of you Dark Horse! Ashame of you!

Want to see this terror for yourself? Dark Horse has a preview on their website. Although disappointingly the preview is not PRINTED IN FLIRTY PINK INK!