Travel Grants to Chicago ALA 2023 Annual Conference

Through the Comics Librarian Conference Travel Grant, the GNCRT will support two travel grants for GNCRT members to attend the 2023 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, IL this June.

These grants are intended to support the professional development of library workers interested in expanding their knowledge and experience with comics in libraries. Through these grants, GNCRT seeks to highlight the value “comics librarianship” brings to the field.

Each grant winner will receive reimbursement of up to $3,000 toward their attendance at the upcoming 2023 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, IL. 

Grant applications are due April 1, 2023. Learn more at here 

Thanks to 3/10/23 Nic News Weekly for the tip!

ALL.THE.THINGS. with Jonathan Dolce - April 2021

The inimitable Jonathan Dolce (he of the "free") is back blogging at the ALSC Blog this week. And he is sharing all the FREE ideas that he can put together revolving around spring.  There are ideas for poetry; earth day ideas; STEM ideas; program ideas; teen program ideas; a h/t to Beverly Cleary; new online books that are free; comic book updates; and really all the free things Jonathan can gather.

And best of all, he provides outstanding links to all this material. So stop here and start clicking the links and finding great ideas to make your community truly excited about the library!

ALSC Graphic Novels Reading List 2018

Have the kids read through all the graphic novels that you usually recommend? Are you looking at near-empty shelves and needing inspiration? If that situation sounds familiar, here's some assistance coming your way!

ALSC's Quicklists Consulting Committee has announced their 2018 Graphic Novel Reading Lists. Download the lists HERE.

2018 Eisner Awards

The Eisner Awards recognize and highlight creative achievement in American comic books.  Categories include: Best Writer/Artist, Best New Series, Best Digital Comic, and Best Publication for Teens.

The theme for the Eisner winners this year seemed to be . . . monsters.  Marjorie Liu's Monstress and Emil Ferris' My Favorite Thing is Monsters, each earned several awards and recognitions.  Find a complete list of the 2018 Eisner Award Winners HERE.

Women in Comics - Looking Ahead to 2018

With the turn of the year, there are always LISTS.  Lists of favorite books from 2017, lists of upcoming must-reads, or soon-to-be-movies.  In their midst, the YALSA Hub put out a great list of forthcoming comics and graphic novels by women coming our way in 2018.  Some highlights include:

All Summer Long by Hope Larson – Hope Larson’s latest graphic novel is all about summer break. Bina’s not so sure about spending her summer without her best friend Austin, but while he’s gone she’s able to forge a new friendship with Austin’s sister and spend plenty of time on her music. When Austin gets back from his time at camp, will their friendship still be as strong as ever?



 
The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang – Prince Sebastian leads a busy life. His parents are eager for him to marry and are looking for a wife for him. But, at the same time he is leading a secret double life as Lady Crystallia, who becomes a fashion icon with the help of his friend and personal dressmaker Frances. But, how will Sebastian’s need for secrecy work with Frances’ desire to become a famous fashion designer?



Fence written by C.S. Pacat with art by Johanna the Mad – Regular readers of this feature may recall Fence from the November post, but the first collected volume of the series will be released in the summer of 2018. This series has it all, sports, competitions, high school drama, romance! It is well worth adding to your collection, particularly since fencing doesn’t typically get much attention in comics or young adult literature.


Check out the whole list HERE.

Start Planning Free Comic Day Activities Now

Saturday May 17 is the big day! And it's not too soon to start planning for a day that puts kids and comics together. This Teen Services Underground post has great ideas to make this day a monster success!

Women in Comics: Cooking Comics

Comics and cooking?  YES!  Carli Spina over at YALSA's The HUB has compiled a genius list of women-authored comics, graphic novels, and manga that focus on cooking.  Titles include:

• Kitchen Princess by Natsumi Ando and Miyuki Kobayash 
• Space Battle Lunchtime Volume 1: Lights, Camera, Snacktion! by Natalie Reiss 
• Cook Korean! A Comic Book With Recipes by Robin Ha 
• Bake Sale by Sara Varon

 

Many of the listed comics include recipes to try!  Check out the entire tasty list HERE.

What About Webcomics?

"What in the world is a webcomic?"

Recently, I posed this query to one of my TAG teens, and the responding look is one that I am growing incredibly familiar with.  It was a look of "Oh man, this lady is SO out of the loop."  Anyway, when we finally got past the significant disbelief in my apparently flagrant lack of knowledge on the subject, I was informed that webcomics are like, a Thing (yes, with a capital "T").  A webcomic is simply that, comics published on a website.  They can take various forms, from comic strips, to comic blogs, to full graphic novels.

Not sure if this format for comics really matters?  Well, Gene Luen Yang's Printz and Eisner winner,  American Born Chinese was originally published as a webcomic.

Not sure where to start exploring webcomics?  Here are some interesting intro sites and articles to get you started:

Webcomics World

The Booklist Reader: Webcomics Wednesday

Hey, Women! Comics!: Webcomics

BuzzFeed 

Want to read a webcomic?  Try one of these:

Unshelved

xkcd

Princess Princess

Hark! A Vagrant

 

Comics at the Library

Wiki Commons

Comics and graphic novels are popular at my library. I found a few simple, passive program ideas in the presentation "Making Comics: Comics Conference for Educators and Librarians" by Jack Baur and Matthew Murray.

In the children and teen areas, you can have fill in the blank comics.  Kids can rewrite the dialog to an already existing popular comic. 

Kids and teens can also create their own comics but with a twist, like a choose your own adventure.  There are also instructions in the presentation on how to make a mini-zine. You can have either the materials and instructions in the Library or as part of a program.

Fun Tidbits

Great gift idea for another librarian in your life: 2012 Calendars!

Fun posters for the inner child: Minimalist Children's Stories (thanks to Shawn Brommer for posting this on FB!)

Remember those librarians on horseback? Check out this one on a donkey: Biblioburro

Comic books on the Joy Cardin show! Go to July 28th of 2011.

With comic-book movies dominating the theaters, Joy Cardin and her guest look at the appeal and impact of comic books and graphic novels. Guest: Qiana (kee-AH-nuh) Whitted, Associate Professor of English and African-American Studies University of South Carolina; her classes include "Modern Graphic Novels" and "Comic Books, Race, and History"

Tidbits

We've lost the author of Redwall, in case you missed the news.

Have you seen the latest support of libraries?

• Adam Smith Institute
• Will Wheaton
• Philip Pullman

If you've seen more, post the links in the comment section!

Here's a fun page of comics, images and posters about libraries.

Beyond Comic Books: Marvel Inks Kids' Book Deals

From Publishers Weekly Online

Beyond Comic Books: Marvel Inks Kids' Book Deals
By Calvin Reid
May 03, 2010

Marvel Entertainment, the publisher of such popular superhero characters as Spider-Man, Iron Man, and the Hulk, has inked separate deals to launch a children's book publishing program at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and to expand its publishing partnership with Bendon Publishing in Ashland, Ohio. Both programs feature Marvel characters in a variety of trade books aimed at kids that include novels, early readers, and pop-up books as well as story, activity, and board books.

The deals are being announced just before release of the much anticipated Iron Man 2 film and are geared to both introduce a new generation of kids to Marvel characters and attract existing comic book readers to other kinds of book formats. “The publishing marketplace is an enormously powerful means of attracting new and existing fans,” said Paul Gitter, president of Marvel consumer products for North America.

Beginning in the spring, Little, Brown will release six Iron Man titles and three of the first six Super Hero Squad books, a new series that introduces readers to the superheroes in the Marvel Universe. The titles include readers, 8"×8" storybooks and board books. Little Brown will also publish a junior novel with an eight-page color insert of stills from the forthcoming Iron Man 2 film, and the house has also launched a Web site, ironman2books .com, that offers information about Little, Brown Books for Young Readers movie tie-ins. Andrew Smith, v-p and deputy publisher for Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, said the house was “delighted” to be the reading destination for kids already hooked on reading about Marvel characters.

Gitter said Marvel is expanding an ongoing publishing program at Bendon and plans to release new formats such as coloring books, pop-up books, flash cards, and board books. The program will focus on Spider-Man and other classic Marvel heroes as well as offering Iron Man 2–related works and the Super Hero Squad books.

Sharing More

Time for a little more enabling:

• Did you realize that there was a Chicago Comic Con? Check out this post, which has a link to their main page.
• If you don't already have one, here's another online book club you could check out and/or join.
• Leonard Sax was on Larry Meiller's show on WPR on April 26 (listen to it in the archives) and will be at a conference on June 17 talking about boys and girls at risk.
• Ever seen this? Fairy Tale Forest