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Frankly, I'm surprised I couldn't come up with more.

Zombie Baseball Beatdown, by Paolo Bacigalupi

If you've got readers clamoring for the gruesome, then look no further: This book is so gross! SO GROSS! Lots of gore, lots of poop, lots of hideous goings-on at the local slaughterhouse and meat-packing plant. I wouldn't be surprised to see a few young omnivores go vegetarian after reading it.

What would you do if the zombie apocalypse started in your own town? Middle school baseball players Rabi, Miguel, and Joe don't just fight for their lives, they try to follow in the footsteps of their hero Spider Jerusalem—the fact that they were Transmetropolitan fans made me shriek with joy—to reveal the corruption and greed that caused it, as well as the people who are still trying to cover it up.

Holy cow, for a small book, it deals with a LOT of stuff, and it deals with it in depth. The banter between the boys is excellent and funny, as are the dynamics of their friendship: they always have each others' backs, there's complete trust and affection there, and they all know how to play to each others' strengths.

They all have large issues to contend with—Rabi is the main target of a racist bully on their team, Miguel's parents have been deported due to their immigration status and lives in fear of the rest of his family being picked up next, and Joe's father is a mean drunk—but while the issues certainly have a bearing on the storyline and on their worldviews, they're dealt with in a pretty matter-of-fact, non-preachy
way. The immigration storyline, especially, was well-handled: Bacigalupi doesn't get into the politics, he just tells a story in which a kid has to deal with a situation that is (and has always been) completely out of his hands, but that has a direct impact on his future. Basically, Bacigalupi focuses on people, rather than on policy. Interwoven into all of it is a dark thread about money equaling power, but it does end on a hopeful note that suggests that information, knowledge, and—this is so awesome—STORY will eventually punch through it all.

It won't be for everyone—like I said, SO GROSS—but I really enjoyed it.

My Boyfriend is a Monster #1: I Love Him to Pieces, by Evonne Tsang and Janina Görrissen

These books are new to me: according to the website, it's a series of stand-alone horror/romance graphic novels. In this first one, high school softball star Dicey Bell and science geek/gamer Jack get paired up for a class project, sparks fly, and then they have to team up to fight a zombie uprising. So it looks like it's the old Opposites Attract And Have To Find A Way To Contend With Their Differences Amid Unrelated Chaos storyline. Of which I am a fan, so I'm going to pick it up soon. 

Can you think of any others?

I read Relish, by Lucy Knisley, which is an adorable graphic coming-of-age memoir that's centered around food and travel. I loved how she showed her parents' parallel interests post-divorce: both parents are extremely food-oriented, and both are world travelers, but they prefer to experience food and the world very differently, which in turn allows Lucy a broader range of experience. And I loved her philosophy about food, which lines up quite neatly with mine about books: like what you like, and make no excuses for your taste. ALSO. Each chapter ends with a related recipe (huevos rancheros! pasta carbonara! sushi!), and MAN OH MAN, if Knisley wrote an entire cookbook in this format, I'd buy it in a hot second. Love.

I also read Stephanie Kate Strohm's Confederates Don't Wear Couture, which, like its predecessor, is funny and light and chock-full of cool historical facts. While the rom-com angle wasn't as strong as in the first book—I never find it as satisfying when characters have gotten together and then conflict is introduced purely to Create Tension—it's still an entertaining, fun romp, and I very much hope for more. (Yay for more Dev Ravipati in this one, though I do admit that I was completely thrown when he used the word 'tranny'. Use of the word—in that specific situation, especially—would be in keeping with his personality, though, as he tends to not be remotely interested in political correctness, etc. See: his response to Libby's surprise about his lack of qualms re: the murky ethical questions that surround Civil War reenactments.) Bonus points for all of the info about historical reenactments (cultural as well as mechanical), for the suggestions for further reading, and for discussing the problematic aspects of celebrating and glorifying certain parts of history without ever completely taking sides on the issue.

_____________________________________

Book source(s): ILLed through my library.

Follow-up question: Did my first question make me sound like a stalker?

Follow-up to my follow-up: Who else cried at the end of Donald Glover's last Community episode?

Previously.

It's tomorrow!

Need a store locator? 

There's one right here!

At SF Signal: 

MIND MELD: Webcomics You Should Be Reading Right Now

Annnnnd there goes my productivity for the day.

From the NYT:

The College of Charleston, a public university, provided copies of Ms. Bechdel’s memoir to incoming students for the 2013-14 academic year, as part of its annual College Reads! program that tries to encourage campus-wide discussion around a single book each year. The books are not required reading.

But one state representative, Garry Smith, told South Carolina newspapers this winter that he had received a complaint about “Fun Home” from a constituent whose daughter was a freshman at the college. Mr. Smith contacted the college to ask about other options for College Reads!, and said he was told there were none. Mr. Smith then proposed cutting $52,000 – roughly equivalent to the cost of the reading program, he said – from the college’s $20 million appropriation from the state. The budget cut is now moving through the legislature; South Carolina news media coverage indicates some sizable political support for the cut.

...has been released.

The YA contenders are:

Battling Boy, by Paul Pope
Bluffton: My Summers with Buster, by Matt Phelan
Boxers and Saints, by Gene Luen Yang
Dogs of War, by Sheila Keenan and Nathan Fox
March (Book One), by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell
Templar, by Jordan Mechner, LeUyen Pham, and Alex Puviland

Click on through for the other categories!

...have been announced.

The YA winner is: Boxers & Saints, by Gene Luen Yang.

Click on through for the other winners and finalists.

In an effort to thwart the robbery of a Van Gogh—hilariously, the robbers are taking advantage of the chaos surrounding a publicity stunt robbery okay-ed by the museum and carried out by a world-famous performance artist—the Dead Boy Detectives, Edwin and Charles, save the life of Crystal Palace, the performance artist's daughter.

For a moment, unlike most people, she SEES them. And not only does she see them, but she notices the Saint Hilarion's badge on Edwin's uniform. So, when she comes to, she asks her parents to send her away to boarding school—specifically, to St. Hilarion's.

Knowing that the place is FULL OF EVIL DOERS, the boys bravely follow her, returning to THE ONE PLACE IN THE WORLD THEY WANT TO AVOID.

Artwork?

I liked the muted colors in the flashback panels, and how Crystal is drawn more distinctly than the boys. I love that different fonts are used to differentiate between the two narrators, and how the choice of font evokes two very different voices. 

I also especially liked the parallel images in the section where the boys tell us about their pasts through tandem flashbacks.

Writing?

Their voices aren't just distinct because of the font:

Edwin Paine: The young lady had swooned away, and was now deeply unconscious.

Charles Rowland: The babe was out cold.

Heh. And I love that in case a reader didn't go in aware of the fact, that the authors make it clear in a few way that this is in the same universe as Sandman, the most obvious being this:

Edwin: What if Death had come?

Charles: She didn't.

Lots of other stuff, too: Crystal's desire to be a normal kid; her parents' total self-absorption; the friendship between Edwin and Charles; the easily-drawn connection between the horrors of what happened to them at Hilarion's and the horrors that still go on in schools and colleges today; and then of course the intimations of HUMAN SACRIFICE AND PURE EVIL.

Note to self: never trust a dude with a pipe shaped like a devil's head.

Keep going?

HECK, YEAH. Also! I clearly need to revisit Sandman, which is where the boys first appeared, and I need to read the Children's Crusade crossover series, because they pop up there, too. So many things to read! I AM GOING TO BE SO BROKE.

Book source: Purchased.

...in a nutshell:

(Minus the sentimental part. Basically just, I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU.)

I realize that it's semi-ridiculous to only now be jumping on this particular bandwagon, but...

It occurred to me last night that somewhere along the way, Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid has replaced Louise Rennison's Angus, Thongs, and Full-frontal Snogging as my go-to comfort re-read. 

The books are smart, and the illustrations don't just act as punchlines or to rehash what's already gone on in the prose—as in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, they serve to forward the story and the character development. Greg is an imperfect protagonist: smart but almost entirely unmotivated, a boy who doesn't appear to have an altruistic bone in his body, who occasionally acts ABYSMALLY towards others (and doesn't usually even entirely realize it), but who's easy to relate to and is almost always likable. The secondary characters are, like him, imperfect but mostly likable (especially his mother and Rowley, but even Rodrick, who just KILLS me).

As is the case with the traditional comic format, since Kinney forces the reader to rapidly alternate between mediums, they're deceptively complex reads, which makes me all the happier that they're so popular with reluctant readers. (Very sneaky, Mr. Kinney!)

They capture the day-to-day triumphs, embarrassments, and injustices that a middle school boy experiences (and in that last case, occasionally doles out), and they're mostly realistic and believable in a tall-tall kind of way, but more than anything else, they're FUNNY. Like, laugh-out-loud, shake-the-bed-until-Josh-is-forced-to-stop-reading-his-own-book-to-see-what's-set-me-off-this-time*, read-the-books-over-and-over-and-over-again-until-they-fall-apart FUNNY.

Anyway, I'm sure you already know all of the above. So really, what all of that boils down to is this: I JUST NEEDED TO SQUEE.

__________________________________

*The other day, he asked me who the author is, which means that he's TOTALLY considering reading them.

I think it was probably the name of Rodrick's band that finally tipped him over the line from finding the books Amusing-by-Proxy to Actively-Interesting.

I tried to play it cool, but I might have tipped my hand by tackle-hugging him and squealing, "ARE YOU GOING TO READ THEM? ARE YOU? ARE YOU? THEY'RE SO MUCH FUN, I KNOW YOU'LL LOVE THEM! HERE, LET ME READ YOU MY FAVORITE PARTS!!"

Hopefully I didn't scare him off...

From Diamond Bookshelf:

There are a couple of options for libraries who would like to hand out comics for Free Comic Book Day:

The first option is to partner with a local comic shop. If you don’t have a shop in mind or aren't sure which shops are in your area, see the Comic Shop Partners page on this site, which will direct you to the Diamond Comics' Comic Shop Locator Service and explain our School & Library Partner icon.

For detailed tips on finding or approaching a shop for potential partnership, see our How to Work with Your Local Comic Shop article which was published in the BookShelf print magazine issue #14.

If you're looking to order Free Comic Book Day comics from a shop, it's important to keep in mind that retailers order their FCBD issues and promotional items in January, so the sooner you can contact them and let them know what you’re looking for, the better.

(via Joe)

Also amazing is his Twitter "apology", which doesn't EVEN MENTION DANIEL CLOWES:

I was truly moved by his piece of work & I knew that it would make a poignant & relevant short. I apologize to all who assumed I wrote it.

— Shia LaBeouf (@thecampaignbook) December 17, 2013

Full story at BuzzFeed, of all places.

Gene Luen Yang, interviewed at the NBA ceremony by Ed Champion.

And suddenly, I feel far less embarrased about preferring Arrow to Agents of SHIELD:

There is an undercurrent of angst in Agents of SHIELD, with Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) occasionally gazing out of a tiny aeroplane window pondering his mysterious death and resurrection. But since every single SHIELD character is primed to communicate in quips and pop-culture references, it can be hard to downshift into non-snarky melodrama. Every single Arrow character feels guilty about forbidden love or killing someone or being an alcoholic, and they're happy to talk about it at great length without cracking wise. Weirdly, these Sunset Beach excursions make Arrow feel more like an old-fashioned comic book.

I am posting this image purely for my sister, who continues watching the show in the hope that Ollie will do that ladder pull-up stunt again.--->

Jeff Smith* has launched a free webcomic at his website that, according to PW, "is set during the ice age and is the story of the first human to leave Africa".

He's updating it three times a week and it starts here.

____________________________

*The creator of Bone, which I still haven't read. Yes, I know, I KNOW.

From Comic Book Resources:

The school board in the Japanese city of Matsue has restricted student access to Keiji Nakazawa’s Barefoot Gen, the autobiographical story of a six-year-old boy who survived the Hiroshima bombing.

The board ruled that the book will remain in elementary and junior high school libraries but only teachers will have access to it; students will not be allowed to check it out.

Yeah, I'll totally read this:

From CBR:

“I’m very involved with in global activism and philanthropy. I like the idea of everyday people doing good,” explained Milano. “My inspiration for Hacktivist is actually Jack Dorsey, the creator of Twitter and Square. I picture him leaving the office at night and going home, where he locks himself in his room and starts hacking to change the world.

“I felt Hacktivist was a strong story that I really wanted to tell visually,” Milano expressed. “Doing a graphic novel allowed me to dream big and it gave me the freedom to create without boundaries.”

I have nothing against Alyssa Milano.

Nevertheless, my kneejerk aversion to celebrity authors has kicked in BIG TIME.

From the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund:

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is proud to offer “Raising a Reader! How Comics & Graphic Novels Can Help Your Kids Love To Read!,” a resource for parents & educators about the learning benefits of comics! This new resource is written by Dr. Meryl Jaffe, with an introduction by three-time Newbery Award honoree Jennifer L. Holm (Babymouse, Squish) and art by Eisner Award winner Raina Telgemeier (Smile, Drama) and Eisner Award nominee Matthew Holm (Babymouse, Squish). Raising A Reader! was made possible by a grant from the Gaiman Foundation.

Please be better than the movie.

Please, please, PLEASE be better than the movie:

The network and its studio counterpart has given a put pilot commitment to an adaptation of Moore and Kevin O'Neill's widely popular graphic novels League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

At Shelf Awareness:

Click through for the whole thing, it's adorable.

Do I have this figured out right? The first Baby-Sitters Club book came out in 1986, and the girls were in seventh grade. According to Wikipedia, they were thirteen. So, assuming that my simple math is correct, Stacey would have been born in 1973?

It seems weird that Stacey McGill is older than me.

ANYWAY, it's her birthday. According to this calendar, at any rate.

So I shall point you back to my post about Raina Telgemeier's comic-style version of the first book in The Baby-Sitters Club series: Kristy's Great Idea:

It's all in here—Kristy's bossiness and her issues with her parent's divorce; Stacey's secret diabetes and boy-craziness; Mary-Anne's sensitivity and her very protective father; Claudia's solid relationship with Mimi and her difficulties with Janine—without the slog through (admittedly unintentionally hilarious) three paragraph descriptions of Claudia's fashion choices, etc. 

I'm really tempted to sign up for this class through Ball State University:

Gender Through Comics: A Super MOOC is a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) coming Spring 2013 that examines how comic books can be used to explore questions of gender identity, stereotypes, and roles. This highly engaging learning experience is designed for college-age and lifelong learners.

The course, led by Christina Blanch of Ball State University, uses a study of comic books incorporating highly interactive video lectures, online discussions between students, and real-time socially driven interviews. Interviews with the comic industry's biggest names such as Terry Moore, Brian K Vaughan, Mark Waid, as well as others address questions of gender representations and constructions involving both men and women.

Sounds cool, right? The syllabus is here.

(via Adam, who is already signed up!)