By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 6/30/2016
According to publisher promotional materials, Ghosts, the new graphic novel by Raina Telgemeier will have a 500,000 copy first printing. I believe this is the biggest first printing ever for a pure graphic novel. (not counting Wimpy Kid this time.) In other words, Raina rules! We finally have a legit home grown best selling cartoonist […]
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 6/22/2015
This news arrived via an email ad blast in my inbox, but it doesn’t change the import of it: Raina Telgemeier’s Smile has been on the New York Times bestseller list for three straight years, and she also recently achieved a rare top four sweep of the spots with Smile, Sisters, Drama and the reissued colorized Babysitter’s Club.
Raina’s selection as Person of the Year was deeply deserved, but it’s significant to me that her stature in the publishing world is probably larger than her profile in the comics world—which isn’t to say that she isn’t a big deal in comics, but kids book are still finding their place at the table usually reserved for superheroes and adult literary comics.
With at least 1.4 million copies of Smile in print, it’s definitely one of the best selling graphic novels in the US. And she has more books on the way—currently Telgemeier is working on a new book that will include “paranormal elements.” Can she have FIVE books on the list at the same time? Stay tuned.
By: Monica Gupta,
on 6/6/2015
Be happy .. आज सुबह घर के सामने दो बच्चे बाते करते हुए किसी तीसरे का इंतजार कर रहे थे. मैं पौधों को पानी दे रही थी और अनायास ही ध्यान उनकी बातों पर केंद्रित हो गया. एक बोला कि वो जब भी किसी से दोस्ती करता है तो यह देख कर करता है कि वो मोटा है या पतला और अगर वो पतला है तो वो दोस्ती नही करता. मैं हैरानी से बात सुन रही थी. दूसरे ने पूछा कि यार ऐसा किसलिए ?? तो वो हाथ हिला हिला कर बोला कि देख यार मोटे हमेशा हंसते रहते हैं और खुश रहते हैं और पतले लोग हमेशा सडे और चिडचिडे होते हैं.
Be happy
इसी बीच उनका तीसरा दोस्त जोकि थोडा मोटा था वो आ गया और वो आगे चले गए. मैं मुस्कुराते हुए सोचने लगी कि शायद बच्चा ठीक ही कह रहा था वैसे मोटे लोग खुश मिजाज ही होते है जबकि पतले लोग … !! वैसे ऐसी बात है भी नही … जो लोग टेंशन नही लेते अपना काम ईमानदारी से निभाते हैं वो खुश ही रहते हैं उसमे मोटे पतले की बात नही है … खैर, ये तो बच्चों का संसार है बच्चो की सोच है … वैसे आप क्या सोचने लगे ….. 
वो कहते हैं ना donat worry … Be happy बात मोटे पतले की नही है बस ऐसे आप हमेशा खुश रहिए आपको देख कर दूसरे भी खुश रहेंगें …
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By: Monica Gupta,
on 4/18/2015
वैसे एक बात तो माननी पडेगी … नेता जी ने सौ फीसदी सच बोला !!!
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By: Monica Gupta,
on 4/18/2015
जैसे जैसे महंगाई का ग्राफ बढ रहा है स्माईल का ग्राफ भी गिरता जा रहा है … अब क्या होगा
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By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 10/27/2014
By Matt O’Keefe
For years there’s been the complaint that comics aren’t for kids anymore. I say that comic shops aren’t (necessarily) for kids anymore. While a lot of what you find in your LCS isn’t geared towards children, there are still a number of avenues where all-ages comics can gain traction. Here are nine of them.
1. The Direct Market
Tiny Titans. Art by Art Baltazar.
Even though most kids haven’t stepped foot into a comic shop, they’re still a big way that comics get into their hands. The best comic book evangelists for children are undoubtedly their parents, the ones paying for their entertainment in the first place. Parents who are comics fans themselves have every incentive to get their children invested in the hobby, which is probably why Tiny Titans, a comic that was popular with readers of all ages, was able to last 50 issues, longer than the majority of kids comics fare.
2. The Supermarket
An Archie digest. Art by Stan Goldberg.
As much success as Archie Comics has had lately in periodicals, the bulk of its sales still come from the digests people find in the checkout line. Comichron reported that Archie sold well over 2 million digests in 2013. That’s no small number, especially in an industry where the #1 book of the month generally tops out at around 150,000 copies.
3. Toy Stores
My Little Pony Micro-Series. Art by Amy Mebberson.
Stores that sell toys have recently become opportunities to sell kids comics. IDW has made great strides by offering mini comics as micro-fun packs. A fan of My Little Pony at the right Toys R’ Us, Target or Walmart has an extra chance to be exposed to comics. Because of the success from that brand, IDW even expanded to offering TMNT micro-fun packs in January.
4. The Web
Cleopatra in Space. Art by Mike Maihack.
Webcomics are a pretty obvious way for kids to be exposed to the medium, only requiring an internet connection as opposed to a car ride to the LCS. While it’s been notoriously hard for creators to make money off of webcomics, things are starting to turn around. Patreon is gaining traction as a way for creators to receive a regular income (The Beat has one!) and kids comics have the kinds of advocators who would be likely to consider pledging. Kids are also perhaps more likely to be excited by memorabilia (such as t-shirts) that serves as supplemental income for webcomic creators.
5. Kickstarter
Aw Yeah Comics. Art by Art Baltazar.
Kickstarter and other crowdfunding sites are accessible ways for creators to sell their comics to kids. Kickstarter and company have built up a large following that’s regularly browsing campaigns they might want to support. Kids probably aren’t browsing Kickstarter, but through the crowdfunder the parents who make the purchasing decisions are given an extra chance to be exposed to comics. It’s been shown that Kickstarters for comics find more success when the comics have had exposure elsewhere. To cite previous successes, Aw Yeah Comics benefited from Art Baltazar and Franco’s audience in the direct market, and Lilith Dark was previously a popular webcomic.
6. Bookstores
Amulet. Art by Kazu Kibuishi.
Major children’s book publisher Scholastic’s GRAPHIX imprint is opening the doors to all-ages comics by releasing critically-acclaimed books such as BONE, Amulet, Smile, and Missile Mouse. Imprints like GRAPHIX are near-impossible to break into, but those who do get a book published by them reap a lot of rewards.
7. Book Conventions
G-Man. Art by Chris Giarusso.
The American Library Association just opened up a spot for an Artist Alley in 2013, so the market is still ripe for conventions that are mostly attended by librarians and book fans. Libraries are often an afterthought in the comic book industry, but librarians are always looking for new stories that will reach kids. Chris Giarruso, the cartoonist behind G-Man and Mini Marvels, said on the Kids Comics Revolution podcast that the ALA Convention was his most important show of the year.
8. School and Library Visits
Smile. Art by Raina Telgemeier.
These are hit and miss, but when they hit they really hit. Raina Telgemeier, the writer/artist of Smile, reported on Gregg Schiegel’s podcast Stuff Said that she’s found a lot of success with such events. Not all visits are gearing towards selling books but, even if creators aren’t making extra revenue off sold copies, they’re steering kids towards the comics medium.
9. Activism
The Zipper Club. Art by Brenda Lopez.
This isn’t necessarily a new outlet to sell comics, but it’s a recently emerging way to gain attention. Maybe the newest form of kids comics marketing that that’s striking a cord with both comic book readers and nonreaders is activism. Comics or graphic novels that raise awareness about certain issues have recently found some success. The Kickstarter for Metaphase, a comic about an invulnerable hero who has a son with Down syndrome, raised almost $10,000. In addition, the Indiegogo-funded The Zipper Club is offering a scholarship to attend a camp for kids with heart defects similar to the one attended by characters in the graphic novel, a particularly clever way to promote kids comics through activism. It demonstrates that there will continue to be new ways to get comics exposed to children.
If you don’t believe comics are for kids anymore, here is a counter to that, showing some of ways they’re still reaching them. This isn’t an article about how to get them into those outlets; that would be a whole series of posts. But, if you’re a creator, maybe this gives you an idea of how or where to sell your all-ages comic. Regardless, it’s nice to think about all the routes that comics still have to reach a younger audience.
Thanks to Michael Lapinski for assisting me with this article.
By: Hannah Paget,
on 9/6/2014
Much of the comment on the official photographic portrait of the Queen released in April this year to celebrate her 88th birthday focussed on her celebrity photographer, David Bailey, who seemed to have ‘infiltrated’ (his word) the bosom of the establishment. Less remarked on, but equally of note, is that the very informal pose that the queen adopted showed her smiling, and not only smiling but also showing her teeth.
It is only very recently that monarchs have cracked a smile for a portrait, let alone a smile that revealed teeth. Before the modern age, monarchs embodied power – and power rarely smiles. Indeed it has often been thought to be worrying when it does. Prime Minister Tony Blair’s endlessly flashing teeth caused this powerful statesman to trigger as much suspicion as approval. The negative reaction was testimony to an unwritten law of portraiture, present until very recently in western art. According to this, an open mouth signifies plebeian status, extreme emotion, or else folly and licence, bordering on insanity. As late as the eighteenth century, an individual who liked to be depicted smiling as manifestly as Tony Blair would have risked being locked up as a lunatic.
The individual who broke this unwritten law of western portraiture was Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun whose charming smile –- at once twinklingly seductive and reassuringly maternal – was displayed at the Paris Salon in 1787. It appears on the front cover of my book, The Smile Revolution in Eighteenth-Century Paris. The French capital had witnessed the emergence of modern dentistry over the course of the century – a subject that has been largely neglected. In addition, the city’s elites adopted the polite smile of sensibility that they had learned from the novels of Samuel Richardson and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Madame Vigée Le Brun’s smile shocked the artistic establishment and the stuffy court elite out at Versailles, who still observed tradition, but it marked the advent of white teeth as a positive attribute in western art.
Yet if Vigée Le Brun’s example was followed by many of the most eminent artists of her day (David, Ingres, Gérard, etc), the white tooth smile took much longer to establish itself as a canonical and approved portrait gesture. The eighteenth century’s ‘Smile Revolution’ aborted after 1789. Politics under the French Revolution and the Terror were far too serious to accommodate smiles. The increasingly gendered world of separate spheres consigned the smile to the domestic environment. And for most of the nineteenth century, monarchs and men of power in the public sphere, following traditional modes of the expression of gravitas, invariably presented a smile-less face to the world.
Probably the first reigning monarch to have a portrait painted that revealed white teeth was Queen Victoria. This may seem surprising given her famous penchant for staying resolutely ‘unamused’. Yet in 1843, she commissioned the German portrait-painter Franz-Xaver Winterhalter to paint a delightfully informal study, that showed the twenty-four year-old monarch reclining on a sofa revealing her teeth in a dreamy and indeed mildly aroused smile. Yet the conditions of the portrait’s commission showed that the seemly old rules were still in place. For Victoria had commissioned the portrait as a precious personal gift for her ‘angelic’ husband, Prince Albert. What she called her ‘secret picture’ was hung in the queen’s bedroom and was not seen in public throughout her reign. Indeed, its display in an exhibition in 2009, over a century after her death, marked only its second public showing since its creation. This was three years after Rolf Harris’s 2006 portrayal of the queen with a white-tooth smile, a significant precursor to David Bailey’s photograph.
If English monarchs have thus been late-comers to the twentieth-century smile-fest, their subjects have been baring their teeth in a smile for many decades. As early as the 1930s and 1940, the practice of saying ‘cheese’ when confronted with a camera became the norm. Hollywood-style studio photography, advertising models and more relaxed forms of sociability and subjectivity have combined to produce the twentieth century’s very own Smile Revolution. So it is worth reflecting whether the reigning monarch’s early twenty-first century acceptance of the smile’s progress will mark a complete and durable revolution in royal portraiture. Seemingly only time – and the Prince of Wales – will tell.
The post Royal teeth and smiles appeared first on OUPblog.
One can learn so much from children. Too often, in our haste to exercise control of every situation, we grown-ups unfortunately root out their innate curiosity and creativity. We drive from point A to point B without noticing the roadside art, whim, and fancy of the trip that is not lost on the childish mind. There is joy to be had in every journey.
I have recently learned you can poke fun at even the vilest of enemies. If you haven’t had a run with my current foe, hold on – cancer will find you somewhere. I don’t wish it on anyone, but unfortunately it worms its way into everyone’s life at some point whether through family or acquaintance. The Myers clan is relatively new at this contest. There is no rule book or instruction manual that I can find. No article 7, subsection 34b that tells us we can’t fight this demon with a joke and a smile.
Sometimes, you have to laugh to keep from drowning in tears. While my bald, frail daughter lays in what was formerly my bed, at times, she seems to find ways to make us smile.
Take for instance a little wresting match with her sister when she attempted to apply a surprise atomic wedgie, but was blocked by the classic counter: the roll onto the back. Rather than move to a frontal assault, she poked her lip out and meekly proclaimed, “But I have cancer.”
With that, her sister waved the white flag, accepted defeat, and soon left the room to repair the damage to her drawers in private.
*****
Just the other day while urging her to drink more water to avoid dehydration and the inevitable trip back to the hospital, I declared, “If you don’t take a drink I’m going to sit on you.”
Her immediate response, “The doctor says you can’t sit on chemo patients.”
Touche, young one! Touche!
*****
Yes, we might be behind shoddy castle walls with little defense besides a catapult and barnyard animals, but we have our smiles and cheery hearts. The enemy can’t take that away.
Now leave before I taunt you a second time!
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 2/20/2013
While cartoonist Raina Telgemeier has been revealing a few details of her next graphic novel on her tour for Drama, Publishers Weekly made it official: her next book will be a companion of sorts to the autobiographical Smile. Called Sisters it deals with “the inner workings of [Telgemeier’s] family,” specifically, her relationship with her young sister, which as you can see from the above artwork posted on her blog, wasn't always smooth sailing.
“With sensitive and humorous prose, J.R. McRae tells a story of family life, love, and acceptance with beautiful illustrations by Linda Gunn. When Pete finds a furry hero, Ink, to solve his dinnertime woes, a nosey neighbor jumps to conclusions that enlarge as Pete’s grandpa comes to visit. When Mrs. Allan’s mother-in-law, Nanny, and Pete’s grandpa take off for an early-morning drive, the assumptions increase until Ink and Grandpa solve the mystery. Perfect for young readers, this book speaks of a boy and his grandpa, a mother defending her son from gossip, and the surprise of love at any age.” ~Janice Phelps Williams, author, illustrator www.janicephelps.com
Promotional poster, by Tara Hale, for “All in the Woods”, Pixiefoot Press, 2011
What’s something you do every day to put a smile on your face?
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Posted on 3/3/2010
After carefully reviewing all of the submissions for the Smile giveaway, Raina and Little Willow have selected two winners. (Note: All of our entries were non-fiction. Thus, we selected two non-fiction winners, rather than one fiction and one non-fiction.) It was very hard to narrow down the field, as all of the entries made us smile and/or laugh and/or wince sympathetically.
Without any further ado, the winners are . . .
Kristy
and
Merrie
Congratulations! Please check your email and respond ASAP so that you may collect your prize: a copy of SMILE by Raina Telgemeier!
Honorable mention:
Cassi
and
Kyubikitsy
Many thanks to all of our entrants for sharing their dental dramas with us. :)
View the original post about the Smile giveaway. Scroll down to the comments section to read the entries.
Check out the exclusive What Makes You Smile? interviews featuring your favorite contemporary authors.
Posted on 2/28/2010
Posted on 2/26/2010
On this winter day in particular: catching up on GLEE, watching the snow fall outside, an iced coffee (yes, even in the cold!) and my party heels, waiting to be worn tonight.
- Melissa Walker
Check out my full-length interview with Melissa.
Read Melissa's definition of hope.
Learn more about Melissa's Violet series, as posted within my But I Don't Want to Be Famous! booklist.
Visit us at readergirlz
This is the final installment of What Makes You Smile? I hope you've enjoyed this series of interviews, and that you've caught yourself smiling while reading. :)
Only two days left to enter the Smile giveaway! Share your story as text, blog, vlog, or art, and you could win a copy of Smile by Raina Telgemeier. Learn more + enter now!
Posted on 2/18/2010
Posted on 2/16/2010
What makes me smile: A seventh grader wrote to me, asking if he could use the Little Green Men idea from Operation Yes to host a fundraiser for Walter Reed Army Hospital at his middle school. Only he was modifying the plan to Little Khaki Men, and was that okay? Oh, YES, I replied, smiling, smiling, smiling.
- Sara Lewis Holmes
Read my full-length interview with Sara.
Read my review of Letters from Rapunzel by Sara Lewis Holmes.
Want to know what makes other authors and readers smile? Follow the series of interviews.
Enter the Smile giveaway! The deadline is quickly approaching!
Posted on 2/15/2010
I love those little moments when you and the person you're with are so in synch, they start humming the song that's in your head. Or they ask the question you're thinking. Or they finish your sentences. Or you say something ridiculous like, "Remember that time with the thing that did that other thing?" And they know EXACTLY what you're talking about. My sister and I have those moments quite a bit, and they never fail to make me smile!
- Courtney Summers
Read my full-length interview with Courtney Summers.
Read my review of Cracked Up to Be, which just won the Cybils Award for Teen Fiction.
I also enjoyed Courtney's second novel, Some Girls Are, which was just as engrossing and realistically blunt as Cracked Up to Be. Review to come when time permits.
Want to know what makes other authors and readers smile? Follow the series of interviews.
Enter the Smile giveaway!
Posted on 2/9/2010
Posted on 2/8/2010
Smile-making: Holding the book-of-my-heart in my hands and knowing all the difficult experiences that fueled its creation were worth it.
- Josie Bloss
Read my full-length interview with Josie Bloss.
I've read and enjoyed all of Josie's books to date: Band Geek Love, the follow-up Band Geeked Out, and the brand-new stand-alone novel Albatross. Give them a try, and share them with others.
Want to know what makes other authors and readers smile? Follow the series of interviews.
Enter the Smile giveaway!
Posted on 1/31/2010
Julie Halpern's fantastically funny novel Into the Wild Nerd Yonder was named one of our January recommended reads by the postergirlz. I asked Julie if she wanted to write a little something about this month's theme. In her own words, she had "a heck of a time coming up with a blog post about risk-taking," so I asked her another question: "What makes you smile?" Here's what she had to say:
I don't consider myself much of a risk-taker, although I have done my share of risk-taking: moving to Australia after college with nothing to do, no one to visit; spending a summer on people's couches in NYC while interning for Nickelodeon; and writing a partially fictitious novel based on my personal experience with depression in high school. However, I just don't have enough risk-taking in my life that I could write an entire blog post about it. Or maybe it's just that I'm such a non-risk-taker, that writing about it stresses me out.
So instead, I'll write about something more pleasant: what makes me smile. I'll get the obvious answers out of the way first. My daughter, Romy, is non-stop inspiration for smiles. She is sweet and funny and adorable and snuggly and by far the best thing I've ever created. Ever. The second smiley thing is, of course, my husband, Matt (otherwise known as children's book illustrator and author, Matthew Cordell). He is an amazing father, friend, and husband, as well as an insanely talented illustrator and author. And he's hilariously goofy. Add to that my beloved and large Siamese cat, Tobin, plus the rest of my family, and thus completes the obvious smiles list.
Thinking on the question of smiles reminded me of something I spoke about at the ALAN Conference this year: why do I write humorous books? And the answer to that is simple: I like to feel good. Writing, for me, is fun. I generally like the characters I'm writing (or love to hate the baddies), and I like the places and events that occur in my novels. It's a pleasure to sit down day after day with these people and experience their stories as I go along (My writing process involves only a little advanced planning, but mostly the character invades my brain and I just write what they have to say). I cannot imagine being a writer who writes deep, dark stories about serious issues in a serious manner. Or a writer who writes murder mysteries or war stories or apocalyptic tales. As much as I love to read all of those types of books, I'm so happy that there are other people out there writing them. I don't think I could sit with the sadness and death and horror of those characters day after day. It would really eat at me. These days, I rarely even choose to watch a movie that I know will be sad, just because I don't want to make myself feel that way. Maybe I'm overcompensating for the bouts of depression that have plagued my life, but I don't really see it as a bad thing. I know what makes me feel good, and I'm trying hard to keep that up. How could anyone argue against smiling?
- Julie Halpern
Enter the Smile giveaway!
Want to know what makes other authors and readers smile? Follow the series of interviews.
By: Kimberly Pauley,
on 1/21/2010
Posted on 1/21/2010
Posted on 1/21/2010
One thing that makes me smile is hearing other people's tooth stories! It gives the storyteller and I something in common, and it's fun to commiserate -- dental drama is much less painful when you realize that everyone goes through it, in one way or another!
- Raina Telgemeier
This is the first in a series of smile-worthy stories from authors and bloggers I'll be posting throughout January and February. Follow the series of smiles.
Enter the giveaway for the graphic novel Smile by Raina Telgemeier.
By: kennpenn,
on 7/6/2009
This fellow is a bit SHAKY after a gluttonous bender. He has eaten his fill and is ready fly to the next level. Washed in the blood of the lamb (chop), he will be born anew. Welcome to a brave new world, maggot.
All about Project Smile – the international goodwill outreach to children and their families.
Jennifer: Hi All! I am interviewing Marek Wysoczyński, Director of the Bureau for the Promotion of Culture, Gdansk, Poland. Marek, would you tell my readers something about yourself and your background, your experience with large scale exhibitions leading up to Project Smile?
Marek:
I studied law at the University of Gdansk where I received my Master of Arts in History degree. I was an actor in the German language Theatre Logos and also a teacher of German. I was a history guide in the Central Maritime Museum, an archivist, teacher of history and a manager for special events. At that time, I created a series of concerts entitled “Music on Water” which have been presented by me on a regular basis since then. I was the director of the Baltic Centre of Culture. I organized the Millennial Concert for Emma Kirkby. I was awarded a Gdansk Millennial Medal. I created the Franciscan Centre of Culture in Gdansk and organized music festivals called “Musica Mariana”.
Marek Wysoczynski generating smiles globally!
As for now, I am director of the Culture Promotion Office and organize various concerts and novel exhibitions all over the World. I was a co-organizer of the Festival of Culture of Europe in Georgia and organized an Opera festival in Dubrovnik. Every year I organize special carol concerts in Palestine and Jerusalem and, last year, I organized one in a Turkish bath in Skopje. The Office, together with the Goethe Institute, organized a series of Polish song concerts sung in German in Paris and Alexandria. My artists performed Ave Maria concerts in various languages (including Arabic) in the Cathedral in Cairo and also in churches in Turkey, Portugal, Romania and Slovenia. They also sang for SFOR soldiers in Bosnia and NATO soldiers in Kosovo. There was also a concert for the Jordanian princess and a Russian song concert organized by the Russian Embassy and the Polish Embassy in Tunisia. The Office promotes musicians, actors and international co-operation in the field of culture.
I organized an exhibition of 1000 autographs as a part of the Millennial Anniversary of the City of Gdansk. That was the start of the idea to collect autographed smiles for Children’s Hospitals and also for other Institutions.
Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, creating a Smile for Marek's Project Smile
The exhibition presented annually during the Polish Films Festival in Gdynia and in Perpignan, in the Institute of Polish Culture in Budapest and during the Festival of Good Mood in Gdansk. The exhibition was also presented in Chelmno in the Town Hall. In May, 2008 the exhibition was presented in Insurgentes Gallery in Mexico and in June in the Children’s Hospital named after Maria Curie Sklodowska in Romania and in Children’s Museums in Italy and in Poland.
Jennifer: In the midst of a very busy position, you have managed to inspire others with a ’brainwave’, the simple but wonderful, empowering concept of an exhibition of ’smiles’ from celebrities of all ilks from all over the world! What started it all? How did you come up with Project Smile?
The Prime Minister's Smile!
Marek:
When, in 1980, I received my first autograph, that of Kalina Jedrusik, I never thought I would have over 1000 of these footprints of human existence – small pieces of art, as I call autographs, because people often draw something near their signature.
Whilst collecting autographs, I was also thinking about sharing my joy of life with the community and comparing it with the transient keepsake that comes from contact with personalities. The first time I managed to show them was at the Millennial Anniversary of Gdansk, when they were shown at the exhibition entitled “1000 autographs for the Millennial Anniversary”. I observed the people visiting the exhibition and saw their joy and surprise. Generations – grandparents, parents, children and grandchildren, all together, explaining to each other who was who. Young people did not know older actresses and the older generations had no idea about rock musicians.
Smiles & autographs
After the Gdansk exhibition I began to dream about sharing my passion, about sharing my joy with others. Then I got the idea of collecting autographs accompanied by the picture of a smile. The first idea was to show “Project Smile’ in children’s hospitals, but it soon appeared that smiles drawn by the Jordanian Queen, Krzysztof Penderecki or Liza Minelli pleased adults too. What is more important, adding a smile also pleased the people whom I ask to draw them. A smile is possible to create in a moment, even in the most difficult times. When we look at a child’s smile, even if we are in mourning, are ill or in trouble, we smile instinctively.
An autograph itself is calm and quite like a fresh painting, as it “reveals the mortal hand” not only in the poetical dimension but also in the dimension of common, fleeting life. At least it is the visible sign of our having passed by.
Smiles joined with autographs are something to introduce joy into our lives and into hospitals both for children and adults.
When I started collecting smiles I wrote:
A Smile, it is a drop of crystallized Joy
When a child smiles at us we smile, everyone, everywhere!
A child’s smile is pure holiness, a gift of life
Not to be sullied by the evil of unhappiness
When giving sick children our warm smiles
We return their own smiles to them
And remind ourselves of the smiles of our own youth!
A child's Smile
We received from archdiocese Honiara a smile from the Archbishop of the Solomon Islands and his poetic quote:
Smile and the World smiles with you,
Cry and you cry alone.
Jennifer: At a time when the world is in the grip of an economic crisis with all its hideous far reaching effects for individuals and families globally, we needed this project. It is inspiring! Would you share with us some of the reactions you have received to the project?
Marek: A Smile is good at all times, for any kind of situation, even the ‘commercial’ smile of the stewardess in a plane, a smile puts people at ease, it welcomes.
As for a drawing smile for the project , all kinds are good and sometime the drawing of the smile brings the person to remembering deep into their past, sometimes with tears as they remember the bad and good times of childhood.
Children in hospital react very, very well. In Macedonia, in a Rehabilitation centre, a girl who was very seriously ill, drew a smile with her legs and told me : “the miracle is that I can do this before I die soon, to help other children …”
In other city, in Poland, I prepared that smile-performance with children. The Mayor of that city and his co-workers thanked me because he …was smiling himself, for the first time in 20 years.
Infectious Smiles!
Crisis is bad, but it will seem shorter, be alleviated somewhat when we all start to smile – I tell this to children in hospital : “children should start every day with a smile and finish the day with a smile”. Smile, and the trouble will do not have time to become a problem, the same can be done in the world of politics and economics. Smile and the future will be better – the trouble will be smaller. A smile is the best sort of help because it is financially very good to receive….its costs only 1 second of your time to make and of course its “cost” = a good tooth-brushing , LOL !
Jennifer: The collection is growing by the day. How many smiles have you received to date? On average, how many arrive daily?
Marek: Its depends , sometimes I get a whole package from various countries, sometimes one envelope but with 20 smiles from a school of design where the professor set an examination task for students to create a smile.
Sometimes there is a day without a smile in the postbox , but there is a smile on my face ….to make that “empty” day a better one!
The Smile that grew in to GRIN!
My friends like to talk with me about the project. I sometimes think the exhibition idea is my wonderful life sentence. I have ambassadors of the smile-exhibition around the world.
I like also to collect smiles in person – as I organize cultural events. It provides me a good entrance to different meetings and, somehow, I can nearly always put myself behind the scenes.
What I try not to do is not to ask for a smile in restaurant venue…but then I eat slowly as does the ‘star’, the evening’s special guest, and I hope to obtain a smile from them outside the venue when they finish…
Getting Polanski's autograph and the actress, Szykulska, and the children's hospital
Jennifer: You have not one but a number of ‘smile’ exhibitions planned. Tell us about them and what is involved in setting up such an exhibition in such far flung places?
Marek: The number of smiles is not limited; I think that it is already a part of my life. I hope very much to create a Smile Museum or Smile Gallery.
The idea is ongoing, one pilgrimage of smiles, because the plan has always involved the drawing of smiles by children in Poland for children in other countries and so on
The idea is to show this exhibition in children’s centres of all kinds, not only hospitals but also as a temporary exhibition in various institutions.
Smiles that lift the spirits!
Jennifer: I understand you are hoping to produce a special catalogue/book of the exhibition to help raise funds for children’s hospitals in Poland. Can you tell us more about that?
Marek: That is good question, there are many organizations which help children in a financial way, our goal is “only” to make them smile ….
As the reports of doctors, psychologists and parents indicate, the exhibition is like a medicine, a tonic. It shows people all over the world care about sick children, children in pain. The children know they are not forgotten!
Also, what is very important, the exhibition of smiles helps “normal” people working in hospitals, not only doctors, but also cleaning teams and last but not least the parents visiting their children. It lifts their spirits!
The exhibition is also a good thing for festivals and for other events.
Marek's Smile!
The idea of a catalogue is always there, and we produced one as a booklet for the Polish Festival of the Good Mood, and when we visited children in hospital with a leading actress, the children were given one each.
In collaboration with Children’s Organisation, KIWANIS, we also produced a booklet in Polish and English. (You can see that catalogue on that website, where you can also find my smile.)
Jennifer: What is the most unusual ‘smile’ you have received so far? Are there limitations on the type, size or presentation of the smile and what happens to each submission to prepare it for exhibition?
Marek: The smiles have no limitations ever. We have made a smile
* in a children’s garden in Lodz
The variations and varieties are endless as imagination!
* on paper on whole floor area,
* the sportsmen put their smile on t-shirts,
* but also on a boxer’s hand,
* we got a sculpture of smile and
* a smile on glass –
Each and every smile is very unusual … very individual!
But maybe the most touching was a smile by a child in Macedonia …with her mother drawn without face because she was left by her mother
Very different smiles – maybe I would mention the autoportrait by regisseurs Jerzy Skolimowski and Roman Polanski or a Bishop’s smile-picture which reminds of one of Picasso’s works….
The Picasso-style Smile
Jennifer: There must be all sorts of stories of how you met celebrities like Polanski and other AMAZING people! How did you persuade them to give you ‘a smile’?
Marek: When I started the collection, I asked people in person for ‘a smile’. I still do if the opportunity presents. The meetings with notable folk can sometimes be very funny but sometimes very short!
In the case of Jose Cura, I was at the opera in Berlin and, after the show, I got to the backstage door and knocked on the garderobe. He answered himself and told me “come in”. He was under the shower. So I backed out and waited. After some minutes, he came out and, with a big smile on his face, he drew a ‘Pagliacci’ ….he had sung Pagliaci in the opera that night.
In Berlin I had also a “tragic” meeting….can you imagine, I was in the same restaurant as Lauren Bacall…but it was a very prestigious restaurant such that if I had asked for a smile/autograph they would have made a security photo of me and then I would have been blacklisted there and in other such places as well!
Smiles layered on Smiles
As for Roman Polanski – he was opening a sculpture in Sopot – he was on the redcarpet. Nobody was allowed to put a foot on that carpet, but I did! That is how I got a selfportrait of him!
At the same festival Faye Dunaway was also a special guest, but by then I was 1000 km away. However, my wonderful mother is also very supportive of the smile project. She asked, in her broken English, and, yes, I have the smile drawn by Faye Dunaway!
The security guards of First Lady of Poland, Maria Kaczynska, were very “unhappy” that I asked her to draw a smile. But she told the strong men, to stop and let me be, “it is for a good goal”.
All the time the people, when I ask them to draw a smile, I get the answer, ‘oops I am not good at drawing’. My answer is always, ‘it’s for children and children are not judging the art’.
The Polish MP, Iwona Guzowska, is a former boxer. She liked the smile project so much that she even created a parliamentary group in the Polish Sejm – Parliament “smile group”. She collected smiles on sports items.
It's the SMILE not its artistic style, that matters! Winning Grinners!
The smile project – the collection – it is growing into a very special collection – one of a kind in the world. It is also unique, because smiles are made using a variety of methods, and they are not only on paper, but also as pictures, on music programs, on film posters, on books, cd or on very curious paper types. Children from round the world send me smiles for the project. This is very special because of the very different types of smiles from children, for example, from India or Moldavia. Yet, amazingly, these same smiles sometimes match up, the same exactly, the same type of smile as if it was made by one and the same hand, even though it is a smile from a Polish child or from Mexico. As for Mexico, the smiles are made there by children with Downs Syndrome who are taught by Professors of Art Academy from Mexico City.
Smiles, inspiring even more smiles!
The collection is for children, especially sick children, to make them smile and so help them heal!
Jennifer : Marek, tell us what the Smile project is achieving and continues to achieve:
Marek: I hope very much to be involved in a number of a smile exchange exhibitions, a pilgrimage of smiles.
I think there is a good idea to connect smiles made by celebrities and those by children – the children are encouraged and inspired by the interest and support for the project by the celebrities.
For children in “western” countries creating smiles for a poorer part of world bring them closer to those with less advantages, fewer opportunities than they have and fosters a caring attitude and brings knowledge.
For poor children, it is maybe their first possibility to give somebody something – this brings dignity and feeling of being able to contribute; this is empowering.
And for children from harsh, very problematic parts of world this also provides a very interesting way to help others, help, in return, a part of world from where the help is coming to them; it brings a sense of reciprocity that might not come any other way. It brings a sense again of dignity and achievement.
Smiles from East and West!
I think such exhibitions – such exhibitions exchange is a very unusual project for helping and informing people about the plight of sick children worldwide, for bringing artists, writers, musician together with also opportunity for promotion of their work and for sponsors to bring their product before the public in a way that promotes them as a company that cares and is involved in more than just making money, but also in giving back to those in need – the use of a company logo could be connected with a ‘smile’ by being included in a special promotional logo.
Jennifer: Marek, what are you plans for the future, what is your next big project?
Marek: Dear Jennifer ….of course asking you to help me to show that exhibition in your city ….my very simple dream, which is an ever evolving, growing plan, ….to show the smile exhibition and to draw smiles around the world!
Jennifer: Finally, how can people get in touch with you to find out more about the project and give support?
Marek: I would like to be in touch with people, the more the merrier! They can talk to me and learn more about project smile at www.promocjakultury.pl
The best way to support project smile is to draw a smile and send us, to ask famous and /or interesting people to draw a smile and, last but not least, to invite our exhibition to their place – to the smallest children’s school, to the farming community, or to a big children’s hospital, to a film or other festival or to Sydney Opera House…..
Smiles to encompass the globe!
Jennifer: Charles George Walker wrote a poem inspired by that famous old proverb, quoted by the Archbishop of the Solomon Islands, and used it for the title. I think it reflects your belief in the joyous spreadability of a Smile:
Smile and the World smiles with you, Cry and you cry alone.
Smiling is infectious, you catch it like the flu.
When someone smiled at me today, I started smiling too.
I passed around the corner, and someone saw my grin.
When he smiled I realised, I’d passed it on to him.
I thought about that smile, then I realised its worth.
A single smile just like mine, could travel round the earth.
So, if you feel a smile begin, don’t leave it undetected.
Let’s start an epidemic quick, and get the world infected!
May your smile project spread like the sunshine it brings into others’ lives!
You can find my own smile in the exhibition and here on Sharing Books for free download.
Jennifer 
)
I’ve been reviewing Telgemeier’s comics for years, and that lack of wider recognition is why I did this long review/feature on Sisters for The Comics Journal:
http://www.tcj.com/reviews/sisters/
My gut says that for SQUIRREL GIRL BEATS…. the $25 for 120 pages in HC format is going to do very mediocre — at ~20 cents a page that’s not a fraction of the value of GHOSTS $10.99 for 256, which is about 1/5 of the cost at ~4 cents/page,
My bigger question might be what is Raina getting for a 500k print run? She’s not getting less than $2/copy, right? Right?!?!?
-B
If you think that Raina T. is lacking for recognition you must be defining that recognition pretty narrowly. Or, to be specific: you’re probably not seeing that attention because the only places you’re looking are niche comics sites that exclusively cover the weird, insular world of the direct market–sites which by definition won’t be covering Telgemier’s work because it exists almost entirely outside that world.
There’s no shortage of (well deserved) recognition, awards, and horors for Raina coming from arenas focused on libraries and general kid lit.
The fact that so much of that AV Club article is referencing Marvel/DC/Squirrel Girl/whatever–as if an incredibly popular kids’ comic is just some kind of weird anomaly whose only real take away is as some helpful suggestion for DM publishers–shows a lack of knowledge of the breadth, depth, and popularity of kids’ comics right now.
Largest American graphic novel initial print run. Impressive.
One Piece makes 500k look small.
http://mangapanda.info/one-piece-manga-77-gets-3-8-million-print-run/
What Ben said.