By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 4/12/2016
Artist Leslie Hung posted a portion of the cover to the first issue of SNOTGIRL on Instagram this morning. The first issue of the series, which is written by Bryan Lee O'Malley, will be announced in Previews next month with a July pub date.
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 1/9/2015
Just when you thought you had enough of 2014 year-end lists, it’s now 2015 and time to begin everyone’s “halfway through the decade” retrospective lists.
The folks at Fandor are the first out of the gate, as they asked 290 film critics (and assorted other movie lovers) what they thought the best films of 2010-2014 were.
The 26 films below veer more towards the art house end of the spectrum, but there’s some great representation for filmmakers like The Coen Bros, Terrence Malick, David Fincher, Spike Jonze, etc…
The Best Films of the Decade So Far (2010-2014)
1. The Tree of Life (103 votes)
2. Certified Copy (91 votes)
3. The Master (76 votes)
4. Margaret (68 votes)
5. Holy Motors (66 votes)
6. A Separation (64 votes)
7. Under the Skin (61 votes)
8. Inside Llewyn Davis (59 votes)
9. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (45 votes)
10. Boyhood (44 votes)
11. Goodbye to Language (41 votes)
12. The Social Network (40 votes)
13. Moonrise Kingdom (36 votes)
14. Her (33 votes)
(tie) Leviathan (2012)
16. Mysteries of Lisbon (32 votes)
17. The Act of Killing (28 votes)
(tie) The Turin Horse
19. Before Midnight (27 votes)
(tie) Melancholia
(tie) Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
22. Frances Ha (25 votes)
(tie) The Wolf of Wall Street
24. The Immigrant (24 votes)
(tie) Spring Breakers
Tabu
As far as comic-based (or related) films go: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World came in at #36, Hayao Miyazaki’s final film The Wind Rises made it in at #44, Blue is the Warmest Color is #56, The Dark Knight Rises wound up at #141 along with Snowpiercer. Kick-Ass, We Are The Best and X-Men: Days of Future Past also received one vote each, landing them at #248.
I’m surprised to see there wasn’t any support for The Avengers or Guardians of the Galaxy, especially given the recent WGA nod for the latter. I’m sure 5 more years, and further perspective, will alter much of this list dramatically. Regardless, there’s a lot of stunning cinema here, and it’s a great list for anyone looking to check out something new, or a film they might have missed over the past few years.
And here’s a nice video compilation of the top 26:
By: [email protected],
on 7/7/2014
I consider myself a big nerd and comics seem to go hand in hand with the social status. I never really got into comics (or graphic novels) and when I did attempt I never knew where to start. There are millions of reboots and story arcs for the thousands of different superheroes out there but which ones are good and where do I start? It was Scott Pilgrim that started my journey into graphic novels and with Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Seconds recent release, I thought now would be a perfect time to talk about the graphic novels I love.
As an easy way to distinguish between comics and graphic novels, I call single issues (30-40 pages) a comic and a graphic novel is the anthology that contains a full story arc (normally 4-5 single issues). What I find really interesting about a graphic novel is that it is simply a new way to tell a story. It is not always about the superhero, graphic novels can explore high concepts in a whole new way.
Take the only graphic novel to win a Pulitzer Prize, Maus by Art Spiegelman. In this story we read about Vladek Spiegelman and his wife, it is biography of living and surviving Hitler’s Europe. The graphic novel not only addresses the holocaust and life in a war torn country it does it in a unique way. Exploring the reality and fears of surviving in a visual way, the Jews are depicted as mice and the Nazi’s hunting them as cats.
There is also the autobiographic story of Marjane Satrapi in Persepolis, a coming of age story of a girl living in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution. The whole concept of cultural change works really well in this graphical depiction. There is even an animated adaptation which is worth checking out (even if it is exactly the same). If you prefer a more quasi-autobiographical story maybe try Ghost World by Daniel Clowes or even something by Chris Ware like Jimmy Corrigan or Building Stories.
Finally, if you prefer your graphic novels to be about superheros or people coming to terms with their new found powers, I have some suggestions for you as well. Hawkeye: My Life as a Weapon by Matt Fraction is the first story arc in this new Hawkeye series and explores a life of a superhero outside fighting crime and saving the world. Also by Matt Fraction, with the help of Chip Zdarsky is the weird and wonderfully dirty Sex Criminals. This is a story of a woman that discovers that time freezes after an orgasm and the shenanigans she can get up to with so much quiet time. This graphic novel will not be for everyone; if you want something very different that is full of dirty visual puns then I would recommend it.
I would love to recommend more comics but some of my suggestions are not yet released as a complete story arc yet. If you are interested in more graphic novel suggests let me know in the comments below. I hope this will give you some suggestions if you have never tried a graphic novel before. I’m also happy to take more recommendations in the comments below. Happy reading.
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By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 4/4/2014
We noted the other day that a new art dealer—Felix Comic Art— was offering rarely seen pages from Bryan Lee O’ Malley’s Scott Pilgrim books. Well, the sale is now live and as you can see the pages are flying off the site.
Priced from about $200-500 I would have to say these are a bargain. And while it’s a shame they don’t have any lettering, there are still some fairly iconic pages available. (The above one is still available for $500 as I write this.) Seriously, if I had some spare money I would invest in this. Scott Pilgrim is already a cult book and film, but depending on how Seconds, O’Malley’s follow-up GN due this summer does, he’ll either be the next comics superstar or…merely the author of the zeitgeist comic of the Aughts.
PS: I am told that O’Malley is still on great terms with his previous art dealer, The Beguiling. This is just a matter of making the art available to a wider audience than the more localized store.
By: John,
on 10/5/2012
A nice person teaching at CalArts did an anatomy lesson and included examples from me and Meredith Gran and others.
See, I … I know what i’m… i’m … doing….
http://stulivingston.blogspot.com/2012/10/life-drawing-for-animation-demoz.html
We are in a golden age of comics and cartoonists being embraced by smart people in academia. To those learning comics now as young people, enjoy this privilege that no other generation before yours has enjoyed!
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 7/20/2011
O’Malley’s next book will be called Seconds and will be published by Villard Books in 2013. The book will be edited by Ryan Doherty. The deal was negotiated by O’Malley’s agent Judy Hansen of Hansen Literary Agency.
Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O’Malley has been teasing a new projects called SECONDS with a photo on his Twitter feed, and Publishers Weekly has confirmed that it will be a new graphic novel to be published by Random House imprint Villard in 2013.
With this news, O’Malley joins the elite ranks of such authors as Craig Thompson and Charles Burns who have moved up to Random House from a comics indie (in this case Oni.)
The Scott Pilgrim Experience last year — from an admired but under-performing movie, to the sales of the books soaring — obviously had a big effect on many of the players involved, but it’s great to see that O’Malley has been forging away on another project. Obviously, Universal still believes in Comic-Con and hotel wraps, and Edgar Wright came out of it reputation intact. Probably the only real Pilgrim casualty was star Michael Cera who hasn’t made a movie since and is looking to take on different kinds of roles.
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 5/25/2011
Or that’s what SCOTT PILGRIM director Edgar Wright just tweeted:
No joke. @TPAIN and @ChrisBrown do Scott Pilgrim. http://youtu.be/_wmD3M-BfVo Complete with flyer straight from the movie. Wow.
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 4/18/2011
By: genevieve,
on 8/24/2010
to start this small personal side project:
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 8/16/2010
So when the tale was written, SCOTT PILGRIM Vs THE WORLD ended up #5 at the box office with a disappointing $10.5 mil. This simple fact has caused ethnic wars everywhere on the internet. People ask, double rainbow-like, “What does it mean?” and argue over who is a fanboy, what is a fanboy, what is a comic book and whether star Michael Cera should be allowed to live.
We’d hinted earlier that it was looking more and more likely that SPvTW would fall to the “Comic-Con curse” and also the “Serenity Plague” — basically, all those free screenings to the already converted did nothing to improve word of mouth, and it also seems that everyone who wanted to see the movie had already seen it by the time it rolled out — sometimes two or three times!
But, amazingly, when normal people actually go see Bryan Lee O’Malley’s SCOTT PILGRIM, they perceive it as the charming, warm-hearted, innovative genre-bending forward-looking film for our times that it is. And even half of the movie critics seem to “get it” — while the other half seem to think there is a joke they were left out of and know it. A.O. Scott in the NYT had a very positive review that straddled the lines:
But Mr. Wright’s deeper ingenuity (and Mr. O’Malley’s) is to collapse the distance between gamer and avatar not by throwing the player into the world of the game, but rather by bringing it to him. (If you want to reverse this process there is now a Scott Pilgrim video game.) As a result, the line between fantasy and reality is not so much blurred as erased, because the filmmakers create an entirely coherent, perpetually surprising universe that builds on Mr. O’Malley’s bold and unpretentious graphic style without slavishly duplicating it.
We wouldn’t advise wading into the near 400 post comment thread on Deadline but one poster did sum up the way we feel about SCOTT PILGRIM: “Napoleon Dynamite with kung fu.” If SPvTW had been marketed as a $30 million quirky comedy with indie rock/video game sensibilities, it could have been a sleeper hit that cemented Edgar Wright as the next Danny Boyle.
Instead, inexplicably, Universal spent some $60 million (after Canadian tax rebates) and it was marketed as some kind of tentpole action flick with universal awareness and appeal. Which it never was. Some people have unfavorably compared the film to SPEED RACER, which to us sounds like a compliment, another example of forward-looking filmmaking that didn’t cross the goal line first.
A lot of people are blaming Universal’s travails for the PILGRIM mystery — it’s in the middle of a government-mandated investigation
By: Anastasia Goodstein,
on 8/12/2010
Juicy Fruit's 'Sweet Talk' iPhone app (The soundboard iPhone app comes with a silly, viral-friendly visual twist) (Mobile Behavior)
- Cartoon Network unveils Stop Bullying: Speak Up (a new bullying prevention campaign, at the National Bullying... Read the rest of this post
By: Anastasia Goodstein,
on 8/9/2010
Teen Choice Awards grow up (FOX calls on Katy Perry, a house DJ and "a set that resembles a dance club" to hook older teens for tonight's broadcast and combat the dip in last year's ratings. Will it work? Also the forces behind "Glee"are penning a... Read the rest of this post
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 7/15/2010
Scott Pilgrim promo fever is hitting 105˚ in advance of next week’s San Diego Comic-Con, sure to be known in future years as “The Scott PIlgrim One.” To wit, various Twitter feeds have been capturing the progress of a giant Scott Pilgrim banner being erected over the Hilton Bayfront hotel. Yowsa.
Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O’Malley has a thorough list of events he’s involved with, including his midnight signing appearance in Toronto, where it all began. (We’ll have more details on midnight events in a few days.)
The most up-to-date news of Scott at the con can be found on the Scott Pilgrim vs Comic-Con Twitter feed. Such news includes the daily release of remixes featuring the seven Evil Exes by Osymyso.
via Empire:
Osymyso, as Wright fans may remember, created Spaced Jam for the DVD release of Spaced (sampling dialogue from the series just as he does here for the film), as well as producing the soundtrack for Shaun Of The Dead and contributing to Hot Fuzz. So this is but the latest in a long collaboration – and this is but the first in a series of trailer mixes he’s done for the movie.
Wright notes, however, that his initial Sex Bob-Omb vision wasn’t too far removed from Times New Viking. The director said he suggested something more akin to Japanese garage rockers Guitar Wolf, a band he had taken to after seeing zombie comedy “Wild Zero,” and a group that puts a slightly more old-school rockabilly spin on its roughed up sound.
“I like Times New Viking,” Wright said, and “the link between Guitar Wolf and Times New Viking is that they’re mastered too loud. They’re the only two bands I can think of in my iTunes like that. Guitar Wolf’s ‘Jet Generation’ has a sticker on the back that says it has been mastered too loud and it shou
13 Comments on Pilgrimania is taking over the world — especially the Hilton, last added: 7/16/2010Display Comments Add a Comment
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 7/7/2010
Via his blog, Bryann Lee O’Malley shades the wisdom of cartooning and good balloon flow:
Try to avoid layouts that make as little sense as this one. Also try to avoid hiding your weak layouts with trickery, such as arbitrarily wider gutters (top right) or dropping panel borders to create the illusion of clarity (bottom middle).
A key lesson is: try to attach your balloons to the tops of the panels, especially the corners, because that makes everything a hell of a lot easier both for you and the reader.
BTW, some might argue that the rule breaking first example (from Scott Pilgrim #3) still has a lot of energy and charm in its very awkwardness.
By: John,
on 7/6/2010
Over on his Flickr account, Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O’Malley shares an interesting look at how the flow of panels his comics has improved from earlier volumes.
Take this page from Book 3:
And compare to one from Book 5:
Posted by John Martz on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog |
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Tags: Bryan Lee O'Malley, Comics, Scott Pilgrim
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 6/23/2010
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 6/17/2010
Yow.
You realize this movie doesn’t even have all the great lines in the trailer??
So cannot wait.
By: John,
on 6/12/2010
Yes.
Posted by Matt Forsythe on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog |
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Tags: Scott Pilgrim, video games, yes
By: Beth,
on 4/29/2010
Just a quick note from your, of late, comics obsessed blogger, that the eighth annual Free Comic Book Day is taking place this Saturday May 1st.
Free Comic Book Day offers publishers a chance to give comic readers a taste of new material, and to remind them of all of the great stories comic book shops have to offer. Readers get to pick up special compilations and titles made specifically for the day. Publisher’s Weekly says this about it.
Here’s a review of the titles that will be available. I’m excited because Oni Press, publisher of such things as Scott Pilgrim, will have an offering available. There also looks like there are various things that are either geared toward teens, or that teens would gravitate to and enjoy.
So why am I blogging this on a library blog? Don’t we give our patrons free comics every day? Well, yeah, but I think we should be supportive of anything that is raising awareness and excitement about reading and great storytelling.
What else could we do? Libraries could partner with their favorite comics shops for the occasion and prominently point the way with a poster and a recommendation. (If you’re in Massachusetts, I will here declare that I like to buy comics at Modern Myths in Northampton) Or celebrate the fact that we do offer free comics every day with a graphic novel display or a panel discussion or a manga drawing workshop.
Short notice for this year? Yes, it probably is. But keep it in mind for next year and tell your teens to head for the comic shop this Saturday!
By: Jessica Stockton,
on 3/1/2009
As promised, I'm catching up on reviewing some of the many comics I seem to have been reading lately. This will be Handsell style: just a quick description/pitch.
A note on linking: I'm trying something new. I'm using my own images and linking them directly to the IndieBound book info page, rather than using the affiliate links, which require an extra several clicks before you get to the book. It takes a bit longer for me, but seems more likely to be click-through-friendly for you. Let me know what you think.
Miss Don't Touch Me
by Hubert & Kerascoet
(NBM/ComicsLit)
This graphic novel is a study in contradictions: it combines a somewhat lighthearted tone - "prudish girl finds herself working in a high-end whorehouse, bring on the sex comedy!" - with some rather grisly plot points, including some pretty dark perversions and more than one bloody murder. The very French drawing style -- quick and flowing, almost sketchy, a la Joann Sfar of The Rabbi's Cat -- contributes to this strangeness. It's a grippingly suspenseful plot and the characters and images are very well-done and sometimes even sexy, but I'd suggest it only to readers with strong stomachs and a high tolerance for cognitive dissonance.
Luke on the Loose
by Harry Bliss
(Toon Books)
This is my favorite of the latest season's offerings from Toon Books, the comics-as-early-readers line created by Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly. The plot and dialogue are intended for early primary kids: Luke, while on a walk with his dad, gets interested in chasing some pigeons and rampages across New York City like a hurricane -- but grownups will enjoy reading along for the fun of recognizing both many NYC landmarks and scenes and the unstoppable energy of a small boy. Harry Bliss, a Brooklyn native, brings this episodic tale to life with kinetic drawings perfect for the target age group, who will likely see themselves in Luke's exuberant flight.
08: A Graphic Diary of the Campaign Trail
by Michael Crowley and Dan Goldman
(Three Rivers Press)
Admit it: you kind of miss the never-ending drama of campaign season. This unique work manages to recapture the suspense and comedy and nobility and absurdity of it all, even though we know how it all comes out. Goldman, co-author of the Iraq/media/blogging satire Shooting War, is no stranger to capturing political realities and metaphors. Through the personae of two reporters who have seen it all, he and Crowley let you relive the political year moment by moment, and use the graphic novel format to get across the non-verbal subtleties as well as the rhetoric (every line of dialogue spoken by a candidate or other figure in the book is from their actual recorded words). Highly recommended for political junkies and those interested in what this medium can do with recent history.
Frankenstein: Prodigal Son 1
by Dean Koontz, Chuck Dixon, and Brett Booth
(Del Rey)
This book for me is that rare challenge: a negative handsell. I found the dialogue unintentionally laughable and the art cliched -- in fact, what amused me most about the book is that while the plot involves a still-alive Frankenstein creating an army of creepily perfect artificial people, it was impossible to tell his creations from anyone else in the story, as EVERYONE is creepily perfect, in a boring superhero comic kind of way. However, the plot kept me reading (against my better judgement) through the end of this installment, and the newly imagined Frankenstein's monster is kinda sexy. I suspect I'm just not the target audience for this sort of thing -- at ComicCon the folks behind this book touted it as a way to bring Koontz's work to teen readers, and it might work for teens. I'd sell it to those who were interested in Buffy or Twilight-style melodrama, with the caveat that there's much better work out there.
Scott Pilgrim #5: Scott Pilgrim Vs. The Universe!
by Bryan Lee O'Malley
(Oni Press)
This is it! The big book of ComicCon 2009! So popular that you can't find it in stores! The penultimate book in O'Malley's manga/kung fu/video game/slacker culture/coming-of-age masterpiece! Could it possibly live up to the hype? Well, yes actually. Scott Pilgrim, still working through his quest to defeat the seven evil ex-boyfriends of the mysterious Ramona Flowers, is becoming a character of more depth and maturity, and the story is beginning to focus more on the limitations of a battle fighting, rock and roll playing, partygoing approach to solving the real problems of love, friendship, identity, and one's place in the world. Because it's the second to last, this one ends on an Empire Strikes Back-level cliffhanger, which means I will be in agony for the next two years or whatever it takes O'Malley to bring out number 6. But I can always go back and read 1 to 5 in the meantime, reveling in the layers of humor and visual motifs and hints about the outcome that the work provides in spades. I'd recommend you do the same, if you are the kind of person who likes fun, especially when it gets serious. Seriously, please just buy (or reserve) #1 at your local indie bookstore or comic shop as soon as possible and begin the Scott Pilgrim adventure.
Nocturnal Conspiracies
by David B.
(NBM/ComicsLit)
David B. is one of the stars of the very sophisticated French comics scene; his memoir Epileptic was a bestseller and highly acclaimed here in the States. I'm still reading my way slowly through this rich, eerie, atmospheric and thoroughly enjoyable book, a compendium of some of the author's own dreams over a period of decades. It's a kind of counterpoint to another recent favorite, The Night Of Your Life by Jesse Reklaw; while Reklaw compresses other people's dreams into four surreally humorous panels, David B traces his own dreams at length through their irresistible desires, pressing demands, and French Resistance-influenced atmospherics and drama. I found each meandering episode both deja vu familiar and utterly other, as other people's dreams often are. The combination of words and pictures seems like the perfect -- maybe only -- way to convey both the visual nature of dreams and the fact that our understanding of a dream situation goes beyond what we can see (the "it was you, but it didn't look like you" phenomenon). Another example of the best of what's going on in the genre -- some nudity and dream violence make it unsuitable for the youngest readers, but for all others it's definitely recommended.
By: John,
on 2/18/2009
Scott Pilgrim Volume 5 is out this month. The art keeps getting tighter and slicker - and the story is fun as ever. Though there’s a bit of a twist this time ’round. I’m sure the improvement in brushwork can be at least partly attributed to the influence of Bryan O’Malley’s studiomate (and lifemate), Hope.
What is Scott Pilgrim?
Basically, a celebration of Toronto, video games and manga. If you’re into any of those things you’ll love SP. (No flamez about Toronto, plz. It’s where I’m from).
Oh, and they’re making a film right now.
In Toronto!
More at Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Flickr gallery…
Also…
Scott Pilgrim Volume 4
By: Jessica Stockton,
on 12/15/2008
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The Scott Pilgrim series by Bryan Lee O'Malley (Oni Press):
Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness
Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together
Thank goodness for the panelists at Book Expo who insisted I read him, and the Bakersfield bookstore that had a copy of Volume 1. I am now totally in love with Scott Pilgrim (as is every girl in Toronto, inexplicably). Bryan Lee O'Malley has metabolized manga, video games, and kung fu movies and created a completely unique comic series about the eponymous hapless, happy-go-lucky Canadian hero, who plays in a band, hangs out with his friends, and falls for the mysterious delivery girl Ramona Flowers -- but to date her he'll have to battle her seven evil ex-boyfriends. What ensues includes (but is not limited to) sword fights, navigating love and friendships, travels through subspace, vegan recipes, getting over your romantic past (and your sweetie's romantic past), possibly evil ninjas, and especially growing up, through slackerdom and into a kind of selfhood.
But the series is most lovable because it's full of the kind of twenty-something inside jokes and randomness that you love your own friends for, and the sweetness and surreality seem perfectly complementary. It's the kind of thing that those who have read it quote to each other endlessly -- it had been a long time since I came across that kind of obsessively great pop creation. I read Volumes 1 through 4 TWICE all the way through (the ALP started reading them months after I did so I had to go back and remember all the good parts). I'm giving them for Christmas to my favorite quirky lovable people. I don't know how I'm going to wait for Volume 5 in February...
* see, this is why the numbers didn't come out to 24 on my complete list: I'm counting this series as one. It's like Proust... kinda.
After all this time, it looks like I may be the last blogger for this course - what a ride it has been. In the two years that I have been working in children’s and youth services at a public library, I have managed to read a number of great books for guys. When I took the job, I was dreading actually having to read YA stuff so that I could be “in tune” with our core users; I was used to reading adult mysteries and lawyer novels and didn’t think that I would find anything of interest in the YA library. Well, I was wrong!
My first discovery was Scott Pilgrim, the Canadian manga created by Bryan Lee O’Malley. I had seen hundreds of these digest-sized manga books when I worked on the adult Circulation desk, but I figured it was just a fad, like Pokemon and Teletubbies. One of the first journals I looked at in my role as a youth librarian was a best comics of the year for 2006, and that is where I first heard of Scott Pilgrim. In the brief snippet I read, I noticed Scott wearing a Plumtree t-shirt, and I was stunned - a friend of mine from high school had actually moved to Halifax because he was obsessed with Plumtree (especially their lead singer). I took this as a sign and proceeded to purchase all of the Scott Pilgrim books for our collection. Needless to say, these are highly recommended by me, especially if you are into the whole indie rock scene in Canada, or just want to see a skinny slacker have to beat-up his girlfriend’s 7 evil exes to win her heart (it all makes sense when you read the books - the fifth in the series is coming out in February of ‘09).
Another thing that initially irked me about reading YA lit was that I was going to have to temper my expectations for books with lots of sex (we’re all adults here, so we can be honest, right). Boy, was I wrong about this! When I was in high school (wayyyy back in the 80’s, man), the YA books we had to read were tame to the point of “zzzzzzz”. Now, I find myself recommending modern YA books to friends my age because they are edgy and the sex in these books is often as racy as what you would find in an adult novel. One very intriguing novel in this vein is Boy Toy by Barry Lyga. In it, the main character, Josh, is forced to face his demons of five years past when an old girlfriend tries to re-enter his life and his old teacher/ex-lover is released from jail (I’ll let you guess why she was in jail, but remember, this is a YA novel, so the main character is in HIGH SCHOOL). I admit I picked it up because it sounded kind of interesting/kinky, but it was one of those books that you just can’t put down, and I found myself staying up late for a couple of nights so I could find out what happened. A truly compelling read, and I also recommend Lyga’s other novels, The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl and Hero Type.
I know that there are many novels that deal with teenagers having disablilities and they go on some sort of quest to prove something, and they meet up with a crochety senior citizen who teaches them all sorts of life lessons and then the obvious happens and we all puke - well, I was sure that Mary Hershey’s The One Where The Kid Nearly Jumps To His Death and Lands in California was going to be one of those books, but I have to admit I very nearly shed a tear at the end (I didn’t really - it just sounds better if I say I did). The main character, Stump, has a prosthetic limb (hence the name Stump) and is sent to stay with his estranged father in California for the summer. Of course, Stump would rather be anywhere but with his father, but he endures, learns how to swim competitively from a salty old high school swim coach, and has a near-fatal episode swimming in the ocean, but all is well in the end. It might be a little sappy and old-fashioned, but it had me hooked right away and should also hook many a guy-reader looking for something a little different.
So, if you end up working in a YA library and you see a guy in there looking for something to read and he looks like he is about to pick-up an old standby like Hatchet or Lord of the Flies, slap his hand and tell him to put it down and give him one of the books mentioned above. You’ll be doing him a favour!
Some other recommendations that I’ve read (or I’ve heard are great for guys):
And one that I most whole-heartedly DO NOT RECOMMEND TO ANYONE:
That’s all for now - be back tomorrow with more blogging…
Posted in Reading and Literacy, YA Literature Tagged: barry lyga, books for guys, hornby, manga, mary hershey, melvin burgess, plumtree, scott pilgrim, sex
Wow.
That list is blindingly awful
Yay for Inside Llewyn Davis!
No Speed Racer? I call bullshit.
I have to respectfully disagree about Inside Llewyn Davis. IMHO, at number 8 it rates waaaaay too high. Love the Coen Brothers, but really hated this when it came out. Early 60’s folk music in New York never sounded like it did in this movie. But for a song or two, not even close. And I never believed the main character had any sort of passion for the music he *did* play.
If you want to see a great film (released this year) about music that’s authentic and heartfelt and full of all the crazy things that music *is* about, see Whiplash, starring Miles Teller and a mesmerizing J.K. Simmons. Now that’s a movie that should have been a lot higher than #175.
Hey John,
I think Speed Racer came out in 2008, but how’d you feel about Cloud Atlas?
Charlie,
I hear you! Llewyn Davis was one of those films that sorta underwhelmed me at first, but then its charms worked its way into my head, especially its pseudo-Sisyphean structure. I know the main character was based on Dave Van Ronk and used some of the traditional music he played, but I’m not familiar enough to know how much. Definitely that song “Hang Me, Oh Hang Me” that opened the film at least.
The only thing the pretentious, miscast and overlong ‘Margaret’ is masterly about is in illustrating just how unprofessional a film director can act. Lonergan’s refusal to honor his contract will only make it harder for future filmmakers to win final-cut rights.
Why did people like the movie “Her” so much?
It is probably the only movie I ever walked out of. Sure it had good art direction, but all the dialogue was so pretentious and cheesy.
Maybe I can’t talk though since I’m not into artsy films. My favorite movie is Team America: World Police, which should be on this list!
Team America: World Police came out in 2004, so sadly, it wouldn’t be eligible for this list.
I have only seen Boyhood from the Top 10. And I gotta say it was great. Patricia Arquette never disappoints. And it barely looked like she aged in the span of the 12 years this movie took place.
Tree of Life as the best movie of the first half of the decade? Can’t help but roll the eyes.
@kyle Pinion
Whoops. For some reason I thought the list was from 2004 to 2014, which in retrospect does not make any sense.
But still “her” was terrible and “sharknado” should be on the list.
Some really great movies on here, a small handful I probably wouldn’t have picked myself, but I see why they were chosen.
I am legitimately shocked at the lack of Edgar Wright representation on this list, though, and I’d like to see more representation from action, comedy, and horror in general.
Still, any list that has Certified Copy, Margaret, and A Separation in the Top 10 is pretty alright by me.
“I’m surprised to see there wasn’t any support for The Avengers”
I’m not surprised that it missed the boat. Once the luster of the various Marvel franchises coming together on screen for the first time wore off, all that was left was a lot of terrible dialogue, explosions, and a sad excuse for a plot. On the other hand, a number of the movies that did make the list weren’t very good either, probably a symptom of only having five years worth of films to pull from.
Kind of interesting to me that the top three rated movies from the same time period on IMDB.com are Inception, Interstellar (both of which are much farther down the Fandor list), and the French film The Intouchables (which doesn’t appear on the Fandor list at all).
What an excruciatingly terrible list by my particular lights, epitomized by the #7 placement of the amateurish “Under the Skin”. That highly-divisive film is ludicrously overpraised by style-conscious critics but mostly loathed by actual audiences (with a majority of 1/5 reviews from customers at Amazon.com).
The indignant tone pervading these comments is wonderful.