Hark! A Vagrant

Hark! A Vagrant is not really a graphic novel but a collection of comics from Kate Beaton. This history and anthropology graduate has a wide range of interests presented here (with commentary) in warm, idiosyncratic, insightful, and hilarious fashion. Adaptations of classic literature such as Wuthering Heights and Robinson Crusoe brush shoulders with a cigarette-smoking, off-put Wonder Woman. Historical figures like Arctic pioneer Matthew Henson and 15th century peasants are cast in a much different light than usual, not exactly disrespectfully but in a very humanized manner. These comics are full of personality, brilliantly rendered and presented. Also, I should add, some of them feature profanity and/or adult situations, so this is not exactly a book for the general student population.

Kate Beaton is a Canadian artist currently living and working in New York. Her work has appeared in numerous anthologies, such as Marvel Comics' Strange Tales and Dark Horse Presents, and even in the prestigious The New Yorker magazine. Although she is relatively new to the comics field, she is amassing quite a list of accolades. Her self-published History Comics won the 2009 Doug Wright Award for Best Emerging Talent. She also won the 2011 Harvey Award for Best Online Comics Work. She talks more about her influences and work in this interview in the Paris Review Daily.

Thus far, the reviews I have read have been almost totally positive. CBR's Kelly Thompson gushed, "the book is a must have for any comics fan that likes their humor smart and their visuals hilarious." Barnes and Noble's Paul Di Filippo called this book "wonderfully nonsensical and risible, yet somehow seductively educational" and Beaton's art "marvelous, loose-jointed, lively, and not over-perfected." The Comic Journal's Rob Clough wrote that this collection "wobbles at times" but augurs great work to come.

This compilation was published by Drawn & Quarterly. They provide a preview here.

In addition, Beaton has a tumblr of art and "research" you can view here. Her webcomic is still being published on an irregular basis.

William Gaines would have been 90 today

Bill Gaines came into comics as part of the family business. His father, Max, was a pioneer who tested out the potential for the pamphlet sized comic book format that is still used today. He went on to be a co-publisher of All American Comics, which would later be folded into what has become DC Comics, and had a large hand in the introductions of both Green Lantern and Wonder Woman. He went on to start another publishing company, Educational Comics, which put out Bible stories, scientific accounts, and tales from American history.

After Max's untimely death in a boating accident, instead of becoming a chemistry teacher the 25 year old Bill was thrust into the role of comics publisher. He reformed his father's company into Entertaining Comics, later abbreviated EC, and produced comic books in genres that revolutionized the industry. He attracted top talent, writers and artists, to make titles such as Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, Shock SuspenStories, Weird Science, and Weird Fantasy. Gory tales of terror and revenge with shock endings as well as science fiction yarns populated the comics racks as imitators tried to imitate his company's success. He branched off into other areas, with comics from editor/creator Harvey Kurtzman such as the anti-war Two Fisted Tales and the satirical Mad.

When comic books came under fire for promoting juvenile delinquency, a Senate subcommittee was convened and Bill Gaines volunteered to speak out in defense of his books. After a long day of proceedings where Dr. Frederic Wertham was given center stage to air his anti-comics views, Gaines tripped up in defending this comic book cover, quibbling over how it could be defined as "tasteful" or not.
You can read Gaines' testimony here. The result of the Senate inquiry was the creation of an industry-wide Comics Code Authority that policed content and art. Almost all of EC Comics' output was immediately unacceptable in this system and Gaines was eventually forced to shut down the whole operation, with the exception of moving Mad to a magazine format that was unaffected by the Code.

As publisher of Mad, Gaines recreated his persona as a cheap, fat, and hedonistic publisher wrangling the "Usual Gang of Idiots." Mad went on to become an American institution, an influence on the counter-culture movement of the 1960s, and led to the rise of shows like Saturday Night Live, The Daily Show, and The Simpsons as well as publications like National Lampoon and The Onion. Impressively, Mad ran for decades solely on its circulation profits without selling any advertising space. When he died in 1992, they published a full page ad in The New York Times to let people know that the magazine would continue in his absence.

A looming figure in the history of comics and graphic novels, Bill Gaines was inducted posthumously into both the Will Eisner and the Jack Kirby Comic Book Halls of Fame. This annotated transcript of his memorial service is very much in the spirit of his life and sense of humor, and it also displays a small amount of what was lost by his passing.

Happy 52nd Birthday, Jeff Smith!

Jeff Smith is best known for his work on the creator-owned series Bone, which combines elements of cartoon humor and stirring fantasy adventures. Starting in 1991 he published this black and white comic book series' through the company Cartoon Books. The series ran 55 issues and became increasingly popular and collected in various compilations. It is now available in vibrant color collections through Scholastic. Bone has also been translated into numerous languages and published internationally.

After Bone, Smith created the Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil series for DC Comics. Here he put his own spin on the story of Captain Marvel in his efforts to fight aliens and the evil Dr. Sivana. In recent years, he has returned to self publishing with the series RASL, a series that follows the exploits of an art thief who has the ability to cross dimensions.

Jeff Smith has received many accolades for his work. In addition to the 1o(!) Harvey Awards and the 10(!) Eisner Awards he has already won, he has also won the National Cartoonists Society award for Best Comic, as well as France's Angoulême Alph-Art award for Best Foreign Book, and Sweden's Adamson Award.

Smith cites his influences laying in comic strip creators like Charles Schultz (who did Peanuts) and Walt Kelly (who did Pogo) who crafted excellent, affecting stories as writers and artists. More about his life and career can be found in this interview with Tom Spurgeon. Also there is another great interview with him at The Onion A.V. Club.

The Murder of Abraham Lincoln

Another entry in the Treasury of Victorian Murder series, The Murder of Abraham Lincoln details a 62 day period in US history, from March 4 to May 4, 1865. In that time, famed actor John Wilkes Booth would take part in a last gasp Confederate plot to kidnap the US president and turn the tide of the US Civil War. Because of circumstances, this plan changed quickly and he and his co-conspirators embarked on one of the most infamous assassinations ever. As with other books in this series, a meticulous sense of detail exists, from the maps of Washington DC, Wilkes' escape route, and Lincoln's funeral procession to quotations from major figures to the depictions of personality quirks. In particular, Mary Todd Lincoln's histrionics are not to be missed.

Rick Geary once again proves his artistic and story-telling chops in this volume. He packs an amazing number of historical references into this beautifully rendered tale while also making it compelling and suspenseful, even to readers familiar with the facts. This Inkpot Award and Book and Magazine Illustration Award winning creator is at the top of his game here.

The Murder of Abraham Lincoln has been a well received book. Mark S. wrote that the black and white illustrations perfectly suited the story in this "suspenseful, entertaining narrative." Elizabeth Kiem found that Geary "has done a fine job in turning out these villainous portraits." Nate Stearns praises the book and only find a slight fault concerning its mythologizing of Lincoln. If you scroll down this page, there are a number of other positive blurbs from prestigious publications like Publishers Weekly and the School Library Journal.

A preview is available from the book's publisher NBM.

Happy 66th Birthday, Rick Geary!

Rick Geary has been making comics for decades now. He got his start in the business with works published in high profile magazines like Heavy Metal and National Lampoon. His early work was typically whimsical science fiction, but later he branched off into more historical topics. He did a few adaptations for the 1980s iteration of Classics Illustrated, Charles Dickens' Great Expectations , Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, and H.G. Wells' Invisible Man, which have more recently been re-released in affordable hardcover.

His major project has been multiple volumes in the series Treasury of Victorian Murder and Treasury of XXth Century Murder from NBM Publishers. In these books, he presents meticulously researched and excellently rendered accounts of some of history's most famous and infamous events, including the Lizzie Borden murder trial, Jack the Ripper's killing spree, President Lincoln's Assassination, and the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby.

In addition to those ghoulish delights Geary has also created graphic biographies, like those of J. Edgar Hoover and Leon Trotsky, and branched off into historical fiction with his Adventures of Blanche books.

His distinctive black and white art calls to mind Charles Addams and Edward Gorey while displaying its own qualities. This interview at Robot 6 speaks to much of his career and work on true crime and historical biography books.

Although Geary might not be a household name yet, he has had a long and distinguished career. He received the 1980 Inkpot Award from the San Diego Comic Convention and the 1994 Book and Magazine Illustration Award from the National Cartoonists Society. His most recent book, The Lives of Sacco and Vanzetti, was recognized as one of YALSA's Great Graphic Novels of 2012.

New Drawing Flies Webcomic from Jay Hosler

Science graphic novelist extraordinaire Jay Holser has a new short comic in process about how the basics of ATP work.

He also has another completed comic about how photosynthesis works.

These comics are fun, informative, and vetted by expert scientists. Check them out!

Friends with Boys

With Friends with Boys, Faith Erin Hicks paints a very human, relatable, and moving picture of a girl in transition. Maggie has been home-schooled her whole life, but now she is about to enter public high school, and she feels like her life is being turned upside-down. Her mom, her only teacher, has left. Her three older brothers, her only friends, are growing up and becoming distant. Her dad has become the chief of police and has to change how he looks and acts because of his new role. To add to everything, Maggie is also seeing a ghost who follows her around more and more.

Hicks is a long publishing web cartoonist who is known for smart, idiosyncratic series like The Adventures of Superhero Girl and Demonology 101. She has also worked on a number of graphic novels including Brain Camp and The War at Ellsmere. She has won multiple Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards as well as a 2008 Joe Shuster Award for Best Creator (English Language) for her graphic novel Zombies Calling. Hicks talks more about the business side of creating graphic novels in this article.

Thus far this book has been extremely well received, with many expressing enthusiasm to see Hicks' latest work. Reading Rants wrote that "this insightful, smart" graphic novel "does a great job of not only telling the real deal about high school but also sensitively exploring the interesting dynamics of sibling relationships and how brothers and sisters can be your best friends—if you let them." Librarian assistant director Tasha Saecker commented that this book uses the graphic novel format well and that "the story takes several surprising twists, which makes it all the more readable." The tough critics at Kirkus Reviews awarded it a starred review. Also, for those who like to listen to their reviews, here is 3 Chicks Review Comics podcast.

I know it is early in the year, but I would be shocked if this graphic novel did not appear on any year-end "best of" lists. I was taken by how well executed and emotionally charged it was. Hicks is expert at creating small but powerful moments in very subtle ways.

This edition is published by First Second, and they provide a preview, discussion guide, and more here. Friends with Boys is also published as a webcomic.