Links: Big interview and review roundup

Congratulations to Eleanor Davis, whose Secret Science Alliance won a Cybils Award over the weekend, for best graphic novel in the children’s and middle grade books category, and Tom Siddell, whose Gunnerkrigg Court (also a webcomic) was named best YA graphic novel. At The Comics Journal, Michael Arthur has a video interview with Davis and her co-creators.

James Patterson has signed a deal with comics publisher IDW to produce a number of comics based on his YA novels; the first is Witch and Wizard: Shadowland, which will be a five-comic-book series beginning in May. The manga adaptations of Patterson’s Maximum Ride books have been huge sellers for Yen Press.

Alex Dueben talks to Kazu Kibuishi about Copper and Amulet at Comic Book Resources.

Steve Bunche interviews George O’Connor about Zeus: King of the Gods at PW Comics Week.

Amelia Earhart: This Broad Ocean is due out soon, and so naturally we are seeing interviews with writer Sarah Stewart Taylor and artist Ben Towle.

Roger Sutton has five questions for Matt Phelan, creator of The Storm in the Barn.

Here’s some good news for YA readers: Joelle Jones is doing the art for the a new graphic novel to be written by Janet Evanovich and her daughter Alex. I really enjoyed Joelle’s work in the Minx book Token, so I’m looking forward to seeing what she does with this material.

Having conquered manga, Stan Lee is now turning to yet another section of the comics universe: He is going to be a character in Super Seven, an upcoming comic to be produced by the Archie folks. There’s lots of partnerships and branding and multimedia going on here, but my favorite part of the press release is this sentence: "Lee is also known as the co-creator of Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, X-Men, and Iron Man, among many others." That "also" slays me. At Comic Book Resources (them again!), Archie CEO Jon Goldwater talks to Keil Phegley about this and other new developments. And in other Archie news, here are some previews of upcoming comics.

In the bad news/good news department, Kazu Kibuishi has announced that he will end the numbered Flight anthologies but continue the all-ages version, Flight Explorer (now to be known simply as Explorer), and he also expects to produce two Amulet books this year.

Larry Cruz has a great post on writing webcomics for kids that could be expanded to include almost any children’s literature. And he includes some excellent examples to check out as well.

Chris Schweizer shows off a few color panels he made of Crogan.

An icon of my childhood gets a makeover, and the kids are not all right with it: Editors of the UK comic Beano admit that Dennis the Menace has been revamped to be less violent. This is not the American Dennis the Menace (who has always been pretty tame) but a more slapstick character who, together with his dog Gnasher, terrorizes his schoolmates with catapult, peashooter, and anything else that comes to hand. Now he’s a shadow of his former self:

Beano editor Alan Digby confirmed that the changes meant Dennis was no longer able to use his catapult or peashooter in a destructive way.

"Dennis has had to comply with the rules of broadcasting and he is more creative in the tricks he gets up to now," he said.

"He is certainly not allowed to fire his catapult directly at someone any more – but he would be allowed to use it creatively. He is far more creative in the tricks that he gets up to now.

"There were scenes in the 1960s when he would walk down the street with windows that he smashed in buildings alongside him. He would not do that now.

Aargh! I particularly like it that it was an eight-year-old reader who called BS on this whole thing and brought it to the media—now that’s fan empowerment for you!

The X-Librarian lists February’s best kids’ graphic novels, Eric Federspiel lists this week’s kid-friendly comics at Out from the Comic Shop, and Tangognat makes her picks from the February Previews (comics available in April). And for those who really like to look ahead, here are the solicitations for the May Archie comics.

Charles Yoakum bemoans the fact that his kids can’t follow superhero comics any more—too many crossovers. (Via Blog@Newsarama.)

The Archie folks are putting the Sonic the Hedgehog on the iPhone.

Boom Studios allows us a peek at Cars #1, The Incredibles #5, and Uncle Scrooge #388 at Comic Book Resources.

Reviews

Stacy Dillon on Amelia Earhart: This Broad Ocean (Welcome to my Tweendom)
Brigid Alverson on Benny and Penny in The Toy Breaker (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Jennifer Hubert on Calamity Jack (Reading Rants)
Michael C. Lorah on The Cartoon Introduction to Economics, vol. 1: Microeconomics (Blog@Newsarama)
Kevin Hodgson on Cleburne: A Graphic Novel (The Graphic Classroom)
Greg McElhatton on Copper (Read About Comics)
Snow Wildsmith on Crogan’s March (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Melissa on Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom and Outlaw: The Legend of Robin Hood (Book Nut)
Julie P. on Frankie Pickle and the Pine Run 3000 (Booking Mama)
Tom Spurgeon on vols. 1-3 of Glister (The Comics Reporter)
Joy Kim on I Hate You More Than Anyone and V.B. Rose
Xaviar Xerxes on Missile Mouse (ComixTalk)
Chris Wilson on Muhammed Ali: American Champion (The Graphic Classroom)
Snow Wildsmith on vols. 1 and 2 of Nightschool (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Danielle Leigh on vols. 24-28 of One Piece (Comics Should Be Good)
Johanna Draper Carlson on Prime Baby (Comics Worth Reading)
Abby on Smile (Abby (the) Librarian)
David Hopkins on Smile
Xaviar Xerxes on Smile (ComixTalk)
Rob on The War at Ellsmere (Panel Patter)
John Hogan on Zeus, King of the Gods (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Michael May on Zeus, King of the Gods (Robot 6)

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