Links: Talking TOON, Diversity, and ‘Fantasy Sports’

BOOM! Studios already has an Amazing World of Gumball serial comic, but they announced yesterday that they are going to publish an original graphic novel based on the Cartoon Network series as well. “All three kids go to a Renaissance Faire,” Brennan says. “But Gumball gets into some trouble with a stage magician and gets the whole town cursed into becoming a fairytale world. You know, the usual Saturday-afternoon outing.”

TOON Books marketing director Kimberly Guise talks about comics for young readers and TOON’s new distribution agreement with Diamond.

Jillian and Mariko Tamaki, co-creators of Skim and the Eisner-winning This One Summer, talk about how they work together and how diversity plays out in their work.

In a video interview, Gene Luen Yang (another Eisner winner!) discusses diversity in comics and what it’s like writing Superman.

David Harper interviews Sam Bosma, whose Fantasy Sports was recently published by Nobrow in a big, beautiful edition. A sample:

This first book was a challenge to myself — first, to make a comic that I could self publish and sell (this was back when it was just Fantasy Basketball), and second, to convey some of what I love about basketball to readers who were lukewarm to sports. Most of my illustration is in the fantasy genre, and I thought that if I could simplify basketball down to something more combative, I could combine the two. Make something that I really enjoyed drawing. Dungeon crawlers, not just Zelda but table-top RPGs as well, have a nice, clean, easily conveyable format: go through a zone, clobbering each successively stronger foe until you reach the boss and claim their treasure. Part of what I love about Dungeons and Dragons is that character dynamics, even those between enemy creatures can alter the feel of the story in huge ways. I didn’t want enemies who just existed to cough up experience points. There’s some more exploration I plan to do there, definitely.

Alex Dueben talks to Kate Beaton about her new children’s book The Princess and the Pony.

Alex also talks to Zeina Abirached, author of A Game for Swallows and I Remember Beirut, both of which tell of her childhood in Beirut before and during the Lebanese civil war.

David Petersen talks to Heidi MacDonald about his upcoming art book, The Art of Mouse Guard. There’s a preview here.

The creators of Legend of Korra, Mike DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, talked about the cartoon, the art book, and the upcoming comic at their panel at Comic-Con International in San Diego last month.

The Tweeks, Maddy and Anya Ernst, are middle-schoolers who do video reviews of comics at ComicMix; lately they have been focusing on frequently challenged graphic novels, and this week’s selection is The Graveyard Book.

Meryl Jaffe lists some diverse graphic novels for kids.

Previews

Archie Comics 1000 Page Jam (Comicosity)
Baba Yaga’s Assistant (Comics & Cola)
Clarence #3 (13th Dimension)
Dark Crystal Creation Myths, vol. 3 (ToughPigs)
Figment 2, #1 (ICv2)
Popeye Classic Comics #37 (13th Dimension)
Princeless: Be Yourself #2 (Comic Crusaders)
Veda: Assembly Required (ICv2)

Reviews

A Library Girl on Bake Sale (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
Dan Greenfield on Bat-Mite #3 (13th Dimension)
Gary Tyrell on Battling Boy: Fall of the House of West (Fleen)
Jessica Lamarr on vol. 1 of Bee and PuppyCat (No Flying, No Tights)
Stergios Botzakis on Fantasy Sports No. 1 (Graphic Novel Resources)
Johanna Draper Carlson on Goosebumps Graphix: Slappy’s Tales of Horror (Comics Worth Reading)
Mark Richardson on vol. 1 of Grayson: Agents of Spyral (No Flying, No Tights)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 4 of Gronk: A Monster’s Story (Comics Worth Reading)
Greg McElhatton on Jem and the Holograms #5 (Comic Book Resources)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vols. 1-3 of Max Finder Mystery: Collected Casebook (Comics Worth Reading)
Stergios Botzakis on Mermin, Book One: Out of Water (Graphic Novel Resources)
J. Caleb Mozzocco on Ms. Marvel, vol. 3: Crushed (Every Day Is Like Wednesday)
Eris Walsh on Princeless: Be Yourself #2 (Comicosity)
Stergios Botzakis on SuperMutant Magic Academy (Graphic Novel Resources)
Lindsey Tomsu on vols. 1-3 of Zero’s Familiar (No Flying, No Tights)

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