From the press release: The winners of the 2008 Glyph Comics Awards were announced in a ceremony at the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention on Friday, May 16. The winners are:

Story of the Year
Sentences: The Life of MF Grimm; Percy Carey, writer, Ronald Wimberly, artist

Best Writer
James Sturm, Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow

Best Artist
Kyle Baker, Nat Turner: Revolution

Best Male Character
Emmet Wilson, Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow; co-created by James Sturm, writer, and Rich Tommaso, artist

Best Female Character
Amanda Waller, Checkmate; Greg Rucka, writer, Joe Bennett & Jack Jadson, artists

Rising Star Award
Marguerite Abouet, Aya

Best Reprint Publication
Aya, Drawn & Quarterly; Chris Oliveros, publisher, Helge Dascher, translator

Best Cover
Sentences: The Life of MF Grimm; Ronald Wimberly, illustrator

Best Comic Strip
The K Chronicles; Keith Knight, story and art

Fan Award for Best Comic
Fantastic Four: The New Fantastic Four; Dwayne McDuffie, writer, Paul Pelletier & Rick Magyar, artists

The Glyph Comics Awards recognize the best in comics made by, for, and about people of color from the preceding calendar year. While it is not exclusive to black creators, it does strive to honor those who have made the greatest contributions to the comics medium in terms of both critical and commercial impact. By doing so, the goal is to encourage more diverse and high quality work across the board and to inspire new creators to add their voices to the field.

The awards are named for the blog Glyphs: The Language of the Black Comics Community at Pop Culture Shock (http://glyphs.popcultureshock.com), started in 2005 by comics journalist Rich Watson as a means to provide news and commentary of comics with black themes, as well as tangential topics in the fields of black science-fiction/fantasy and animation.

Writer Christopher Hart is responsible for more than 60 how-to books about creating manga and comics, including the incredibly popular Manga Mania and its many spinoffs. But I’d never heard of him creating any actual comics until now. (More on that concern here.)

The Reformed
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The Reformed is described as “original English language (OEL) crime noir vampire manga”, and the promotional text will give you a good idea of just how clichéd it is.

Immortality is his, but love never will be — only an eternity of loneliness, filled with the blood of innocent victims.

Calling the lead character Giancarlo, the brooding vampire, two-dimensional would be a compliment. He falls in love with a hooker, but his secret comes between them. There’s also a mysterious manservant and an aggressive detective who suspects the truth but can’t prove it. In his afterword, Hart describes the generation of the book. Apparently, the idea “what if a vampire had a conscience?” suddenly hit him, and he decided that only a woman could convince the vamp to give up his way of existence.

That Hart found this new and interesting suggests to me that he’s never paid attention to how vampires have been portrayed in movies, books, and TV shows over the past two decades or so. He brings nothing new to the concept.

The only thing I found surprising about this book is how disappointing the art is. The artist Anzu has been selected to illustrate the upcoming shojo X-Men manga, which I was looking forward to until now. Her work is flat and off. The pages are cluttered and can be hard to read. It reminds me of what happens when someone learns to draw from the outside in, trying to capture a certain look instead of paying attention to basics like perspective or anatomy or even what direction the light source is coming from. She does nice gallery pieces, but her storytelling is lacking.

When asked, in an interview sent out with this book, why Hart didn’t draw the book himself, since he is an illustrator, he responded,

I have an intense schedule. And drawing is very time-consuming. I’m a perfectionist…. I simply didn’t have the time to put out the books I had to do and add another project.

How much commitment does he have to this idea if he couldn’t make time for it? Although I’m sure his how-to books make him a lot more money than this will. As for selecting the manga style, Hart’s opinion is

The elegant vampire is much more indigenous to manga than American comics, in which he is an oddity, and not a powerfully charismatic character, which he had to be in my story.

Too bad that doesn’t come through on the page. Instead of mesmerizing me, Giancarlo left me yawning.

Putting this into perspective, I don’t believe that someone has to be a fiction writer or artist in order to talk intelligently about craft. (Obviously, since I do the latter — well, the “intelligently” determination is up to my readers — without the former.) But someone who purports to be an expert on how to create comics putting out something so aggressively mediocre and generic… that calls into question his credentials for me. And reminds me of the proverb, “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”

(A complimentary copy for this review was provided by the publisher.)

The contest to create a “Men of the DCU” fashion poster has closed. Here are all the entries I’ve received. However, I haven’t yet determined a winner; please see the end of this post for more on that.

From Philip Rice:

Left to right: Michael Jon Carter (Booster Gold), Jaime Reyes (Blue Beetle), Dick Grayson (Nightwing), Michael Holt (Mister Terrific), Bruce Wayne (Batman), Clark Kent (Superman), Lex Luthor, Oliver Queen (Green Arrow), John Stewart (Green Lantern), Wally West (The Flash), and Black Adam.

From Bill Roundy:

Left to right: Lex Luthor, Aquaman, Robin (Tim Drake), Batman, Superman, Green Arrow, The Joker, Green Lantern (John Stewart), and the Flash (Jay Garrick).

From J. Caleb Mozzocco, who talks about his choices and analyzes the other entries at that link:

Left to right: King Orin/Arthur Curry, J’onn J’onnz, Hal Jordan, Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, Tim Drake, Eel O’Brien/Plastic Man, Captain Marvel.

He also sent along a matching villain version:

Left to right: Bizarro, Dr. Psycho, Sinestro, Dr. Sivana, Lex Luthor, The Joker, Mr. Mxyzptlk, The Turtle, Black Manta, The Brain, and Monsieur Mallah.

And here are the other entries, previously posted:
From Johnny Zito (Black Cherry Bombshells):

Left to right: John Stewart (Green Lantern), Hal Jordan (Green Lantern), Ryan Choi (The Atom), Oliver Queen (Green Arrow), Bruce Wayne (Batman), Clark Kent (Superman), Krypto (the Super Dog), Barry Allen (The Flash), Dick Grayson (Robin), John Henry Irons (Steel), Arthur Curry (Aquaman)

From Paul Salvi (Action, Ohio):

Left to right:
Oliver Queen (Green Arrow), Arthur Curry (Aquaman), Dick Grayson (Robin), Bruce Wayne (Batman), Clark Kent (Superman), Barry Allen (Flash), Hal Jordan (Green Lantern), Billy Batson (Captain Marvel), Barry Allen (Flash)

From Jeff Hebert (creator of HeroMachine), two versions:

Left to right:
Oliver Queen (Green Arrow), Hal Jordan (Green Lantern), Querl Dox (Brainiac 5), Clark Kent (Superman), Bruce Wayne (Batman), Jason Todd (Robin — says Jeff, “emo style”), Wally West (Flash), John Stewart (Green Lantern)

Now, as for selecting a winner: I’d like to know what my readers think. I’ll still make the final decision, but I can be swayed. Please feel free to choose your favorite in the comments, and spread the word as you wish — I’d love to get a diverse range of opinions. If you want to have influence, please respond by Monday, May 19, because I’ll be announcing a winner on Tuesday, May 20.

Review by Ed Sizemore

Covering EduManga: Mother Teresa and Great Figures in History: Mother Teresa.

The Life of Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu on August 26, 1910, in current day Macedonia. Her parents were both devout Catholics. Drane, Agnes’ mother, constantly helped the poor with deliveries of food and clothing. She modeled for her children a compassion that expressed itself in meeting the tangible needs of the less fortunate. By age 12, Agnes was convinced that she wanted to be a nun and a missionary to the poor. At age 18, she joined the Sisters of Loreto, an order of missionary nuns and took the name Teresa when she made her holy vows. She learned English and was sent to Loreto’s convent in Calcutta, India, to be a teacher.

She served as a teacher until she was overwhelmed with a desire to aid the most destitute of Indian society more directly. It took a year, and the direct permission from the Pope, for Teresa to be allowed to leave the convent and to begin a personal ministry to the poor. In August 1948, she left Calcutta briefly for Patna to learn basic medical skills. She then moved back to the slum of Motjhil in Calcutta and set up an open air school. Soon, word of her work spread, and some of her former students showed up to help.

On October 7, 1950, Pope Paul VI recognized the Missionaries of Charity as an official ministry of the Catholic Church. The now Mother Teresa went on to found houses for the dying, orphans, and the sick in several countries as well as free schools for the poor. She received numerous humanitarian awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. (She had the Nobel committee forgo the normal awards banquet, so the money could be donated to the poor.) After struggling with poor health, Mother Teresa went to a well-deserved rest in the arms of Christ on September 5, 1997.

Mother Teresa (warning: link has sound) was one of the seminal religious figures of the 20th century. It’s no wonder that there have been numerous comic book adaptations of her life (Marvel did one in 1984). What’s interesting in reading these two manga is how they reflect the two different cultures they stem from. Much like the Gospel, the authors are trying to present Mother Teresa’s story in ways that will make sense to and connect with their given audience.
Read the rest of this entry »

Honey and Clover
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Out Tuesday on DVD was the live-action version of Honey and Clover (subtitled). I’m curious about it. I enjoyed reading the manga, but I suspect seeing the characters “in person” would make them even easier to relate to (and distinguish).

The plot is the same — college students find love and make life decisions while pursuing their art. However, in the manga, the childlike Hagumi appears elfin and blonde. Based on pictures, in the movie, she still looks young and vulnerable, but I find her much more acceptable and human-looking. And not quite as creepily young.

Sho Sakurai and Yu Aoi, who play Takemoto and Hagumi, also both appeared in Hula Girls, another Viz Pictures release. The Honey and Clover disc has cast interviews as a bonus feature. Find out more at the movie website.

Review by KC Carlson

They weren’t kidding when they called it “Essential.”

Topping out at 400 pages, The Essential Batman Encyclopedia is a massive collection of facts, fictions, and good old-fashioned trivia about the Gotham Knight and all his friends and foes. In fact, this book is so densely packed and monstrously thick, I might think that The Joker came up with it as a hefty, blunt-force murder weapon!

The Essential Batman Encyclopedia
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That is, if I didn’t already know that it was actually written by my pal Bob Greenberger, former DC Editor and “Continuity Cop”, who apparently spent most of a year researching the details that weren’t already permanently attached to his brain and then writing the 300,000+ word manuscript. The right man for the job, as they say. The end result is the perfect book for comic book geeks (especially the continuity-minded type) (like me), trivia mavens, pop culture fans and historians, uber-fans of heroic and science fiction, morning-show radio jocks, and just plain old fans of the lives and times of Batman.

Based on and expanded upon ten-fold, The Essential Batman Encyclopedia is a completely updated version of the 1976 (reprinted, 2007) Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes, Volume 1: Batman by Michael Fleisher. Whereas Fleisher’s book stopped with material published in the late 1960s and only covered material in Batman, Detective Comics, and World’s Finest Comics, Greenberger’s text covers ALL the Batman core titles and many of the Batman family books (Catwoman, Nightwing, Robin, etc.) up through (cover date) November 2007. In addition, the new Encyclopedia also covers major DCU storylines like Crisis on Infinite Earths, No Man’s Land, Identity Crisis, War Games, and Infinite Crisis, as well as major Batman information from the various Justice League and Outsiders titles and the Batman team-ups in The Brave and the Bold. All told, almost 70 years of Batman history in one book. An outstanding achievement!

Virtually all the core information from the original Fleisher book has been retained, albeit with some judicious re-writing/editing. What has been omitted: Minor characters who only made one appearance, Fleisher’s often lengthy quotations from the original comics, the very lengthy story-by-story chronological rundown of each comic (and for each major character), and the frequent duplication of material from entry to entry. However, many of the illustrations that were used in the original book have been retained in the new volume.

Probably the most stunning thing about Greenberger’s text (as well as being the most obsessive, but unfortunately necessary) is the detailed and ongoing discussion of how the characters, their origins, their equipment, their motivations, their relationship to other characters, and even their names have changed over the years. Explicit in these descriptions are the obvious changes in continuity that have occurred over the many years of DC history in the wake of such reality-changing stories as the various Crisis storylines. Less overt are the changes that just naturally evolved over time (notably the tech associated with Batman’s equipment, especially the Batmobile) or changes in the evolution of comics as graphic storytelling (how the complexities and intensity of the character’s relationships evolve over time). Greenberger handles all of this potentially confusing material with great skill. Especially appreciated are the discussions of the differences and similarities of the Earth-1 and Earth-2 versions of the long-running characters, as well as the identification of alternate versions of characters from “other realities” (Elseworlds and other stories).

The encyclopedia format unfortunately tends to make much of the book an alphabetical collection of single paragraph descriptions of various gangsters, mob-bosses, and one-note supervillains. The real meat of the book is reserved for the lengthy entries on the Batman and his world (Gotham City, the Batcave, the Wayne Family), his allies (Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl, the Gordons, Alfred, Catwoman), and his villains (The Joker, Ra’s al Ghul, Two Face, Lex Luthor, The Penguin, The Riddler, Mr. Freeze, Kobra, and many more). Each of these entries is written newspaper-style with the most important information up front in a summary/overview, followed by as much detail as you want. The general rule of thumb is the longer the character has been around, or the most frequent their appearances, the longer and more detailed their entry.

Most of the major appearances (including all first appearances) are documented in the text with the comic, issue number, and publication date. Due to the encyclopedia format, there is some minor duplication of content, but this is kept to a minimum and is only apparent if one reads the book straight through (which goes against the basic format in the first place and is, therefore, the pickiest of nits).

I’m guessing that there are well over 300 illustrations in all — including two 16-page, full-color sections — running the gamut of great Batman artists from Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson to Alex Ross and Jim Lee and all eras in between. Tastefully designed with well-chosen graphics, the functionality of this book is miles above the similar DK-published character overviews, with their over-the-top/in-your-face graphics, bizarre layouts, bad text-wrap, and often skimpy text.

Best of all, this Batman volume is just the first of a series. Up next (probably next year) is The Essential Superman Encyclopedia, written by Superman scripter Marty Pasko. After that is The Essential Wonder Woman Encyclopedia, written by Wonder Woman artist and scripter Phil Jimenez. The backstory of the DC Universe is in good hands! These books are Essential for your comic book reference library — as well as a fun and entertaining read!

An advance galley for this review was provided by the publisher. The book is due out June 10, 2008.

I got an impressive cigar box full of stuff in the mail from Top Shelf earlier this week promoting their three Eisner Award nominations.

For Essex County, volumes 1-2: Tales from the Farm/Ghost Stories, by Jeff Lemire, nominated for Best Graphic Album–New and Best Writer/Artist, the box contained a pack of hockey trading cards and a promotional postcard. (Am I the only one who thinks it’s odd to nominate two books for that award? Even if you want to make the case that they add up to one big story, they’re parts 1 and 2 of a trilogy, with book 3 not out yet.)

For Super Spy, by Matt Kindt, though, there was a cornucopia of goodies. (The book is up for Best Graphic Album–Reprint.) Clockwise from top, we have:

• A faux-distressed paper toy gun with comics coming out of its beam
• A vial labeled “Mint Flavored Cyanide Capsules” with some kind of tablets inside
• A set of 72 stamp-sized pieces of art, which came out of
• A box labeled “The Treasure” (and numbered 24 out of 181) that also contained a “treasure map” that tells you in which order to arrange the cards to discover the secret story
• And last, what appears to be a small original painting in ink and wash.

I was flabbergasted. I really can’t capture how neat it is to hold these items and examine their detail. It makes me wish Kindt’s storytelling resonated better with me, because his design sense is astounding. I thought the fake cigarette they sent out for Pistolwhip was impressive; this is terrific.

Maybe it is a bribe, but I prefer to consider it a clever, creative way to bring works to voters’ attention. And it’s the kind of handmade, individual promotion that good small publishers can do to gain mindshare. And mention on sites like this one.

AdHouse Books has announced that their book PulpHope won a Silver Award for Publication Design at the 2007 Richmond Show.

“We were very excited to hear about the win,” says publisher/designer Chris Pitzer. “Richmond is a city that is FULL of big creative agencies like Martin, Elevation and Work Labs. To be recognized for work that could be considered part of that community is very rewarding.”