Too Long in Exile

KinderComics, alas, has been away for too long. This spring and summer, I have had to channel my energies elsewhere. I hate to admit it, but my academic-year workload does not make room for frequent blogging, and when the summer or intersession comes around, well, then I end up having to advance or complete other long-simmering projects. Lately I’ve had to cut back, refocus, and make a point of not driving myself nuts! Still, I am going to push for several reviews this summer; I want to keep KinderComics alive. The field of children’s comics is too important, and my interest in it too intense, to let go.

I’ll have a review of 5 Worlds: The Red Maze up later this week, and then a few (probably short) ones between now and Labor Day, in order to keep the engine humming. Thank you, readers, for checking out or revisiting KinderComics. I’ll keep pushing.

There has been a great deal of news on the children's comics front during my four-month absence. Would that I could go into all these stories in detail:

• HarperCollins Children’s Books has announced HarperAlley, a new graphic novel imprint to be directed by Andrew Arnold, former art director and editor at First Second (Publishers Weekly's Calvin Reid has the story here). Arnold envisions a bold publishing program that will put out "about 10 books a season, or about 30 books a year." Wow.
• Random House Graphic, a new comics imprint heralded back in May 2018 and headed by Gina Gagliano (also a veteran of First Second), recently announced (just in time for Comic-Con International) its debut list, i.e. its first set of releases, due starting in January 2020. (Newsarama has the press release here, and you can find out about the first four titles at RH Graphic's new website, here.)
• DC has cancelled its middle-grade imprint, DC Zoom, and young adult imprint, DC Ink, only months after publishing the first books in those lines (and after announcing many forthcoming titles: see articles here and here). Announced to great fanfare in February 2018, the two imprints seemed to signal a commitment to original graphic novels for young readers, and showed early signs of commercial success, yet have fallen prey to a corporate reorganization (which also includes the closing of Vertigo, DC's historic imprint for older readers and creator-owned titles). From here on out, DC titles for middle-grade readers will be published with the age rating label "DC Kids" (ouch), while DC titles for young adults will simply be labeled "DC." (Heidi MacDonald has the story, at The Beat, here.) Don't get me started on DC.
  
• University Press of Mississippi has announced the pending publication of With Great Power Comes Great Pedagogy: Teaching, Learning, and Comics, a scholarly essay collection edited by Susan Kirtley, Antero Garcia, and Peter Carlson. This interdisciplinary volume promises to do something unusual in the professional literature: bridge the gap between K-12 and higher-education perspectives. Look for it in February 2020.
  

Besides all that news, awards have been given out:

• The Excellence in Graphic Literature Awards announced their 2019 winners at the Denver Pop Culture Con on June 1. They include Tiger vs. Nightmare by Emily Tetri, The Eye that Never Sleeps by Marissa Moss and Jeremy Holmes, Crush by Svetlana Chmakova, The Faithful Spy by John Hendrix, Illegal by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin, Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett Krosoczka, Monk! by Youssef Daoudi, and Berlin by Jason Lutes. The Book of Year went to Berlin, while the diversity-themed Mosaic Award went to the first book ever reviewed on this blog, The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang. Full details can be found in the Pop Culture Classroom's press release, here.
• Winners of the 2019 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards were announced at Comic-Con International on July 19. Best Publication for Early Readers (up to age 8) went to Johnny Boo and the Ice Cream Computer, by James Kochalka; Best Publication for Kids (ages 9–12) went to The Nameless City: The Divided Earth, by Faith Erin Hicks; Best Publication for Teens (ages 13–17) went to The Prince and the Dressmaker, by Jen Wang, who also won the award for Best Writer/Artist. Other award-winners that may particularly interest advocates of children's and YA comics include Giant Days, by John Allison, Max Sarin, and Julia Madrigal, for Best Continuing Series and Best Humor Publication; Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World, by Pénélope Bagieu, for Best U.S. Edition of International Material; and Umami, by Ken Niimura, for Best Digital Comic. It was a bang-up night for First Second, which won in five categories. See the full official list of winners here.
• Tillie Walden's superb On a Sunbeam won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Graphic Novel/Comics, awarded on April 12 on the eve of the LA Times Festival of Books. See the official Prize announcements, including other nominees, here.

My gosh, what a busy and exciting field. Keeping up is a challenge! I hope to do a better job going forward.

A sad postscript

When it comes to public-facing scholarship and comics criticism, one of the most inspiring figures to my mind was the late Derek Parker Royal, co-creator, producer, and editor of The Comics Alternative podcast. Derek, a major critic of Philip Roth, Jewish American literature and culture, and graphic narrative, passed away recently, leaving a grievous sense of loss in the hearts of many. He was a scholar, innovator, and facilitator of a rare kind, generous, engaged, and prolific, and will be greatly missed in the comics studies community. He brought many people into that community; for example, at the Comics Studies Society conference in Toronto last weekend, his longtime collaborator Andy Kunka spoke movingly of how Derek encouraged him to enter the field. I will think of Derek whenever I post here, and the soaring example that he set.

RIP Derek. Thank you for your scholarship, your advocacy, and your spirit.