Tagged: fantasy

ComicMix Quick Picks: June 3, 2011

Closing windows while waiting on line for X-Men: First Class, so here we go as the foreman looks and the sundial on his wrist and pulls the bird’s tail:

Anything else? Consider this an open thread.

Review: Page by Paige

[[[Page by Paige]]]
By Laura Lee Gulledge
192 Pages, Amulet Books, $16.95

Thankfully there are a growing number of graphic novels for young adults about subjects way beyond fantasy, science fiction, and superheroics. A new generation of creators are sharing their visions or lives (or both) with us and everyone benefits. The latest such offering is Page by Paige, produced by scenic painter Laura Lee Gulledge. Paige is a stand-in for Laura, whose family has relocated from Virginia to New York and being the new teen in high school is a rough experience. There’s the awkwardness of coming in during the school year coupled with navigating the courses, the hallways and the cliques. Fortunately for Paige, she is accompanied by her sketchbook and in private, she pours out her fears, anxieties, and hopes. She finally meets someone who is drawn to Paige, noticing the newcomer is reading an issue of Locas. Jules befriends Paige and introduces her to brother Longo and their friend Gabe. Suddenly, Paige has a circle of friends.

As Paige gets to know them, she creeps towards revealing her true self, that of a budding artist. Watching her crawl from her cocoon to become a beautiful red-headed butterfly is a joy. Better yet, once her friends see how true talents, they become her accomplices in beautifying their surroundings through Paige’s art, which literally leaps off the page.

The book is a lovely mix of Paige’s escapades and her sketchbook, providing insight and commentary into the first months of her new life in the big city. There’s absolutely nothing larger than life, but the canvass is a large one. There’s friendship, some romance, studying in the city’s great art museums, relating to one’s parents, and expressing one’s self artistically. Page by page, ahem, we are treated to inventive layouts and designs as we get insightful glimpses into Paige’s conscious mind.

Gulledge is an honest artist, laying out her fears and dreams out for all of us to examine. She’s very naturalistic in her character designs and makes certain every character has a distinctive voice. Paige herself is loudest, of course, and readers will truly enjoy getting to know this character.

The book may have just been released but it has already been nominated for a deserving spot on the Young Adult Library Services Association’s Great Graphic Novels for Teens list. This comes highly recommend to people seeking something fresh and different.

2011 Nebula Awards Winners Announced

2011 Nebula Awards Winners Announced

Blackout (novel)

Image via Wikipedia

The Nebula Awards® are voted on, and presented by, active members of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America to honor the best in science fiction and fantasy. The awards were announced at the Nebula Awards® Banquet held at the Washington Hilton Hotel last night.

Winning Novel: [[[Blackout/All Clear]]] by Connie Willis (Spectra)

Also Nominated:
[[[The Native Star]]] by M.K. Hobson (Spectra)
[[[The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms]]] by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit UK; Orbit US)
[[[Shades of Milk and Honey]]] by Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)
[[[Echo]]] by Jack McDevitt (Ace)
[[[Who Fears Death]]] by Nnedi Okorafor (DAW)

Winning Novella: “The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath the Queen’s Window” by Rachel Swirsky (Subterranean Summer ’10)

Also Nominated:
[[[The Alchemist]]] by Paolo Bacigalupi (Audible; Subterranean)
“Iron Shoes” by J. Kathleen Cheney (Alembical 2)
[[[The Lifecycle of Software Objects]]] by Ted Chiang (Subterranean)
“The Sultan of the Clouds” by Geoffrey A. Landis (Asimov’s 9/10)
“Ghosts Doing the Orange Dance” by Paul Park (F&SF 1-2/10)

Winning Novelette: “That Leviathan Whom Thou Hast Made” by Eric James Stone (Analog 9/10)

Also Nominated:
“Map of Seventeen” by Christopher Barzak (The Beastly Bride)
“The Jaguar House by in Shadow” by Aliette de Bodard (Asimov’s 7/10)
“The Fortuitous Meeting of Gerard van Oost and Oludara” by Christopher Kastensmidt (Realms of Fantasy 4/10)
“Plus or Minus” by James Patrick Kelly (Asimov’s 12/10)
“Pishaach” by Shweta Narayan (The Beastly Bride)
“Stone Wall Truth” by Caroline M. Yoachim (Asimov’s 2/10)

Winning Short Story (tie): “Ponies” by Kij Johnson (Tor.com 1/17/10) and “How Interesting: A Tiny Man” by Harlan Ellison (Realms of Fantasy 2/10)

Also Nominated:
“Arvies” by Adam-Troy Castro (Lightspeed 8/10)
“I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Reno” by Vylar Kaftan (Lightspeed 6/10)
“The Green Book” by Amal El-Mohtar (Apex 11/1/10)
“Ghosts of New York” by Jennifer Pelland (Dark Faith)
“Conditional Love” by Felicity Shoulders (Asimov’s 1/10)


Ray Bradbury Award: [[[Inception]]]

Also Nominated:
[[[Despicable Me]]]
Doctor Who: “Vincent and the Doctor”
[[[How to Train Your Dragon]]]
[[[Scott Pilgrim vs. the World]]]
[[[Toy Story 3]]]

Andre Norton Award: [[[I Shall Wear Midnight]]] by Terry Pratchett (Gollancz; Harper)

Also Nominated:
[[[Ship Breaker]]] by Paolo Bacigalupi (Little, Brown)
[[[White Cat]]] by Holly Black (McElderry)
[[[Mockingjay]]] by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic Press; Scholastic UK)
[[[Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword]]] by Barry Deutsch (Amulet)
[[[The Boy from Ilysies]]] by Pearl North (Tor Teen)
[[[ A Conspiracy of Kings]]] by Megan Whalen Turner (Greenwillow)
[[[Behemoth]]] by Scott Westerfeld (Simon Pulse; Simon & Schuster UK)

Congratulations to all the winners and nominees!

Jeffrey Catherine Jones, 1944 – 2011

Noted illustrator and sometime comics artist Jeffrey Catherine Jones died yesterday of complications from emphysema.

In comics, her work appeared in Heavy Metal, the various Warren magazines, Epic Illustrated, and many, many others. Committing herself to illustration in general and expressionism in specific, she was a member of the legendary Studio along with Michael Kaluta, Barry Windsor-Smith and Bernie Wrightson. Jones’ illustrations graced a great many science fantasy novels (Michael Moorcock, Dean Koontz, Fritz Lieber, Andre Norton, and others) and magazines as well as publications such as The National Lampoon.

Her work has been reprinted in a number of albums, most recently IDW’s [[[Jeffrey Jones: A Life In Art]]]. This ironically titled tome was released at the beginning of this year.

Jones married Mary Louise Alexander (now Louise Simonson) in 1966 and had a daughter, Julianna, the following year. In 2001 Jeffrey had gender reassignment surgery. In recent years she suffered from numerous ailments, but had made a sadly brief return to the drawing board last month.

In one of the highest compliments imaginable, illustrator Frank Frazetta called Jones “the greatest living painter.”

The Point Radio: HACK SLASH On The Big Screen?

The Point Radio: HACK SLASH On The Big Screen?

Visits to ComicCon and a weekly fantasy series are part of the creds that Allison Scaglotti brings to the game – but is it enough for her to portray Cassie from HACK SLASH in a big screen adaptation? A lot of people think so, and Allison updates on the latest from her internet born campaign. Plus Felica Day and more are headed to EUREKA and are you shocked to find out there will be a NEMESIS movie?

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#SDCC: Frazetta Conan Painting Sells for $1.5 Million

#SDCC: Frazetta Conan Painting Sells for $1.5 Million

  • News
  • July 22, 2010

It’s one of the images that defined the fantasy illustration industry we geeks love so much. And to a lucky buyer, Frank Frazetta’s 1971 Conan the Destroyer sold in a 1.5 million gold piece private sale agreed to at the 2010 San Diego Comic Con with Robert Pistella and Stephen Ferzoco of Frazetta Management Corporation. No word yet on who purchased the piece of where it will be hung, but we assume it’ll adorn a wall next to fine mahogany bookshelves full of leather bound collections of Tolkien, maquettes of scantilly clad heroines, and signed Rush LPs.

Tip of the hat to BleedingCool.com.

The Other Adrienne Colan

The Other Adrienne Colan

  • News
  • June 22, 2010

We are saddened to report the passing of Adrienne Colan, wife of Gene Colan, over this past weekend. Clifford Meth, pictured here at right with the Colans, adds this personal note for his friend.

The news hasn’t been great in the Colan home these last few months. If you’ve followed it, and if you’ve read between the lines, you’ve weeded out a kernel of truth and likely a whole cob of mistruths. And none of that really matters, now. It was all rubber-necking anyway.

But there are truths I’d like to share about Adrienne Colan, and chief among them was her and Gene’s love for each other. It read like an epic poem. The hardships and tragedies and obstacles were too numerous to count, but for half a century they remained at the center of each other’s universes. For richer or for poorer. In sickness and in health. For better or worse.

The Adrienne Colan you met at conventions was the real McCoy. She was tough and funny and uncompromising; warm and intelligent and spiritual. And her sense of humor was splendid. I think that’s where we met—at that dark crossroads where everything was tragic-comic. Our friendship existed outside of my friendship with Gene; we corresponded for decades, sharing dreams and fears.

And I guess I loved Adrienne. Now that the end has come amidst ashes and tears, I owe myself that honesty. I loved her attention, loved sending her a new story and when she got something I’d written and dissected it (and me with it); loved that she was intellectually curious about everything I shared and painfully honest with me…and with herself.

“Something I find fascinating about you is how you came to give yourself permission to live by your own standards without alienating those that love you and
you love,” she wrote to me last December, following a personal tragedy. “How and where does one go inside to know they have that right to live by their own truth?  I’m so interested in this because I’ve always had a POV about how I need to live my life but continued to allow myself to be crushed by [others]… I’ve allowed their version of right and wrong choices to annihilate my world view. That’s what the weight is about. And I can’t begin to tell you dear Clifford how awful it is [for] one’s psyche to still be crawling my way out of that at the age of 67. At this age I feel I acquiesced to letting myself ‘die’… But I’m responsible, so I eat.”

And there it was—that dark humor inside the sadness. So I eat. You could hear her say it.

(more…)

Review: ‘Rose’

Review: ‘Rose’

Rose
Jeff Smith & Charles Vess
Graphix, 140 pages, $10.99

Earlier this year, Scholastic’s Graphix imprint completed releasing the nine volumes comprising Jeff Smith’s delightful [[[Bone]]. The full-color books are ideal entry points into graphic novels or even fantasy literature. Now, the prequel, [[[Rose]]], is finally joining the library in a softcover color edition.

Rose is, of course, Gran’ma Ben, the strong, cow-racing elder figure introduced early in Smith’s saga. Her sister, Briar, is The Hooded One, an evil crone, but as we’re about to learn, they were once young and far more carefree.

Illustrated by Charles Vess, the story is very, very different from Bone, much more a cautionary tale and almost devoid of the humor that kept Bone such a great read. Instead, the book focuses on Rose and Briar, both in training to become leaders of Atheia. Rose is exceptionally strong but not at all focused, prone to distractions while Briar is disdainful of her more popular sister, insisting Rose will be the chosen one. When they journey to Old Man’s Cave for the final testing, the young women are drawn into the Lord of the Locusts’ attempt to achieve freedom from its stone prison.

Smith’s story works on many levels, starting with the relationship between the sisters, which rings true. The responsibilities that comes with being princesses weighs heavily on both and where Briar accepts them with solemnity, Rose struggles to follow her muse. Accompanied by her favorite dogs, with whom only she can converse, she seeks adventure wherever she goes. That includes the cave and the final testing, which turns out to be a struggle between Rose and a freed River Dragon, which now threatens the residents in the Northern Valley.

Rose has to make a promise early on and then live with the consequences of that obligation at story’s end and how it shapes her personality, which sets up the more familiar Grandma figure.

Vess, a highly celebrated fantasy illustrator, adapts his lush style to Smith’s world so the Red Dragon is a visual link to the Bone series. His color work is subtle and helps establish this as a related work.

There’s a reason Neil Gaiman said, “A magnificent prequel to Jeff Smith’s Bone, but it’s more than that – – it’s a beautifully painted meditation on magic, on the mistakes of youth and the little personal tragedies that grow to decide the fate of nations and to engulf the world.”

Unlike Bone, Rose is a bit more graphic in its violence and is probably not for the youngest of readers but is highly recommended to everyone else.

David Eddings: 1931-2009

David Eddings: 1931-2009

We are saddened to report on the passing of David Eddings, author of the Belgariad and Malloreon series of books, at the age of 77.

The first volume of the Belgariad series, Pawn
of Prophecy, came out back in 1982 and was followed in short order by Queen
of Sorcery, Magician’s Gambit, Castle of Wizardry and Enchanters’ End
Game. They sold in quantities that stunned the publishing establishment
at the time, as SF was pretty much the rage.

Author Stephen Hunt commented on Eddings:

His commercial success paved
the way for a whole generation of doorstopper sized fantasy series…. I was in my early teens when I discovered these books, and they
opened my eyes to the fact that not all fantasy had to be the ‘Ye Olde
Speake’ variety favoured by Tolkien – they were fantasy, but they
carried a modern feel to the dialogue and characterisation, while still
being firmly placed in a deeply believable fantasy world.

It’s a feel that influenced a whole swathe of media, and not just
books – you can see David Eddings’ influence running through Xena and
Hercules too, albeit taken to extremes with their, ‘Hey, dragon dude!’
dialogue.

He will be missed.

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