DramaQueen Relaunches

Houston-based yaoi publisher DramaQueen has not published a title since September 2007. But the house has been reorganized; taken on a new financial investor and plans to release a new batch of titles in May.

Kids, Parents Turnout for Kids Comic-Con 2008

Hundreds of kids and their parents from all around the New York City metro area converged on the campus of the Bronx Community College this past weekend for the second annual Kids Comic Con held all day Saturday, March 29.

Life in Comics #2: Finding Comics in the “Real” World

The author searches for well known graphic novels in a comics shop, a book store and a library and reports on her findings.

Del Rey Tells Mashima's Fairy Tail

Hiro Mashima’s Fairy Tail, an irreverent story filled with silly, slapstick humor about young wizards, and Del Rey Manga hopes it will be a big hit.

Tanaka Keeps Time

Veronique Tanaka uses a unique storytelling style of 16-panel pages to tell her story in Metronome.

Comics Briefly

Siegel Copyright Returns; Frank Miller at NYCC; Murakami at Brooklyn Museum; Making a Bestseller; Dark Horse Comics Online; Jeffery Brown on SexTV; and Comic Exhibit at MCAD

Music as Memoir

In a poem set to music by his lover Benjamin Britten, W.H. Auden implored the patron saint of music, “Blessed Cecilia, appear in visions/ To all musicians, appear and inspire.” Or as Nikki Sixx, bassist and songwriter for heavy metal band Mötley Crüe, acknowledges inspiration in his bestselling memoir, The Heroin Diaries: “I remember Iggy and the Stooges' song 'Sear...

Classic Do-Over

Shadow Country Peter Matthiessen . Modern Library , $35 (960p) ISBN 978-0-679-64019-6 Matthiessen’s Watson trilogy is a touchstone of modern American literature, and yet, as the author writes in a foreword of this reworking, with the publication of Killing Mister Watson, Lost Man’s River and Bone by Bone, he felt, “after twenty years of toil.

Nonfiction Reviews

Why I Came West: A Memoir Rick Bass . Houghton Mifflin , $24 (250p) ISBN 978-0-618-59675-1 In the summer of 1987, nature writer Bass stumbled into the Yaak Valley in northwestern Montana and fell in love. A native of Houston, Bass worked as a geologist in Mississippi before heading west to find his home and his vocation as a writer.

Children's Book Reviews

Picture Books What to Do About Alice? Barbara Kerley , illus. by Edwin Fotheringham. Scholastic , $16.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-439-92231-9 It’s hard to imagine a picture book biography that could better suit its subject than this high-energy volume serves young Alice Roosevelt. Kerley (The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins) knows just how to introduce her to contemporary readers: “Theod...

Fiction Reviews

The Seamstress Frances de Pontes Peebles . Harper , $25.95 (656p) ISBN 978-0-06-073887-7 This lavishly detailed if overlong debut novel set in 1920s and '30s Brazil follows two sisters who share excellent sewing skills, but take divergent paths into adulthood. Crippled by a childhood accident and mocked for her deformities, Luzia is considered unmarriageable.

Speed Racer Returns

From the X-Men and Superman to the forthcoming Iron Man and Dark Knight movies, Hollywood has taken a keen interest in the comics game. Now comics publishers are taking a cue from the studios and their comic book—inspired films—and their ability to generate book sales. Remember the 1960s animated cartoon Speed Racer, an early example of Japanese anime finding a kids audience in th...

Web Exclusive Reviews: Week of 3/31/2008

This week: Poetry, poets, puppies and psychopathology; marginalized voices from Native America and the Civil Rights movement; dedicated craftsmen and flighty counter-dependents; and a dazzling debut novel with a "polyphonic narrative." Plus: how do you measure up against McCain, Clinton and Obama?

ComicsPRO Gets Everyone on the Same Page

Retailers and publishers came together to discuss many issues pertaining to the industry at the recent ComicsPRO meeting in Las Vegas.

Stranded: Virgin’s New Sci-Fi/Superhero Drama

Comics writer Mike Carey’s new book, The Stranded, is about a group of aliens that live amongst us, but who don’t even know that they’re from another world. The new comics series is a collaboration between Virgin Comics and The Sci-Fi Channel and will also be produced as a TV show.

Hergé at One Hundred

English-speaking fans of Hergé’s Tintin can read two new books by Great Britain’s leading “Tintinologist,” Michael Farr: The Adventures of Hergé and Tintin & Co., both are published by Last Gasp and vividly illustrated with Hergé artwork.

Johnny Boo: Kochalka for Kids

In June, Ignatz Award-winning creator James Kochalka will release his latest work for children, Johnny Boo: The Best Little Ghost in the World.

Realbuzz Studios: Panels and Parables

RealBuzz Studios produces manga-style comics with Christian values without hitting the reader over the head with a Bible.

Web Exclusive Reviews: Week of 3/24/2008

In this week's Web roundup: culinary tours domestic and international, an improv comedy legend and a comic up-and-comer, the economic realities of global energy crisis and the new world order it's engendered, memoirs from a librarian and a teen with OCD, and a powerful resource for parents facing the death of a child. Plus: an inviting look at Winslow Homer and a novelist's take on Mary, mother of Jesus.

Nonfiction Reviews: Week of 3/24/2008