Links: Followups and new initiatives

David Moran posts a report on the Johnny DC panel at NYCC at Comic Book Resources. This is refreshing:

[DC Senior Editor Jann] Jones called DC’s all-ages books “palette cleansers” because they aren’t laden down with years and years’ worth of continuity, but instead told standalone stories that are “fun and you can just laugh at and read and enjoy.”

“There need to be good comics for kids,” Jones continued. “There’s something wrong with the mentality where it needs to be dumbed-down and just silly.”

Sounds suspiciously like the comics I read as a kid. Also, Jones says that Mike Kunkel is almost done with the next issue of Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam.

Recently, the business site ICv2 revised its 2008 best-selling graphic novels list to include two volumes of Bone. The reason: As  creator Jeff Smith explains, somehow Bookscan had classified the books so they weren’t counted as graphic novels. Also on the list were

At comiXology, Karen Green takes a walk on the academic side, talking to middle schoolers about visual narrative and reporting in on the Graphica conference. And Paul DeBenedetto has an interesting report on the Graphic Novels and Academic Acceptance panel at NYCC.

Librarian and comics blogger Tangognat recommends some manga for an 11-year-old girl and a 6-year-old girl.

SLJ’s own Rocco Staino reports on the website Get Graphic: The World in Words and Pictures, which is designed to get teenagers interested in graphic novels and possibly even create their own.

Queenie Chan, creator of The Dreaming, will illustrate a "hybrid manga/advice book," The Boy’s Book of Positive Quotations, due out in September from Fairview Press.

Reviews

Johanna Draper Carlson on Archie & Friends #130 and 131 (Comics Worth Reading)
Andrew Wheeler on Crogan’s Vengeance (ComicMix)
John Mitchell on Isadora Duncan: A Graphic Biography (Shuffleboil)
Billy Aguiar on vol. 1 of Luuna (Prospero’s Manga)
Greg McElhatton on My Mommy is in America and she met Buffalo Bill (Read About Comics)
Michelle Smith on vol. 1 of The Palette of 12 Secret Colors (soliloquy in blue)
Tangognat on vol. 1 of Phantom Dream (Tangognat)
Billy Aguiar on vol. 1 of Pixie (Prospero’s Manga)
Chris Wilson on Power Pack: Day One and Skrulls Versus Power Pack (The Graphic Classroom)
Charles Tan on vol. 2 of Slam Dunk (Comics Village)
John Mitchell on Token (Shuffleboil)