CSotD: Little Kids and Old Flatulentalists
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I rise to a point of personal privilege to recognize the 25th Anniversary of Big Nate, which is saluted here at the GoComics blog not only with some praise and fun but with a chance to win some Big Nate books and the announcement that friend-of-the-blog Lincoln Peirce will be live-tweeting tomorrow (Friday).
I have no idea how many of the kids who love Big Nate books ever see the strip in the newspaper, but I also have no idea how much that matters, because Lincoln has been a pioneer in the burgeoning crossover market between comic strips and kids books, and, having gone out with him to a couple of schools at the Kenosha Festival of Cartooning two years ago, I can tell you, the guy is a rock star.
Oh, I already did tell you that.
I've known him for nearly a decade; he's a New Englander and we met at the Maine Comic Arts Festival in 2007, but going into schools with him really showed how his experience as a teacher informs his work. Having read Big Nate for several years, it wasn't so much of a revelation as it was a confirmation that work (in any medium, really) is fresher and better if the creator has first-hand experience.
The fact that he can work a crowd of 10-year-olds like a pro is simply a side-benefit, but, having made him blush sufficiently for one day, let me switch over to a related piece of news, which is that Gene Luen Yang has been named the Library of Congress's Ambassador For Young People's Literature.
The connection is that Yang also has experience in the classroom and, if the Big Nate books play to a younger audience than American Born Chinese or Boxers & Saints graphic novels, Yang taught high school while Peirce taught middle school.
However, my real joy was that Yang used the term "hybrid" in an interview to describe the new breed of books that, like "Big Nate," are not graphic novels but that combine text and pictures in a richer mix than simply a book with pictures. It's also Lincoln's preferred terminology, and mine.
Publishers are still working this out but I think "illustrated novel," the other contender, doesn't make the point that, in a hybrid, the pictures advance the story rather than simply illustrating it.
NPR had a story on Yang's appointment that breathlessly declared "Yang's selection signals an important shift in a decades-old war over the role of comics in education in general and literacy in particular."
Indeed. That's a lot more diplomatic than saying, "The old farts are finally starting to get it."
Kids read, voraciously. And not just graphic novels and hybrids: They read lots of traditional-format books, and publishers are well aware of it.
(Note to cartoonists: If you're still doing cartoons about slacker kids and their silly fashions and their video games, you are one of the aforementioned "old farts." The train is leaving the station and you might want to think about getting on board. Or you may be happier simply reposting this photo of students working on interactive art lessons at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, together with a screed about how these damn kids would rather play with their phones than look at great art. Try not to consider the irony of your accusing them of not even trying to see what's happening around them.)
Speaking of Pathetic Old Farts
I was going to write about the brouhaha over the Angouleme festival's nomination of 30 cartoonists for its Grand Prix, which is pronounced "Gron Pree" despite the fact that the Big Pricks didn't nominate a single woman.
However, after about a third of the nominees dropped out in protest, les Vieux Bons Gars have apparently reconsidered and are coming up with a fresh slate that includes a little estrogen. Michael Cavna has the story.
There's a bit of Groucho Marxism at work here: Do you want an award from someone who had to have this explained to them?
This illustration is something I whipped up a few years ago when I was working at a paper where the newsroom was getting a bit puffed up. Prizes are nice for marketing purposes, and I've won my share, but you really shouldn't take them too seriously beyond that.
In the words of Bob Dylan, "Applause is kind of bullshit."
And continuing our theme
Gray Matters is about being an old fart, and today's has particular resonance for those of us in the newspaper business.
As I've said before, it's odd to work in an industry where, when you run into a colleague you haven't seen in awhile, it's perfectly okay to ask, "So, are you still working?"
Carlson simply expands on that, because the answer "yes" isn't always — or even often — good news.
"Oh, hell, no," is usually followed by much more cheerful conversation.
At this stage of life, there are worse things than losing your job. People my age are retiring anyway, and, if I had planned to keep working indefinitely, hey, that's the way it goes, though I'm glad I got all that procreation out of the way early, because having kids in college when you're in your 60s changes the equation.
But if I were in my 30s, I'd get the hell out while I still had time to reinvent myself, and I genuinely feel bad for people in their 50s, who still have obligations and plenty left in the tank.
Speaking of which, friend-of-the-blog Richard Marcej has posted a graphic resume. Good idea and more creative people should do this sort of thing.
But they shouldn't have to.
On a more cheerful note, well, sort of
Baby Blues reminds me of a plan I once came up with for the Non-Custodial Parents' Gift Shop, which would include all sorts of musical instruments and toys that come apart and can be scattered around the house.
I actually came up with this perverse inspiration before my own divorce, back when we gave our own children a pair of Coleco Mini-Arcades with no mute buttons, no earphone jacks and no reluctance to play the same little electronic song and then make electronic blip noises over and over and over and over.
Come to think of it, "Whose idea was this?" may have been the conversation that sparked the divorce.
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