April Roundup

This month we’re so happy to see not one, not two but three different graphic novels out from Australian creators and covering all three categories. For younger readers we have Renee Treml’s latest, Thylacine and the Time Machine published through Allen & Unwin. It’s great to see Renee back with another graphic novel. In the Young Adult category, Louie Joyce has brought Godzilla to Australia in Godzilla: Skate or Die, published by IDW. And for adult readers, One Path is a brutal and epic graphic novel by Greg Broadmore from New Zealand and co-written with Andy Lanning and Nick Boshier. Nick is Australian so we’ve highlighted this one too.

We’re also very happy to see Laura J Carroll’s debut graphic novel Making the Shrine: Stories From Victoria’s War Memorial in the CBCA’s shortlisted titles. We had a creator chat with her last year that you can find here and it’s great to see her work receiving this kind of recognition. Congratulations Laura! 

This month, we also encourage everyone to read the research article below. We know that comic book readers read a lot and that the reading crisis on young readers does not happen with comic book readers. This is not new. But, the research conducted in the UK is large and it’s new and the article is really worth reading.

Finally, we also have two videos really worth seeing. Check them out and have a read of our roundup of latest news and new titles. Have a great month and read comics!

NEWS

• The Aurealis Awards have announced the shortlisted titles. Check out the full list, including the Graphic Novels / Illustrated Work category here.
• The National Education Association from the U.S. has published a great article delving into comics in education. A great article that outlines the power of comics in classroom and how they can be used for further learning. You can read the article here.
• In good news for the fight against the censorship of graphic novels, Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe has now been reapproved for sale in Australia after a federal court fight and second classification review in an attempt to ban the book. For more information on how this classification affects libraries, read more about the Classification Review Board’s decision here or check out our latest podcast.
• Writing NSW is hosting a comics writing workshop with comics writer Christof Bogacs. Writing Visually for Comics and Graphic Novels, will be held at Writing NSW in Sydney. How do you communicate complex visual ideas when you yourself are not a visual artist? And how can you succinctly articulate these ideas to collaborators? These skills can be learned by understanding how to write and tell stories through comics and graphic novels. Designed for business and creative professionals interested in writing visually. All the information is here.
• USA Today published an excellent article on Raina Telgemeier, Scott McCloud and The Cartoonists Club. When Raina was young she was interested in making comics and her dad gave her a copy of Scott’s Understanding Comics. Now they’ve paired up to create a new generation of comic makers. You can read it all here. And related to this, during National Library Week both Raina and Scott spoke in support of libraries and encouraged everyone to support libraries, Publishers Weekly reports.
• At the recent Bologna Children’s Book Fair, the international graphic novel market got more attention than ever due to its enormous market share growth with some explosive stats. Publishers Weekly reports here.
• Just when it seemed that Diamond Comics Distributors had been bought and its future secured (you can read about it here), a fight has broken out between the original buyer and Diamond Comics Distributors, who preferred to accept a smaller bid. Both sides have ended in the courts. You can read all about it here.
• Hank Kennedy, writing for The Comics Journal, explores the anti-comics movement of the 1950s here.
• Matthew Brooker, on Bloomberg, writes about how comics are the perfect medium for a dystopian world, framing the article around the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong in 2019 and the recently published You Must Take Part in Revolution with art by Badiucao, who currently resides in Australia. You can read the article here. 
• Terry Pratchett’s Discworld will be adapted into a series of graphic novels. Find the announcement here.
• On Shakespeare’s birthday (23 April), Joe Quesada (an American comic artist) announced the production of a line of Shakespeare plays being adapted into comics under the imprint Undiscover’d. The first title to be published is ‘Disciple’, a prequel to Hamlet. You can read the article here.

PODCASTS

• We have two new creator chats on our YouTube Channel and podcast feed. You can watch the creator chat with Greg and Nick talking all about One Path on our YouTube channel, or you can listen to the podcast version on our website, or wherever you listen to podcasts. We also published a creator chat with Karen Wasson and Jake A. Minton talking about Inked, their debut, middle grade graphic novel out through Figment. Again, check our YouTube channel or podcast feed.
• The Off Panel podcast has published a long interview with Craig Thompson discussing his comics career and life before diving into his upcoming graphic novel, Ginseng Roots. You can find it on Apple Podcasts here or wherever you listen to podcasts.

RESEARCH

• We keep hearing there’s a crisis in reading but there’s no reading crisis when it comes to comic book readers. Read this excellent article by Hannah Berry and Karrie Fransman of The Comics Cultural Impact Collective with an introduction by Debbie Hicks MBE, The Reading Agency.

WEBINAR

• The ALA’s Graphic Novels and Comics Roundtable and Booklist are hosting a free webinar: Cooking With Comics. Registration is free and a recording will be available after the event. All information and registration here.
• The ALA’s Graphic Novels and Comics Roundtable hosted a panel discussion of librarians about organising comics programming in libraries. They discussed best practices, ideas, and resources on running drawing battles, fan conventions, dramatic readings, and more. You can watch it here.
• Join Professor A. David Lewis as he presents an overview of graphic medicine in general, especially in comparison to the rise of other media studies. Followed by a slightly deeper dive into his research in the field, specifically cancer narratives and instances of health-related loneliness. The full video is available here.

NEW GRAPHIC NOVELS

Junior

• The Cartoonists Club by Raina Telgemeier, Scott McCloud (Scholastic) [9781338777215]
• Dino Poet by Tom Angleberger (Abrams) [9781419772801]
• Hikaru in the Light Book 1 by Mai Matsuda (Scholastic) [9781761645822]
• Night Light by Michael Emberley (Holiday House) [9780823458165]
• Outsider Kids by Betty C. Tang (Scholastic) [9781338832716]
• Thylacine and the Time Machine by Renee Treml (Allen & Unwin) [9781761181184] [Australian creator]

Young Adult

• Godzilla: Skate or Die by Louie Joyce (IDW) [9798887241869] [Australian creator]
• A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin, Fred Fordham (Harper Collins) [9780063285767]

Adult

• Ginseng Roots by Craig Thompson (Pantheon) [9780593700778]
• John Muir: To the Heart of Solitude by Lomig (NBM) [9781681123523]
• The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster, Paul Karasik, Lorenzo Mattotti, David Mazzucchelli (Faber & Faber) [9780571389285]
• One Path by Greg Broadmore, Nick Boshier, Andy Lanning (Mad Cave) [9781545816301] [Australian creator]
• You Must Take Part in Revolution by Badiucao, Melissa Chan (Street Noise Books) [9781951491291]