More MODOK talk, Wu-Peanuts, Wild Cards, and teaching graphic novels.
A (hopefully) brief follow-up to yesterday’s post:
1. After typing the name “MODOK” fifty times, it began to look really, really strange to me. Well, stranger, anyway.
2. The post is already in the Wikipedia entry (subject to change, of course, Wikipedia being what it is).
3. And although nobody asked, one of the reasons I do these character linkdumps (more here) is because, for whatever reason, I find myself occasionally obsessed with a particular character and need to do a linkdump like this to drive it out of my system. Since I’ve been using images of MODOK as wallpaper for the work computer, and I’ve been singing songs about him, a linkdump for everyone’s favorite Mental Organism seemed necessary. MODOK fever…catch it!
In other news:
- The Complete Wu-Peanuts Collection, which comes to me via pal Ian: “Your desktop PC is a trap to put a crick in the black man’s neck and carpel tunnel his fingers.” Probably not safe for work, if your boss doesn’t like you reading dirty words on company time.
- I’m currently reading volume 17 of the Wild Cards series, Death Draws Five by John J. Miller, released in hardcover in early 2006 by iBooks, which had also published volume 16 of the series a year or two previous. I only mention it here because there was a several year gap between volumes 15 and 16, and because these two new books are only in hardcover (with iBooks no longer an ongoing concern, following the untimely passing of founder Byron Preiss, softcover versions may not be immediately forthcoming), some of you old time Wild Cards fans out there may not even be aware there are new installments in the series. I didn’t even know #17 was out until several months after its release, and that’s only because I plugged “wild cards” into Amazon’s search engine just on a whim.
For those of you who don’t know what Wild Cards is, Wildcardsonline.com details the history and background of the series. Short version: it’s a long-running prose novel shared-universe series where people infected by an alien virus gain superpowers, unless the virus kills or deforms them instead. It’s convoluted, improbable, uneven, and greatly entertaining…just like some of those funnybooks you folks are reading.
And some good news…Tor Books has picked up where iBooks left off, and is committed to publishing three more novels in the series. You can read a sample from the next book on Wild Cards mastermind George R. R. Martin’s official website.
- “Comic relief for budding young graphic artists” – I like the idea, though hopefully the superhero focus is from the article’s writer, and not from the actual workshop:
“Comic super heroes have captured the imaginations of young people for generations.
“Now a workshop at Penrith Library is helping youngsters not only enjoy the genre, but also encourages them to become comic book authors.
“The first Graphic Novel writing workshop was lead by former Queen Elizabeth Grammar School student Owen Johnson.”
[…]
“‘The main reason I wanted to do the workshop is to widen the understanding of what comic books and graphic novels can achieve and get more kids into reading them, but also making them. Comics have always had a stigma of either children or dusty old collectors as an audience. I’m working with teenagers in the area to show that they can be relevant and fun for them as well.'”
