Month / September 2006

by Edward Champion

Harvey Award Winners

Heidi McDonald offers a Baltimore Comic-Con report and reveals this year’s Harvey Award Winners:

Best Writer: Ed Brubaker, Captain America, Marvel Comics
Best Artist: J.H. Williams III, Promethea, ABC/Wildstorm/Dc Comics
Best Cartoonist: Chris Ware, Acme Novelty Library #16, Acme Novelty Library
Best Letterer: Chris Ware, Acme Novelty Library #16, Acme Novelty Library
Best Inker: Charles Burns, Black Hole #12, Fantagraphics Books
Best Colorist: Laura Martin, Astonishing X-Men, Marvel Comics
Best Cover Artist: James Jean, Fables, DC/Vertigo
Best New Talent: R. Kikuo Johnson, Night Fisher, Fantagraphics Books and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Marvel Knights Four, Marvel Comics (tie)
Best New Series: Young Avengers, Marvel Comics
Best Continuing or Limited Series: Runaways, Marvel Comics
Best Syndicated Strip or Panel: Maakies, Tony Millionaire, Self-Syndicated
Best Anthology: Solo, DC Comics
Best Graphic Album–Original: Tricked, Top Shelf
Best Graphic Album–Previously Published: Black Hole, Pantheon Books
Best Single Issue or Story: Love And Rockets, Volume 2, # 15, Fantagraphics Books
Best Domestic Reprint Project: Little Nemo in Slumberland: So Many Splendid Sundays, Sunday Press Books
Best American Edition of Foreign Material: Buddha, Vertical Books
Best Online Comics Work: American Elf, James Kochalka, www.americanelf.com
Special Award for Humor in Comics: Kyle Baker, Plastic Man, DC Comics
Special Award for Excellence in Presentation: Little Nemo in Slumberland: So Many Splendid Sundays, Sunday Press Books
Best Biographical, Historical or Journalistic Presentation: Comics Journal, Fantagraphics Books

by Edward Champion

Not Graphic Enough, Keller! And Besides Where Was This on Thursday?

New York Times Corrections: “A front-page article on Thursday about an announcement by President Bush that 14 high-profile terror suspects had been transferred from secret prisons run by the Central Intelligence Agency to the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, incompletely described the interrogation technique of waterboarding, which intelligence officials say was used on one suspect. The technique involves strapping a prisoner to a board with his feet elevated above his head and placing a wet cloth down his throat or over his nose and mouth to create the sensation of drowning.”

by Edward Champion

Condoleeza Overdrive?

William Gibson: “The fear induced by terrorism mirrors the irrational psychology that makes state lotteries an utterly reliable form of stupidity tax. A huge statistical asymmetry serves as fulcrum for a spectral yet powerful lever: apprehension of the next jackpot. We’re terrorized not by the actual explosion, which statistically we’re almost never present for, but by our apprehension of the next one.” (via Powell’s Blog)

by Edward Champion

Stephen King: Stuck in Literary Limbo?

C. Max Magee on the Stephen King interview in the latest Paris Review (only partially available online): “What interests me, though, is how King has graduated from the bestseller list and moved into literary limbo. In the Paris Review interview, King talks about writers like John Grisham, Tom Clancy, Danielle Steel, and James Patterson. While King has some kind words for Grisham, he recognizes that he’s not really in competition with these perennial bestselling scribes any more, nor does his ego need the lavish advances that they receive. At the same time, he is reluctant to embrace the literary elite, because, I think, he believes that doing so would break his contract with his readers.”

by Edward Champion

How Not To Get Publicity

98% of the publicists I’ve had the pleasure to work with have been extremely friendly and considerate. I appreciate their efforts to get books to me in time to review them and for interviews. I am respectful of their position and they are respectful of mine. I realize they are under the gun, that they are often underpaid and just barely getting by, and that getting their authors out there in a crowded marketplace can’t be an easy task.

Recently, I called back a publicist who didn’t follow through with me about a possible interview. I had emailed and telephoned her about it, but I hadn’t received a reply in a week. And I figured that if she really wanted to get her author out there, she would have contacted me in a timely manner or responded to my email.

Meanwhile, other publicists, perspicacious enough to understand that I needed to get my interview times nailed down a few weeks in advance so that I could plan out my prep time (The Bat Segundo Show is, after all, something I labor very hard over), set up interviews and got the books to me immediately.

Now when I called this publicist, I had already lined up about seven interviews over the next ten days. That’s a lot of books to read. And my policy is to never talk with an author unless I have read her book(s). Otherwise, what’s the point? This may seem an archaic position for some folks to parse, but the point of all this is to do serious legwork and to give a damn about what you’re doing.

Now I try to be as courteous as possible. And where some journalists might have disregarded the publicist, I called this publicist back to tell her that I was unavailable. I explained to her in very polite terms that I was extremely sorry but that I was overextended. Instead of giving me a chance to launch my goofy “We’ll always have Paris” routine, this publicist took great offense to my courtesy call, claiming that she did call me back and suggested that I was the discourteous one.

“Well, I didn’t hear from you in a week. And I called and emailed you. If you had talked with me last week when my slate wasn’t so full, we might have nailed this down.”

The publicist huffed and puffed at me and then demanded that I reschedule another interview at the last minute — one that she hadn’t been involved in setting up. I told her that this was unlikely, given that I had moved several things around to make this particular interview happen, which I had confirmed twice already.

Now I’m thinking that maybe this publicist was having a bad day. As an interviewer, I’ve often found myself regarded as some intellectual equivalent to a bartender or a cab driver — treated like an invisible man, if regarded at all. I don’t mind this. If anything, I find this amusing and it affords me a great opportunity to observe.

But when there’s an immediate assumption that I am expected to interview an author, when a publicist cannot understand that I am juggling about six thousand things and cannot devote all of my attentions to her author and that I have a life I’m managing on top of this, what kind of message does this send to me? Or another journalist? For an author wanting to build word of mouth, how can this be good for them? If you’re an author, do you really know your publicist?

I’ve been turned down by many authors and I certainly don’t take it personally. The least one can expect from a publicist is the same kind of professional courtesy. And maybe a few more Casablanca references.

by Edward Champion

Can Chick Lit Reflect the Post 9/11 World?

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Debra Pickett puts forth an interesting notion: Why hasn’t there been a 9/11-themed chick lit title? It’s an idea that might just get the Merrick & Baratz-Logsted camps declaring a truce.

In her column, Pickett cites Jay McInerney’s The Good Life as a “literary” exemplar of the post-9/11 novel. But even a cursory look reveals that The Good Life is as “fluffy” as its pink cover counterparts. The characters may be older than your typical chick lit protagonists and they may be committing adultery. But in their own way, they’re looking for Mr. or Ms. Right and trying to forge their identities to get behind their stalled midlife crises. They all have a lot of free time and they spend much of the book gleefully swiping their credit cards to obtain more consumer goods.

The Good Life‘s grand conceit is that, despite 9/11’s turmoil, nothing has essentially changed. But its even broader conceit is that these fluffy relationships are viewed by the characters as more substantial than world events.

Ergo, chick lit. Albeit, with really lousy sex scenes and odd references to mersangers.

So if McInerney can do it, why not chick lit authors? What if Mr. Right turned out to be an al-Qaeda terrorist operative? Or what if somebody wrote a book in which a Homeland Security operative or security inspector applied the same scrutiny to her dating life as she does with her job (in one fell swoop, you’ve got chick lit, a way to examine post-9/11 life, and a way to expose women’s issues within an underreported vocational bloc)?

by Edward Champion

Five Years Later

I woke up this morning to voices on the radio telling me how I should feel. They told me that I should “never forget” what happened five years ago today. They told me that it “wasn’t a question of if, it was a question of when.” One voice even suggested that we should remember this “until the end of time.” They suggested in their somber and soothing tones that I was meant to mourn in some way or be completely serious, that I had to treat today like some centerfold in a stroke mag, the airbrushed flesh replaced by an American flag.

Well, I’ve had five years to come to terms with the planes crashing into those towers. Five years paying attention to the tenuous and as yet unproven connection between Iraq and al-Qaeda. Five years watching soldiers die and Iraqis bombed. Five years watching my civil liberties erode, my phones getting tapped, due process being dismantled, and who knows how many false arrests. Five years enduring those who want me to live in fear and to disrupt my life. Five years encouraging others not to be afraid. I’ve spent five years keeping up a cheery front while the vultures in DC have done everything in their power to make my countrymen live without dignity.

Well, I am not some emotional machine with buttons for people to push. Nor is anyone living in this great land. That this day should be treated with some kind of automatic reverence is appalling. I am troubled that people are expected to feel and think in some predetermined way. Any true act of patriotism involves something in which the citizen and the government mutually respect each other. There are many things that I can be patriotic about, but the emotional manipulation of this fifth anniversary (and if this is an anniversary proper, how does one raise a toast to three thousand lives and beyond anyway?) is not one of them.

To quote the great H.L. Mencken, “The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naïve and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair.”

I’m not sorry that I like my country too damn much. Neither should you be.

[UPDATE: The Rake offers a handy-dandy guide on this matter.]

by Edward Champion

Roundup

by Edward Champion

Best. First Line for a Blog Post. Ever.

Maud Newton: “My friend John was taking a leak in a public restroom once when a deranged woman appeared out of nowhere and grabbed his cock.”

I can certainly relate to Maud’s experience. My own skirmishes with weirdness are legendary, but then you might say I’m often the Pied Piper for weird people, attracting them like field mice. The hell of it is that not one small town has yet offered a commission.

by Edward Champion

Book Review

Recently, I picked up a book. I flipped through the title page, examined the copyright page and the table of contents. At this point, everything was good. I was prepared to give the book a chance.

But the first sign of trouble came when I flipped to “Page 1.” I use quotes here because I can’t be sure of its numerical status. The publisher had left off the page numbering for both Page 1 and Page 2. And what’s more, they had dared to put “Part One” on this otherwise blank page. While this notice served as a valuable guide signifying the book’s beginning, it still failed to confirm whether or not the page I was trying to examine was the first page of the book. I flipped over the leaf and saw the beginning of the first chapter. Below it, I saw the number three. I flipped backwards, counting the pages, and, yes indeed, this must be Page 1. Why then the secrecy about it? Why the failure to note the number? I was disappointed in the book already.

Things were more or less smooth for a while. I flipped to Page 4 and found there to be a number at the bottom. I flipped to Page 5, Page 6, and the numbers followed me. In case the publisher decided upon any further trickery, I kept a yellow legal pad at my desk, keeping a tally of the pages.

At Page 14, however, there was disaster. The chapter ended at Page 13. And then, to my great shock, there was a blank page with no number, where Page 14 should have been. What a tremendous waste of space! I looked at my yellow legal pad and saw that, yes indeed, I was at Page 14.

To my great fortune, Page 15 was clearly marked: both as the beginning of Chapter 2 and as “15” at the bottom.

Things continued more or less along these lines for a hundred pages. Sometimes, the blank unmarked pages were there. Sometimes, they weren’t.

But things really took a turn for the worse when I was at the end of Part One. There were two blank unmarked pages after the text of Part One ended. And then there was another page marked “Part II.” Yes, believe it or not, this author had the temerity to switch from Arabic to Roman numerals midway through the book! Furthermore, the pages were again unnumbered until I got to the first chapter of “Part II.”

I threw my yellow legal pad against the wall and begin calling friends to understand why so many pages had been abandoned by their creators. Why were some pages numbered and some pages not? Who set the priorities around here?

I started flipping through more books and noticed that other publishers did this too. I know I’ve been told by some of my pals that I have a literal mind, but who mourns for the unnumbered pages? Who considers their feelings? Who considers the waste of space? A page may be blank, but is it possible that the blankness might convey some message? If so, why not number the blank pages too?

In conclusion, I have to say I didn’t care for this book and that War and Peace and Les Miserables were better than this book. I think the main reason why those books are classics is because their authors have taken the time and care to number each page. Which is more than I can say for this book or other books. But perhaps I object to this white space because it reminds me of the quiet room that Dr. Yasir and his staff locked me into yesterday.

by Edward Champion

When Revelations Go Bad

When Simon Owens tried out his Craig’s List social experiment, he was discreet and respectful enough to edit out names, phone numbers, and photographs out of the responses.

Unfortunately, as Andy Baio reports, Jason Fortuny (a blogger who I will not link to) conducted the same experiment, but published his unedited results to a public forum. They contained photos, contact information, and the like. As a result, many of the men who responded to Fortuny’s stunt have begged him to remove the entries. Fortuny has refused. Here then is the moral question: How many marriages, relationships, and professional lives will be uprooted because of Fortuny’s antics? Because Fortuny derives great pleasure in ruining people?

This is unconscionable and invasive. But it is also, unfortunately, well within the law. Unless the victims of this hoax might somehow prove that they were misled or coerced, or suffered considerable emotional distress, I cannot see any restitution here. Further, even if a prosecuting attorney obtains a protective order, what is to prevent the information posted by Fortuny from being disseminated or mirrored somewhere else?

My own policy with emails and comments is to keep any personal information conveyed to me along these lines private or, should someone post a public comment with this kind of information, I will replace the numerals with Xs after I have approved it and released it to the public. I do this out of courtesy to any and all individuals who may not understand the virulent nature of the Internet.

It is Fortuny’s ethics here which must come into question. The Internet has long been a place where people have trusted the confessional timbre of email, shooting off incredibly personal messages and information through IMs and messages. But sent to the wrong party or through the wrong conduits, an innocuous revelation or a step forward at intimacy might prove to have serious ramifications.

Someone was going to come along and do something along these lines, exposing the dark underbelly of this mostly amicable beast. But this may set an unfortunate precedent. Will Fortuny’s stunt apply to online journalism? Will personal information extend to the infamous Apple case?

I will be watching these results with interest and concern.

by Edward Champion

Terms from Random House

TO: Buyers of James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces
FROM: Random House

We here at Random House are pleased to announce that we have reached an agreement with readers who were misled by James Frey’s “memoir.” If you purchased a copy of this book, you are entitled to the following refunds:

  • If you return the dust jacket of the A Million Little Pieces hardcover and draw a moustache through Mr. Frey’s author photo, you are entitled to a refund of $4.24.
  • If you return page 23, fold it in half, and highlight all traces of the word “the” with a 3M Yellow Highlighter, you are entitled to a refund of $12.92.
  • If your first name is “James” and you incurred psychological damages because you observed another “James” lying through his teeth, we want to assure you that Mr. Frey was not one of the “good Jameses” and that his actions do not reflect Jameses at large. If you fall into this category, return page 118 unmolested, along with a certified copy of your birth certificate. This is good for a refund of $21.82.
  • If you are a friend of Mr. Frey or a member of Frey’s extended family, you are entitled to a refund of $0.14, with the envelope being sent to you with postage due.
  • If you send us a videotape, a VCD, or a DVD, in which you can demonstrate that you led or coerced a group of people to throw at least 200 copies into a public bonfire, we would like to offer you a promising career here at Random House. Please get in touch with our Human Resources department.

Please note that all refunds are subject to a number of city, state, and federal taxes. The above costs reflect the amount that Random House will issue you. We cannot guarantee that some irksome governmental agency won’t take a big bite out of our checks. We feel your pain. Oh, boy, do we.

We promise you that we here at Random House are very, very sorry for having misled you. And if you see Mr. Frey in your neighborhood, please tell him to report to the Random House building. We have a windowless room in the basement that we’d like to invite him to spend the rest of his days.

Thank you for your attention.

Random House

by Edward Champion

BSS #63: Alison Bechdel

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Author: Alison Bechdel

Condition of Mr. Segundo: Revealing his political idiosyncracies.

Subjects Discussed: The meaning of “tragicomic,” Nabokov, Charles Addams, on how the funeral home component of Fun Home has been overlooked, on hitting a wall with words, the advantages of “visual writing,” Michael Lesy’s Time Frames: The Meaning of Family Pictures, Fun Home as a mystery, using maps and annotations in panels to create structure and ambiguity, the presentation of Bechdel’s father, Dykes to Watch Out For, on selling Fun Home to Houghton Mifflin, the influence of graphic novels, Maus, Harvey Pekar, uncouth forms of madeleine tea, ancient computer modems, rotoscoping, Ralph Bakshi, cross-hatching, analog vs. digital illustration, typesetting, Proust, Camus, the use of ten-cent words in comics, on posing in photographs for visual reference, Six Feet Under, Jill Soloway’s Los Angeles Times review, and literary respectability for comics.

by Edward Champion

BSS #62: Carl Sheeler

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Guest: Carl Sheeler

Condition of Mr. Segundo: Ejected due to the apparently “serious” nature of politics.

Subjects Discussed: Running an unorthodox senatorial campaign, Howard Dean, the similarities and differences between Whitehouse and Sheeler’s platforms, problems with Sheldon Whitehouse, on Sheeler styling himself as “the next Ned Lamont,” more problems with Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island’s status as a blue state, efforts to determine Sheeler’s positions, even more problems with Sheldon Whitehouse, universal health care, negotiating the mechanisms of the Senate, on impeaching Bush and the Democratic silence, the monies available for universal health care, the baby boomer generation, generic drugs, the economics of expired patents, placing ceilings on oil and gas, speculation on whether Our Young, Roving Correspondent is a Republican, U.S. energy policy, the Manhattan Project, the U.S. energy infrastructure, hybrid cars, James Howard Kunstler’s The Long Emergency, alternative energy in China, the emerging middle class in India, the trucking industry, the expense of overhauling the energy infrastructure and the possible burden on the working class, Los Angeles, and the transportation grid.

[LISTENER’S NOTE: Due to a technical snafu, the final minute of this conversation was unexpectedly cut off. We apologize for this podcast’s abrupt ending.]