Comics Alliance: An AOL Comic Book Community

Met up quite unexpectedly Thanksgiving eve with Alan J. Porter, the hardest working writer I know (one of the nicest too!) and an expert on all things comics, James Bond and The Beatles, at my town's local comic shop of record, Austin Books and Comics (before I forget, welcome Maakies creator Tony Millionaire there Dec. 1).

Alan is a multi-tasker extraordinaire with all the creative work he's already doing plus a new James Bond book (before Bond 22 hits the silver screen next year), a day job that keeps him hopping and keeping the women in his life (two teenage daughters and a beautiful, young wife) very happy. So, it takes something pretty extreme to derail this man's train...

Unfortunately, all it took was a request to his daughter's high school English teacher that she be allowed to supplement her prose reading with graphic novels and comics, and there were good reasons for doing so beyond the obvious ones. After writing a comics blog for almost two years, I wish I could say I was surprised by said teacher's typical and uninformed response, but I wasn't. Judge for yourselves.

Makes you wish you could pull Stan Lee from behind a blackboard for instances like this, a la a spot Marshall McLuhan siting in Annie Hall...

Puts a rather sour spin on my pal Eddie Campbell's ongoing argument in the comics industry at large about the nomenclature of graphic novels and literature, doesn't it?

According to a quote from Karen Berger in a terribly-titled Wall Street Journal article, the folks at DC have been "looking at the success of manga as a great sign that teenage girls were actually reading comics again." The result of all that looking is Minx, a new line of young adult graphic novels aimed at girls.

The first, PLAIN JANES, was a great surprise. I knew I liked Jim Rugg's art after reading STREET ANGEL. He uses a different, cleaner style that works well here. Young adult author and first time graphic novel writer Cecil Castelucci delivers a fun and engaging story about a girl and how she affects her new town with public displays of art.

RE-GIFTERS is a story of life, love and hapkido by Mike Carey, Sonny Liew and Marc Hempel, the same team that produced the fantastic Vertigo mini-series MY FAITH IN FRANKIE. Fans of that series will not be disappointed. RE-GIFTERS is an energetic and entertaining graphic novel.

CLUBBING is the most recent book in Minx's line, and it's a bit of a mixed bag. London goth "Lottie" is forced to live with her grandparents in rural England and stumbles upon a bizarre and potentially supernatural murder. Andi Watson and Josh Howard are no rookies in this territory. Watson's SKELETON KEY dealt with high school and fox spirits while Howard's DEAD@17 was all mini-skirts and zombies. With CLUBBING we end up with a solidly told mystery by two guys that obviously know what they're doing. Unfortunately, the structure of the story is a bit too predictable. When you feel like you know what's going to happen on the next page, tension goes out the window. Howard's art feels very flat at times as well, with almost every panel drawn from the same angle. There is some interesting stuff going on here but for me CLUBBING just doesn't live up to the bar set by the previous books in the Minx line.

Much as I enjoyed the MoCCA programming yesterday, I made a conscious decision not to spend as much time in panels today, so as to spend more time walking the floor and picking up cool looking books. I limited myself to just two panels --Shelly Bond's too-early-in-the-morning Minx panel and the Joe Matt spotlight which Clayton blogged earlier-- and spent the rest of the day soaking up (and picking up) the indie comics goodness that was abundant in four rooms of the Puck building. I'm be happily returning home with a sackful of new comics, minis, anthologies, graphic novels and even one comics-related prose novel that looks fantastic.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. As mentioned, my day began with the Minx presentation. For those not yet familiar with this new DC imprint, it was the brainchild of former Vertigo editor, Shelly Bond, who wanted to create an alternative to manga for the teen girl market. Given Bond's Vertigo pedigree, however, her aim with the new imprint was "to create a line that was edgy and evocative and fearless." She provided a brief rundown of the Minx books on the publishing slate into early next year, and there were a couple that even sounded intriguing to me ... and being neither a teenager or a girl, that's a pretty decent ratio.

The first of the two books in question was interesting to me given the hook of the authors. Vertigo-regular and Minx-newcomer Mike Carey is collaborating with his 15-year-old daughter Louise to write Confessions of a Blabbermouth. Turns out the younger Carey is an aspiring novelist, and was willing to lend her ol' dad a hand in capturing the voice of a teen girl from a dysfunctional family who wields her blog like a weapon. The book, with artwork by Aaron Alexovich, is due in mid-September.

I started off Saturday by attending a panel on the upcoming Minx Comics line. This new DC Comics aimed at teen girls is being headed by Shelly Bond (of Vertigo fame). I was a bit surprised by the turnout for this panel as a large portion of the audience were librarians and educators. They seemed very happy with this line and were begging for more books for this age range.

Lets start with a few basic facts on this new line:

• All titles will be black, white and gray
• The standard book will be 176 pages
• Price-points are under $10.00
• The target audience is teen girls from 12-18
• Each issue will be a self contained story

The line launches in May with The Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci and art by Jim Rigg. The story focuses on a girl whose parents move from the city to the suburbs. A few themes from this book that we can all relate to include the first day in a new school, making new friends and that special first kiss.