Good Comics for Kids interviews Scott Robins and Snow Wildsmith about their new book, A Parent’s Guide to the Best Kids Comics. Scott and Snow were kind enough to send me a review copy, since a couple of UDON’s Manga for Kids titles are featured in the book – it’s a fantastic resource for anyone looking to gain more insight into the exciting kid’s comic market, and I can’t wait to write up a proper review (see above re: workload, ugh).

And on a creator note, Faith Erin Hicks posted a charming one-page comic about her process for developing a new book. It’s sweet, funny, and instantly recognizable to anyone who has tackled a larger creative project!

I’ve known about this for a few months, but it’s finally been officially announced so I can talk about it: Steve Jackson Games is doing a version of Skullkickers for their classic fantasy card game, Munchkin! They made the announcement early today at New York Comic Con, and the game itself will be out for 2012. More info on the Skullkickers site, although most of the details haven’t been made public yet.

SKULLKICKERS is an ongoing comic series from Image Comics, written by my husband Jim Zub and illustrated by the insanely talented Edwin Huang, with colors by Misty Coates and letters by Marshall Dillon. It’s a fantasy adventure comedy – think Conan slammed into buddy cop film – with loads of over-the-top violence, witty banter and ridiculous hijinks. The first trade paperback came out last spring and is value-priced at just $10; the second volume launches in November. If you dig fantasy, comedy or just gorgeous art, I (obviously) recommend you check it out. (but don’t just take my word for it; check out some preview pages and reviews posted via their Facebook fan page.)

I’m so proud of Jim for all his hard work and determination on this project. How he juggles a full-time teaching gig, a full-time project management gig and pulls together the organization and creative energy for his creator-owned work as well is sometimes a mystery even to me, and I get to see how he does it up-close! (the trick? he works A LOT.)

Sadly, October 6th was a busy day for me and I didn’t make it out to Ben McNally Books, the launch party location, until after Lena had finished her reading. On the plus side, that means I got to read the book without even a hint of a spoiler. It’s a really fun ride, with solid pacing and some great coming-of-age elements with appeal to middle grade and teen readers of both genders.

Even though I arrived late, there was still a pretty good crowd for the launch! It’s hard to tell because of the Ben McNally layout, but there were a lot of people tucked in among the bookshelves and crannies of the shop.

Grabbing my signed copy! I met Lena through the TorKidLit group, so it’s been fun watching her go through the whole process of getting ready for her debut launch.

Obligatory author-poses-with-book shot. Lena seemed pleased with the launch, and she should be – from what I can tell, she got a great turn-out and sold a lot of books! Lena’s written up a blog post about the launch, if you’d like to check out the experience from the author’s perspective, and there’s a ton more photos in this Facebook album.

Wildwood Dancing is a charming book for anyone with a love of fairy tales, especially the more obscure ones: there’s bits from the Twelve Dancing Princesses here, along with the Princess and the Frog, and snippets from so many others, blended up with a gothic dollop of Romanian folklore. The author, Juliet Marillier, clearly knows her lore, and weaves old ideas and new interpretations throughout the story. She uses the Romanian setting not only as a creepy, beautiful backdrop, but also as a key point in the story: many of the challenges the sisters face come from local custom and culture, rather than the paranormal. 

In summary: Jena and her four sisters have been sneaking off every full moon for years, through the magic gateway in their room and into the court of the fairy queen, where they dance the night away. When their merchant father falls ill and must spend the harsh winter recovering in a warmer climate, they are left alone to handle the castle – and the predatory encroachment of their cousin, who does not believe women can handle business, or even managing their own house, without the protection of a man. At the same time, the mysterious arrival of the Night People to the fairy court throws the supernatural balance out of whack, leading to a confrontation between the fairy court and the human realm.

The only caveat I had about this book: the writing is lush and dense, much more so than most contemporary young adult novels. That makes it a slow read, great for those who enjoy spending loads of time exploring a novel, and possibly frustrating to those who (like me) are anxious to find out what happens in the end! And for those who do want more, there’s apparently a semi-sequel available, called Cybele’s Secret.

Oh, rugby!.

[available for purchase at The Monkey's Paw, Toronto's most interesting and eclectic used book store]

On an vaguely related (well, Canadian lit scene related) note, Quill & Quire reports that Lynn Henry has been named publishing director for Doubleday Canada. Henry is currently the publisher for House of Anansi Press. I’ve really been enjoying Anansi’s output under her guidance, and it’ll be interesting to see what direction she takes in her new role.

Treadwell’s is top of my personal list, if only for the delightfully tempting list of titles and events listed on their webpage. They’re the newest of the lot, open less than six years now, but the owner has an academic background in medieval history and their selection seems both interesting and reasonably-priced (well, as far as antiquarian book collecting goes). Their lectures series is absolutely fascinating to me, and I’m likely to make Jim batty when we visit London by trying to plan our trip to accommodate some upcoming Treadwell’s speaker or event.

Next on the tour is Atlantis Bookshop, one of London’s oldest occult bookshops. It should probably be first, given it was founded in 1922 by a group of magicians that included Austin Osman Spare, Dion Fortune and Aleister Crowley, and they do run another impressive series of events, lectures and pub nights. Chalk it up to nostalgia: Treadwell’s was the first bookstore I fell in love with online, and I’m still a bit sweet on them as a result.

Finally, there’s Watkins Books, who almost got the top billing when I spotted the A.O. Spare book on the top of their Antiquarian page. (Then I spotted the price, which may well be reasonable for Spare’s extraordinarily rare works, but still!) Watkins was actually founded before Atlantis Bookshop, issuing their first catalog in 1987 and opening doors on their current location in 1901. W.B. Yeats used to shop here, and the original owner was a friend (and printer) for H P. Blavatsky, a key figure in the Victorian occult revival. Like I said, pedigree!

Londonist.com has some lovely photos of all three shops in their Biblio-Text series: Treadwell’s, Watkins and Atlantis.

Ah me. In lieu of an overseas trip, I’ll have to make time this weekend for a stop-in at The Monkey’s Paw, one of my favorite browsing spots in Toronto. They may not have a specific focus in esoteric/occult texts, but there’s always one or two books in their little glass shelf to make my heart go pit-a-pat.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t take this chance to point out that Gothic Charm School merchandise is currently available online through her Café Press store – I’m particularly fond of the “flouncing” t-shirt. And just to make it feel extra real, there’s even an Amazon.com pre-order page!

The Udon Studio has really been ramping up over the past year, bringing on some fantastic new artists to help them keep up with their creative client work while getting the publishing side of things back up and running. The publishing schedule for the next year is pretty ambitious, and doesn’t include some of the upcoming art book translations, Korean Manwah and original art books on tap for next summer. It’s pretty exciting, but it’s also a good thing I live in the house where Jim does most of his Udon work, or I’d probably never see him!

As for me, the weekend was not as productive as I would have liked, although I did manage a revamped query letter – and, frankly, too much World of Warcraft. I watched a fair number of movies, including The Lady Eve, two more episodes of Les Vampires and a repeat screening of Guy Maddin’s Dracula: Pages From a Virgin’s Diary, some of which clearly draws inspiration from the ballet sequence in the first episode of Les Vampires. I also read three books (How to Hook a Hottie by Tina Ferraro, Pirates of the Retail Wasteland by Adam Selzer and The Opposite of Invisible by Liz Gallagher – can you tell I’m trying to catch up on my contemporary YA reading?), ordered Indian food, and attended a wonderful wedding for my friends Jamie & Shoshana, which gave me an excuse to wear my new coat (the grey plaid!) before the weather turns too cold.

Okay, so perhaps it was just not productive in the way I’d been hoping…