C2E2 Kicks Off with a Bang

The first day of the Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo, otherwise known as C2E2, featured graphic novelists, artists, publishers, and other industry professionals at the McCormick Place Convention Center.  Here’s a sampling of some of the events that were on the schedule for the first day:

• “A Brief History of Cartoons, Comics, and Graphic Novels”
• “The Magic of Reading from the Creator’s Perspective”
• “Adapting Comic Books to Film and Television”
• “Comics and Mythology”
• “DC Nation”
• “MARVEL: Motion Comics World Premiere”

Publishers were selling graphic novels as well as giving away comics and other freebies in the exhibit hall.  Authors and artists were available for autographs and sketches.  For the graphic novel fan, C2E2 offers a veritable buffet of products and opportunities to meet the creators behind the comics.  No one who attends this convention should leave the exhibit hall empty-handed.

At the Archaia display booth, I had the pleasure of meeting David Petersen, author and illustrator of the Mouse Guard series.  Mouse Guard features characters who are (as the name implies) mice in the roles of knight-like heroes fighting the good fight with fierce bravery and skill.  While many of the graphic novels featured at C2E2 are geared toward adult audiences, Mouse Guard is one of the books that is also appropriate for younger readers.  Petersen’s artwork is delightfully detailed and perhaps the most engaging aspect of Mouse Guard.

Also at the Archaia booth was Nick Tapalansky, author of the graphic novel debut, Awakening.  The main character is a detective who displays Mulder-like scientific skepticism, while being confronted with shocking evidence of zombies terrorizing a small town.  The dark multi-media artwork of Alex Eckman-Lawn add to the spine-tingling effect of the story.

The person who stole the show for me was Bill Willingham, the creator of the Fables series of graphic novels.  He was approachable and friendly, making jokes and teasing me a bit while personalizing autographed copies of his books for me.  The Fables series features characters based on traditional fairy tales who fled from their own mythical homelands to New York, where they live disguised as ordinary residents amongst their more mundanely human neighbors.  The writing is intelligent, putting a freshly modern and surprisingly different spin on the traditional fairy tale characters.  The world that Willingham creates is consistent and plausible, while being a fanciful escape from the ordinary.  His characters have depth, and the complementary artwork in each volume of the Fables series brings life and varied dimensions to the captivating stories.  Bill Willingham’s Fables series and its spin-offs are an excellent choice for both the devoted comic fan as well as the graphic novel neophyte who might be interested in getting his or her first taste of this genre.

Graphic Novels: Fables by Bill Willingham

I’m finally nearing the end of the Fables series of graphic novels by Bill Willingham, which puts me at that point where I’ll be chomping at the bit for the next one to come out.  I’ve been dragging it out because I didn’t really want to catch up to the last issue.

The Fables series features main characters from traditional fairy tales, but with very different twists on who they really are.  Most of the characters (such as Cinderella, Prince Charming, Little Boy Blue, Old King Cole, Pinocchio, and some of the more infamous witches) live in Fabletown, a section of New York City set bordered by the more mundane world.  The animal fables (such as the Three Little Pigs and the Three Bears) live in the country on “The Farm,” and some of the fable characters still live in the Homeland fabled worlds.

It’s one of my favorite series of graphic novels, and I highly recommend it.

My Four-Year-Old’s Favorite Books

Taking after their mother, both of my kids are already bibliophiles.  Regardless of the fact they can not yet read themselves, they sure do have specific requests for story time, and then there’s the constant negotiation for more books.  No matter how many we read, it’s never enough.  Listed below are my four-year-old’s current favorites.  Bravo to these authors, who sure knew how to please my oldest girl!

1. Alice and Greta: A Tale of Two Witches by Steven J. Simmons:  She loves Greta’s Revenge as well, and she has memorized “The Brewmerang Principle” that is this book’s equivalent of “Do unto others…”
2. The Wolves in the Walls by Neil Gaiman:  Neil Gaiman was at the top of my favorite books list too.  This book exhibits just the right combination of spooky and silly that has my kid mesmerized.  She also loves Gaiman’s The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish.
3. Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? by Dr. Seuss:  A book that every parent should read to their kid.
4. Oh, The Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss:  Almost anything by Dr. Seuss could qualify for this list.  She has about ten different Seuss books and just can’t get enough, and as far as silly rhyming stories go, we enjoy reading them as well.
5. 5-Minute Fairy Tales by Jane Maday:  We let her choose two or three stories at a time out of this anthology of classic fairy tales.  In these shortened but no less toned down versions, she loves the gruesome characters along with the spoiled princesses and all the morbid things that happen to them.
6. Any books involving Scooby-Doo:  It’s not the dog she likes so much as the monsters, pirates and ghosts.  Definitely not the pinnacle of writing accomplishment, these stories have none-the-less captured my child’s imagination.
7. The Olivia series by Ian Falconer:  The illustrations are phenomenal, and my daughter can relate to Olivia’s ambitious nature.
8. Fancy Nancy by Jane O’Connor:  “Lace-trimmed socks do help me to play soccer better.”  I think that my daughter has an affinity for Fancy Nancy because they have so much in common.

What books do your kids enjoy most?