TOMO takes the Bronze!

Tomo Volume 1: I Was an Eighth-Grade Ninja has just been awarded the Bronze Award in the Comics and Graphic Novel category of the Moonbeam Children's Books Awards.

The Moonbeam Awards are designed to honor the year's best children’s books, authors and illustrators, and to bring increased recognition to exemplary children’s books and their creators. Their ambition is to support children's book publishing and to promote childhood literacy and life-long reading.

One of the more significant aspects of Tomo's placement is that these awards are not CBA related, but draw from the large pool of mainstream material. There is a separate category for Religious works, but the Comics and Graphic Novels category is completely open.

Congratulations go to Andrew Simmons, Ariel Padilla, Tom Bancroft and Rob Corley of Funnypages Productions for producing such an excellent book. It's a pleasure to work with them.

Read more about Tomo here: www.zgraphicnovels.com/series/tomo.php

Silly Daddy Online

Joe Chiappetta (or Joey Chips as he is sometimes called) has been drawing his Silly Daddy comic sine 1991, the year he became a father. It’s gone through several incarnations since then, beginning as a photocopied and hand stapled zine and moving all the way through to trade paperback collections of his comics. He even won the Xeric Award in 1998 for his for his graphic novel, Silly Daddy: A Death in the Family. One of the most amazing things about following Silly Daddy through the years and the formats is tracing Joe’s life, not only as a father, but as he came to Christ. He has now made the internet Silly Daddy’s home as a daily webcomic at: http://joechiappetta.blogspot.com/.

Silly Daddy is at times absurd and at times touching, but always fascinating. Joe present’s life as he sees it or imagines it to be (or sometimes should be), and his cartoons provide a remarkable insight into contemporary times.

Here’s a small sampling if his cartoons:

All art is © 2007 Joe Chiappetta

Check out more at: Joe Chiappetta is Silly Daddy

Another Recommended Graphic Novel

Good As Lily
Story by Derek Kim Kirk
Art by Jesse Hamm
Published by Minx (An imprint of DC Comics)

I’ve been waiting for this graphic novel ever since I first saw some of Jesse Hamm’s art on it back in the summer of 2006, and it was well worth the wait.

First a disclaimer:
I’ve known Jesse Hamm for well over ten years and fell in love with his work at first sight. He’s a brilliant cartoonist, a master of body language and facial expression, and his layouts are very well thought out and invite the reader into the story. So, yeah, I was sold on the art right away.
I’m also somewhat familiar with Derek Kim Kirk’s writing, having followed several of his other comics online (especially Same Difference), and I'm impressed with his ability to flesh out characters in an appealing and believable nature. With that team attached to the book, it held a lot of promise to me.

The story of Good As Lily centers around Grace Kwon on her eighteenth birthday and what happens as she suddenly comes face to face with herself at three different periods of her life (as a child, as a woman nearing her thirties, and as on older woman). As the four Graces interact, they come to terms with their regrets and other emotional baggage, resulting in a closure that frees the contemporary, 18-year old Grace, to move forward into adulthood. It’s an optimistic story filled with likeable characters, warm humor, and a lot of heart.

Tempest - A Benefit Comic

Being in the midst of hurricane season, I was reminded of the Disaster Relief benefit comic we put together several years ago in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Tempest.



Tempest is the story of an artist, a normal man who writes stories of heroics and tragedy. But surrounded by news of tragedy and disaster, confronted with his own limitations, and facing the lifting veil of innocence, he is forced to ask some difficult questions, starting with, "What can I do ... I'm just one man ..." It’s a story of hope in the face of pain; beauty in the face of evil; strength in the face of solitary weakness.

Tempest was one of the more personal projects that Ben Avery, Sherwin Schwartzrock and I worked on, and we were blessed to work with a phenomenal group of artists who contributed their time and talents to this story such as:
* Randy Green (Witchblade, Emma Frost)
* Javier Saltares (David's Mighty Men, Ghost Rider, Wolverine, GI Joe)
* Sherwin Schwartzrock (ArmorQuest, Deal with the Devil)
* Sergio Cariello (The Lone Ranger, Son of Samson, Sojourn, Batman)
* Mike Worley (Bongo Comics artist, caricaturist)
* Tom Bancroft (Big Idea, Disney, Opposite Forces)
* Phil Hester (Ant Man, Nightwing, Green Arrow, The Wretch)
* Mario Ruiz (Samson, Testament)
* Gary Shipman (Pakkins' Land, Amazing True Life Stories)
* Darren Brady (Handel’s Messiah, HeroTV)
* Tim Kane (Supercrazy TNT Blast)
* Jesse Hamm (Good as Lily, Bitten Apple, Savage Daisies)
* Nate Watson (Blue Water Productions)
* Gary Martin (The Moth, Nexus)

Copies of Tempest are still available - either in printed form or as digital downloads.
* In print from Community Comics for $3.50 plus S & H.
* As free digital download from Wowio.
(Will require signing up with Wowio - but you’ll get access to many free books and comics - it’s a pretty good deal.)

All proceeds from the sale of Tempest or received from the Wowio downloads (and we do receive payments for each download) will be donated to the Disaster Relief efforts of the Salvation Army. The need is always there and so is the Salvation Army.

Rabbi Encounters

I'd like to point everyone over to Rabbi Encounters, an excellent web comic by Rob Woodrum.

Rabbi Encounters (c) 2007 Rob Woodrum


In Rabbi Encounters, Rob Woodrum updates the encounters Jesus had with people throughout the Gospel accounts in a very effective manner. This works so much better than a straight "what if Jesus came today" approach; those tend to raise many more questions than they answer. The main focus in Rabbi Encounters is how the people are affected by their encounters with the Rabbi. In the stories to date, we have seen encounters with an Army commander, a man suffering from AIDS, a woman at the laundromat, and a diminutive thug named Zack. Rob's presentation of these familiar stories is very fresh and unique and provides a springboard for self-reflection as we see modern applications to these encounters.

ZGraphicNovels.com is up

The Z Graphic Novel site is fully up and running: www.ZGraphicNovels.com .

The site has previews of the books, info on the creators, and plenty of other neat items, like this:



One thing I would like to draw everyone's attention to is the Featured Artist Showcase on the Exclusives page. We will be showcasing a different downloadable comic each week. The comic will also lead readers to a survey to let the publisher know what type of comic material to consider for future releases. So check out the comics and let 'em know what you think.

Shelter of Wings

A new website is up for Lisa Hutchinson's woderful manga series Shelter of Wings, and I just have to spread the word. Check it out: Shetler of Wings

And here's just a small tatse of Lisa's beautiful artwork:

Shelter of Wings (c) 2007 Brethren Entertaiment
artwork (c) 2007 Lisa Hutchinson

Graphic Novels to Recommend

I’ve just recently read a couple of exceptional Graphic Novels, and I thought I’d pass them on to my faithful readers.

American Born Chinese
Story and art by Gene Luen Yang
Published by First Second

I remember reading the first part of this when it was serialized at ModernTales.com, and I was very impressed with it there, but the addition of color by Lark Pien really takes it to another level. I’m not the only one impressed by the book, it’s been named as a finalist for the prestigious National Book Award in the "Young People's Literature", and an Eisner Award for Best New Graphic Novel.

I don’t want to give away too much of the story. To say it’s about a teen coming to terms with his ethnic identity comes close, but there’s just so much more to it than that. And I love the way a spiritual angle was worked into the story.

Persepolis
Story and art by Marjane Satrapi
Published by Pantheon

It took me a while to get to this one, but once I did, I couldn’t put it down. Persepolis is the story (autobiography) of a young girl living in Iran during the late 70s and early 80s. Now, I’m a little older than the author, so what I primarily remember about Iran during that time was the Hostage crisis, and sad to say, I didn’t give much thought to the turmoil going on there. But in Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi gives us an insider’s look of sorts at the political climate in Iran during that period, and it’s an eye-opener. The fact that the story is told from the point of view of the author at that age puts a very unique and touching spin on the story. You can’t help but feel for Marjane as she deals with the revolution in her country.

The Lone and Level Sands
Story by A David Lewis
Art by M P Mann and Jennifer Rodgers

I actually read this one a year or so ago, but I wasn’t blogging then, so I figured I’d bring it up now.

The Lone and Level Sands tells the familiar story of the Exodus as the Hebrews are delivered out of Egypt, but with a twist, This time it’s told from the Pharaoh’s perspective.

This book does an excellent job of giving the reader an idea of what it must have been like to be an Egyptian during the time of the plagues. And while the Pharaoh is a sympathetic character throughout, the book does not shirk the hand of God at work during these events.

KITTENS!!!

I am such a bad blogger. A lot has been going on, but I just haven’t had a chance to post on much yet. So in an attempt to get it together here we go.

A couple of weeks ago we discovered that one of the neighborhood strays had a litter of kittens under our deck in the back yard. Well, the sound of tiny kittens mewing was just too much for my youngest daughter to resist, and so we had to bring these little ones in. We were able to separate Brenna from two of the kittens that we found a very nice home for, and we decided to keep the other two (the little orange guy and the little fuzzy black girl).




Our Pug, Cassie has been very interested these new little playmates too.




Now all we need to do is catch the mother so she doesn't leave another batch of stray kittens around )regardless of how cute they can be).

The Z Graphic Novels are coming!

Zondervan's line of Graphic Novels are coming close to their release date. Zondervan's marketing department has been shopping them around the general and CBA book outlets since last November, but the books have just recently been listed in Diamond Distribution's catalog for shipping to comic outlets this July.

Here’s a rundown of the titles included in Zondervan’s initial launch. Each book is in the "Manga format": 5" x 7.25" of B&W art with approximately 150 pages of story content.

The Manga Bible: Books 1 & 2
A translated collection of the Korean Manwha Bible, packaged by Lamp Post, Inc.

The Bible is larger than life, and kids will love reading its stories told through the graphic storytelling of Korean manwha. Readers will enjoy learning the Bible’s characters and landscapes portrayed through this cutting-edge style of art now popular around the world.

Tomo Books 1 & 2
Book 1 written by Rob Corley, Book 2 written by Jim Krueger, Art by Arial Padilla

Hana would be like any other thirteen-year-old immigrant trying to fit into life at an American school, but she also battles hostile, animal-like warriors from the dimension of Argon Falls. In discovering secrets about her identity and her past, Hana bravely faces both her enemies and her destiny, tutored by her grandfather sensei, as well by a shape-shifting creature named Tomo.

Son of Samson Books 1 & 2
Written by Gary Martin with art by Sergio Cariello

Samson’s mighty son Branan traces his famous father’s footsteps as he battles the Philistines. Throughout the different episodes, with both humor and action, he learns about God’s purpose for his life and inherited strength.

TimeFlyz Book 1 & 2
Written by Ben Avery with art by Adi Darda

Laurel’s ordinary life changes to extraordinary when cyborg flies shrink her down and take her on the adventure of saving the world. Racing through and against time to famous places of the past, learning about history and faith, Laurel discovers that even an average girl like her can make a valuable contribution to a team.

Kingdoms Books 1 & 2
Written by Ben Avery with art by Mat Broome

1 & 2 Kings and 1& 2 Chronicles tell the history of Israel and Judah following the Davidic dynasty through the exile in Babylon. Against this historical backdrop of the rise and fall of maneuvering kings and warring empires, the fictional series Kingdoms traces the saga of the dedicated advisor Iddo and his descendants. As he remains loyal to the memory of the just King Josiah and labors to keep his nation faithful to the Lord, Iddo struggles to protect his own family—including his son, Berekiah, and later his grandson, a young prophet named Zechariah.

Hand of the Morningstar Books 1 & 2
Written and Illustrated by Mike Miller

With the world watching, the opposing forces of super-powered beings clash in battles that reveal whether those who serve the elusive Morningstar, said to be a wise and powerful heavenly creature, fight for the cause of good or evil.

For more information on these, go to: www.zgraphicnovels.com