Strip Search: Episode 1

illustration of the contestants by Lexxy Douglass

In case you hadn’t heard, a month or two ago the Penny Arcade guys filmed a reality competition show, Strip Search, with a handful of cartoonists, and the first episode is live today! I have mixed feelings about Penny Arcade and its creators, but I am a big fan of Erika Moen, who is one of the contestants, and I’m wholeheartedly ready to cheer her toward victory. (I’m also exited to learn more about the other contestants! You know, so I can boo them and stuff.) Go watch! If you need some convincing, watch the trailer:

DAMN GIRL THAT STYLE IS FAT

I know I’ve mentioned Aimee Fleck around here before, but I don’t think I mentioned a recent zine of hers, DAMN GIRL THAT STYLE IS FAT. As you might have grasped from the title, it’s a short illustrated guide to dressing up for fat women, and is completely great. I’m straight-sized and I loved it–the illustrations are gorgeous and I think a lot of the advice is solid for plus-sized and straight-sized people.

The zine, which you can buy on Gumroad, is only available digitally, but here’s the great part: she’s working on a book-sized version that will be in print. It will be available to pre-order soon, and I’m already looking forward to my copy. I may even buy two and do a giveaway, so keep your eyes peeled!

Lucy Knisley’s Relish Tour Dates Announced!

image by Lucy Knisley

Lucy Knisley just announced the tour dates for her newest book, Relish, which will be released at the beginning of April! There are a bunch of San Francisco dates and I am so there, you guys. Like food? Like comics? Go go go! (I actually read a galley of it several months ago, so watch for a review soon. Looking forward to owning a print copy of it like nobody’s business!)

Link Roundup 1/9/13

image by Aimee Fleck

The slow death of Barnes & Noble.

A double-punch from The Awl: Twilight fanfiction (bear with me here), and young adult novelists talking about the first thing they shoplifted. (Best answer by Justine Larbalestier, obviously.)

Problems with food in 50 Shades of Gray.

The Bicholim Conflict and other Wikipedia-based hoaxes. Don’t use it to do your homework, kids! We know you do.

The Whole Story, a DRM-free collection of digital comics by Ryan Andrews, KC Green, Ryan Estrada, and Jang Young for as little as $1. I know what I’m doing with my milk money.

I fangirled over comicker and art student Aimee Fleck at Reading in Skirts today. Go read her comic Tomorrow! (No, don’t read it tomorrow, read it today.)

Why I Love YA (Beth Revis’s huuuuge giveaway)

First of all, Beth Revis, who wrote Across the Universe, etc, is doing a HUGE giveaway of about 50 signed YA books.

Wow! The contest runs all through November, so go check it out and spread the word.

Beth wants us to write about why we love YA, which I’m happy enough to blather on about even without the chance to win 50 books, so: I love YA because it’s not pretentious, because it’s original, because it’s romantic, because it is full of characters I wish I was friends with. I love YA because the plots move instead of stagnate, because some of the best authors out there write YA, because of reasons.

I love YA because it’s so, so good.

First Draft of the Revolution

Word-based stories are what we deal in here at NBP. While those are usually in the form of books, other types exist and today I want to share an interactive story with ya’ll. It’s First Draft of the Revolution by Emily Short, who is rather famous in IF, interactive fiction, circles for good reason. First Draft is particularly exciting to me because it is an interactive epistolary story. Instead of entering commands like in traditional IF, you “help” the various characters write letters to each other. The particular brilliance of First Draft is that you get a lot of story and character while editing, many things that don’t end up in the final versions you send. It is excellent and honestly made my day. Go play it! It won’t take long!

Links

Two pairs of Justine Larbalestier posts, one educational: How to Write a Novel/Writing Your First Novel and one that made me go, “Oh holy hell YES Iloveyousomuchmarryme”: Please, Please, Please, Give Your Protag Friends, a Sibling, Parents/Girls Who Hate Girls (make sure to read the comments, especially for the last one).
Muslim girls in YA fiction, in particular a new book called Rebels by Accident by Patricia Dunn.
That’s five whole links, but because four of them are by one person, I asked Mia for a link to help fill out the post:

Dylan Meconis breaks down ten common mistakes by the ill-informed in comics criticism.

Would you describe brushstrokes as “paint patches” or a song bridge as “transition verse?” Would you call a fictional plot an “event structure” or a pas de deux a “two-person dance?” No, you would not, because you’re a professional, and you make it a point to understand the terms that define the medium you are concerned with. Nor would you spend overmuch time in a review defining these terms for readers, since it behooves you to assume that they are already interested in what you are talking about (and are capable of looking up terms they don’t recognize).

 

What Kind of Reader

I came across these two lists by the Atlanic via bookshelves of doom, and just had to share. I can’t pick just one that I am, not even one from each list, because like Walt Whitman, I contain multitudes.

From the first list, I identify with three types. One: the Cross-Under, obviously. Two: the Delayed Onset Reader #1 and somewhat relatedly, three: The Bookophile. (Though to be clear, I do not love books more than reading, but I do love books as objects aside from their content.)

From the second list, I have shades of being Easily Influenced, though I think it’s more that I’m a hard sell without a recommendation from a blog or person I trust. Going along with that is also a dash of Sharer, but the real winner here is It’s Complicated. “Each book means a new type of reader exists in your soul; you refuse to be defined or categorized.” Yup, that sounds about right.

More Links

Via Melissa at The Feminist Texican Reads, Edwidge Dandicat tells stories and talks about Haiti. As Melissa says, it’s long but worth it. My favorite bit, which is from her second story, ”I dreamed of telling you a story. And since this story would be my last, I wanted it to be a perfect story. Not perfect in execution, but perfect only in intent.” The first bit is edited a bit, to shorten it to get at what really spoke to me, so you’ll have to listen to the whole thing to get the real version. But seriously, ugh, I love that so much. Do you ever get stuck on/fall in love with bits of writing? I think the only time I believe in love at first sight(/hearing/reading) is with art.

Via Tanita Davis at Finding Wonderland, two writers read The Giver for the first time as adults. I know Mia also first read it as an adult – how does your experience relate to theirs? A non-spoilery quote (don’t read the piece if you haven’t read the book – just go read the book):

Kate: I couldn’t put it down. I read it in one sitting; I got two pages in and moved my towel under the umbrella and finished it there. It’s so lean, the pacing is so good, and it’s brutal and unrelenting and all those words that sound like movie blurbs. It lacks the romance or the humor or anything that would be that spoonful of sugar, but that’s a testament to how perfect a piece of storytelling it is.

 

Both Mia and I will be participating in the A More Diverse Universe Blog Tour, hosted by Aarti at BookLust and others. All that you have to do is read a speculative fiction novel written by a person of color. Right now I’m thinking I’ll reread Wild Seed by Octavia Butler, which I’ve been meaning to do for quite a while, but the siren call of authors or books new to me may prove irresistible. Sign-ups are open until September 12th, so I encourage you to go sign up!

Lastly, a pretty thing via Design Milk:

Link Roundup 8/27/12

via The Atlas of True Names

+ An article on defictionalization and the crossing-over of products from the fictional world to the real world, over at Overthinking It. 

+ A The Giver tattoo at The Word Made Flesh.

+ Nisaba Be Praised favorite Shannon Hale, on why boys tend not to read “girl books.”

+ Comicker Lucy Knisley’s reasonably-priced food-focused Tanzania travelogue. If “free” is more your style, you can also preview her upcoming (delicious-looking) book Relish.

+ The gorgeous book-spine parking structure for the new Kansas City downtown library.

+ Comicker Dylan Meconis’ response to a slightly scare-mongering article on comics in the classroom.

+ The Atlas of True Names, which “reveals the etymological roots, or original meanings, of the familiar terms on today’s maps of the World, Europe, the British Isles and the United States.” I live near Consecration! And…Oakland. Okay, they’re not all terribly exciting, but places like “Stink Onion” and “Abundance of Apples” more than make up for it. You can buy the maps!