New York Times New Graphic "Book" List

I wasn't certain whether or not to post this here or at Anime Cake. Since it's mostly Graphic Novel related, I'll put it here. The New York Times has started a bestseller list for "Graphic Books." Why Graphic Books, you may ask? Here is a response as reported on icv2.com:

“We felt that Books made it clear to readers that our intent is to be inclusive and expansive. These rankings will grow, as we see more of the sorts of migrations you described at the [ICv2 Conference] -- adaptations from other name brand bestselling authors, and so forth. Sci-Fi, Romance, procedurals, and many others, over time.

“We also like the fact that the word Books sets us a bit apart from what might be expected by simply calling them Graphic Novels. The genre has grown even beyond novels. And novel perhaps implies a "novelty," when we might indeed be seeing the evolution of something with a far longer arc, past, present and future. They are an established form, not a novelty likely to recede as a fad. One has only to look at the aisles of any bookstore to monitor their growth."

It's amusing that they insist upon books because "novel" sounds like "novelty." What is a novel, O minds at the paper?

The NYT then divides up the list as follows: Hardcover, Softcover, and Manga (why is Manga separate??). As you can see Naruto just dominates.

The Comic Book Guy (and Girl) revealed!

Amusing article from Wired has just hit the web. To save you from the boredom, I've highlighted some of their responses with my running commentary:

From guy at Midtown comics in NYC
If you could be any comic book character, who would it be?
Obviously Superman because he has no weaknesses except a green rock. But realistically, I'd say Spider-Man.

realistically? really?

From guy at Forbidden Planet in NYC:

Which title has fallen farthest from grace?
Wow. Half of Marvel's books [then he goes on...]

Marvel has been out of the loop for years...

What's the least nerdy thing about you?
I'm surprisingly smooth with ladies.

Pot meet kettle. Kettle meet pot.

[and I've just thought of a drinking game -- throw back a shot for everytime the comic book guy says "Watchmen" in defense of comics]

from another Midtown Comics guy

What are the best and worst parts about working in a comic store?
The best part is definitely just being around comics and getting to see new stuff before other people do. If you go into an office and walk from cubicle to cubicle you don't hear people talking about comics. You hear, "Oh I have to do this report." I get to talk comics at work. I get to recommend stuff to people. That's also one of the hardest parts — not getting too carried away. It's a job and I have to pay attention to the floor, make sure there are enough comics on the wall and do inventory. You can't get too involved.

Yeah, because if you get too involved, you might end up getting your heart broken.

What's the least nerdy thing about you?
I'm a big sports nut. I'm a huge Yankees fan. It's still nerdy because I'm a stats guy. But I'm like any jock, screaming when someone scores.

newflash: sports fans are nerdy. Jocks are nerds of the same feather.

Insert sexy picture of comic book gal here. Fan service, all the way.

And this guy is a geek after my own heart -- with specifics and endnotes for why some comic are good and why some suck.

And he also says:

What's the least nerdy thing about you?
I get one pass, right? Pass.

Know thyself, geek!

The Talmud Class

I've been very busy on the web tonight. Must be because I'm procrastinating on all the grading I have to do.

So, as you may have read in a previous post, I've been attending a class about the Talmud. The class meets twice a month on the second and fourth Wednesdays. It's a very introductory class but extremely fascinating. A few classes ago, we were discussing some of the "narrative" parts of the Talmud. That is, not the part that necessarily talk about "law" (like dietary laws, etc.). Rav Jeremy (our rabbi) gave us a very interesting passage that I've been thinking about for weeks. So, as you may remember (or not). The section I'm about to quote to you is from the first centuries CE and just blows away my training in medieval (Christian) literature because this seems to be an unthinkable statement. In this passage, the rabbis debate over whether or not God prays. It's a weird question, right? Who would God pray to? Uber-God? Well, one guy answers with a piece of scripture that God does pray. That's not the interesting part. Instead, the passage continues with "if God prays, what does this prayer look like?" The Talmud answers (Rav Jeremy's translation)

"May it be my will that my compassion conquer my anger, and may my compassion prevail over my attributes, and may I behave toward my children with the attribute of compassion, and for them may I go beyond the letter of the law"

Isn't that interesting? It is and it isn't a human prayer. A lot of Jewish prayers ask for "may my better side overcome my weaknesses" and this prayer has that division in it. However, it is also "godly" in the sense that both attributes are very apparent in the Torah. God is sometimes very angry and sometimes shows great compassion. I also find it interesting that in this prayer, God acknowledges that compassion may sometimes go beyond "law," and this "law" also seems to bind God.

But that's not all. In the Talmudic text, the next question is "If God can pray, then can God be blessed?" The answer is: Yes.

In the Temple, the high priest entered and saw God sitting on a throne. God asked "My son, Yishmael, bless Me" and the priest said "May it be your will that your compassion conquer your anger, and may your compassion prevail over your attributes, and may you behave toward your children with the attribute of compassion, and for them may you go beyond the letter of the law." And God nodded.

One could read God's nodding as "right answer" and that the priest had been tested and passed it. I am amazed that this passage is included at all. It smacks of pretention and/or an utter lack of fear by the writers because they do not offer any further commentary than this. Or else, it is a philosophical game akin to "Can God create a rock that God cannot lift?" (or my personal favorite, "can God microwave a burrito so hot that even God cannot eat?"). I'd be interested in seeing what the other Talmudic commentators have to say about it.

However, one can also read this section with the high priest rather poignantly. At the next class meeting, Rav Jeremy told us that Rabbi Yishmael ben Elisha, who meets God in the Temple was the last high priest before the Temple was destroyed in Jerusalem, creating the Jewish diaspora. Therefore, God's compassion did not override the other attributes.

Happy Birthday, Perilous Cheryl!

I hope you had a fantastic day in Boston! Here's a little something to get you thinking about how to celebrate your next big event. ARRRGH!

Catching up

I really have been in a stinky mood lately -- hence the few posts on the old blog. I hate to spread the hate around. But anyway, to catch up with what I've been doing. Gentle readers, expect this to be one my usual rambling forays into the tangents of my mind.

So, last Friday (the 6th), I went to the New York Comicon (Comiccon?). I must be getting older when I am irritated by how time-consuming it is to get into the city. C'mon! It's NYC, after all! Though I usually take the Metro North from Harrison, I wasn't certain that I would find parking so I went to New Haven and took the train from there. Mr. Gene, who I was meeting there, had already arrived, having taken an early Amtrak. The train ride was uneventful and upon exiting, got into NYC walking mode (ya know, the way Kate walks everywhere). I took the subway over to Times Square and then walked the blocks to the hotel I booked through Hotels.com. The room was surprisingly big and a good deal -- even though I had to walk through a parking garage and then back outside to my room which overlooked a pool. Yes, it was a regular sized pool. It was as if they had grabbed a motel from a suburb and just plunked it onto West 42nd. Go figure.

Gene met up with me and unloaded all the goodies he had nabbed from the Con and then we walked over to the Javits Center. The previous day I had been mocked by a co-worker since my facebook image uses an anime pic that "I looked like someone who would go to a con." After I confirmed my attendence at such a place (reluctantly), she told me that she wished I could twitter the moment I stood in line behind a jedi. Well, there were no jedis (though one did appear soon after), but I stood in line behind three Ghostbusters. Their costumes were pretty cool with shining lights on their ghost catching thingies.

After receiving my credentials and lanyard, we entered the space. I've been to the Javits Center once before for the Book Expo America which had a lot of flash and promotional material, but this was pretty amazing. My feet hurt just looking at all the aisles. I made sure to hit all the manga booths although their presence was small at this con. Then, I dragged Gene through artists' alley where we saw who was the most popular by the lines forming in front of the tables. I was horrified that Bill Sienkiewicz's table was completely obscured by some other guy. I had to push through the fanboys so I could properly gush. Having never been at a proper con before and with no materials for him to sign (and I was even thinking that I would buy a sketch), he sensed my utter lost state and gave me a comic and signed it ("my gift to you."). What a nice guy!

Gene and I finally sat down at the "food court" which really consisted of sugar in all its varied forms and little of substance (except for philly cheese steaks but that is not of much substance anyway). I teased Gene about all his twittering: "What are you saying now, Gene? 'I'm twittering instead of talking to Wendy?'"

We had some interesting conversations with publishers and pseudo-academics. I only bought a copy of Action Philosophers #2 because it featured a really funny bit on Marx (I can't wait to show my students!). I managed to fend off all other purchasing bugs and the many, many freebies. I let Gene take all those (plus extras!).

After all of this, he had a meeting and I went to a panel by Vertical Publishing. I was bummed that I didn't win the signed editions of To Terra by Keiko Takemiya nor several volumes of Tezuka's Black Jack. In fact, it was quite suspicious that all the books went to people who had put their names in the bag last! I cry foul!

Then I attended the panel that Gene was a part of. The room was packed but the moderator did provide cupcakes which was welcome since I hadn't had much to eat that day. The panel had a lot of people on it and the connecting thread eluded me but seemed to be about teaching comics in all its facets (as an art, as a scholar, etc) and some research. Thankfully the talk did not descend into how scholars are ruining comics, blah blah blah. I enjoyed it though.

Afterwards, Gene and I went to a diner near the hotel and had yummy hamburgers and onion rings. You just got to love a town with true competition. No crappy one diner town for me! Then we spent the rest of the evening reading all of our items, passing out around 1. Thankfully I was so tired that when I heard the fanboys talking in the room next to me at 7:30 a.m., I didn't kill them. I just rolled over and went back to sleepyland.

A quick breakfast the next day and Gene was off to the Con again and I, to home. My only mishap was taking the first subway entrance I found which had the mark of the one I was looking for. I must have walked a mile underground to get to the shuttle to Grand Central!

All right, that's the story and I'm sticking to it. I was planning on talking about my casino trip today but I'm beat. So, here's the short side to the story -- I won 45 bucks and could have won/lost more if the idiots at the casino hadn't laid off so many people that we couldn't find another table to sit down at. In fact, blows were almost exchanged. Yegods, are people wanting to gamble.

I keep waiting

I keep waiting but the days don't seem to be getting any better. I think I've turned into one of those cranky teachers, complaining about "these kids today!" I had a lot of conferences with students, and most of them went well. But then I had to chew out one student for being such a sh*t in class. I think I could have handled it better, but I always think I can handle these events better. The trick is to grow from them and not brood as I am wont to do. As I like to say, "things would be so much easier if I didn't care."

Okay, in other news, I have been salivating over this book which depicts many layout sketches from Ghibli films. Last summer there was a big exhibit in Tokyo where I could have seen them in person (I wonder how good the security was...). The images are so amazing! But 50 bucks plus another 40 for shipping! egad! I will have to stop yelling at students so santa will bring me one.

A New Blog

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you a new blog for you to enjoy. My theme is anime and manga and any all news that crosses my computer and my brain connected to these topics. The title is Anime Cake (because we all like cake, right?). Many thanks for Elena for drawing that super super sweet and cute picture for the top. I feel all shoujo-ey.

I've just posted so go ahead and look. Yes, it's very pink. If it gets to be too much, I'll fool around with the colors more. I'm not much of a designer, ya know.

Thanks!