Cartoonists With Attitude

Archive for the 'Hereville' Category

Mandolin and Nojojojo Nominated for Nebula Awards! And Amp is Nominated for a Norton Award!

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011 by Barry Deutsch

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association has announced nominees for the 2010 Nebula Awards, and “Alas” did even better this year than last year!

N.K. Jemisin, who used to cross-post on Alas as “Nojojojo,” hasn’t been much around these parts lately, presumably because her writing career has taken off! Her novel The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is nominated for this year’s “best novel” Nebula Award, and having read and loved the book I can say the nomination is very well deserved. Congratulations, N.K.!

Rachel Swirsky, known on this website as “Mandolin,” was also honored! Her novella ‘‘The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen’s Window’’ is nominated for this year’s “best novella” Nebula Award. “The Lady Who Plucked…” is an incredible story, one of Mandolin’s best, and I would have been shocked if it weren’t nominated.

I should mention that both Mandolin and Nojojojo were also nominated for Nebulas last year, because they are that awesome.

Barry Deutsch, that is to say, me, posts on “Alas” as “Ampersand.” And I was very surprised, but also very honored, that my graphic novel Hereville has been nominated for this year’s “Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy.” (When the nice lady from the Nebula committee called me, she said this is “essentially the Nebula Award for young adult books”).

I can’t say how thrilled I am, and how much I’m looking forward to losing to Paolo Bacigalupi’s Ship Breaker when the awards are given out in May. :-p

Thank you to everyone who voted for me (or for Mandolin or Nojojojo). And congratulations to Mandolin, to Nojojojo, and to all the other Nebula nominees!

Posted in Ampersand, Hereville, Mandolin's fiction & poems | Comment

Whoa! Hereville is in the Huffington Post!

Thursday, February 3rd, 2011 by Barry Deutsch

There’s an article about Hereville in the Huffington Post!

This is the article Bob Smietana of the Religion News Service wrote. Very cool!

Here’s a bit from the article:

Ten-year-old Shira Acklin from the Temple, a Reform Jewish congregation in Nashville, agrees. She’s a fan of the Harry Potter books, and is also a big fan of Mirka.

“I like that the girl is the star — her brother is there but he’s not the star. She is,” Acklin said.

Adventure stories like Mirka’s are rare among Jewish kids’ books, said Heidi Estrin, library director at Congregation B’nai Israel, in Boca Raton, Fla.

Many Jewish books for kids focus on serious topics, like anti-Semitism, or teaching religious topics. If the books include humor, said Estrin, it’s often aimed at parents, not kids.

Not so with Hereville.

“It’s lighthearted in a way that kids can relate to,” said Estrin, who runs The Book of Life, a podcast about Jewish books. “The plot had nothing to do with prejudice — it’s about a girl who wants to fight dragons.”

Read the rest at Huffpo. Thanks, Bob!

(Oh, and if you’re interested in buying a copy of Hereville, the info is here.)

P.S. Check out the comments for a mini-debate between about if an atheist should be writing a religious protagonist.

Posted in Ampersand, Hereville | Comment

Read “Modest Medusa”

Monday, January 31st, 2011 by Barry Deutsch

Jake Richmond, the cartoonist who (among a zillion other things) colors “Hereville,” has started a new webcomic, called “Modest Medusa,” which is genuinely funny, charming and nice to look at. The first strip is here, but I’ll post a sample:

Go check it out!

Posted in Ampersand, Comics I Like, Hereville, Syndicated feeds | Comment

Brigid Alverson Interviewed In The Comics Reporter

Thursday, January 20th, 2011 by Barry

There’s been no greater booster of Hereville than comics journalist Brigid Alverson, who is interviewed here by Tom Spurgeon at The Comics Reporter. Brigid — who has interviewed me more than once, and who I like a lot — was nice enough to mention Hereville:

SPURGEON: Can you talk for a bit about one or two of the comics you thought were great this year? What makes a comic great as opposed to merely good? Is there something that tends to connect great works in comics in your mind?

ALVERSON: A great comic crosses over a boundary in my brain so that I’m not just reading it, I’m experiencing it on some deeper level. Hereville was the best example of that, and I feel like a broken record because I talk about it a lot, but it really was the standout comic for me. It has to do with the way that the creator, Barry Deutsch, creates a world and very quickly draws you into it, so you are getting inside the characters’ heads. There’s a scene in there where the main character, who is 11, is solving a math problem, and as I read it, I was solving it in the same way. Many of the sequences were like that. It’s as if I hallucinated this book rather than just reading it.

Wow! Reading that made my day. Thanks, Brigid. (And click through to read the entire interview — she talks about lots of stuff other than Hereville!)

(Information about buying your own copy of Hereville can be found here.)

Posted in Ampersand, Hereville, Syndicated feeds | Comment

Beautiful dance animation

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011 by Barry

I love this little animation, a collaboration between an animator, a choreographer, and several dancers.

Thought of You from Ryan J Woodward on Vimeo.

There’s also a making-of video.

Posted in Ampersand, Hereville, Syndicated feeds | Comment

The First Hereville Fanfic!

Friday, January 14th, 2011 by Barry

Fanfic writer Jade Lennox has great taste — just look at her list of fandoms, which includes Slings and Arrows (my favorite TV show), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (another favorite of mine), Castle Waiting (a wonderful comic book by Linda Medley which I think most Hereville readers would enjoy), Love and Rockets, Wonderfalls, Farscape, Veronica Mars… I have to admit, by “great taste,” I just mean that she (he?) likes a lot of comics and TV that I like.

Anyway, I was thrilled when Jade Lennox recently wrote “Who Needs A Gallows When You Have A Sword?,” a Hereville short story featuring Mirka, Fruma, Zindel, Rochel, Gittel, and a brand-new character, Fruma’s brother Feter Gedalya. It’s well-written and fun to read, and in some ways it parallels thought I’ve had about Hereville characters (I’ve often thought that Mirka would resist the pressure to dress as Queen Esther!).

By the way, if you find the format or font difficult to read, click on the “Hide Creator’s Style” link near the top of the webpage, towards the right, and that should fix things.

Today is World Fair Use Day, which makes it an especially auspicious day to link to some fanfic. My thanks to Jade Lennox, for writing such a terrific story. And to my friend TeaOtter, who requested a Hereville story.

Posted in Ampersand, Hereville, Syndicated feeds | Comment

Barry Interviewed on “Hey, Women! Comics!” (And why having good female characters matters.)

Wednesday, January 12th, 2011 by Barry

The blog “Hey, Women! Comics!” has posted an interview with me.

Here’s a bit from the interview; there’s more at the link.

HWC: What sort of woman do you think Hereville best appeals to?

BD: I’m not sure! I’ve noticed that most of Hereville’s reviewers are female, though, so there must be some appeal there.

I intended Hereville to be a feminist book – not in the sense of being over-the-top or preachy, but int he sense of writing a book with a kick-ass but not perfect female protagonist, and with a lot of female characters who actually matter to the story (especially Mirka’s not-at-all-evil stepmother, Fruma.) I often read books to my two honorary nieces, Sydney and Maddox, and they’re always very aware of if a book has girl characters they can relate to or not; without any prompting from me, they’re always asking “is this one a girl?” and pointing to the female characters and saying “I’m her!” So I think it’s important.

I think any reader who likes fun, character-based fantasy stories could enjoy Hereville.

Posted in Ampersand, Hereville, Syndicated feeds | Comment

Hereville interview on The Book of Life!

Tuesday, January 11th, 2011 by Barry

Heidi Estrin — a librarian who knows more about Jewish kids books than pretty much anyone on Earth — interviewed me for her podcast, “The Book of Life.” It was a really fun interview for me (and only the second interview I’ve done face-to-face, rather than via email or phone), and considering the depth of her knowledge, I’m super-flattered that Heidi has been supporting Hereville.

You can listen to the interview here, on Heidi’s website. It’s about 19 minutes long.

Posted in Ampersand, Hereville, Syndicated feeds | Comment

Hereville Wins The 2011 Sydney Taylor Book Award!

Monday, January 10th, 2011 by Barry

The Sydney Taylor Book Award is given once a year by the Association of Jewish Libraries for the best Jewish kid’s book. It’s given in three categories: younger readers, older readers, and teen readers.

The AJL blog has just announced the winners, and Hereville is this year’s winner in the “books for older readers” category!

This is the first time a graphic novel has ever won a Sydney Taylor, incidentally. I’m sitting here grinning from ear to ear.

My deepest thanks to the AJL committee — I am honored and thrilled. And moziltov to my fellow winners, Howard Schwartz and Kristina Swarner for their book Gathering Sparks (younger readers), and Dana Reinhardt for her book The Things a Brother Knows (teen readers).

From the AJL blog:

Deutsch will receive the 2011 gold medal in the Sydney Taylor Book Award’s Older Readers Category for Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword, published by Amulet Books, an imprint of Abrams Books. This is the first graphic novel to win the Award. Committee member Aimee Lurie noted, “Mirka is a clever, headstrong and imaginative heroine who will appeal to a wide audience. Teens who feel like they don’t fit in will have no trouble relating to her balancing what is best for her family versus her desire to fight dragons. Grounded in her religious beliefs, she is willing to put her fantasies aside to celebrate Shabbat. The illustrations strike the perfect balance of showing a realistic Orthodox community, while creating the perfect backdrop for a fairytale.” [...]

A blog tour, featuring interviews with winning authors and illustrators, will take place in early February, with participation from a wide range of children’s literature, family interest, and Jewish blogs.

What a way to start a Monday morning!

Posted in Ampersand, Hereville, Syndicated feeds | Comment

A Bunch Of Twenty-Five Dollar Sketches

Friday, January 7th, 2011 by Barry

I have an ongoing offer to do a ~~ten~~ $25 dollar sketch for people who buy a copy of Hereville from me. It’s fun for me to do, and I think people enjoy having a one-of-a-kind drawing done just for them.

With only a couple of exceptions, these were drawn entirely on computer, and then printed out with a high-quality art printer. (This is the same way I draw Hereville; I hardly ever draw directly on paper nowadays!). Some of these were requests (“draw a Wren in the picture,” for example, or “something to do with Twilight”), others were just me drawing whatever I felt like (which turned out at least twice to be Mirka in a tree).

Click on any of the drawings to see them bigger.

[Note: I'm sorry, but I've raised the price to $25. Sorry, but these just took me too long to produce to justify $10!]