The Amazing Screw On Head and Other Curious Objects by Mike Mignola

The Amazing Screw-On Head and Other Curious Objects by Mike Mignola

The Amazing Screw On Head was originally a one shot comic book printed by Darkhorse in 2002. It won the humor category of the Eisner Awards for Best Humor Publication in 2003. In this volume which includes several other stories with similar themes, Mike Mignola describes how he created the story based on the idea of a childrens toy robot with different bodies and a scew-on head. There are several new stories added to this volume.

You could say that many of these stories satirize steampunk which is often very satirical. The stories have a dreamlike quality to them. The villains have a ridiculous theme to them; Emperor Zombie, Dr. Sharp, Gung The Magnificent, the bug eyed martians, and the monster at the top of the beanstalk.

The drawings use lots of dark shadows, browns, blacks, and reds. They look somewhat like the Hellboy comics which Mike Mignola draws, but with a much less malevolent feeling to them. The stories have a fable or fairytale quality to them. The heros are more odd and curious than heroic.

The stories made me smile. They were magical, filled with irrational objects, and worth laughing at. This book was on the Diamond Comics Distributors Bestseller List for October 2010.

Joann Sfar The Little Prince Adapted From The Book by Antoine De Saint-Exupery.

Joann Sfar The Little Prince Adapted From The Book by Antoine De Saint-Exupery.

This is a graphic novel adaptation of The Little Prince. Joann Sfar is french and has drawn over one hundred books. I especially loved his graphic novel, The Rabbi's Cat about a cat that eats a parrot and then can talk. The Little Prince  is translated from French into English by Sarah Ardizzone.

Joann Sfar's drawings are vibrant. They are very good at showing emotion. I like the flow of how he draws the characters in the story. The colorist Brigitte Findaklay uses lots of earth tones mixed with some very deep reds, sky blues, and bright greens. The characters have a lot more color than the backgrounds which makes them stand out.

The panel layout is two columns of three panels. This is very easy to follow. The lettering has a neat, small hand drawn quality to it. The characters have a slightly exaggerated faces with bigger eyes, ears and some fantastic qualities, especially for the flower people.

The Little Prince has a surprising amount of philosophical depth for a childrens story. Joann Sfar successfully translates the writing which is often very surreal into clear, beautiful pictures. 

I especially like the drawings of the Little Prince talking to flowers, the fox, and the snake.  Each character the prince talks to has a seemingly simple philosophical message.

This is worth reading, especially if you like fairytales or fables. The novel, The Little Prince is a childrens classic

Daily Thoughts 8/18/2010 ( Bring on the Books, graphic novels )

Reading room of the library, U.S. Naval Academy, 1901, Detroit Publishing Company
Daily Thoughts 8/18/2010

I finished reading Bitter Angels last night.  It had a surprise ending and a unique story.  It is something I'll definitly be writing a review on later in the week.




Today was another steady day.  I read over some of the requirements for a conservation grant.  There are a number of questions I have to find out before applying.  It was interesting finding out what people wanted to know.  I also learned that I  will be using the acquisitions module directly built into our catalog.  This allows EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) of our orders.  It also shows when items are on order.




I had the Graphic Novels Club today.  We are getting more people coming to the club.  I think we ended up with fourteen people today which is not bad.  There were quite a few books checked out.  They picked out a few books on cartooning, Battle Angel Alita, Naruto, Inu Yasha, Scott Pilgrim which just came out as a movie, The Incredible Hulk versus X Force, as well as a few art books which I had brought in-- one on Mucha, and one on Maxfield Parrish as well as a book on How To Draw Manga.  One person brought their sketch book.  We also gave away free comics from Con Edison called The Power of Green  Go Green Save Some Green featuring the Green Lantern about saving electricity.




I also got a book on interlibrary loan called Bring On The Books For Everybody How Literary Culture Becomes Popular Culture by Jim Collins. It is an academic title.  I am finding the book very entertaining.  He is writing about how Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Oprah Winfrey, beach reading, book superstores, and digital culture are creating a new open view of literary reading.  It is a different approach to the classics with a different vision of the meaning of literature. He asks why the Pulitzer Prize puts a book on the New York Times Bestseller list.  

Daily Thoughts 8/17/2010 (Bitter Angels, Westerns, Programs, Graphic Novels )

Owen Wister friend of Theodore Roosevelt and author of the American Western-style novel, The Virginian photo from the Owen Wister Collection of the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming. 

Daily Thoughts 8/17/2010 

I finished reading The Outlaw Josey Wales by Forest Carter on the train to work today.  It looks like there might be a little bit of a resurgence in interest in westerns, especially Max Brand and Louis L'Amour who are still both very popular.  There is a set of reviews for westerns in Library Journal online.  http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/home/885858-264/collection_development_not_ready_for.html.csp




Another article How Libraries Ensure Ongoing Freedom In America by Martha Randolph Carr.
http://politicallyillustrated.com/index.php?/news_page/iw/1654/  I rather like the cartoon.




Today was a bit busier than usual.  We had the final Adult Summer Reading Game which is the first time we are doing this.  We talked about the books we read during the sumer, had punch or tea, raffled off a bag of books and bookish items, and gave away a few books to attendees.  It was a nice afternoon thing to do.



I also got ready for tomorrow, picking out a number of graphic novels for the program tomorrow.  This time I went into the storage area and pulled out some of our older material; Peter Arno, Chas Addams, Gary Trudeau, Herblock, Gahan Wilson, and a few other classic cartoonists.  We even had one of the old fashioned cartoon instruction books from the 1930s.  I like to pull material that is related to graphic novels, not just graphic novels, record cover art, illustration, fasion design, storyboarding, drawing comics, and writing comics.



I also finished going through the trade paperback fiction to make sure things were in the right place.  We now have a much expanded section for African American fiction.  I'll probably be going through the hardcover fiction section next.



I also have some work to do with BWI to check on the Electronic Data Interchange.  Our first orders are going through them soon. 



On the way home, I read some of Bitter Angels by C.L. Anderson which is a science fiction novel which mixes space opera and espionage.  There is a blurb by Linnea Sinclair on the cover who writes romantic science fiction.  Linnea Sinclair is an author which I like a lot.

Daily Thoughts 6/23/2010

Reading In The Forest, Oil On Canvas, 1880, Paris, Public Domain, Wikimedia, Eva Gonzales

Daily Thoughts 6/23/2010

I have been reading more of Coupon Mom's and looking at the website. There is a little bit of money to be saved, not a huge amount for the effort involved. The online coupons are kind of interesting. I don't buy most of this stuff.

This book is proving to be about much more than coupons. She describes the advantages and disadvantages of shopping at big box stores, supermarkets, discount stores, health food stores, wholesale clubs, and bare bones stores. I liked some of her ideas.

She reminds us that it is not good to buy giant packages of junk food from wholesalers, this leads to overconsumption and an unhealthy lifestyle. She also tells us that it is cheaper to buy fresh herbs and bulk food products like nuts from produce stores and healthfood stores than supermarkets. Stephanie Nelson follows the maxim that we must watch what we put into the refrigerator to make sure we are buying what we need, 15%-40% of food in refrigerators goes to waste in the United States.

The author tells us that it is cheaper to eat vegetarian on occassion. Vegetables, rice, and beans are cheaper than meats or cheeses. I am about half way through the book and am enjoying reading it. I have sent ten online coupons to my email inbox for things which I purchase regularly.

There is something different about writing about practical books. Most reviewers will not describe their experience using practical books; books on homeownership, power tools, carpentry, plumbing, personal finance, and other practical subjects are often not reviewed enough. Maybe, there isn't enough intellectual cachet in it.

Today has been quite busy. I have been working on a few things. The new display advertising for the playaways came in. We now have new bookmarks, signage, and posters for our playaways section and will soon have new packaging for the playaways. I also printed the Chick Lit bookmark today.

We are almost ready for the Adult Summer Reading in July and August http://www.summerreadingnys.org/. We just put together a banner for adult summer reading and I am working on creating a flyer for the events associated with the summer reading program. We have two author events in July, two brown bag book talks, and a literary tea planned so far.

One of my colleagues suggested a graphic novel, Rabbi Harvey vs. the Wisdom Kid, A Graphic Novel of Dueling Jewish Folktales In the Wild West by Steve Sheinkin. It came out in March 2010. Another book came in for me, Much Fall of Blood by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint, and Dave Freer. I especially like the writing of Dave Freer. I put in a request for a weird western graphic novel, Iron West by Doug TenNapel which I saw from this list http://www.morevikings.com/recs-and-rants/weird-west-reading-list/

On another thought, acccess to our library catalog will soon be available as an Iphone App http://www.sirsidynix.com/iphone/apps/bookmyne/

I finished reading The Coupon Mom's Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills In Half by Stephanie Nelson. It has an old fashioned thriftiness to it. The author tells us she uses baking soda, vinegar, borax, and rubbing alcohol for her cleaning needs. She also makes a recommendation that you should grow your own vegetables, even using the term "victory garden". It has a homespun feel to it in parts even though it is very much touting coupons from major brands.

I started reading Much Fall of Blood by Mercedes Lackey, Dave Freer, and Eric Flint. Each author has numerous fantasy novels to their name and a decent following of readers. They somehow mesh well writing this novel. This is the third novel in a series. The first two are The Shadow of the Lion and This Rough Magic. It is set in a medieval Europe filled with magic both black and white. The characters are drawn from historical figures like Madame Bathory, Prince Manfred, and Prince Vlad Duke of Valahia. It starts nicely, moving between Venice, the Carpathians, and the tents of the Golden horde.

Daily Thoughts 6/16/2010

Pierre August Renoir, Camille Monet Reading, Oil On Canvas, 1873

Daily Thoughts 6/16/2010

I finished reading Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card on the train to work. It is the book which made Orson Scott Card's career. The book won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards. It is on the top 100 books to read for young adults by the American Library Association. If you like science fiction, you should read it. The book speaks for itself.

We moved a lot of books in the storage area today including law books and fiction. It is moving along very nicely. Also, I looked at magazines for ordering; booklist and publishers weekly.

I had the graphic novels club today. It went alright. The anime club from the high school borrowed two dvds, Steamboy and Kiki's Delivery Service, both which are fun to watch.

I had a little bit of time to pick out some poetry books for Saturday. I picked out books by Edward Hirsch, Nikki Giovanni, Langston Hughes, Charles Simic, Rita Dove, Alice Walker, Diane Wakoski, Jack Kerouac, and many others. I made sure that the new poetry books were ready for Saturday. I am looking at two poetry books right now, Bright Wings An Illustrated Anthology of Poems About Birds Edited by Billy Collins with Paintings by David Allen Sibley and Jorge Luis Borges The Sonnets. The Sonnets is a dual language edition with Spanish on one side and English on the other. Both of these books are copyright 2010.

The Viscount Who Loved Me was truly awful. It surprised me that it was one of the books which was requested for my Readers Advisory 101 Course. It was better than Danielle Steel, I'll give it that much. I am not a fan of her writing. Sometimes, we are asked to read things which we don't like to understand what patrons want. I read a few urban fiction novels when they were first coming out to see what the genre was about. Omar Tyree is a fairly entertaining writer of street literature. I still have not read any chick lit. I probably should.