Showing posts with label Graphic Novel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Graphic Novel. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 04, 2012

Economix: How our Economy Works (And Doesn’t Work) in Words and Pictures


Economix: How our Economy Works (And Doesn’t Work) in Words and Pictures
Fantastic Piece on
BoingBoing!!









“Economics books usually bore me, but in the hands of Goodwin and Burr, the subject was engrossing (and like Gonick, often funny). Light switches flicked on in my mind every few pages or so, and after reading Economix I felt like I understood many fundamental aspects about the way the world works that I had been too lazy to learn about before…
Economix is a book I'm going to buy and give to people.”
427,976 UVM!

About the book
Stimulus plans: good or bad? Free markets: How free are they? Jobs: Can we afford them? Occupy Wall Street . . . worldwide!
Everybody’s talking about the economy, but how can we, the people, understand what Wall Street or Washington knows—or say they know? Read Economix.
With clear, witty writing and quirky, accessible art, this important and timely graphic novel transforms “the dismal science” of economics into a fun, fact-filled story about human nature and our attempts to make the most of what we’ve got . . . and sometimes what our neighbors have got. Economix explains it all, from the beginning of Western economic thought, to markets free and otherwise, to economic failures, successes, limitations, and future possibilities. It’s the essential, accessible guide to understanding the economy and economic practices. A must-read for every citizen and every voter.





PRAISE FOR ECONOMIX“Goodwin brilliantly contextualizes economic theories with historical narrative, while Burr’s simple but elegant illustration employs classical techniques like caricaturing politicians and symbolizing big businesses (as a gleeful factory) to help the reader visualize difficult concepts.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Having never taken economics in college, I find the world of high finance needlessly complicated and confusing. Thankfully Michael Goodwin saw the need for a basic primary on how the economy currently works and how we got here. A text like this would certainly help high school and college students gain their first taste of financial literacy and it comes recommended for the rest of us.” —ComicMix.com

“It’s simply phenomenal. You could read ten books on the subject and not glean as much information.”
— David Bach founder of FinishRich Media; author of nine New York Times bestsellers, including Debt Free for Life and The Automatic Millionaire











“Goodwin has done the seemingly impossible—he has made economics comprehensible andfunny.”

— Joel Bakan, author of The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power

“An amazing lesson in true-world economics! Delightfully presented, powerful, insightful, and important information! What a fun way to fathom a deep and often dark subject!”



— John Perkins, author of Hoodwinked and the New York Times bestseller Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

“Smart, insightful, clear, and as close to the truth as economics can get. The bonus: Who would have guessed that economics could be fun, and—here's the joy—really accessible? Goodwin roots us in history and fills us with common sense understanding. As he puts it early on, economics seems horribly complicated mostly because we're looking at it all at once. Broken down into its component pieces, it's relatively easy to understand. And a good understanding of economics is critical to maneuvering in the world today. If I were compiling a list of the 100 most important books you can read in a lifetime, this would be on it.”

—Stephen Petranek, editor-in-chief, Weider History magazines, former editor-in-chief ofDiscover magazine

“Through a potent mix of comics and punchy, concise, accessible prose, Goodwin takes us on a provocative, exhaustively researched, and exceedingly engaging trip through our history and present day, creating an alternately hilarious and scary picture of where we are today as an economy— and what it all means. More than that, Goodwin makes the arcane, understandable. If your mind either spins or slumbers at the thought of economics, read Goodwin's Economix and all will become clear. 




—Nomi Prins, author of It Takes a Pillage: An Epic Tale of Power, Deceit, and Untold Trillions

“Economix is a lively, cheerfully opinionated romp through the historical and intellectual foundations of our current economy and our current economic problems. Goodwin has a knack for distilling complex ideas and events in ways that invite the reader to follow the big picture without losing track of what actually happened. Any reader wondering how our economy got to where it is today will find this a refreshing overview.”
—Timothy W. Guinnane, Philip Golden Bartlett Professor of Economic History, Yale University


About the author
Michael Goodwin is a writer and editor with a degree in Chinese studies. He has lived in China, India, and now New York City. Dan E. Burr illustrated the classic graphic novel Kings in Disguise. He lives in Milwaukee.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Sneak Peek of Page by Paige Laura Lee Gulledge



I first met Laura Lee in the winter of 2008. She had only been in New York for little less than a year and was ready to make her mark. I had seen a zine she had published and was impressed with how she used metaphors to get her ideas across. She began to post her drawings to her blog www. whoislauralee.blogspot.com. I found them all very intimate, tender and honest. I knew that there was a graphic novel in her but to be sure I sent editor extraordinaire Maggie Lehrman a link to Laura Lee's blog. Next thing ya know ( 8 months later ) Laura is working on her first Graphic Novel
Page by Paige!


About the book
Paige has just moved to New York with her family, and she's having trouble adjusting to the big city. In the pages of her sketchbook, she tries out different identities, including the ultra-secret one: ARTIST. As she makes friends and explores the city, she starts to bring her secret identity out into the open, which can be great (new, fabulous friends and possible boyfriend) and terrifying (fights with mom and vulnerabilities exposed). Laura Lee crafts stories with images that are thought-provoking, funny, and emotionally resonant. This is not your ironic, precocious, detached Juno-type teenager—this is the real deal, honest and unflinching.



Laura Lee and Maggie working at my desk

Here are some teaser panels from
Laura Lee's first graphic novel
!



Rule # 1 Remove excuses! Buy a sketchbook and draw a few pages each week.


Rule #2 Draw what you know. If you feel it or see it DRAW IT!






Rule #3 Shh . . . quiet . . .
listen to what's going on in your head.




Laura Lee is almost done. All that is left is wrapping up the digital shading part of the process, and tackling the lettering. How yeah and the cover. Yikes! Better get on that.




Who is Laura Lee Gulledge?

"Laura Lee is a cartoonist, illustrator, and all around cool chic. Lee’s imagery and sentiments have been called ‘tender, silly, serious, touching and fun all at the same time.’" —Juxtapoz


Laura Lee, is scenic painter (most notably for Macy's famous holiday windows), muralist, street artist, and glitter technician. She has a Master's degree in Art Education and has taught in both Virginia and Africa. She is currently finishing up writing and drawing her first graphic novel called Page by Paige which will be released in Spring 2011 by Amulet Books. Visit her at www. whoislauralee.blogspot.com

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Evolution of the MEANWHILE cover


Original hand-printed version of this "insane choose-your-own-adventure masterpiece"
—Scott McCloud


About MEANWHILE


Chocolate or Vanilla? This simple choice is all it takes to get started with Meanwhile, the wildly inventive creation of comics mastermind Jason Shiga, of whom Scott McCloud said “Crazy + Genius = Shiga.” Jimmy, whose every move is under your control, finds himself in a mad scientist’s lab, where he’s given a choice between three amazing objects: a mind-reading device, a time-travel machine, or the Killitron 3000 (which is as ominous as it sounds). Down each of these paths there are puzzles, mysterious clues, and shocking revelations. It’s up to the reader to lead Jimmy to success or disaster.

Meanwhile
is a wholly original story of invention, discovery, and saving the world, told through a system of tabs that take you forward, backward, upside down, and right side up again. Each read creates a new adventure!


I first met Jason Shiga in a large ABRAMS conference room in the summer of 2008. At this point I was familiar with Jason's work on Bookhunter and had just finished his first original hand-copied version of Meanwhile. (pictured above). It was and is unlike any graphic novel I had ever seen. Jason graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a degree in pure mathematics. "I have a pretty analytical mind, so I think solving a puzzle is about the most exciting thing a reader can experience," he told us. The amount of work and thought that went into this book is staggering. Time online said that Meanwhile is funny, disturbing, thoughtful, deconstructed, and cleverly put together. So I knew that I had a lot to live up to to help make this book look amazing.

Editor Maggie Lehrman made this dummy below in the style of Meanwhile to give to Jason at our meeting.






Meanwhile's cover would be unlike other book designs that I have worked on purely because there wasn't one story to follow and base the cover on. So we needed to come up with an overall theme to represent all 3,856 stories. ( Jason actually counted all of them. May I remind you that he is a math major) Jason's original cover was in black and white and had elements that we liked, but it wasn't quite to the place that we wanted. So . . . first step, Jason took some time and worked up various cover ideas to begin discussion.

Stage 1


There were several things we found very intriguing about these comps but again, none felt right. After talking with ABRAMS ComicArts executive editor Charles Kochman about these comps, he kept coming back to one overall theme of Meanwhile, "search or struggle to find home." Going forward this would become our mantra.

Stage 2

"Search or struggle to find home"

These comps show the response to our mantra as well as a the idea that the title type could be an extension of the interior tubes. In these first couple comps the type begins to take form.

Stage 3

After sitting on the cover for a week to reflect, we began to realize that we needed and iconic image of the main character to introduce him. Of course the word iconic is always in the back of my mind as the end goal for a cover. So we worked up these comps to help further along the idea of finding home as well as integrating the type into the art.

With both of these sketches I tried using the idea of panels and tubes from the interior extending from the Meanwhile type to create a story to show the main character's search for home.


I let the above sketches sit on my bulletin board for a few weeks. I knew that there was an idea there but it wasn't completely realized yet. I knew that I need to tie in the ideas of the interior into the cover. At this point we began to receive in final art for the interior. Jason's art help me become inspired. I poured over all the color layouts and began to cut out certain panels that helped tell our story of a search for home.



Stage 4

Below are Jason's responses to the above comp

Above he is riding a giant squid



I think we are on to something here.

At this point we felt that we were headed in the right direction as far as the idea and composition. A few more elements needed our attention. Color, type and size of the main figure didn't seem right yet.

Stage 5

1st color Shiga version


Stage 6

Final color

Stage 7

Adding a back cover and spine that match the "look and feel" of the front cover as well as the entire world of the book.




Behind Jason Shiga is a layout map of the entire Meanwhile book.



Meanwhile
Pick Any Path. 3,856 Story Possibilities.
Meanwhile
see larger photo
Authors: By Jason Shiga
Imprint: Amulet Books
ISBN: 0-8109-8423-7
EAN: 9780810984233
Availability: In Stock
Publishing Date: 3/1/2010
Trim Size: 7 1/2 x 9
Page Count: 80
Cover: Hardcover
Illustrations: Tabbed pages; full-color illustrations throughout

Monday, August 03, 2009

The Evolution of the 3-2-3 Detective Agency Cover



in The Disappearance of Dave Warthog
By Fiona Robinson

One of my favorite books on the Fall 2009 Amulet list is 3-2-3. I have talked about evolution Michael Buckley's NERDS in dept and will soon be posting about Lauren Myracles Luv Ya Bunches but right now its time to take a look at the evolution of the 3-2-3 cover design.

First a little bit about the book
Fast-paced, full-color, and divided into short, easy-to-read chapters, this is a wonderful graphic novel for younger readers, offering a seamless transition between picture books and novels.

On the 3:23 Express to Whiska City, five unlikely friends meet and decide to form a detective agency. There is Jenny the wise donkey, Roger the gourmet dung beetle, Priscilla the theatrical penguin, Slingshot the hyperactive sloth, and Bluebell, the shy but brave rat. With little training but a lot of pluck, they set up shop in Whiska City and soon tackle their first mystery: a rash of disappearances linked to a pink poodle’s beauty salon.

A funny, clever detective story for young graphic novel fans!.


On one of Fiona's many enjoyable visits to our offices she dropped off these 2 pulp comics, AMAZING STORIES. Which I took some direct and indirect influence from. The trick was to introduce the characters in a pulp comic setting while remaining true to the Fiona's voice.
Here are three of our first attempts.

We all loved the humor an wit of Fiona's characters along the spine but how to make the type work was still and issue.




In all three of the above the title type was a problem. No matter what we tried the design forced us to put the copy in a box which just didn't seem to work. Also, it became repetitive to show all five characters along the spine and in the main image. There were to many parts, to many things going on. Below is an attempt at simplifying the above ideas.


This direction seem to click at the time. We liked it enough to present it and the other ideas at our weekly cover meeting for discussion. The conversation in the meeting turned to a confusion over why the monkey was hypnotized and whether this was the image that was best for the book. We also talked about what was more important, introducing the characters or telling the audience that this is a pulp mystery graphic novel. At the moment we were displaying all these ideas yet nothing was working 100%. So we were sent back to the drawing board.

Almost a month went by before I was able to take another go at rethinking the design Luckily we were ahead on this book so I had time to waste. But more importantly time to step back and take another look from a far.

Knowing what we needed to be on the cover helped going forward.
1. Introduce the characters
2. Pulp comic design influence
3. Simple design/Iconic Image
4. Communicating that the book is a mystery.
5. Setting up a design for a possible series if needed.

On a rainy Thursday afternoon Fiona and I sat down in my dark office and I sketched this up while listening to Fiona's ideas.


We wanted to somehow keep the circle character drawings from the first cover comps. Can any one say BACK COVER?!



Fiona's Final cover art



Back cover hand drawn text

Paperback textBack cover hand drawn text

Hardcover text


Back cover text plus illustration

A needed graphic element hinting at a mystery and an important plot point.Final cover design.


Final Paperback design
Final Hardcover with Flaps design



FIONA ROBINSON
About the author
Fiona Robinson is the author-illustrator of The Useful Moose: A Truthful, Moose-full Tale. Publishers Weekly praised her “flair for humor tinged with heart.” Her work has been honored by the Royal Academy of Arts and been featured in many gallery shows. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York.

Available in two editions:
Paperback, and hardcover with jacket

SPECIFICATIONS FOR BOTH BOOKS:
80 pages, full color, 6 3⁄4 x 9 3⁄8"
PAPERBACK ISBN: 978-0-8109-7094-6
HARDCOVER ISBN: 978-0-8109-8489-9
US $9.95 CAN $12.95 PB
US $17.95 CAN $23.50 HC