ALIA Graphic December 2021 - January 2022 Roundup

We start the year with some news, lots of lists with the best titles from 2021, and a couple of free webinars on the horizon.

First we want to highlight some graphic novels by Australian creators that have been selected in the ALA Graphic Novels and Comics Rountable’s Best Graphic Novels for Adults and Best Graphic Novels for Children lists.

In the Adults list, Lee Lai’s Stone Fruit is in the Top 10, a great achievement and a well-deserved recognition for Lee’s excellent debut graphic novel. On the Children’s list Remy Lai’s Pawcasso is in the Top 10, and two other titles have made it into the long list: Jason Pamment’s Treasure in the Lake and Alyssa Bermudez’s Big Apple Diaries. 

Congratulations to all of them, we couldn’t be happier that these creators are getting international recognition. We interviewed all these creators last year, so if you want to catch up with our conversations, check out our podcast archive. Our regular podcasts will be back in February.

Last year, we published the ALIA Graphic Novels and Comics list of Notable Australian Graphic Novels with the best graphic novels by Australian creators from 2020. The list was really well received and the 2021 list will be published soon, so watch this space.

Our Graphic Novel Club will continue for all this year and we’ve published the schedule and list of titles for the first half of the year. These book club style sessions are a great way to discuss graphic novels and learn about collections and readers advisory. All sessions are free on Zoom. Visit our Graphic Novel Club page to register. 

Finally, we’re a very small team of librarians who love graphic novels and we publish all these resources for free for the benefit of all libraries and library workers. If you’re a library worker and you’d like to join our group, please contact us. The more people we have involved the better our resources and lists will be and the more we can do. Our contact details can be found on the official ALIA page for our group and our DMs are always open on Twitter. 

Finally, we also recommend you subscribe to this blog using the box on the right sidebar so you can get all our updates by email. It’s usually one to two blog posts a month. 

Without further ado… here’s our monthly roundup.

News

• Remy Lai, creator of Pawcasso, will be publishing a new series of early reader graphic novels in 2022 with the theme of animals surviving the wild that look really cute.

• If you want to have a look back at comic-related news in 2021, PW has you covered with their 15 most read comics stories of 2021.

• Jarrett Lerner is publishing some great videos in his YouTube channel. The last two videos are excellent and they demonstrate all the steps to making a comic and give great tips to drawing faces in a very approachable and kid friendly manner. 

Collections

• The ALA’s Graphic Novels and Comics Roundtable has announced the best graphic novels of 2021 for adults and children and it’s great to see two Australian creators and titles in the list: Remy Lai’s Pawcasso and Lee Lai’s Stone Fruit. A well deserved recognition. The adult list is here and the children list is here. YALSA has also published their Top 10 Great Graphic Novels for Teens 2021.

• It’s the season for it and if you want to explore another best graphic novels of the year list there’s also a list by the School Library Journal and another one from the New York Public Library.

• Looking forward, Publishers Weekly has published an article with a great selection of graphic novels to look forward to in the first few months of the year and The Beat has published an extensive list of 83 anticipated YA and adult graphic novels for the start of the year.

Webinars

• Booklist’s Graphic Novels For All free webinar is taking place February 1. As usual, it’s late at night for us but you can register and access the recording after the date.

• The Library Journal’s Spring Graphic Novels for All Levels webinar is taking place February 16. Again, this is a free webinar and you can access the recording after the date.

• The Manga in Libraries webinar series is back this year with Manga 101. This time they’ll be answering all the burning questions they’re being asked by people. The webinar will be held February 16 at 12pm Australian Eastern time. Free registration here.

Resources

• Scholastic has published an excellent resource A Guide to Using Graphic Novels With Children and Teens. This is a downloadable PDF packed with great information.

NEW TITLES

Junior and YA

• Akira Toriyama’s Manga Theater by Akira Toriyama (VIZ Media)

• Cat Kid Comic Club Book 2: Perspectives by Dav Pilkey (Scholastic)

• Coming Back by Jessi Zabarsky (Random House)

• A Difficult Thing: The Importance of Admitting Mistakes by Silvia Vecchini Sualzo (Ablaze)

• Just Beyond: Monstrosity by R.L. Stine, Irene Flores (BOOM! Studios)

• Pokemon Journeys Vol 1 by Machito Gomi (VIZ Media)

• Seven Secrets Volume 2 by Tom Taylor, Daniele Di Nicuolo (BOOM! Studios) [Australia Creator] 

• She Could Fly Vol 3 by Christopher Cantwell, Martin Morazzo, Miroslav Mrva (Dark Horse Comics)

• Tuki by Jeff Smith (Cartoon Books)

Adult

• Afternoon at McBurger’s by Ana Galvan (Fantagraphics)

• Animal Stories by Peter Hoey, Maria Hoey (Top Shelf)

• Beta Testing the Apocalypse by Tom Kaczynski (Fantagraphics)

• Braincomix by Jean-François Marmion, Monsieur B (Graphic Mundi)

• Carbon & Silicon by Mathieu Bablet (Magnetic Press)

• The Complete Works of Fante Bukowski by Noah Van Sciver (Fantagraphics)

• Deserter by Junji Ito (VIZ Media)

• Emma Dreams of Stars by Emmanuelle Maisonneu, Julia Pavlowitch (Vertical Inc.)

• Everfrost by Ryan K. Lindsay, Sami Kivela (Black Mask Comics) [Australian creator]

• The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers: The Idiots Abroad and Other Follies by Gilbert Shelton (Fantagraphics)

• 
  Iranian Love Stories by Jane Deuxard, Deloupy (Graphic Mundi)

• My Only Child by Wang Ning, Ni Shaoru, Wu Yao, Xu Ziran & Quin Chang (Fanfare)

• The Old Guard: Tales Through Time by Greg Rucka, Vita Ayala, Brian Michael Bendis, Leandro Fernandez, Various (Image Comics)

• Our Little Secret by Emily Carrington (Drawn & Quarterly)

• Rewild by Devin Gray, Yana Adamovic (Dark Horse Comics)

• The Short While by Jeremy Sorese (BOOM! Studios)

• Strange Adventures by Tom King, Mitch Gerads (DC Comics)

• The Strange Death of Alex Raymond by Dave Sim, Carson Grubaugh (Living the Line)

ALIA Graphic Novel Club 2022

While we have been fairly quiet and enjoying some time off during the summer holidays, ALIA Graphic Novels and Comics will be back soon with roundups, podcasts and the Graphic Novel Club. We tried this program in the second half of last year and were really happy with it so we decided we will do it all year-round. 

The program is designed for librarians in general; public, school, academic, etc., professionals interested in graphic novels. The sessions are a mix of what you would expect in a book club and a more formal PD session. If you're doing the ALIA PD Scheme, our Graphic Novel Club sessions can be used towards your PD goal.

While we like to keep it fairly informal, each month we will have a theme and three recommended graphic novels (you don't need to read all of them - think of them as reading suggestions that fit that theme), then we discuss the suggested titles, how they relate to the theme, and what other titles we could recommend in a library setting.

We are happy to announce that our January Graphic Novel Club session is the first thing on our program for this year. Join us Sunday 23 January at 3pm for an informal catch up where we'll talk about the graphic novels we've been reading, our favourites from last year and comics readers advisory in general.

We can also announce the themes and suggested titles for the first half of the year so you can check if your library has our suggested graphic novels, and where else to source them. Please note that all of our Graphic Novel Club sessions are free and online on Zoom. If you're registered but unable to join the session live, you will receive a private link with a recording a few days after the date.

To check out our program for the year and to register for all the sessions please visit our Graphic Novel section of the blog. We look forward to seeing you at the Graphic Novel Club and also providing more news, PD and graphic novel information and resources to you very soon!