Who’d have thought that November would be such a great month for Australian graphic novel creators? This month, we have some exciting news and resources to share which show a real recognition of the value, creativity and innovation of graphic novels and comics in Australia.
We are beyond thrilled that Sarah W. Searle has won the 2023 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Young Adult Literature for her insightful graphic novel ‘The Greatest Thing’. Go and reserve it now from your local library if you haven’t already! In addition to this, we share Allen & Unwin’s teachers’ notes for Trace Balla’s stunning ‘Leaflight’ graphic novel, and celebrate a new release this month by Australian creator Stephen Kok in ‘Transhuman: Volume 2.’
Last but not least, we are so excited at the launch of Reimena Yee’s ‘The Creator's Guide to Comics Devices’, which encompasses ‘sequential art, graphic narrative, graphic literary, visual-literary and all other euphemisms for comics’. Not only is it an incredibly perceptive and well-researched resource, but the guide is a living document that is also open to contributors, so feel free to get in touch and contribute more information on graphic storytelling!
In case you missed it
This month we presented our annual ALIA Graphic webinar, titled Let's Get Practical! We’re incredibly excited to share the webinar with you and we will be working on a few themed book lists as a result of discussions we had on graphic novels that represent disability, comics appropriate for all ages, and more. Keep an eye out on the blog in the new year for some of our recommended resources that may be helpful for your library collection. You can find 79 ALIA Graphic Webinar: Let's Get Practical at the link, below, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
News
- Reimena Yee has launched her Creator’s Guide to Comics Devices and it’s a stunning free resource for comics creators, educators and anyone interested in understanding storytelling devices that are unique to comics and how they work. What an incredible resource!
- The Prime Minister’s Literary Awards were announced and we’re so happy to see Sarah W. Searle’s The Greatest Thing won the Young Adult award for her beautiful graphic novel. Congratulations Sarah! All the winners can be found here.
- The Beat has published an extensive and interesting interview with Rachel Smythe about Lore Olympus and new projects on the horizon. You can read the full interview here.
- Excellent news from the U.S., A First Time for Everything by Dan Santat becomes the second graphic novel ever to win the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. Huda F Cares? was also a finalist and Parachute Kids was in the long list. You can find all the winners and nominees here.
- The Angouleme Comics Festival has announced their official selection for 2024. The Angouleme festival is the most prestigious comics festival in Europe and it’s interesting to see what titles have made their list of nominees. The Beat has all the info about the nominated titles that are published and available in English.
- DC announces a new line of compact comics aimed at reaching new readers in the book market. The comics will be smaller than traditional comics and similar to the size of novels and manga volumes. Popverse has the lowdown here. The compact comics line will launch in June 2024.
- Marjane Satrapi, the celebrated author of Persepolis, says she’s done with comics and whilst she hasn’t created a new graphic novel, she’s the editor of an upcoming anthology: Woman, Life, Freedom, out in March 2024. Publishers Weekly has all we know for now.
- Webtoons and webcomics are being published in print in increasing numbers. Publishers Weekly has a great article looking at this and discussing what the trends are. You can find Webtoons and Webcomics Keep Scrolling into Print here.
Teaching resource
- Allen & Unwin has published a document with teachers’ notes for Trace Balla’s wonderful Leaflight graphic novel. This is an excellent resource for primary schools. You can find the teachers’ notes here.
Collections
- Publishers Weekly has published their lists of favourite books of the year in different categories. In the Top 10 books of the year, they’ve included The Talk by Darrin Bell. And they’ve highlighted four other graphic novels in their best comics of the year category, which you can find here.
- No Flying No Tights has published another of their great Staff Picks list, this time on comics about body image and accepting your body. You can find the list here.
Webinars/Podcasts
- Booklist has released the archive of their webinar Graphic Novels for All (filmed Oct 31, 2023)
- Catch up on Comic Plus’ Independent Comics for Every Reader! | LibraryCon Live 2023 for graphic novel titles from library-friendly publishers.
New Releases
Junior
- Barb and the Shadow Army by Dan Abdo (Simon & Schuster)
- Bocchi the Rock! Volume 1 by Aki Hamazi (Yes Press)
- Buzzing by Samuel Sattin & Rye Hickman (Hachette Children’s Books)
- Cat Kid Comic Club: Influencers by Dav Pilkey (Scholastic)
- Cats Claws: Cat Ninja by Matthew Cody (Andrews McMeel Publishing)
- Curlfriends: New in Town by Sharee Miller (Hachette Children’s Books)
- Death & Sparkles and the Sacred Golden Cupcake by Rob Justus (Chronicle Books)
- Go-Go Guys by Rowboat Watkins (Chronicle Books)
- The Haunting of Loch Ness Castle by Chelsea Campbell (Scholastic)
- The History Club: Duel Across Time by Bret Baier, Marvin Sianipar (Aladdin Books)
- Ink Girls by Marieke Nijkamp & Sylvia Bi (Greenwillow)
- Keeper of the Lost Cities Volume 1 by Shannon Messenger, Celina Frenn & Gabriella Chianello (Simon & Schuster UK)
- Minecraft Omnibus Volume 1 by Sfe R. Monster, Sarah Graley, John J. Hill (Dark Horse)
- The Nightcrawlers Volume 1 by Marco Lopez (Ablaze, LLC)
- Punycorn by Andi Watson (HarperCollins Publishers)
- Rose Wolves Book 1 by Natalie Warner (Top Shelf)
- Sherbert and the Partly Digested Amulet of Power by F. Artington (Whitefox Publishing)
- Spell of a Time: Witches of Brooklyn by Sophie Escabasse (Random House US)
- Stories of the Islands by Clar Angkasa (Holiday House)
- Super Boba Cafe by Nidhi Chanani (Amulet Books)
- Turtle Bread by Kim Joy, Alti Firmansyah, Joamette Gil (Dark Horse)
YA
- The Boy From Clearwater Book 1 by Yu Pei-yun, Zhou Jian-xin (Levine Querido)
- Ennead by Mojito (Seven Seas) [Please note there is also a hardcover adult edition of this series]
- I am Hexed by Kirsten Thompson (Rocketship Entertainment)
- The Pirate and the Porcelain Girl by Emily Riesbeck (Simon & Schuster)
- Sophie’s World Volume II: From Descartes to the Present Day by Jostein Gaardner, Vincent Zabus, Nicoby (SelfMadeHero)
- Spider Gwen Ghost-Spider by Seanan McGuire (Random House US)
- Static: Up All Night by Lamar Giles (Random House US)
- Transhuman - Volume 2: Adalyn by Stephen Kok (TL Creative) [Australian Creator]
Adult
- Arrowsmith Vol 1: So Smart in Their Fine Uniforms by Kurt Busiek, Carlos Pachecho (Image Comics)
- Good Girls Go To Hell by Tohar Sherman-Friedman (Graphic Mundi)
- Hot to Trop by Veronica Post (Conundrum Press)
- I Don’t Want to Be a Mom by Irene Olmo (Graphic Mundi)
- Macanudo: Optimism Is For the Brave by Liniers (Fantagraphics)
- Majnun and Layla: Songs From Beyond the Grave by Yann Damezin (Humanoids / Life Drawn)
- One More Step, Come Stand By My Side by Takeda Toryumon (Yen Press)
- Saga Vol 11 by Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples (Image Comics)
- The Solitary Gourmet by Jiro Taniguchi, Masayuki Kusumi (Ponent Mon)
- Transitions: A Mother’s Journey by Elodie Durand (Top Shelf)
