I wrote about four upcoming graphic novels a while back, and since I let you know when the first one came out, I might as well mention the others as they’re released. Check out David Small’s terrific, creepy graphic novel debut here (and, one hopes, in bookstores everywhere).

Taking Woodstock: Why are two of Ugly Betty’s boyfriends in this scene (with beards)?

Inglourious Basterds: OMG, the ending feels like Gondry’s video for Björk’s “Bachelorette.”

500 Days of Summer: Is Zooey Deschanel always thinking of something else? Pay attention, Zooey!

Paper Heart: Well, that’s real, that’s not, that’s… hmm.

Away We Go: Wheee, it’s us!—oh wait, that’s bad.

Julie & Julia: Streep + Tucci = Enough for any movie, stop there please, STOP.

(Seen again) Gigi: It’s the Song of the South of Gender Politics!

(Seen again) Gregory’s Girl: Such wonderful timeless inventions, such tragically dated music.

(Seen again) The Seventh Seal: Everyone in that movie had such great FACES.

Time Traveler’s Wife: I’m sure it all looked good on paper.

Ponyo: I… I… I’m crying and I don’t know why!

Happy Labor Day. I’m Laboring as usual.

New Trondheim strips in my iPhone every day for a month? For a buck? I’m there.

Despite the long load times (a problem with all iPhone apps due to the fact that we actually USE the things), I like the format of the comics. They look like they were actually designed for the device instead of repurposed from print.

Also: Trondheim!

Link via Ivy.

This is bound to affect all of us in comics eventually, but I have to say that for now it seems strangely remote.

Just a footnote really, but it reminded me how much the Web has enabled us to find patterns in the world that surely would have gone unnoticed just a few years ago…

Some of you might remember this post where I compare and contrast comics by Lisa Hanawalt and Laurie Sandell. I just found out a parallel between the two authors that I couldn’t have known at the time: both authors have parents from Argentina.

How do I know? ‘Cause Lisa’s Mom just emailed me.

And this after going for a walk yesterday and being told via Twitter that someone else’s Mom has been talking to author Bill McKibben about going to Sunday school with me almost 40 years ago.

How many years, I wonder, before the Great Internet Coincidence Database hits critical mass?

Last night, the family and I ate at a new burger place and I noticed that it was next to the cemetery where Jack and Rosalind Kirby are buried. This morning, Tom reminds us that Jack Kirby would have been Ninety-Two today.

I sometimes go for mid-day walks in that neighborhood and occasionally stop to pay my respects. And I always think of this story.

“And as you can see, it actually knows how to read the comic for you.”

Not the first nor the last to employ this strategy for getting around printed comics on mobile devices, but they certainly win the award for most chilling tagline.

Has anyone tried the various mobile readers out there and compared them yet? I’d be curious to hear others’ reactions.

There’s an interesting conversation between Dash Shaw and Hope Larson about editing that’s been making the rounds. Hope likes editorial feedback, but I’ve heard other young cartoonists railing against editors.

I came from a generation of independent/alternative cartoonists that largely believed that “editorial freedom” meant “freedom from editors,” but I’ve always believed in the value of getting honest, in-depth feedback.

For most of my career, I’ve had tremendous freedom in putting together my stories and art, but I’ve also turned to friends to tell me when I’m going off the rails. When working on Understanding Comics in the early ’90s, I turned to my panel of “kibitzers” (Kurt Busiek, Neil Gaiman, Larry Marder, Steve Bissette, Jenn Manley Lee, and Ivy) to rip apart my layouts and rip they did.

The very fact that I could have ignored their advice gave me the confidence to follow it. Whole chapters got the axe and new ones were created. I had the power to ignore them, but I also knew what Spidey said about “great power” and — like the spelling of invulnerable — it was a lesson I learned from reading superhero comics that I’ve never forgotten.

While reading the latest “hey-they’re-making-comics-on-the-web-apparently” article (found via DD) I stumbled on yet another interesting comic that’s been running for a while, but which I stupidly missed: Kinokofry by Rebecca Clements. Weird but pretty. Check it out.

The Serendipity of the Web was a selling point in the mid ’90s when most of us starting hopping on. Now, I have a nagging anxiety that for every cool comic I stumble upon, there are another 1,000 I would have liked but will never see.

I love working on the graphic novel, but it’s meant less surfing and less involvement in the webcomics scene. Hoping to jump back in more after the last page is drawn in a couple of years.