[UA] Re: Books of Magic

[Robin Pfeifer]

> Of course, there are those people
> who use the word graphic novel to avoid having to admit that he reads comic
> books.  Transmetropolitan sells fairly well as comic series goes, but the
> collected trades sell astronomically more.  It's believed in the DC offices
> that there's a market out there who either can't wait month by month, or
> wouldn't be caught dead in a comic books store (trades are sold in book
> store chains).

While I like comics very much (and in Germany American trade paperbacks are sold in comic shops) I prefer trade paperbacks as well. Why should I buy a series of flimsy mags with a load of advertisements when I can have the same thing without ads and in a nice binding - usually with an interesting foreword, and in some cases extra panels and other goodies? And the paper's often better, too.

> Bah.  It's got panels, it's got cheap paper, it's got a staple down the
> middle, it's a comic book.
> These are the same people who 'engage in collaborative storytelling
> efforts' so they don't have to say they play role-playing games.

The last Sandman is rightly called a graphic novel IMHO (you know, that Japanese legend thing?). It's got a lot of text and added illustration. Likewise, Stardust.
Collaborative storytelling could be such a thing as Asprin's Thieves World series or the UA novel which is written on the 'net; you don't concentrate on a single character but on part of a plot.
Then there is that what Australians seem to call role-playing as well (any Australians here who can expand on that or correct me?): it looks as if the complete story is known to everyone beforehand and the focus lies on the inner world of the characters.

> You know, I'm a hardcore Neil Gaiman fan (except for his novels. As I'm 
> reading them, I keep thinking, "Damn, this would make a great comic book.") 
> and all but I really didn't care for the Books of Magic. Maybe it's his 
> fascination with faeries. I found the series not by him much better.

Hmmmm... Neverwhere rules (though not the US version - the British version is considerably longer and funnier). But the TV series was great as well, and as I knew it before I read the book it still is the orignial format for me. But there are things that can be done best in comics just as there are things that can be done best in film or a novel or short story (or a role-playing game for that matter). Gaiman is great in all media except RPGs (yet).

"bande dessinnee" - what's that? French for hardcover? The term is certainly not used here in Germany.

> It's called "The Disappearance" (well, it's a direct translation from the
> french title, but The Void sounds really good), by Geroges Perec. And I think
> we use the letter "e" in french even more than in english.
> 
> It's certainly a nightmare to translate. I don't even know how they did.

Well, there are a lot of 'e's in English. Just count them in that last sentence. And a novel without 'the', 'he', 'she'...
I wrote a short story of 10 pages or so without 'the' and that was difficult to pull off without the reader noticing already.

I have been told by a British university teacher that you don't notice anything awkward about the book when reading it.

Robin



______________________________________________________________________________
Die Fachpresse ist sich einig: WEB.DE 15mal Testsieger! Kostenlos E-Mail, 
Fax, SMS, Verschlusselung, POP3, WAP....testen Sie uns! http://freemail.web.de


_______________________________________________
UA mailing list
UA at lists.uchicago.edu
http://lists.uchicago.edu/mailman/listinfo/ua