Book links round-up: reviewing The Hobbit trailer, Atwood is a 2011 hero, and more

• The Telegraph reviews trailer for The Hobbit
• Torontoist names Margaret Atwood one of 2011’s heroes
• Jonathan Ames contemplates writing book or comic to continue his cancelled HBO comedy, Bored to Death
• Publishers lament the titles that got away in 2011
• NPR names Kate Beaton’s Hark! A Vagrant one of the top comics of 2011.

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Book links round-up: U of A’s new comics collection, Quentin Rowan on “literary kleptomania,” and more

• University of Alberta acquires 3,700-piece comic book collection
• Quentin Rowan (who writes as Q.R. Markham), accused of plagiarizing his debut spy novel, explains his “literary kleptomania”
• P.E.I. public library to give a free picture book to every Grade 1 student in the province
• U.S. National Book Awards go to “stories of resilience”

Do literary critics have what it takes to review comics?

We’ve given a fair bit of space in Q&Q to conversations about literary criticism, but we’ve heard relatively little about what it means to be a critic of comics. Considering how significant graphic novels have become in Canadian literature and publishing, perhaps it’s time to address the question.

Where better to start the conversation than the comics scene itself. Michael May, writer of Kill All Monsters! Webcomic, sparked an interesting conversation about comics criticism over on the Robot 6 blog at Comic Book Resources. In his first post in a series dedicated to sketching out some basic guidelines for engaging in comics criticism, May suggests all comics are not created equally and encourages critics to take their cues from “authorial intent”:

By “author” I don’t mean just the writer, but everyone involved in the creative process. In comics that might only be one person or it could be a huge team. The point is that the people who make the comics have something that they’re trying to accomplish and good criticism of the book should take that into account. It’s not fair for me to open Dan Clowes’ Death Ray expecting it to be like Fantastic Four…. [T]o judge [a work] correctly, critics need to focus on what it is they think that [the authors] are trying to accomplish and whether or not it succeeds on that level.

In his second post, May tackles the issue of amateur criticism versus professional criticism, and suggests a critics’ credentials matter only insofar as they help a reader get what she needs out of the review, whether it be reading recommendations, a deeper understanding of the craft, or both.

The latest post by May offers tips to readers for evaluating a review based again on authorial intent: was the point of the review to entertain? To provide a product review? To contribute to the development of the craft? To curate a canon?

These aren’t new concepts or questions by any means, but May (unintentionally) raises another issue. Is comics criticism the same as literary criticism, and do literary critics who aren’t well-versed in the world of comics have the chops to write an informed review of a graphic novel?

Slideshow: Toronto comics artists pay homage to Tintin

Roughly 70 comics artists and illustrators will participate in an art show this month that honours French Belgian comic book creator Hergé and his intrepid reporter. Toronto Draws Tintin, a “celebration of all things Tintin and his creator Hergé,” features original artistic interpretations of the series by artists such as Chester Brown, Joe Ollmann, Marta Chudolinska, and Britt Wilson.

The show opens Wednesday with the launch party for The Adventures of Hergé by authors José-Louis Bocquet and Jean-Luc Fromental, and illustrator Stanislas Barthélémy, published by Drawn & Quarterly.

Toronto’s Beguiling Books & Art has teamed up with Steamwhistle Brewery and the French consulate in Toronto to put on the show, which doubles as a fundraiser for the Comic Legends Legal Defense Fund. All 80 pieces will go up for bid in a silent auction on Nov. 27, closing night, with proceeds going to the fund.

The launch happens Wednesday from 7 to 10 p.m. at the Steamwhistle Gallery in Toronto. In the meantime, check out a sampling of the exhibit in our slideshow or visit torontodrawstintin.com.

Seth wins Harbourfront Festival Prize

Organizers at the International Festival of Authors have named cartoonist and graphic novelist Seth the winner of the 2011 Harbourfront Festival Prize. The $10,000 prize honours an individual whose work has substantially contributed to the state of literature and books.

According to a press release issued by the Harbourfront Centre, the jury — John van Driel, vice-president of programming and operations at Classical 96.3FM; Denise Donlon, former executive director at CBC Radio; and Geoffrey Taylor, director at IFOA — selected Seth based on the “diversity and range of his illustrations and designs” throughout his career.

In the statement, Seth says a few decades ago he couldn’t have envisioned the acceptance of comics in the literary world, that “the idea of winning something like this was not within the realm of possibilities,” and so “it goes without saying that I am deeply honoured.” Past winners of the prize include Dionne Brand, Wayson Choy, Paul Quarrington, Jane Urquhart, and recent Q&Q cover profile Guy Vanderhaeghe.

Seth will receive the prize at an IFOA event in Toronto on Oct. 29.

Comic Legends Legal Defense Fund reforms to help U.S. man charged with child pornography

Here’s some friendly advice for Canadians returning from the U.S. after the July 4th festivities: be careful what reading material you bring back across the border.

Last year, a U.S. man was charged with possession and importation of child pornography after customs officials discovered explicit manga images on his laptop. Charles Brownstein, executive director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, told the website Comic Book Resources:

My understanding with regard to the material at issue is that it includes fantasy comics drawn in a variety of manga styles. One of the items is believed to be a doujinshi, or fan-made comic, of the mainstream manga series Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. Another is believed to be a comic in the original Japanese, depicting stick figure-like [characters] in various sexual positions. In all cases, the authorities are targeting expressive art and not any photographic evidence of a crime.

As the case moves closer to court (no date is scheduled yet), last week the CBLDF announced it is forming a coalition to financially and legally assist the man, who faces up to a year in prison and the addition of his name to Canada’s sex offender registry. The like-minded Canadian organization, The Comic Legends Legal Defense Fund, is also reforming to help raise his estimated $150,000 in legal fees. Largely dormant since the 1990s, the ad hoc fund was established in 1987 to help the owners of Calgary comic shop Comic Legends, who were charged with distributing obscene materials.

Though serious obscenity cases are increasingly rare, back in early May, Q&Q reported on a Canada Customs seizure of comics heading to the Toronto Comic Arts Festival. On May 6, TCAF participants Tom Neely and Dylan Williams were stopped at the Buffalo, N.Y., border, and had copies of Blaise Larmee’s graphic novel Young Lions and black-humour anthology BLACK EYE 1: Graphic Transmissions to Cause Ocular Hypertension confiscated by customs officers.

Book links round-up: Bloomsday celebrations, Asterix headaches, and more

• Celebrate Bloomsday in eight different ways
• Asterix books contain over 700 traumatic brain injury victims
• T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land beats out Marvel comics and the Bible as the week’s top-grossing iPad app
• Worldwide launch of Michael Ondaatje’s The Cat’s Table scheduled for the Edinburgh International Book Festival
• Veteran news anchor Lloyd Robertson to pen memoir for HarperCollins Canada

Book links round-up: Slave Lake book auction, fiction for men, and more

• Today’s Slave Lake daily book auction features a signed copy of Angie Abdou’s The Bone Cage
• Plan your summer reading with Joyland’s list of 250 books by women all men should read
• U.K. plans its largest-ever poetry festival around the 2012 Olympics
• Comics artist David Collier pays tribute to Al Purdy
• While music fans mourn the death of Gil Scott-Heron, don’t forget he was a poet and novelist, too

Awards presented to Shapcott, Walcott, and book apps

There’s been a flurry of book award activity over the past few days (take that, Academy Awards). The awards in this roundup range from the time-honoured and prestigious to the trendy and cutting edge.

Costa Book of the Year Award
Costa Book Awards named Jo Shapcott’s poetry collection Of Mutability (Faber & Faber) its Book of the Year. The U.K. award culls its shortlist from winners across five categories: first novel, novel, biography, poetry, and children’s book. The 2010 shortlist also featured Witness the Night, a first novel by Kishwar Desai; The Hand That First Held Mine, a novel by Maggie O’Farrel; The Hare with Amber Eyes, a memoir by Edmund de Waal; and Out of Shadows, a children’s book by first-time author Jason Wallace. Shapcott receives £25,000; the winner in each category receives £5,000.

T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry
Also based out of the U.K., the Poetry Book Society awarded the T.S. Eliot Prize to Derek Walcott for White Egrets (Faber & Faber). Walcott, 81, is a Nobel laureate and currently serves as distinguished scholar in residence at the University of Alberta.

The £15,000 prize is given annually to the author of the best new poetry collection published in the U.K. or Ireland. Anne Stevenson, chair of the judging panel, described Walcott’s collection as a “moving, risk-taking and technically flawless book by a great poet.” Also included on the shortlist were Sam Willetts, Seamus Heaney, and Pascal Petit.

Publishing Innovation Awards
Digital Book World opened last night in New York City by handing out the first-ever Publishing Innovation Awards for e-books and apps. The winners are selected based on “their merits in the areas of origination, development, production, design, and marketing.”

The inaugural winners are:

Fiction:  DRACULA: The Official Stoker Family Edition (PadWorx Digital Media)
Non-fiction: Logos Bible Software (Logos Bible Software)
Children’s:  A Story Before Bed (Jackson Fish Market)
Reference:  Star Walk for iPad (Vito Technology)
Comics: Robot 13 (Robot Comics)

Daily book biz round-up: Franzen’s book launch; free comics; and more

Today’s book news:

• The New York Times on Franzen’s swanky book launch
• Kobo launches Kobo Desktop
• Knopf Canada “New Face of Fiction” author Mathew Hooton makes Not the Booker shortlist
• Read Golden Age comics for free online!
• World’s most expensive book goes back on sale