I'm tired, just for something different.

[lizbee]

I just completed a seemingly-endless shift at work, then missed a connecting tram and had to take a taxi home. 

I encountered a woman in History, reading Coraline and being Disapproving.  "This is obscene," she told me.  "I've never read a graphic novel before.  Not really proper novels, are they?"

She was, I add, about my age.

Later I overheard an American student browsing magazines.  "This is so cute," she was saying to her friend, "they've got, like, Australian magazines and stuff."

Hey, I lolled.

Comments

[amaresu]

How dare you Australians have your own magazines. You must only read stuff imported from America, or possibly Britain.

[baggers.livejournal.com]

On the flip side, I have a new American flatmate who, with her friend, was shocked and amazed that we listen to their music and watch their tv. But apparently our fashion is way more awesome, at which point I realised these are not my kind of Americans and was very sad.

[fyrdrakken]

It's that whole American solipsism thing, where we import almost nothing (and do remakes of foreign properties more often than showing the originals, to strip away any foreign tastes and make it all blandly American) and tend to assume that countries around the world do the same thing of mostly just watching their own stuff.

[iko.livejournal.com]

Not really proper novels, are they?

Ugh. Whenever I hear that, it gets my hackles up and it makes me want to shove a copy of Maus at them.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Agreed. That or a couple of volumes of the Sandman series. Or the graphic-novel adaptation of Dante's "Inferno", because I defy anyone to call *that* a comic-book.

[zeldaophelia.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Some people get so caught up with the fact the story is told with pictures that they miss the actual content and story. Argh.

Also, I read this comment and went 'there's a graphic novel adaptation of Dante's "Inferno"!' and ran to Amazon to find it. But Amazon doesn't believe me that it exists! If you know the author of the adaptation it would be wonderous.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Ack. Maybe I got it confused with the animated movie adaptation. (Which is also good. Hell is Los Angeles.)

[prof-pangaea.livejournal.com]

< ahref="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Panter">gary panter is the author of the critically acclaimed graphic novels jimbo in purgatory and jimbo's inferno. i saw a bunch of the original art for jimbo in purgatory when it was travelling with the "masters of american comics" show and it's pretty amazing.



here are a few full pages:

http://www.rackham.dk/anmeldelse/billeder/jimbo/jimbo_15.gif

http://www.rackham.dk/anmeldelse/billeder/jimbo/jimbo_07.gif

http://www.rackham.dk/anmeldelse/billeder/jimbo/jimbo_26.gif

[zeldaophelia.livejournal.com]

Thank you! These are great!

[philippos42.livejournal.com]

To be fair, a lot of "graphic novels" are really novellas at best.

[iko.livejournal.com]

That is true, however I don't believe that was the spirit of the original commentary. I believe that the statements were meant to indicate that graphic novels are less worthwhile works than simply the printed word.

[zeldaophelia.livejournal.com]

You know, I read the second part and LOLed until I remembered that I had a similar reaction when I visited Australia - though it was more "look at all these cool Australian magazines and books/authors we don't have back home". Regardless, there's still facepalming.

And, graphic novels as Not Real Books? I hate that attitude. Someone needs to broaden her horizons.

[peacockharpy.livejournal.com]

. . . Coraline is a graphic novel? Coraline is obscene? Graphic novels aren't proper novels?

Retail: the clueless are never far away.

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

Oh, it was the Coraline graphic novel. Which is creepy, but less scary than the original novel, imho.

[iko.livejournal.com]

I adore the Coraline graphic novel adaptation done by P. Craig Russell. Then again, I love almost everything that I've seen him do. His adaptation of Neil's "Murder Mysteries" is genius!

Also... P. Craig Russell has been doing a series of essays online using his comics as examples. They are fascinating.

Parallel Narrative
Murder Mysteries 1 (http://blip.tv/file/1677961)
Murder Mysteries 2 (http://blip.tv/file/1700281)
Murder Mysteries 3 (http://blip.tv/file/1725266)
Murder Mysteries 4 (http://blip.tv/file/1740545)

[oligomer.livejournal.com]

I buy the Australian Vogue plus the US!
My trashy lit of choice.
Tres bien!

(It's sad how little of Australia the US gets in pop culture coverage. Especially since half of our singers are Australian!)

[infiniteviking]

...

Did I ever tell you how awesome your retail stories are?

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Later I overheard an American student browsing magazines. "This is so cute," she was saying to her friend, "they've got, like, Australian magazines and stuff."

....

We're not all complete idiots, I swear... really. Although they might be our biggest export... >_>

> _ <

[philippos42.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you have your own little country down there & everything, it's amazing!