Hal Johnson's Blog, page 17

Truly Wordless Comic Panels

[Upcoming appearances: Sept. 19, 5–9 pm, Milford Night Market, Milford, CT | Sept. 21, 11:30 am, Westport Story Fest, Westport CT.]

Books! Books!

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Kirby/Ayers!

A garland of quotations LXXXIV

Get my books from a library, maybe?

Whenever they wish to curse their children they say to them: “Be accursed like a Frank, who puts on armor for fear of death!” In battle they carry nothing but swords and spears.
•Jean de Joinville on the Bedouins, The Life of Saint Louis (1309.)

To run away is held to be so shameful that they often will not even escape if a house collapses and falls on them, nor if the house is on fire and they are caught by flames. Many of them stand firm as the sea washes over ...

Truly Wordless Comic Panels

Books you will enjoy (by me)

(I’ll be at the Westport Story Fest (“Connecticut’s largest annual literary festival”) this year, so, like, come say hello. Reading and signing, Saturday, 9/20 @ 11:30 at the Westport Library.)

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Barks (o.c.)!

A garland of quotations LXXXIII

My children need…er…not wine

From boist’rous Wine I fled to gentle Tea,
For, Calms compose us after Storms at Sea.
•Peter Motteux, A Poem in Praise of Tea (1712).

The ladies will be especially interested to know that it exercises absolutely no bad effects upon the complexion.
•Wiliam Mill Butler, Yerba Maté Tea: The History of Its Early Discovery in Paraguay, Its Preparation in That Country and in Brazil, and Its Introduction into the United States (1900)

The inhabitants of Hampstead have silk hats
On ...

Truly Wordless Comic Panels

I write, for a living, books

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George Perez!

A garland of quotations LXXXII

My children need wine!

Dog, dog! Restrain yourself, my shameless spirit!…Much knowledge is a sore ill for anyone who cannot control his tongue; he is like a child with a knife.
•Callimachus, fragment (C3 BC)

To write all things in a book is to leave a sword in the hands of a child.
•Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis (ca. 200).

A bayonet piercing a human heart makes me tremble. However, this bayonet is guiltless, and only a child would wish to break it.
•Joseph Fouché, on the destruction of Lyon (1794)...

Truly Wordless Comic Panels

I write, for a living, books

Thanks for reading Hal Johnson Books! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Floyd Gottfredson!

A garland of quotations LXXXI

My children need wine!

Why think of Angkor, or Stonehenge, of Luxor and Karnak, when I might win the secrets of the moon!
•Jack Williamson, “The Moon Era” (1932).

Of the blessings set before you make your choice, and be content. No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of the spring: no man can, at the same time, fill his cup from the source and from the mouth of the Nile.
•Samuel Johnson, The History of Rasselas Prince of Abyssinia (1759).

Eratosthenes ...

What is the first American graphic novel?

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I want to find the first American graphic novel—I say American simply because I know very little about comics of other countries; so put down your Tintins and your ACK hardbacks, and let’s see where this leads us.

Wait: What’s a graphic novel anyway?

Some years ago—I think it was 2008, and was certainly no earlier—I found myself in the audience for panel discussion with graphic novelists. Somehow the rest of the audience was composed of people who had never read a graphic novel. They ...

Truly Wordless Comic Panels

Did I mention I have a new book out?

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Artist unknown (to me).