Hal Johnson's Blog, page 19

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).

A garland of quotations LXXX

(Perhaps this is cheating, but I thought, to celebrate last week’s release of my latest and potentially last book, I would weave a garland of quotations plucked from that very volume (which is, let me make clear, not exclusively made up of quotations, but also not, you know, devoid of quotation). The book is funny and weird and full of myths and legends and technically for kids but I don’t know how they let me put some of this stuff in. Anyway, thus we see art degraded by commerce, and next week...

Truly Wordless Comic Panels

Come see me tomorrow at B&N!

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Chua/García-López!