Bart King's Blog, page 116
January 31, 2014
Terry Border on the Fantastic Four
Using wire, artist
Terry Border
has fun with old books—and here, he turns a FF paperback into Mr. Fantastic!
January 30, 2014
It's been TEN years?
Way, way back in 2004,
The Big Book of Boy Stuff
came out. And it's been going strong ever since!
Right now, I'm updating a new, revised edition of Boy Stuff for its anniversary. And as I look over its most recent reader reviews, I'm grateful for all the kind words its gotten over the years.
Thank you, readers!
Right now, I'm updating a new, revised edition of Boy Stuff for its anniversary. And as I look over its most recent reader reviews, I'm grateful for all the kind words its gotten over the years.
Thank you, readers!
January 29, 2014
I guess by book #194, the Hardy Boys were running out of ideas!
The House with Quite a Few Windows via.
January 28, 2014
The student who did this writing assignment says:
"I lost two points for actually answering in Filipino." What a rip-off!imagine that you are a filipino living during the time of the u.s. annexation of the Philippine islands. write a journal entry in which you describe your feelings about american control of the islands.
Mea Culpas!
As soon as a book goes to the printer, authors cross a point of no return. If you forgot something or made a mistake, you’re going to have to live with it, at least until the second printing of the book comes out.So now that The Big Book of Superheroes is irrevocably at the printer, I’ve had not one, but TWO chilling realizations. Dang it!
I should start by mentioning that in the world of kids’ books, mine are a little unusual in that I always insist on there being a bibliography listing my sources.
It’s important that readers know I’m not “making up” my facts, and it’s also vital to give credit where it's due. I’m also diligent on crediting ideas and quotes inside the text of the book itself, either with an internal citation or footnotes.
So, what gives? Well, despite the acknowledgements page and the five-page bibliography in The Big Book of Superheroes, I’m now seeing two omissions that are totally my fault:
1. Brody vanderSommen is the dude who designed my website back in 2000. Through his foresightedness, we’ve been able to update this over the years with no essential changes. Sure, he writes code like it’s 1999, but it works!
Brody is also notable for being second-place in my Fantasy Basketball League, nipping at the heels of the current champ—ME.
So is Brody thanked in The Big Book of Superheroes? Nope. (Not in this printing, anyway!)2. For years, I’ve had xkcd perched on my RSS feed. Why? It’s the smartest comic around! And I like comics … like this one from Superheroes:
It pains me to share the following: the other day, I broke out in a cold sweat the other day when a guy ran past me wearing those weird “toe shoes”. Because I’d suddenly remembered where the idea for one of my book’s illustrations originated!
It was xkcd. Here’s one of the 150-ish illustrations from The Big Book of Superheroes, from the chapter on obtaining superpowers
Now here's an older xkcd comic:
Gah! A thousand of my profound apologies. I’m not sure when xkcd that ran online, but I’m nearly certain I saw it. So while I thought I was being clever as I wrote MY directions to the illustrator (who is blameless), I was merely subconsciously regurgitating someone else’s awesomeness.
(“Subconscious regurgitation.” Don’t you hate it when that happens?)
Of course, credit will be given in the next printing—either with a “Inspired by http://xkcd.com!” or a new illustration. But for the moment, I hope this suffices.
Yes, one could argue that while there’s a similarity in concept between these two illustrations, the actual execution varies. And of course, there are endless examples in the comics medium of borrowed ideas seeing new light dressed up in different superhero costumes. But even so:
Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa! (That's Latin for "My bad!")
