Neil Gaiman has announced his new project… Wayward Manor. It’s a game. Gaiman says that the story for Wayward Manor didn’t begin as a game, but it became a whole lot more.
Working with The Odd Gentlemen, Gaiman details the launch of the game and appeals to fans to get behind the game and delve into the Wayward Manor website to find hidden gems and marvels. Want to know more? Of course you do!
Jo Bowers and Dr Susan Davis, senior lecturers in primary education at Cardiff Metropolitan University, took to The Guardian to explain and examine their research into bibliotherapy and the benefits of having teachers as reading role models.
As lecturers in initial teacher training on a PGCE primary programme, we believe that this habit should be developed as an integral part of teacher training. Teachers who read themselves and share their love of books in the primary classroom can, in turn, encourage children to read more.
Creating a culture of reading should be on all school’ list of priorities and to do this, teachers should have access to new and varied children’s literature. Sitting down with a good book is a pleasure, with gains to be made in all aspects of literacy alongside teacher and pupil wellbeing.
Over at Bleeding Cool Hannah Means-Shannon has a great write up about DC’s “My Secret Origins” panel at this years San Diego Comic Con. Forget merging superhero logos or gods of mishief forcing a thousand fans to their knees… this sounds like it was one not to be missed. Bob Wayn, Jim Lee,Greg Capullo, Jimmy Palmiotti, Gail Simone, Scott Snyder, Amanda Conner, and Bernard Chang all detailing how they ended up writing comics… and why.
Every panellist seemed to feel the unlikeliness of their opportunities as they explained the details of their entry into pro work.
Jim Lee’s story had the added twist of facing a lot of prejudice against comics from friends and family and feeling like he had to keep his interests a secret for a long time. He kept his comics in the closet, literally, and was pushed to be a doctor by his first-generation Korean American family.
EW talk to Andrew Farago (Cartoon Art Museum) about the upcoming Peasnuts 3D CGI feature adaptation of one of the most loved cartoon strips:
It’s hard to imagine any comic strip taking hold today the way that Peanuts has for several generations. Any 8- or 80-year-old knows what a security blanket is, or who Peppermint Patty’s best friend is, or “Good Grief!” and “Curse you, Red Baron!” Charles Schulz was beloved by millions — and that’s a conservative number — worldwide, and everyone knows Charlie Brown and Snoopy. If Schulz had been more comfortable in the public eye, he could have been another Walt Disney in terms of universal celebrity. But he was always about the work, and letting his characters speak for him, and I get the impression that’s exactly how he wanted it.
No matter how the movie does at the box office, we’ll always have the Peanuts comic strip. Fantagraphics Books has been reprinting the strip in its entirety dating back to the first one in 1950, and as long as the movie reminds people about the comic strip and the man behind it, I’ll be happy. There’s a great early Peanuts strip where Charlie Brown and Patty find her parents’ record collection and are amused by an album featuring the song Old Rockin’ Chair’s Got Me. They sit and listen to the song, and Charlie Brown asks in the final panel, “What in the world is a ‘rocking chair’?” as they’re surrounded by the latest new-fangled 1950s furniture. That humor gave way to jokes about hula hoops, transistor radios, and countless other fads over the next five decades, but the characters and their personalities, those stories are timeless.
Techhive have a great insight into one of the new tech drives for comic book publishers - playing with animated graphics, new transitions, colour shifts and alternative angles.
These are books, not animation and we want to push the envelope for books, not compete with Pixar. We’re at a point where we’re evolving a new medium, a grammar for the new medium. This first year is an adventure in R&D - Liam Sharp, Madefire