Demon Dentist breaks fastest selling kids books record (for the year)
According to The Bookseller David Walliams’ Demon Dentist is the fastest-selling children’s book of the year!
29,002 copies moved in the UK last week!
THAT’S HUGE!
Chris Ware Interview: Bleeding Cool
Ramon Vitral recently interviewed Chris Ware for the Brazilian magazine Galileu. Bleeding Cool have the exclusive original English version that you NEED to read.
In Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud says an accurate definition for comics would be “juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence”. You haven’t deliberated the sequences in Building Stories. Is it possible to say that your work raises doubts about McCloud’s definition? Or that Building Stories goes beyond the usual understanding of comics?
I went to art school so I suppose there’s always some voice in the back of my head prodding me to push beyond or to try and get at something that’s never been done before, but I don’t do so only for the sake of doing it; I do it to try and get at the real textures and structures of reality and memory as I’ve come to know them. I think the potential for comics to capture the ebb and flow of consciousness in both its linguistic and visual complexity is still pretty much untapped, especially since I think comics are by definition an art of memory, and I try with most of what I do to try to expand that a little bit, hopefully without alienating the reader in the process. (The utility of such an exercise is, of course, open to question.)
I genuinely want to make something interesting, compelling and respectful of the reader; there are so many other easily-swallowed media out there that I think we cartoonists have to try ever harder to compete, for lack of a more sporty word. It’s a sort of challenging though ultimately healthy situation, I think.
The one where John Green goes on the TFIOS set
John Green snuck onto the set of The Fault In Out Stars to catch up with the cast and crew - including Shailene Woodley, Laura Dern and Williem Dafoe.
Admit it. You’re already squeeing.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Film | Written by JK Rowling
BIG news for any/all fans of Harry Potter… that JK Rowling is to write a new film series based inside the world of wizarding and muggles.
The first, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, will be based around Newt Scamander, the writer of a textbook used by Harry Potter at Hogwarts school.
I thought it was a fun idea, but the idea of seeing Newt Scamander, the supposed author of Fantastic Beasts, realised by another writer was difficult. Having lived for so long in my fictional universe, I feel very protective of it and I already knew a lot about Newt. As hard-core Harry Potter fans will know, I liked him so much that I even married his grandson, Rolf, to one of my favourite characters from the Harry Potter series, Luna Lovegood. As I considered Warners’ proposal, an idea took shape that I couldn’t dislodge. That is how I ended up pitching my own idea for a film to Warner Bros. Although it will be set in the worldwide community of witches and wizards where I was so happy for 17 years, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is neither a prequel nor a sequel to the Harry Potter series, but an extension of the wizarding world. The laws and customs of the hidden magical society will be familiar to anyone who has read the Harry Potter books or seen the films, but Newt’s story will start in New York, 70 years before Harry’s gets underway.
I always said that I would only revisit the wizarding world if I had an idea that I was really excited about and this is it.
You can all start smiling now.
The Seussing Dead: Dr. Seuss and the Walking Dead Mash-up
While waiting for the new season of the Walking Dead… some serious fans got down to writing a mashup reminder of Season 3, with a Seuss twist!
Mo Willems visits Dublin
YOU! Yes you, standing at the back there, reading that book about hotdogs. STOP.
Good. Now pay attention. Children’s Books Ireland, the National Library and Walker Books are hosting an incredible one-off special event in Dublin… with none other than writer, picturebook maker, animator, doodler, TV person and all-round ledge bag Mr Mo Willems.
Please read this next part while flapping your arms like a pigeon: MO WILLEMS IS COMING TO DUBLIN!?!?!
The guys have an event for adults - oh yes, us - to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! 0n Friday 25 October. Tickets are limited, free and MUST be booked. Email [email protected] if you want to get your hands on some!