GRAPHIC NOVELS AROUND the WORLD the Accidental Graphic
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Publishers, booksellers, Board on Books for Young People Young for Books on Board International the IBBY, of Journal The is distributed in 70 countries VOL. 49, NO.4 OCTOBER 2011 GRAPHIC NOVELS AROUND THE WORLD The accidental graphic novelist The artist as narrator: Shaun Tan’s wondrous worlds Not all that’s modern is post: •Shaun Tan’s grand narrative Striving to survive: Comic• strips in Iran The graphic novel in India: East transforms• west Educational graphic novels: Korean• children’s favorite now Raymond Briggs: Controversially• blurring boundaries Dave McKean’s art: Transcending• limitations of the graphic novel genre Picture books• as graphic novels and vice versa: The Australian experience Robot• Dreams and the language of sound effects • The Journal of IBBY, the International Board on Books for Young People Copyright © 2011 by Bookbird, Inc. Reproduction of articles in Bookbird requires permission in writing from the editor. 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E-mail _______________________________________________ check one: ___Visa ___MasterCard ___AMEX ___DISCOVER IBBY may be contacted at Nonnenweg 12 Postfach, CH-4003 Basel, Switzerland, tel: +4161 272 29 17 fax: +4161 272 27 57 email: [email protected] <www.ibby.org>. Card No. _____________________________________________ Bookbird is indexed in Library Literature, Library and Information Abstracts (LISA), Children’s Book Review Index, and the Expiration Date _______________________________________ MLA International Bibliography. Card holder’s name ____________________________________ Cover image: The cover illustration, “Warm Regards from our Tuesday Afternoon Reading Group!” is from Tales from Signature ____________________________________________ Outer Suburbia written and illustrated by Shaun Tan, published in the United States by Scholastic, 2009 and used with permission. L C , AL HILDREN ARE OUR CHILDREN AID S THE VOICE IN A KINDLY TONE Editorial | ii ALL OURS! THE L, DIFFERENT ONES AS WEL OF DIFFERENT F ES, ATES AND FAITHS AND RAC The accidental graphic novelist Shaun Tan | 1 The artist as narrator: Shaun Tan’s wondrous worlds Linnet Hunter | 10 Not all that's modern is post: Shaun Tan's grand narrative Lien Devos | 17 L THE WHITE AND BLACK, L AL ALL THE HUNGRY AND IL ARE JUST LIKE ANY ONE AMONG US Striving to survive: Comic strips in Iran Sahar Tarhandeh | 24 The graphic novel in India: East transforms West Dipavali Debroy | 32 Educational graphic novels: Korean children’s favorite now Yeo-Joo Lim | 40 , TOGETHER IN THIS WORLD WE LIVE IN THIS GREAT VILLAGE SHARED Raymond Briggs: Controversially blurring boundaries Janet Evans | 49 Dave McKean’s art: Transcending limitations of the graphic novel genre Petros Panaou & Frixos Michaelides | 62 Picture books as graphic novels and vice versa: The Australian experience John Foster | 68 Robot Dreams and the language of sound effects Colleen AF Venable | 76 EACH IS SIMILAR TO YOU AND ME, EACH IS THE SUN AND EACH THE DAWN. Books on Books | 80 Focus IBBY | 85 Poem | 96 The quoted lines for each section of the table of contents are excerpted from the poem, “Vsi Naši Otroci”—“All Our Children,” by Tone Pavček, from his book, Majhnice in majnice, Pesmi mnogih let za mnoge bralce = Budding Songs, Maying Songs, poem translated by Alan McConnell-Duff, illustrated by Damijan Stepančič, published by Miš, Dob pri Domžalah, Slovenia, copyright 2009, p. 221, used with permission. editoral Editorial Bookbird editors Dear Bookbird Readers, elcome to this special full-color issue of Bookbird CATHERINE KURKJIAN is a featuring the topic of graphic novels around the world. professor in the Department of Reading We are so pleased to offer this issue, in particular, in full and Language Arts at Central Connecticut State University (USA) where she teaches color since the art of graphic novels is highly visual, complex, and courses in Reading and Language Arts W often multi-layered. We begin with a fascinating trio of articles by and Children’s Literature. Her areas of specialization include children’s literature and about author, artist, and filmmaker Shaun Tan, an innovator and the intersection of literacy and in this field, followed by three insightful pieces about the history, technology. nature, and power of graphic novels in three different countries: Iran, India, and Korea. The blurring lines between graphic novels and other literary forms are examined in the final four articles, with a focus on the work of Raymond Briggs and Dave McKean, and a look at the evolving picture book in Australia and the translation of “sound” in one book, Robot Dreams. Taken together, we hope this issue offers a snapshot of how this crossover genre can bridge barriers of literacy, culture, and genre. SYLVIA VARDELL is a professor at Texas Woman’s University (USA) where she teaches graduate courses The work of Shaun Tan in children’s literature. She is the author of CHILDREN’S LITERATURE IN First, we feature the work of Shaun Tan, the recipient of the recent ACTION: A LIBRARIAN’S GUIDE and the 2011 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award as well as an Oscar for his PoetryForChildren blog. film work. In “The accidental graphic novelist” he writes about his 2 | bookbird © 2011 by Bookbird, Inc. editorIAL “accidental” foray into creating graphic novels surge of interest in this format, called manhwa. and addresses this continuum of “comics” and We learn about its popularity, its characteristics, “graphic novels” in interesting ways noting, “This and its history as a type of graphic novel from a question