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Narratives, Graphic
Graphic Narratives
Aimed primarily at adults, graphic narratives present fiction and nonfiction featuring complex plots and serious themes in a comic-book format. One of the first adaptations of literature to a graphic narrative format occurred in 1941 when Albert Kanter launched the Classics Comics series, later renamed Classics Illustrated. With graphic versions of such diverse classics as Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe (1820), Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), William Shakespeare's Hamlet (1600–01), Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment (1866), and Homer's The Iliad, the series flourished in the United States from 1941 through 1971—when the publisher stopped reprinting old titles. In 1990 Berkley, First Publishing, and Classics Media Group revived Classics Illustrated; other publishers and writers have produced similar types of works. Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli, for instance, adapted Paul Auster's City of Glass (1985), and Robert Crumb and David Zane Mairowitz have collaborated on graphic versions of numerous works by Franz Kafka. Proponents of graphic narrative adaptations argue that such material will promote cultural literacy by introducing adolescents to works they might not otherwise read. Detractors contend that graphic versions oversimplify the original's content and discourage people from reading.
Writers and illustrators have also developed original fiction and nonfiction works in the graphic narrative format. Distinct from traditional comic books in their subject matter and level of thematic complexity, graphic novels—which appear as serials, collections, or in single volumes—usually feature numerous, highly-developed characters interacting in a complex plot within a naturalistic setting. For instance, the series Love and Rockets, drawn and written by Gilbert Hernandez and Jaime Hernandez, emphasizes rural Central Americans dealing with conflicts between capitalist and communist forces. The series also deals with the personal trials of Hispanic Americans living in barrios. Other works in the genre, such as Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons's Watchmen (1987), feature superheroes but depict them in a realistic setting and treat them in a sophisticated, revisionist manner. As Russell Schechter has argued, Watchmen "through its reflexive, comic-within-a-comic structure,… deconstructs—verbally and visually—50 years of comic book conventions." Nonfiction graphic narratives include Larry Gonick's The Cartoon History of the Universe (1990) and The Cartoon History of the Universe II (1994), which treat world history from the Big Bang through the decline of the Roman Empire; Joyce Brabner and Tom Yeates's Flashpoint (1989), a journalistic account of the Central Intelligence Agency's attempt to assassinate Eden Pastora, a Nicaraguan contra; Harvey Pekar, Joyce Brabner, and Frank Stack's Our Cancer Year (1994), a memoir of Pekar's struggle with cancer; and Joe Sacco's Palestine (1994), an account of his visit to the West Bank in the early 1990s. Commenting on Maus: A Survivor's Tale II (1991), Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic narrative about the Holocaust, James Colbert wrote: "It is, indeed, unusual to think of authentic novels as having pictures. The notion is so new that, although comics are an indigenous, truly American art form, we haven't even figured out what to call such works. Comic book seems diminutive, even pejorative. A graphic novel seems like something Madonna would write. But lest we forget, the other definition of novel is 'new and not resembling something formerly known or used; original or striking, especially in conception or style.'"
Representative Works Discussed Below
Acocella, Marisa
Just Who the Hell Is SHE, Anyway? (novel) 1994
Bergin, John
Bone Saw [editor, with James O'Barr] (anthology) 1993
From Inside (novel) 1994
Brabner, Joyce, and Yeates, Tom
Flashpoint: The La Penca Bombing (nonfiction) 1989; published in Brought to Light
Chaykin, Howard
Time2 (novel) 1986
The Shadow: Blood and Judgment (novel) 1987
Time2: The Satisfaction of Black Mariah (novel) 1987
Crumb, Robert, and Mairowitz, David Zane
Kafka for Beginners [Introducing Kafka] (fiction and nonfiction) 1993
DeMatteis, J. M.
Greenberg the Vampire [with Mark Badger] (novel) 1986
Moonshadow [with Jon J. Muth, Kevin Nowlan, and Kent Williams] (novel) 1989
Gaiman, Neil
Brief Lives [with Jill Thompson and Vince Locke] (novel) 1994
Gonick, Larry
The Cartoon History of the Universe: Volumes 1-7, From the Big Bang to Alexander the Great (history) 1990
The Cartoon History of the Universe II: Volumes 8-13, From the Springtime of China to the Fall of Rome (history) 1994
Helfer, Andrew, and Baker, Kyle
Justice, Inc. (novel) 1989
Hernandez, Gilbert
Love and Rockets [with Jaime Hernandez] (series) 1984–
Heartbreak Soup (novel) 1988
Poison River (novel) 1994
Karasik, Paul, and Mazzucchelli, David
City of Glass [adaptors; from the novel by Paul Auster] (novel) 1994
Koike, Kazuo, and Kojima, Goseki
Lone Wolf & Cub (novel) 1988
Mack, Stan
Stan Mack's Real Life American Revolution (history) 1994
Messner-Loebs, William
The Journey Saga, Volume 1: Tall Tales (novel) 1987
The Journey Saga, Volume 2: Bad Weather (novel) 1991
Miller, Frank
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns [with Klaus Janson and Lynn Varley] (novel) 1986
Electra: Assassin [with Bill Sienkiewicz] (novel) 1987
Moore, Alan
Watchmen [with Dave Gibbons] (novel) 1987
Batman: The Killing Joke [with Brian Bolland] (novel) 1988
Shadowplay: The Secret Team [with Bill Sienkiewicz] (nonfiction) 1989; published in Brought to Light
V for Vendetta [with David Lloyd] (novel) 1991
Munoz, Jose, and Sampayo, Carlos
Joe's Bar (novel) 1988
Nocenti, Ann, and Bolton, John
Someplace Strange (novel) 1988
Otomo, Katsuhiro
Akira (novel) 1984
Pekar, Harvey
American Splendor (novel) 1986
Our Cancer Year [with Joyce Brabner and Frank Stack] (nonfiction) 1994
Prado, Miguelanxo
Streak of Chalk (novel) 1994
Robinson, James, and Elliot, Phil
Illegal Alien (science fiction) 1994
Sacco, Joe
Palestine (nonfiction) 1994
Sim, Dave, and Gerhard
Cerebus (novel) 1987
High Society (novel) 1987
Church and State. 2 vols. (novel) 1989
Jaka's Story (novel) 1990
Spiegelman, Art
Maus: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History (novel) 1986
Maus: A Survivor's Tale II: And Here My Troubles Began (novel) 1991
Vance, James, and Burr, Dan
Kings in Disguise (novel) 1990
Zarate, Oscar, and Sayle, Alexei
Geoffrey the Tube Train and the Fat Comedian (novel) 1987
Zelenetz, Alan, and Vess, Charles
The Raven Banner (novel) 1985
History And Overviews
Russell Schechter (essay date August 1989)
SOURCE: "Kat and Maus," in Communication Research, Vol. 16, No. 4, August, 1989, pp. 552-62.
[In the excerpt below, Schechter contends that Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons's graphic novel Watchmen and Art Spiegelman's Maus are postmodern works that validate the comic form.]
Criticism of the postmodernist enterprise as ultimately empty might well be a tendential parochialism. If one is going to live by the argument that modern works have an aura that is extant but different from that of traditional works, one must accept the possibility of a distinctive postmodern aura resulting from recombinant pastiche and possibly different from both traditional and modern forms. Watchmen, the recent postmodern comic book by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1987), provides ample evidence for the argument. Although comic books began as compilations of newspaper strips, the two forms quickly developed in their own—though closely related—directions. Watchmen, designed for a late-teen and adult readership, reflects an origin in postmodernity: Its impact depends on the reader's acceptance of the distance of the "meta" position.
The subject of this comic is the comics. It lays bare the abundant absurdities of what has been a mostly juvenile, underachieving form in an extremely sophisticated and adult manner. In part through its reflexive, comic-within-a-comic structure, Watchmen deconstructs—verbally and visually—50 years of comic book conventions, making visible what has always remained latent: the psychopathology of heroes, the fascistic trajectory of adolescent power fantasies, and rampant misogyny, among many other elements central to the form's thematics.
Watchmen explodes the fantasy world of the comics at the same time that it spins a compelling yet inescapably archetypal comic book yarn. In spite of its elegant, labyrinthine structure and delightfully detailed panel design, however, the book ultimately (and purposefully?) succumbs to many of the same themes and techniques it intends to deconstruct. One revels in Watchmen's cleverly engineered contradictions even as one is suckered into the narrative's grand operatic flow.
The problem with Watchmen is that, like Daffy Duck's famous self-immolation act, it can be done only once. Even though I am willing to be convinced that art was involved when "performance artist" Joe Coleman first went on stage to bite off the head of a mouse, by the time he chewed off his fiftieth rodent noggin it was merely embarrassing. Like so much (post-) avant-gardist work, the point is made the first time and, though perhaps worth repeating until everyone gets it, all repetitions after that become less than redundant. So, too, with Watchmen.
Although both Watchmen and [Jay Cantor's novel Krazy Kat (1987)] are energetic and innovative in their own ways, and there remains more than two thousand years of art to deconstruct and reassemble, the prospect of a long walk down a short bricolage pier is less than appealing. This is not to imply any fundamental limitations of the postmodernist agenda, nor that the job of deconstructing the past is to be taken lightly, but the seemingly endless recycling and reappropriation of cultural icons does seem to be emblematic of postmodern production—production highly rationalized in that all art becomes standardized in the process of meaning removal. If the past serves the present well, it is only because the past has been preprocessed: It is instantly recognizable at the surface, a dereferentialized surface now stripped of meaning and structure and thus aura. The routinization of authentic cultural items in postmodern production may prove every bit as savage as that enacted on traditional work by mechanically reproduced simulacra. If so, the question of whether the postmodern can be regarded as a truly autonomous epoch remains open to debate.
If there is an overwhelming bleakness to the notion of a rationalized postmodern aesthetic, there remain works that, while not necessarily revolutionary in a paradigm-breaking sense, are at least transcendent within the constraints of the dominant aesthetic. One such work that glows with an irrefutable authenticity, a beacon powerful enough to penetrate even the dense gloom of the postmodern malaise, is Maus, Art Spiegelman's (1986) masterful and moving biography of his father's experiences in Nazi Germany.
Although "Holocaust comic" is a perversely exquisite oxymoron, Maus represents not only validation of the comic form but fulfillment of the best possibilities inherent in the postmodern validation of the "baser" media. Originally appearing in the pages of Raw, an irregularly published magazine of innovative comic and graphic art, the first six chapters of the as-yet-unfinished story of Maus have been assembled in a single volume by Pantheon Books. Drawn in appropriately stark black-and-white and subtitled "A Survivor's Tale," Maus tells two stories: the frustrating present-day relationship of Spiegelman and his widowed father and the mad nightmare of his parents' survival in Auschwitz.
All of the characters in Maus, in a classic tradition of the comic form, are depicted as animals: The Jews are mice, the Nazis cats, the Poles pigs. These choices of species may be obvious, but are effective nonetheless. Every character is as real, every emotion as true, and every episode as harrowing as anything from Elie Weisel or Primo Levi or A. Anatolii.
Spiegelman has a remarkable ear not only for how people say things, but for what their words do and do not mean. The balloons his words appear in are not the overblown casings of hyperreal hyperbole, but delicate shells containing pearls of stripped-down truth. Without ever resorting to the crude phoneticisms of a Tom Wolfe, Spiegelman creates believable dialogue and convincing inflections for Polish collaborators and Borscht Belt bungalow dwellers alike. His deliberately pared-down drawing style, which renders the faces of various characters virtually identical, is sparse in detail but dense with feeling: Characters become knowable for themselves as complicated and fully developed personalities. The darkness of Spiegelman's vision reproduces the atmosphere of the time, with an impact as shattering and—perhaps most surprising—as immediate as a masterwork like the Alain Resnais film Night and Fog.
There are, no doubt, those who will ask, in the spirit of Dwight Macdonald, why such a story need be told as a comic. Given the author's remarkable talent and irrefutable authenticity, why not tell the tale in a conventional literary or biographical form? That is the wrong question, one which assumes that there is necessity and value in maintaining rigid hierarchies between high culture and low, midcult and mass. The more progressive impulses of postmodernism bring us to the comic form with a more appropriate question: Why not?
Maus refutes all objections to the comic as a complex and meaningful medium. Although some of Maus's impact may result from the novelty of experiencing such a story in so different a form, it demonstrates the possibility of countering rationalization—and not only by toying with those forces à la Watchmen. Other works that work against the rationalized grain include Stray Toasters, Bill Sienkiewicz's astonishing transgenre comic book, and Lynda Barry's weekly strip Ernie Pook's Comeek, which plays with nostalgia without succumbing to it.
Postmodernism leads us to consider that the limitations of a medium may be minor relative to the artist's breadth of vision and depth of devotion. Whether this idea surfaces—or is itself reduced to mere surface—will determine the position that postmodernism finally occupies in the judgment of history.
Keith R. A. DeCandido (essay date 15 March 1990)
SOURCE: "Picture This: Graphic Novels in Libraries," in Library Journal, Vol. 115, No. 5, March 15, 1990, pp. 50-5.
[DeCandido is a librarian and a reviewer for The Comics Journal. In the following excerpt, he presents a general description of the graphic novel genre, suggests where to acquire graphic novels, and surveys some of the available works.]
Not many libraries have discovered graphic novels yet. The American Heritage Dictionary has not discovered them yet either; it does not define the term. A graphic novel is a self-contained story that uses a combination of text and art to articulate the plot. It is equivalent in content to a long short story or a short novel (or novella, or novellini, as the old New Yorker cartoon has it) and is in some ways a larger version of a comic book. It differs from the fotonovela in that the art is generally drawn in a graphic novel; photographs are used in the fotonovela.
The comic book as we know it has its origins in the Depression era. William M. Gaines, one of the masterminds behind the EC Horror Comics of the 1950s and Mad magazine, claims that his father originated the comic book in the mid-1930s by placing Sunday funnies into a booklike format. The idea caught on, and comics were not only used to collect funnies, but were created independently. In the 1940s, patriotic superheroes and soldiers were used to propagandize the war effort; in the 1950s, superheroes gave way to romance and horror.
Like everything else, comics came under fire by McCarthy-era paranoia, and the Comics Code Authority, a glorified censorship squad, was formed to keep comics in line. (It should be noted that the code is next to useless these days—it comes from the same mindset as the movie ratings system, and is even less relevant.) The superhero was revitalized in the early 1960s with Marvel's line of quasi-realistic heroes. In the late 1960s and 1970s, the underground comix creators began publishing graphic novels that moved away from the Comics Code and clichéd superheroes. In the 1980s, The Big Two, Marvel and DC, started expanding into graphic novels. The form is more flexible in size and shape, and allows greater creative freedom. Today, graphic novels are plentiful, from all publishers, in all shapes and sizes.
Generally graphic novels are either the size of a magazine (more like the late lamented Ms. or LJ than Rolling Stone or Mirabella), and usually printed on glossy paper for crisper artwork. Others are as large as regular, newsprint comics. Some are original, self-contained stories, others are collections of serialized chapters (à la 19th-century novels by Dickens and others).
The term "graphic novel" is a misnomer; while "graphic" is certainly accurate, "novel" is not; they are shorter than a standard novel. Maybe we could call them "graphic novellinis"? Comics critics have debated the question in the pages of such magazines as The Comics Journal (CJ), Comics Buyer's Guide, Amazing Heroes, and Comics Interview, with little result. Some have tried "graphic album" (used by CBG in their annual fan poll), but that sounds too much like an LP decorated with a cartoon. Carter Scholz, in CJ once proposed "graphic installment." Finally, the critics sigh, scratch their heads, and put "graphic novel" in quotes….
One of the current problems that libraries may have in attempting to collect graphic novels is that the system of distribution is different from what libraries generally use. The librarian who selects graphic novels for the New York Public Library (Research) is forced to buy at Forbidden Planet (a N.Y. store specializing in sf, fantasy, and graphic literature). Queries to major publishers and distributors about dealings with libraries were met with confused or negative responses, though many expressed a desire (or at least a willingness) to deal with libraries. First Publishing (the largest of the non-Marvel-or-DC publishers) representatives regularly speak to librarians at the American Booksellers Association convention, however, even they have no special arrangement with libraries.
The principal reason for this is the rigidity of the distribution system of graphic literature. Publishers send books directly to distributors, who send books directly to news-stands and comic specialty shops. Of the two largest distributors, Diamond has no arrangements with any libraries, and Capital City sends material only to two or three.
Some libraries have begun to collect graphic literature, but very few have anything beyond a few titles. Boston Public Library only carries Art Spiegelman's Maus. Baltimore County Public Library only carries Batman-oriented material due to recent demand. (According to Mary Paulus of BCPL, they base their purchases on materials information cards submitted by readers, and graphic literature apparently is not requested much.)
Sam Bennett at Kansas City Public Library, Mo., says they buy a few, mainly based on reviews in Publishers Weekly, and he does look out for interesting things. The Kansas City Art Institute Library, Mo., the New Orleans Public Library, and Salem Public Library, Mass. (among others) order very little, if any; indeed, many librarians we contacted for this article needed a detailed explanation of what a graphic novel is. We were able to identify one place with a large graphic collection, the Bowling Green State University Popular Culture Library, Ohio. In fact, it was the only one polled that unhesitatingly gave a long list of titles it carried.
Bookdealers were just as disappointing. Mike Nicita of Golden-Lee said that they do carry graphic novels, but libraries don't order in any magnitude "worth mentioning in your article," a sentiment echoed by Sandy Rose of Brodart. Ingram's Larry Price could not determine if they carried graphic literature or not—it is not classified as a separate genre, and is therefore untraceable. Jean Srnecz of Baker & Taylor said much the same thing, adding that graphic novels have not "emerged as a major publishing category." B&T does carry graphic literature, but it is not publicized separately….
The traditional age group for comic book purchasers is in the upper teens (based on the respondents to CBG's annual poll). Graphic novels capture a higher age group, mid-20s, due to their generally greater sophistication. Few of the best of graphic novels come from Marvel or DC, nor do they involve superheroes overmuch. Although people in tights and capes are the backbone of the industry, they are in the minority in the literary art form.
The themes are no different from any other literature: some form of conflict, usually between "good" and "evil," or dealing with the intricacies of interpersonal relationships. That about covers every plot from Shakespeare to Danielle Steel. Graphic literature is unique in that it combines representation with words. It is not simply art conveying a story, nor just words, but the combination that sets the medium apart (this is why many of the best works are written and drawn by the same person).
If one must categorize it, it should have its own denomination, rather than being lumped in with art books, or sf/fantasy, or "pop," or (as some bookstores do for whatever arcane reason) humor. Since the form has only recently gained anything resembling mainstream acceptance, it is still feeling its way around, so one cannot blame those who don't know how to treat it….
Any library contemplating a graphic collection should definitely consider the following as musts, in order of merit. This list is by no means complete, but would make an excellent start.
Maus by Art Spiegelman is collected from the pages of RAW, an anthology comic put out by Spiegelman and his wife, Françoise Mouly. It is a biographical tale of Spiegelman's father, Vladek, detailing his trials as a Jew in Europe during World War II. Besides the sheer power of the story, Spiegelman twists the "talking animal" convention used often in comics (and also by George Orwell in Animal Farm). Jews are mice, Germans, cats, Poles, pigs, and Americans, dogs. A second volume, Mauschwitz, is being serialized in RAW. Libraries that collect Holocaust literature should consider this.
Cerebus, High Society, and Church and State (2 vols.) by Dave Sim, with Gerhard, is Sim's monthly comic, planned as a massive 300-issue story in separate installments (Sim feels 300 comic books will have enough content to qualify as a novel). Each installment has been collected into one (or two) massive volumes. The first, Cerebus, collects issues prior to Sim's decision to make this one big story, and is marred by crude stories and cruder art, but should be included for completeness. Although ostensibly the story of a walking, talking, obnoxious aardvark in a medieval land of humans, Sim does an excellent job of detailing the nuances and peculiarities of political power (High Society), religious authority (the two-volume Church and State) and personal relationships (Jaka's Story, still in progress in the monthly book). The art, with tones and background inking by Gerhard, is magnificent.
Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons got notice in the mainstream press, as it takes the superhero convention and grounds it in reality. Moore and Gibbons do not just present a world with superheroes, but this world, with the addition of a "superhero" fad around the late 1930s, early 1940s. Grown men and women acted as vigilantes in funny suits. This concept itself alters little, but when a true superman (called "Dr. Manhattan") arrives, everything changes. The balance of power shifts, the United States wins the Vietnam War, Nixon remains president for a third, fourth, and fifth term, and numerous other significant changes, all because the government has a superman working for it. ("God exists," one perceptive scientist remarks, "and he's American.") Moore and Gibbons take the superhero to its ultimate, to a level mainstream comics couldn't possibly attain. The attention to detail is superb, and by the time you finish (probably, despite its length, in one sitting), you are stunned.
Moonshadow by J.M. DeMatteis and Jon J. Muth, with Kevin Nowlan and Kent Williams could easily be subtitled "Candide in Space." Moonshadow's mother is a hippie who was plucked from the Earth in the early 1970s by the G'l Doses, an enigmatic race of beings that look like balls of light with beatific smiles, who flit about the galaxy operating on pure whim, plucking beings from all manner of worlds. One of those G'l Doses is Moon's father, and it is that father that boots Moon & Co. (his mother; his cat, Frodo; his unwilling companion, the lecherous Ira) into space. Throughout his travels—referred to by the older Moonshadow, narrating in flashback, as his search for enlightenment—he encounters all manner of beings, learns of love and hate, war and peace. DeMatteis writes with joy of life, of love, and of literature (each chapter opens with a relevant quote, from Blake to Beckett to Tolkien to Carroll). Moon's quest is in many ways the Romantic quest of so many early-19th-century poets, and Muth's watercolor art with Nowlan's calligraphic letters only augment the feeling of wonder and delight in exploration and discovery.
American Splendor by Harvey Pekar and others. Any random sampling of issues in this series would do nicely, or one could purchase the collection. Pekar does "slice-of-life" work (with a multitude of artists, including the infamous and weird R. Crumb), specifically from his own life. Pekar gives pieces of his experiences, delightful in their mundanity, comfortable in their familiarity, and made enjoyable by his remarkable skill with dialect.
Love and Rockets by Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez is available in the monthly magazines, and many collections in varying formats. These brothers work separately to different ends, but both have remarkable storytelling abilities. Gilbert's main focus is rural Central Americans living in the middle of (or perhaps in spite of) conflicting capitalist and communist forces. Jaime's characters live in urban barrios, also on the low end of the economic spectrum, and he chronicles their crazed personal crises. Gilbert has also done more abstract work recently, including "Frida" in Love and Rockets #28, a magnificent portrait of Frida Kahlo, artist and wife of artist Diego Rivera.
The Journey Saga. Vol. 1: Tall Tales by William Messner-Loebs is the first collection of the "Journey" series, the story of Josh "Wolverine" MacAllistaire, a trapper in early 1800s Michigan, a frontier rife with story possibilities. Messner-Loebs has a charmingly laid-back narrative style ("Black bears in the wild, as a rule, stood three-foot at the shoulder and measured six foot from flank to snout. They weighed close on three hundred pound … 'Course, some were bigger …"), and a mishmash of French, German, and American (both native and colonial) people, not to mention wildlife, who fall in and out of Josh's life. Josh counters his daily tumult with a simple commonsense approach that belies a terrible ferocity. Brilliant storytelling, with good attention to historical detail. Can be considered historical fiction.
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller, with Klaus Janson and Lynn Varley is a high-quality superhero comic, but still a superhero comic. There are numerous inconsistencies that Miller (and his editors Denny O'Neil and Dick Giordano) glossed over, but this is perhaps the ultimate Batman story, with superb, larger-than-life art, and is primarily responsible for the present Bat-mania of which the Batman movie is the climax.
The following titles are not musts, but worth-lookingats….
AARGH stands for Artists Against Rampant Government Homophobia, and was published as a backlash against Proposition 28. That British law effectively enables the government to censor the very concept of homosexuality from British cultural life. It contains contributions from various artists (see also StripAIDS USA).
Any Similarity to Persons Living or Dead Is Purely Coincidental by Drew and Josh Alan Friedman takes loony pokes at popular culture.
Batman: The Killing Joke by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland focuses on the relationship between Batman and the Joker far more devilishly and horrifically than the Batman movie.
Brought to Light by Alan Moore, Joyce Brabner, Tom Yeates, Bill Sienkiewicz, and Paul Mavrides was supposed to be jointly published by Eclipse and DC, but DC's parent corporation, Warner Bros., pulled out, fearing possible reprisals. This "graphic docudrama" features two stories severely critical of our government, involving the "secret wars" conducted by the CIA and National Security Council in Central America. It was done in conjunction with the Christic Institute's legal suit against the U.S. government. Moore and Sienkiewicz's story is the better of the two, but both will shatter any illusions one might have about covert activities perpetrated by the United States….
The Cowboy Wally Show by Kyle Baker is a satiric treatment of television politics.
Elektra: Assassin by Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz is an overwhelmingly surreal look at government—sort of. Very strange and very good.
The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told and The Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told present companion pieces to present Bat mania, and include some very interesting stories from the late 1930s to the early 1980s.
Greenberg the Vampire by J.M. DeMatteis and Mark Badger is the hilarious story of a neurotic, Jewish, horror-fiction-writing vampire.
Joe's Bar by Jose Munoz and Carlos Sampayo is the story of a local Manhattan bar told with surprising realism considering the two Argentine creators have never been to New York. Gritty and dark.
Justice, Inc. by Andrew Helfer and Kyle Baker takes the Avenger, the old radio hero who could alter his facial features, and uses it to critique the CIA's practice of over-throwing legitimate (and socialistic) governments and replacing them with dictatorships. Very skilled.
Lone Wolf & Cub by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima tells the story of a ronin (a samurai without a lord), formerly the shogun's executioner, who travels the road of the assassin, hoping someday to avenge his family's murder. He travels with his very young child. Very Japanese in style and narrative.
Neat Stuff by Peter C. Bagge. If you picture Roger Rabbit's eyes bulging, that's Bagge's people, only they are like that all the time. His portrayals of scuzzy characters are hysterical.
The Raven Banner by Alan Zelenetz and Charles Vess is a charming tale of Norse mythology with beautiful painted art by Vess.
The Shadow: Blood and Judgment by Howard Chaykin portrays the 1980s-ization of the radio hero. Convoluted and violent, but interesting.
Someplace Strange by Ann Nocenti and John Bolton tells the story of two kids and a punk who travel to an alternate universe. Excellent character study, and weird art.
Starstruck by Elaine Lee and Michael Wm. Kaluta is sf as a cross between William Gibson's cyberpunk books and Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Gorgeous art.
Stray Toasters by Bill Sienkiewicz. Congratulations if you can follow the plot. Abstract, surreal, peculiar, and warped.
StripAIDS USA is like AARGH, and AIDS benefit. This is primarily by American artists, reacting against misconceptions about both the disease, and those who get it.
Time2 and Time2: The Satisfaction of Black Mariah by Howard Chaykin has jazz music, gangland warfare, adultery, violence, and more convoluted plot twists than previously believed possible. Larger-than-life art in the vein of Miller's Dark Knight.
V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd is a frightening treatment of totalitarian, post-World War III Britain, and a statement on where Britain is now heading.
X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills by Chris Claremont and Brent Eric Anderson is a fascinating study in racial prejudice and the influence of tunnel-minded televangelists, especially in light of the Swaggart and Jim and Tammy imbroglios that have occurred since its publication.
Pagan Kennedy (essay date 19 March 1990)
SOURCE: "P. C. Comics," in The Nation, New York, Vol. 250, No. 11, March 19, 1990, pp. 386-89.
[In the essay below, Kennedy comments on the history of comic book publishing in the United States and discusses the distinctive qualities and appeal of several graphic novels.]
By 1969, Zap Comix had become so much a totem of the underground San Francisco scene that its editor, ninety-pound weakling Robert Crumb, was finally able to get laid. As he relates in a recent cartoon story, "I made up for all those years of deprivation by lunging maniacally at women I was attracted to … squeezing faces and humping legs…. I usually got away with it … famous eccentric artist, you know." His Zap included everything from instructions for smoking a joint to the adventures of Wonder Wart-Hog, in which the main character, unable to get it up, uses his snout instead. Underground comix, distributed through head shops along with bongs and roach clips, were ancillary to (male) hippie culture: They were kinky and they were druggy, and if they were too loud, then you were too old.
I discovered comic books that same year. I was 7 and I bought mine at Dart Drug while Dad browsed through the lawn-care aisle. Like most girls my age, my tastes ran toward Casper, the Friendly Ghost, Wendy the White Witch and Richie Rich, the Poor Little Rich Boy. Their titles were tellingly oxymoronic—in their candy-colored world, even ghosts, witches and capitalists were cute. And they, unlike the superhero stories the boys read, taught that goodness meant goody-two-shoeism: Rather than a strong left hook, girls' heroes got by on politeness, obedience and proper grooming. If Casper inadvertently scared human beings with his spooky looks, he, the spirit world's answer to Uncle Tom, would win them back with his courteousness. And Richie, that prig in the Little Lord Fauntleroy suit, always minded his millionaire dad.
Why was there such a tremendous gap between the fluff that companies like Marvel, DC Comics and Harvey Comics dished out to us kids and the acid humor of the undergrounds? One reason may have been a 1954 book by Frederic Wertham called Seduction of the Innocent. Wertham accused comic books of causing everything from juvenile delinquency to bad grammar. The book prompted a televised Senate hearing, and the subdued publishers formed the Comics Code Authority of America, which drew up guidelines that put the quirkier titles, notably those of Entertaining Comics (EC), out of business. Mad, which became enormously influential for 1960s underground cartoonists, was the only EC survivor—albeit as the tamer Mad Magazine.
Moreover, DC, Marvel and other biggies turned the creation of comic books into an assembly line. One artist drew according to a writer's script; another inked in the drawing; another put in color; another, the lettering. Of course, artists and writers seldom received royalties on their work or owned the characters they developed, a policy that insured that they would churn out copy.
Many of those who formed the underground had been kids when EC—which specialized in torn-off limbs, eye-balls popping out of skulls and Twilight Zone plot twists—was put on trial. Faced with a system in which comics that didn't meet the code couldn't get shelf space, publishers such as Last Gasp Eco-Funnies and The Rip Off Press printed up their own books and distributed them directly or through porno and head shops.
Not only did these presses seek to encourage free expression, they also tried to overturn the exploitative behavior of the mainstream companies. As Jack Jaxon, one of the founders of Rip Off, wrote in 1971, "Publishers of comix work with the artists in what virtually amounts to a partnership arrangement…. We [artists] also retain the copyright to our published work." Jaxon's manifesto, reprinted in 1989 by Blabl, included an epilogue in which he admitted, "Perhaps I was hasty in predicting the eventual collapse of the mainstream industry."
Indeed, as the 1970s wore on, head shops feel afoul of the law, and the underground—tied to a waning hippie subculture—began to wither away.
But with the 1980s, two alternative titles, RAW and Weirdo, arrived to resuscitate the scene. On the face of it, they had a lot in common: Both were edited by veterans of the 1960s underground, and both showcased the work of old and new talents in the potpourri style of literary magazines. But in sensibility, they couldn't have been farther apart. Art Spiegelman's edgy, European RAW was printed on pages at least as large as Interview's and would have looked equally at home on a Soho coffee table. The large format and high-quality paper showed off each panel as a work of art, not merely a device to further the story at hand. Even when RAW artists drew in primitive and scratchy styles, you knew it was because they were more tortured and sensitive than you'd ever be.
R. Crumb's Weirdo also embraced primitive art styles, but in the American snot-dripping-out-of-the-nose tradition of Big Daddy Roth, renowned for his monsters driving hot rods. The inclusion of Crumb's own work in Weirdo tended to overshadow that of other artists, fine as many of them were. With his witty confessional style (tales of high-school foot fetishism, fr'instance) and drawings reminiscent of 1920s cartoons, Crumb was more a guru than a peer to other weirdos.
However, it was Spiegelman who most affected the way comic books are marketed. His masterpiece Maus—A Survivor's Tale recounts his father's experiences in a concentration camp, showing Jews as mice and Germans as cats. This "graphic novel" trailblazed comics' migration from the ghetto of special-interest markets to the (relatively) big bucks of book publishing. At first serialized in RAW, Maus was picked up by Pantheon and sold through bookstores—at a rate of 1,000 copies a week at one point. RAW itself is now put out by Penguin, alas in book format rather than as a coffee-table magazine.
But even after America's introduction to the graphic novel, relatively few comic books have made it into B. Daltons or Waldenbooks. For the rest, the "direct market" store—those comic book boutiques that stock both collector's items and the latest titles—has taken the place of the head shop, accounting for two-thirds of all comic books sold in the country. Such stores provide a venue for experimental works that otherwise might not get distributed. In addition, the specialty shops serve as hangouts where comics cognoscenti can meet to discuss the death of Robin or pick up more than the latest issue of X-Men.
What's perhaps most interesting about these stores, when you consider the antipathy between the mainstream and undergrounds in the 1960s, is that Zap (still going) now sits side by side with Spiderman on the shelves. The differences between the mainstream and the alternatives are falling away.
The big guys, eyeing an audience that now ranges in age from 13 to 29 (but which is still almost completely male), are scrambling to be arty and adult. In 1986, the same year Maus came out, megalith DC Comics published its own graphic novel, a Batman story called The Dark Knight Returns. The book marked several departures for DC. First, rather than having been churned out entirely in assembly-line fashion, it bears the distinctive stamp of one person, writer and penciler Frank Miller. Second, its themes aim unwaveringly at an older audience: Batman copes with the aging of his body, a soul as dark as his enemies' and, last but not least, nuclear war. In addition, The Dark Knight, first put out as a serialized comic, was published as a perfect-bound book on slick paper rather than on newsprint. At $12.95, few kids would be able to afford this comic book—indeed, it might put a strain on some adults' allowances.
But don't let its gussied-up looks fool you: The Dark Knight is just more of the same schlock. Miller adopts an easy nihilism to justify Batman's make-'em-die-screaming philosophy. The book has been hailed for reviving the vampirish 1930s Batman, but one would hope it is only fanboys weaned on costumed-hero books who are insisting that The Dark Knight qualifies as literature.
Watchmen, also serialized and later published in book form by DC, tackles the same hero-gone-wrong theme: The title is taken from the epigraph to the Tower Commission report, "Who watches the watchmen?" While you wouldn't want to call this book literature either, it's a lot more sophisticated than The Dark Night. Scriptwriter Alan Moore portrays costumed heroes as both bungling do-gooders and Lieutenant Calley-style sleazebags. In short, they're just like the...
(The entire section is 14805 words.)
The Classics Illustrated Series
Beth Levine (essay date 24 November 1989)
SOURCE: "Berkley, First and CMG Join to Revive Classics Illustrated," in Publishers Weekly, Vol. 236, No. 20, November 24, 1989, p. 48.
[In the following essay, Levine remarks on the revival of the Classics Illustrated series.]
"Classics Illustrated"…. For millions, the name conjures up the midnight hours they spent reading by flashlight under the bedcovers. For others, the comic book versions of such titles as Moby Dick and David Copperfield symbolize the only way they survived English lit. In February, Berkley, First Publishing and Classics Media Group will revive the...
(The entire section is 653 words.)
Reviews Of Recent Works
Roz Kaveney (review date 18-25 December 1987–1 January 1988)
SOURCE: "Eaten by a Lion or Something," in New Statesman, Vol. 114, Nos. 2960-2962, December 12-25, 1987–January 1, 1988, pp. 41-2.
[Below, Kaveney reviews several graphic novels including Outrageous Tales from the Old Testament from Knock-about Publishers and Jose Munoz and Carlos Sampayo's collaboration entitled Joe's Bar.]
When we were all very young, the reverend Marcus Morris attempted to channel our taste for comics into that brand of liberal Christian imperialism so skillfully preached in Eagle and Girl. In between Belle of the Ballet and Dan Dare, we...
(The entire section is 8973 words.)
Further Reading
Berman, Avis. "Art Spiegelman: The Maus that Roared." Artnews 92, No. 5 (May 1993): 63-4.
Examines the making of Maus and its use of a comic-book format.
DeCandido, Keith R. A. "Comic 'Books.'" Library Journal 116, No. 10 (1 June 1991): 134.
Provides brief reviews of several graphic novels, including Dave Sim and Gerhard's Jaka's Story.
Kaveney, Roz. "Strip Shows." New Statesman 113, No. 2926 (24 April 1987): 26-7.
Remarks on several contemporary graphic novels,...
(The entire section is 290 words.)


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Ted Cruz says Republican lawmakers who don't emulate his style of slash-and-burn opposition� to Obamacare are no better than the Nazi-appeasers of 75 years ago.
Michele Bachmann says on the floor of the House of Representatives that Obamacare must be stopped before "it literally kills women, kills children, kills senior citizens."
Not so long ago, this kind of over-the-top rhetoric would have prompted more than a few Republicans to demand that the offenders cease and desist.
But I guess times have changed....
Read more

subset: commoncrawl


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Stocks Plummet on Prospect of U.S.-Led Airstrike on Syria
NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- The S&P 500 posted its largest drop since June as stocks tumbled on reports the U.S. may spearhead a multi-country military intervention against Syria this week in response to evidence of chemical weapons.
The S&P 500 dropped 1.6% to close 1,630.48, the largest drop since June 20 when the benchmark index fell 2.5%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 1.1% to 14,776.48 while the Nasdaq was off 2.2% to 3,578.52.
"Obviously we've had a pretty down day, and right now it seems like it's all about Syria and the uncertainty," said Joe Bell, senior equity analyst at Schaffer's Investment Research. "We saw a lot of money flow over to the bond market today -- a little bit of a safety trade on the day here."
Another factor at play is the fast approaching debt ceiling deadline, the annual Congressional melodrama that has roiled markets in recent years.
"This is no longer simply about Syria," George Friedman, chairman of the Austin, Texas-based global security intelligence firm Stratfor warned in a report. "The United States has stated a condition that commits it to an intervention. If it does not act when there is a clear violation of the condition, Obama increases the chance of war with other countries like North Korea and Iran."
The missile strikes against the Middle Eastern nation could begin as early as Thursday, according to NBC News, which cited senior U.S. officials. The report said the U.S. may be preparing for three days of strikes to serve as a warning to the Assad regime. Meanwhile U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told BBC that the U.S.-led forces would be "ready" to strike if President Barack Obama ordered an attack. Allies of Syria including Russia and China have been warning against military intervention in the country warning of the devastating results for the region.
"It is hard to imagine how an attack on chemical weapons can avoid an attack on the regime -- and regimes are not destroyed from the air," Friedman added. "Doing so requires troops. Moreover, regimes that are destroyed must be replaced."
J.C. Penney
In deal news, specialty pharmaceuticals firm Akorn
Tulsa, Okla., natural gas transporter Oneok Partners


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The Horizon Thin Client program enables thin client manufacturers to ensure that their thin client/end point solutions (hardware and software) are compatible with Horizon solutions, whether integrating the Horizon Client binaries or a custom client developed to the Horizon specifications.
Customers have the assurance that products which have earned the VMware Ready for End-User Computing logo will work effectively in their virtualized environments.
Upon successful completion of the Horizon Thin Client certification process and the execution of the applicable agreements with VMware, partners can leverage the VMware Ready for End-User Computing logo in their marketing and sales efforts and gain the right to redistribute the Horizon Client software. Qualifying products are posted in the VMware Compatibility Guide (VCG) as an IHV product, and partners must post their products on the VMware Solution Exchange (VSX).
Partners must be enrolled in the Technology Alliance Partner (TAP) program at the Elite or Global level.
For each region where the qualified product is sold, partners must maintain VMware Certified Professional status for technical support, as well as one VMware Salesperson and one VMware Technical Salesperson certification status.
Other requirements include:
Through the Rapid Desktop Appliance (Turnkey Appliance) Program, partners can increase sales by providing fast, cost-effective and validated VMware Horizon deployment solutions to their customers.
Turnkey Appliances (formerly called Rapid Desktop Appliances) with pre-integrated, pre-configured, pre-tested and validated software, storage and compute components offer a one-stop shop for Horizon deployment. These solutions help customers:
The Turnkey Appliance (Rapid Desktop Appliance) consists of the following components:
To get started and express interest in enrolling in the VMware Ready Program, please fill-in the online Partner Onboarding Form. Select "EUC Foundation" in the Program Name field.
Visit the VMware {code} for additional program resources, including SDKs, APIs and other certification tools.
Proven Storage solutions are certified to offer specific workload performance for 1,000 and 2,000 seat Horizon deployments. With Proven Storage solutions, customers:
The VDI environment used in the Proven Storage certification consists of the following main components:
Upon successful completion of the Proven Storage certification process and the execution of the applicable agreements with VMware, you can leverage the VMware Ready for End-User Computing logo in your marketing and sales efforts.
To be eligible to use the VMware Ready End-User Computing logo in association with Proven Storage products, you must meet the following criteria:


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UB40 experienced its greatest achievements in the 80s and 90s by producing sophisticated and softer, Jamaican-style music that complemented the social and political plights experienced in their native area of Birmingham. The name UB40 was a sarcastic reference to the UK unemployment benefit form and also was the cover art for its first album called Signing on.
Their early music style was unique, with a heavy influence of analogue synthesizers, psychedelic rock guitar, saxophone and dub producer techniques.
The band formed its own record company called DEP International by the time it released its second album, Present Arms, that featured the single One in Ten. UB40 solidified its reputation for serious reggae with its hit single Red Red Wine which featured on its third album, Labour of Love. Other notable singles from this time were Please Don't Make Me Cry, Cherry Oh Baby and If It Happens Again.
In 1987, the band released a Greatest Hits compilation which also contained collaboration with Pretender's vocalist, Chrissie Hynde. Hynde was a catalyst in the band's early success. She noticed them performing in a pub and offered them the supporting act spot for her band's tour.
Chart triumphs continued into the 90s with a cover of Elvis Presley's Can't Help Falling in Love which was the group's third UK #1 single. The band also had top ten hits with Kingston Town, I'll Be Your Baby Tonight with Robert Palmer, Higher Ground and Come Back Darling.
By the 21st Century, UB40 could lay claim to a three-decade long career, many sell-out live performances and over 70 million records sold.
Unlike other similar ensemble-structured bands, UB40's line-up remained unchanged from 1978 to 2008. The band was spearheaded by the Campbell brothers, Ali and Rob. Ali Campbell was eventually replaced by another Campbell sibling, Duncan in 2008. The band also toured with another popular reggae vocalist, Maxi Priest.
This information is provided as a brief overview and not as a definitive guide, there are other sources on the net for that. If however you have a story or information that is not generally known we would love to hear from you. firstname.lastname@example.com


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Stocks Pummeled by Eurozone, Fiscal Cliff Worries
NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- The major U.S. equity averages endured a sharp drop Thursday as fresh worries about the eurozone and fiscal cliff overshadowed upbeat domestic labor market and trade data.
Concerns about Greece's stability were back following a Bloomberg report that the European Union won't decide on whether to provide the next round of bailout funds for the country until sometime next week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down more than 121 points, or 0.94%, at 12,811, settling just above its session low.
The blue-chip index, which is now up 4.96% in 2012, suffered a steep loss on Wednesday, falling more than 2% to close below 13,000 for the first time since early August, in the wake of President Barack Obama's defeat of Mitt Romney in the presidential election.
Breadth within the Dow was again negative, with laggards ahead of gainers, 26 to 4. The biggest percentage losers among the blue chips were Cisco(CSCO) , McDonald's(MCD) , Home Depot (HD) and United Technologies (UTX) .
McDonald's shares lost 2% after the fast food restaurant chain said its global sales fell 1.8% in October, hit by the combination of an uncertain economy and stiff competition. This was the company's first monthly sales decline since March 2003.
Shares of Dow components JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Walt Disney (DIS) were also weak.
JPMorgan shares dipped 0.17% after the bank said it's been given Federal Reserve approval to restart stock repurchases in the first quarter of 2013 through a capital plan that would also permit ongoing dividend payouts.
Walt Disney slid 0.08% ahead of the company's fiscal fourth-quarter results. After the close, Disney reported a profit of 68 cents a share on revenue of $10.78 billion for the September-ended quarter vs. Wall Street's estimate for earnings of 68 cents a share on revenue of $10.92 billion. The stock was down 2% in extended trades.
The Dow's gainers were Bank of America (BAC) , Boeing(BA) , Hewlett-Packard(HPQ) , and Travelers Cos. (TRV) .
The S&P 500 shed more than 17 points, or 1.22%, to close at 1377.51, while the Nasdaq was under the most pressure, falling nearly 42 points, or 1.42%, to close at 2896.
Decliners finished ahead advancers by a 2.7-to-1 ratio on the New York Stock Exchange and a 2.8-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq. Volume totaled 3.77 billion on the Big Board and 1.88 billion on the Nasdaq.
All sectors closed in the red with capital goods, energy, services and technology seeing the deepest declines.
Apple(AAPL) shares slumped another 3.7%. The tech giant has fallen 20% from its mid-September high and is now officially in bear market territory, according to Schaeffer's Investment Research, amid growing concerns about the company's perceived lack of innovation.


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CMO Conversation with Dana Anderson from Kraft
April 11, 2012
In this session Gary Elliott, former Hewlett-Packard VP of Corporate Marketing, and Dana Anderson, Kraft's SVP, Marketing Strategy and Communications, talked about the ways Kraft harnesses risk and big ideas and turns them into real projects that work.
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This content is available to ANA Members only. Please login below or create an account.
You may already be a member. Find out if your company is already an ANA member.


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Jaime Hernandez:
The 1966 Lincoln Cent is one of the tougher issues in MS66 condition and higher for the Memorial Lincoln Cent series. Examples in MS66 are hard to find, especially examples that are high end for the grade. In MS67 it is very scarce with very few known. Beware of examples that might be Special Mint Set coins, as these are much more common in high grades.


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Debates of May 27th, 2010
House of Commons Hansard #50 of the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was forces.
- Question Period
- Free Trade Agreements
- Portuguese Fishermen
- Denis Gougeon
- Aboriginal History Month
- Asbestos
- Sathya Sai School of Canada
- Against the Odds
- Cycling Tragedy in Rougemont
- G8 and G20 Summits
- Darfur
- Justice
- Government Expenditures
- Hispanic Canadian Awards
- Conservative Record in Quebec
- Vision Health Awareness
- Liberal Party of Canada
- Georgian College
- Public Safety
- Status of Women
- Public Safety
- Financial Institutions
- Ethics
- Maternal Health
- Securities
- Firearms Registry
- Offshore Drilling
- Taxation
- Ethics
- Committees of the House
- Infrastructure
- Budget Implementation Legislation
- Human Rights
- Health
- Foreign Affairs
- Presence in Gallery
- Business of the House
- Government Response to Petitions
- Criminal Code
- Petitions
- Questions on the Order Paper
- Questions Passed as Orders for Returns
- Jobs and Economic Growth Act
- Instruction to Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs
- Business of Supply
Free Trade Agreements
Statements by Members
2:05 p.m.
Jeff Watson Essex, ON
Mr. Speaker, following today's historic address by Mexican president, Felipe Calderón, I rise in the House today to reaffirm the importance of NAFTA to the flourishing trading relationship on the North American continent.
Since NAFTA's implementation, merchandise trade between Canada, Mexico and the United States has more than tripled, reaching $946 billion U.S. in 2008. Today, Canada, the U.S. and Mexico trade roughly $2.6 billion U.S. in merchandise on a daily basis. That is about $108 million U.S. per hour.
NAFTA has proven that liberalizing trade is an important tool in promoting transparency, economic growth and economic stability. It has been such a success to the North American continent that countries, such as Colombia, now also want to open their own markets to benefit from the economic prosperity on the North American continent.
I call upon parliamentarians to do what is right for Canada and for Colombia and to pass the Canada-Colombia free trade agreement. Colombia is more than just its past civil injustices. It is time that those opposed to this agreement stop focusing on--
Free Trade Agreements
Statements by Members
2:05 p.m.
The Speaker Peter Milliken
The hon. member for Davenport.
Portuguese Fishermen
Statements by Members
May 27th, 2010 / 2:05 p.m.
Mario Silva Davenport, ON
Mr. Speaker, on this day in 1955, the Portuguese ship, Gil Eannes, sailed into the port of St. John's, Newfoundland.
Four thousand Portuguese fishermen in beautiful costumes carried a statue of Our Lady of Fatima up the hill to the Basilica of St. John the Baptist where it was erected as a gift to the people of St. John's from the fishermen of Portugal in recognition of the 100th anniversary of the Basilica.
Those beautiful days in 1955 were a celebration of the close relationships that saw St. John's filled with Portuguese vessels and fishermen for six months each year for over 400 years.
The Portuguese fishing fleets and Portuguese fishermen who travelled across the Atlantic each year will continue to echo through history ever reminding the people of Newfoundland and all Canadians of this special period in their history and of their friends who lived just across the sea.
Denis Gougeon
Statements by Members
2:05 p.m.
Luc Malo Verchères—Les Patriotes, QC
Mr. Speaker, in celebration of the world expo, the Presences Festival International Composition Competition held the final concert in its three-year international competition in Shanghai, China. Granby native Denis Gougeon won first prize with his piece entitled Toy (Music Box). Mr. Gougeon is a composer and an associate professor of instrumental composition at University of Montreal.
The competition required that the composer interpret a folk melody with traditional Chinese instruments. Candidates were judged on their ability to blend these elements into a new piece of music. A Chinese melody, Wuxi jing, performed on bamboo flutes, was woven into Mr. Gougeon's composition.
I am pleased to congratulate Mr. Gougeon for his composition, which won the international prize on May 4. The Bloc is proud to highlight amazing artistic performances by Quebeckers on the international scene.
Aboriginal History Month
Statements by Members
2:05 p.m.
Jean Crowder Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
Mr. Speaker, last year, this House voted unanimously to declare June as National Aboriginal History Month.
A declaration without action to back it up would be an empty promise, so I followed up on the NDP motion by contacting relevant federal departments and asking how they would observe Aboriginal History Month.
Indian and Northern Affairs is promoting the month on its website and at National Aboriginal Day events and promises to further develop new initiatives for June 2011.
Parks Canada already had a strategic plan to increase the representation of aboriginal history subjects in its national commemoration program of people, places and events of historical significance. Three of those subjects are the following: designation of the Similkameen Spirit Trail in B.C., the Abenaki migration to New France, and finally, Chief Peguis' role in the Selkirk settlement. Those are three subjects I think very few Canadians know about.
This is the start of a national project to bring aboriginal history to the forefront in Canada. I encourage all members of the House to celebrate Aboriginal History Month in their ridings.
Statements by Members
2:05 p.m.
Terence Young Oakville, ON
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to provide notice to victims of mesothelioma and their families who have not yet received compensation through provincial or corporate authorities.
This rare form of lung cancer attacks the lining of the lungs and sometimes the abdomen. Exposure could come from insulation in workplaces, in wall board and floor tiles at home, and even from the brakes of cars and trucks.
Those without compensation should know they are not alone. Canadian victims and their families have an additional potential recourse because the harmful products containing asbestos in Canada were manufactured in the United States. Thirty billion dollars are available for asbestos victims, even those deceased years ago, through U.S. settlement trusts.
Inquiries can be made by calling Health Canada at 1-800-433-0395.
Sathya Sai School of Canada
Statements by Members
2:05 p.m.
Michelle Simson Scarborough Southwest, ON
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the people of the Sathya Sai School of Canada who have joined us here today and are celebrating their 10th anniversary. This is the only school of its kind in North America and I am very proud that it is located in Scarborough, Ontario.
On Sunday, May 30, I will be participating in the eighth annual Walk for Values organized by the school. I will join thousands of participants in the GTA to walk in the name of peace, non-violence, right conduct, truth and love. Since the walk's inception in Scarborough eight years ago, it has grown and this year will take place in nine Canadian cities. In addition, walks will take place in 60 other countries around the world.
I would like to congratulate and thank the Sathya Sai School of Canada for its efforts in reinforcing these values, not only here in Canada but around the world.
June 6 Walk for Values takes place here in Ottawa. I encourage all members to join me at this important event.
Against the Odds
Statements by Members
2:10 p.m.
Cathy McLeod Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
Mr. Speaker, I would like to pay tribute to an extraordinary constituent of mine, Al Trotter. Al is a retired lieutenant colonel with the Royal Canadian Air Force. He completed 44 missions in Germany, was then struck down, interrogated, sent to a German POW camp and eventually came home.
Through perseverance and pure determination, Al made it out of Germany alive and after more than 40 years he has finally told his story. His book, Against the Odds, which he co-wrote with his daughter, Leslie, has been published and is a must read for those wanting to learn more about what our veterans sacrificed and accomplished for Canada.
In Al's own words, "for our veterans, our gravest concern is that we don't want to be forgotten. 17,700 young men lost their lives in the Air Force in World War II".
I want to thank Al for taking the time to write this important book. His story will ensure that our veterans will never be forgotten and it is a great legacy for generations to come.
Cycling Tragedy in Rougemont
Statements by Members
2:10 p.m.
Josée Beaudin Saint-Lambert, QC
Mr. Speaker, on May 14, a tragic accident on Highway 112 in Rougemont shattered the lives of several families in an instant. Six members of the Saint-Lambert triathlon team were on their way to Sherbrooke for a training session when they were hit by a truck.
Christine Deschamps, Lyn Duhamel and Sandra De La Garza Aguilar were killed. All three were experienced members of the Saint-Lambert triathlon club, where they were training for Ironman events coming up this summer.
On behalf of my Bloc Québécois colleagues and myself, I would like to offer my sincere condolences to the families of the victims. Our thoughts are with them in this terrible time.
In closing, I would encourage motorists, cyclists and pedestrians to be careful and vigilant on our roads.
G8 and G20 Summits
Statements by Members
2:10 p.m.
Gerald Keddy South Shore—St. Margaret's, NS
Mr. Speaker, in just under a month, Canada will be hosting the world's most influential leaders at the G8 and G20 summits. Canada hosting two major summits back to back is unprecedented and we are honoured to host the world leaders and showcase Canada on the world stage.
We are on track to host secure G8 and G20 summits. We have a comprehensive security plan developed by Canada's best experts in the field, but what does the Liberal leader say? He said that he was "kind of ashamed" of Canada.
I can assure all members that on this side of the House we are not ashamed of our country. In fact, we are proud of Canada and I look forward to this unique opportunity to continue our leadership on the world stage.
This is an opportunity that all Canadians, even the opposition Liberals, can be proud of.
Statements by Members
2:10 p.m.
Anita Neville Winnipeg South Centre, MB
Mr. Speaker, today, members of the Canadian Jewish Congress Darfur Action Committee are in Ottawa to highlight the ongoing crisis in Darfur.
In the tradition of the Jewish concept of "tikkun olam", "to repair the world", CJC is joining with STAND Canada, The Darfur/Sudan Peace Network and the SubSahara Centre to advocate for the people of Darfur.
Mindful of international indifference to the plight of Jews in the Holocaust, these volunteers from across Canada are dedicated to making a difference and call upon Canada to take a high-level role in the diplomatic resolution to the conflict, and on this Parliament to create a committee for the prevention of genocide and other crimes against humanity. They further request that Canada take a leadership role in strengthening the friends of the UN assistance mission in Darfur, at the UN, where much remains to be done.
As the architect of the "responsibility to protect", Canada can and must provide greater leadership on Darfur.
Statements by Members
2:10 p.m.
Daniel Petit Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to inform the House that Bill C-13, An Act to amend the Employment Insurance Act, unanimously passed in committee yesterday.
This bill will allow Canadian Forces members, who serve our country with pride, to spend time with their new child when they return from a mission.
Major Duquette, who originally brought this matter to the attention of the hon. member for Nepean—Carleton, said yesterday that getting this bill to pass has been the greatest achievement of his military career because it will have a significant impact on military families.
I call on all parties to help pass this bill quickly, so that military families can access the benefits they so rightly deserve.
Government Expenditures
Statements by Members
2:15 p.m.
Olivia Chow Trinity—Spadina, ON
Mr. Speaker, using over $1 billion to host the G20 and G8 summits is so outrageous, it borders on indecency.
Let us a look at what $1 billion of Canadians' hard-earned money can buy. Some money could be used to compensate the small businesses and vendors who will lose their shirts because of the security lockdown. With Roy Halladay not being able to play and the CN tower shut down, surely the tourism industry will need some support.
Three percent of that $1 billion would provide all Canadian children with a nutritious and healthy breakfast or snacks every day. We could lift all seniors out of poverty by increasing the guaranteed income supplement. Canada could pay one-third of the costs of the millennium development goal and save the lives of over 10 million women and children by 2015.
The Conservative government has completely missed its target by such a ridiculous amount it should be fired on the spot.
Hispanic Canadian Awards
Statements by Members
2:15 p.m.
Randy Hoback Prince Albert, SK
Mr. Speaker, Canada recognizes the important geographic, social, political and economic ties between Canada and the Americas.
Our Prime Minister has been clear that a cornerstone of our foreign policy is a commitment to increased engagement in our hemisphere. Our history and our future require us to build and sustain solid bridges among our neighbours.
Today we were honoured to welcome President Calderón of Mexico and were privileged to hear his address to the Parliament. Here at home, the Latin American community is an impressive group. It is hard-working and energetic. Its music, art, food and culture enrich our diversity.
As chair of FIPA, I am pleased to congratulate and welcome here today a group of outstanding individuals, the winners of the Influential Hispanic Canadian awards. The calibre and diversity of their achievements is a reflection of the incredible contribution of the Hispanic community here in Canada.
I hope that many members can join me this afternoon between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. at 131 Queen Street, room 851, where there will be an opportunity to speak and meet these talented individuals.
Conservative Record in Quebec
Statements by Members
2:15 p.m.
Claude Guimond Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC
Mr. Speaker, it is no coincidence that the Bloc Québécois wins federal elections in Quebec election after election. The Bloc Québécois is the only party that defends the interests of Quebec in the House.
The recognition of the Quebec nation by the Conservatives has turned out to be nothing but an empty gesture. The proof is that they are trying to reduce the weight of our nation in the House. They are denying the consensus of the National Assembly of Quebec, both against creating a Canada-wide securities commission and in favour of maintaining the firearms registry in its entirety. Quebec's voice at UNESCO is nothing but a sham with Quebec sitting on a folding chair and having to sing in harmony with the federal Conservative government. The government turns a blind eye to Quebec's troubled forestry industry, but has no problem giving the automobile industry $9.7 billion in assistance.
The Bloc Québécois is clearly the only party that represents the interests of Quebec in this House. That is what Quebec voters have been reaffirming in every election for the past 20 years and will do again in the next election.


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Ketchikan and Vicinity Forecast
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Stories at Latitude 56


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>Runner's World - My Event Ratings>
In short: Incredible and tough as ever...In full: Another great edition of the Picnic after the (brutally) extended version in 2012. The hot weather made it even more of a challenge (for me), but as usual the marshals were absolutely superb, and the encouragement from other runners is unlike any other race. If you want a warm, glowing feeling from having endured one of the toughest challenges in the UK running calendar, try this race in two years' time. I'll be back (yet) again....Date of review: June 22, 2014
In short: Rivers of brown mud instead of greensand...In full: The weather made this normally tough run even tougher - still tried to keep my feetdry for the first few miles and eventually gave up and went through all of the puddles. Note to self: must wear trail shoes in really wet/muddy conditions in future as my road shoes didn't really want to grip much!! Great camaraderie from the runners around the halfway point, which I'm sure gets further away each year! Huge, huge thanks to all the marshals who gave up their Sunday to stand around in the cold and VERY wet conditions to help a large handful of nutters complete an epic race - hats off to you all. And thank you again, Dr Rob, for providing an excuse for us to test ourselves on unrelenting hills. See you next yearDate of review: October 14, 2013
In short: Still brutally amazingIn full: I always seem to forget how painful the steps are (over 750 in each direction), yet I keep coming back for more! Huge thanks to all the marshals who are so encouraging of our madness, and to all the other runners for their words of support all the way round. Roll on next year...Date of review: July 3, 2013
In short: Another fantastic race - with weather to match this year!In full: My 6th consecutive run but the first without been blown away and drenched!! Seeing Snowdon itself whilst running was also a first, but nearly made me fall over on the descent from Pen-Y-Gwryd - my own fault for looking up rather than down!! Great organisation as usual from the organising team and wonderful support as ever around the course: huge thanks to all the marshals and volunteers at the feed stations who were standing out for hours in a cold northerly wind to help us in our hours of madness! Interesting change to gels at the stations - I preferred the segments of energy bars that have been used over the previous three years, and this year found I was running on empty later on in the race. Other than that simply superb camaraderie and support from fellow runners that help to make this event the friendliest in the UK!! Back next year for number 7, and probably more wind and rain.....Date of review: October 30, 2012
In short: It DID hurt!!In full: Difficult and challenging hills, glorious views views, very encouraging and friendly marshals, and the option to go round twice: what more could you want from a race?! Not for the faint-hearted, this race literally throws hills at you from the off. Nothing too long, but long and steep enough to stop most people running and keep the sweat pouring into your eyes. Directions were plentiful and easy to follow - if you weren't looking at the ground or trying to stop your eyes stinging! The water stop was invaluble, along with the gels, and off-road shoes are a must. Great to start and finish early on Saturday to have the rest of the weekend free (to recover!!), and good value if you chose (i.e. were mad enough) to enter both the July and September runs at the same time! And yes - I did hurt afterwards!! Date of review: July 10, 2012
In short: I wish they'd resurfaced the entire route...In full: From the singing of the National Anthem to a glorious descent to the finish near twilight, this event had everything! A new start for Olympic year incorporating the start of the zig-zag route the road race will take (kindly resurfaced for us!!) and four extra descents and climbs into and out of Juniper Bottom (which I could well have done without), not to mention the extra 4-ish miles!! The marshals were superb - thank you for all your words of encouragement and gifts of water and sweets, and most of all for being out there for longer than we were to make the event happen. Thanks especially to whoever found some lucozade for the Juniper Bottom water stop - without that I'd probably still be out there!! Brilliant to hear the usual camaraderie from all the runners - it's ultimately what makes this event so special. I'd like to thank the group I talked to before the start and greeted all the way round, but I copuld hardly remember my own name during the race, let alone anyone else's, even if it is printed (in tiny letters) on the running numbers!! And finally a huge vote of thanks to Dr. Rob: these insane challenges are what we live for - keep putting them on!! Date of review: June 25, 2012
In short: Who needs sunshine....In full: when you've got a marathon like this?! Amazing scenery (when you could see it - wearing glasses really doesn't help in the rain); fantastic support from marshals, supporters, locals and fellow runners alike (thank you all); and a challenging but ultimately rewarding course really brings out the best of one of the top events in the UK. It's the first event in my calendar every year, so I'll be back to complete my set of 6 coasters next year. Then I'll have to aim for twelve......Date of review: October 31, 2011
In short: Tough, great views, tough, great views, really tough, great views, painful, who put that last hill there??!!In full: An almost perfect course on a pretty perfect day! The quarter cut-off certainly makes you keep moving up Leigh Hill, but after that you can enjoy the views and (sometimes) gentle undulations of the next 5 hills that follow it, before you finally reach the haven of halfway and the much-needed sports drink, only to have to turn around and undo all the good work!! My legs certainly felt the third quarter, but the encouragement from all runners, marshalls and supporters was hugely uplifting - thanks to all. I'm planning to submit a planning application for a chair lift up to The Temple for 2012.....Date of review: October 26, 2011
In short: The best MM yetIn full: A new course; a record number of marshals; perfect conditions - what more can be said? My 3rd running of the race (I did the Picnic last year), and it did not disappoint. The hills seem to get higher, and the steps more numerous and uneven each year, but the camaraderie from fellow runners and the support from the ever effervescent marshals really makes this event one of the great challenges and successes of the entire running year. The "major" course changes were teasingly conceived, and the supply of jaffa cakes and mini mars bars at a couple of the feed stations immensely welcome! I was lucky enough to see virtually the entire race from the back of the field, having stupidly thought it would be a good idea to do a warm-up lap just before the race itself!! Warning: train REALLY hard before contemplating the Picnic next year....... Date of review: June 22, 2010
In short: Great scenery, tough challenge and excellent valueIn full: Really great, low-key self-sufficient event. Superb route over the South Downs with plenty of hills to keep you keen and enough flat to keep you playful! Thank you to all the LDWA marshals who provided the refreshments and encouragement at the clip points, and to all those I chatted to whilst running, getting lost and overtaking again!!! Date of review: April 27, 2010
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Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down
Hot time for workers
THUMBS UP: We who struggled this past week or so to endure the heat we encountered walking from our air conditioned cars to our air conditioned offices have a special appreciation for those who work outside. The construction crews working on road projects in town, builders, roofers, landscapers and grass mowers, postal carriers walking their routes, farmers, all have been working in some mighty inhospitable conditions.
We salute them, and offer the consolation that the weather next week is supposed to be much more pleasant.
Welcome to school
THUMBS UP: We know the transition for students moving up to a new school can be a difficult one. The sixth graders who were on top of the totem pole last year enter a different and possibly scary world at New Ulm High School where they are the newbies.
For the past few years the staff and upper class students at the high school have tried to ease that transition with a welcoming carnival the week before school. Games, activities and refreshments help the newcomers get to know the upperclassmen and help them come to school with some good experiences. The carnival was held this past Tuesday.
It's a nice idea, and we hope it sets the tone for a happy school year.
Enjoy Riverblast
THUMBS UP: Riverblast is going on this weekend, and we hope people get a chance to get to Riverside Park, listen to some music, eat some barbecue and enjoy the Minnesota River.
Riverblast is partly entertainment, and partly an exercise in building environmental awareness about the river and its condition. The more we encounter the river, the more we'll care about it, and the more we'll do to help clean it up.
Happy Labor Day
THUMBS UP: The Labor Day weekend is here, and for many it is summer's last hurrah, time for one last trip to the lake or the campgrounds. That often makes for crowded highways, lakes and rivers. We wish every a happy and relaxing holiday, and we encourage people not to forget safety. Drive carefully, and give yourself plenty of time to get where you want to go. Be careful on the water, with swimming buddies and flotation devices for all.
We hope the worst that happens is a little sunburn.


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Alice Trulock
Sept. 19, 1918-Jan. 22, 2013
TRACY – Services for Alice M. Trulock, 94, of Tracy will be 10:30 a.m. today at the Zion Lutheran Church in Tracy. Visitation will be one hour prior to the service at the church. Burial will be at 2 p.m. in the Hendricks Cemetery in Hendricks. The family requests that memorials be given to either: Zion Lutheran Church or the Compassionate Care Hospice.
She was born Sept. 19, 1918, to Henry and Helen (Binnebose) Lang on a farm in Pipestone County.
She died Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013, at Prairie View Healthcare Center in Tracy.
Survivors include her sons, Myron and Roger, both of Garvin; eight grandchildren; 14 great-grandchildren; sister, Alvera Sik of Hendricks; and brother, Norman Lang of Venetta, Ore.