Pentecost
May 19, 2013 by Margreet de Heer
It’s the Christian feast of Pentecost today – but what’s it all about? It celebrates “the descent of the Holy Spirit” on the disciples and other followers of Jesus, fifty days after Christ was seen to ascend to heaven.
But what is the Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit is often thought of as an inspirational force, an impulse to go out and create something, to pass something on. Together with God the Father and Jesus the Son it makes up the Holy Trinity.
Holy Trinity? But wait, isn’t Christianity supposed to be monotheistic – doesn’t it have only one true God, not three?
The early Christians solved this conundrum by declaring God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit three aspects of one God. So – there’s one True God, and He may manifest himself in either of these three ways. But He’s still the same One and you can’t really distinguish between the works of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Confused? Well, that’s why it’s called mysticism. Maybe this comic I made illuminates it a bit:
(Note to all who may feel offended by my depiction of God: I chose to draw Him as an amoeba because that’s the beginning of all life, unformed but with the potential to take any form. Also, it’s what we ourselves are made from, and all life that surrounds us. Omnipresent, so to speak.)
The Scientific Method
May 6, 2013 by Margreet de Heer
This week, Science: a Discovery in Comics is going out to the printer in China! A memorable step, after months of translating and proofreading and finetuning. The physical book won’t be in stores until at least August, but for me the hard work is done.
To celebrate, here’s a page from the book. It explains the Scientific Method. In The Netherlands, I heard this page is popular with physics teachers, and a card is in the making that will be distributed in high schools.
If you’re a teacher (or even if you aren’t) please feel free to use this picture. Just remember there’s a lot more where it came from, which is my book Science: a Discovery in Comics, and it’s coming out this Summer.
The page concludes with the inevitable Aristotle, who also featured of course in my previous book Philosophy: a Discovery in Comics – he’s a pivotal figure in the history of science as well (and basically in the whole of the development of Western culture).
Vote in the Harveys!
May 3, 2013 by NBM
If you’re an artist or creator, editor, make sure to cast your ballot in the Harveys, below, and keep in mind books we published in 2012 when doing so:
Rohan at the Louvre by Araki (foreign)
Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde vol.5 by Craig Russell
Treasury of 20th century Murder: Lovers Lane by Rick Geary
Taxes, The Tea Party and Those Revolting Rebels By Stan Mack
Philosophy, a Discovery in Comics by Margreet de Heer (foreign)
Abelard by Dillies (foreign)
Rise of the Graphic Novel, 2nd ed by Steve Weiner
An Enchantment by Durieux (foreign)
And for kids: just about everything Papercutz has published!
Pass the word on to your friend artists and creators!
Thanks!
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Persia Blues on Pinterest
April 30, 2013 by Dara Naraghi
One of the exciting things about creating and writing Persia Blues is that I get to share some of the history and culture of my birthplace, Iran. I wanted to weave this into the fabric of the story, from Minoo’s childhood all the way through adulthood. And even beyond, when her life’s journey brings her to the US, I wanted to use real settings that both Brent Bowman (my artist) and I are familiar with, to give the story a real grounded feel.
The trick was figuring out how to feature these things in a seamless manner, without them becoming distracting. After all, I wanted to tell a story about a young woman’s life and search for identity, not write a history textbook or a cookbook on Persian cuisine. So one approach was to include little, unobtrusive footnotes explaining the meaning of certain Fari words or cultural references that appeared casually in the dialogue. And, of course, do so sparingly.
The other was to put together a fun, dynamic resource external to the book, as sort of a supplement. Enter Pinterest:
For those of you unfamiliar with Pinterest, it’s a social media sharing site that utilizes a “pinboard” model. You can create multiple “boards” and “pin” pictures (and links) from around the web on them, usually organized by a theme. So I decided to create a whole series of boards devoted to providing background and supplementary material on Persia Blues.
What are some of the things you can expect to find there? Lots of pictures and recipes for Persian foods, pictures and links to articles about modern Iran, as well as ancient Persia. And other boards devoted to the other settings from the book, including my hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
You can check it all out here: Persia Blues on Pinterest.
The Beginning and End of Science
April 27, 2013 by Margreet de Heer
The extra perk of preparing a book for publication at NBM is that I get to make endsheets, that go inside the hardcover at the beginning and the end of the book. For the upcoming Science: a Discovery in Comics I just finished making them – I layed out a grid and filled it with different pictures from the book, here’s a little preview of about a quarter of the total.
Part of endsheet of ‘Science: a Discovery in Comics’
WAR PASSENGER Doc About Writer David Axe Gets A Trailer!
April 26, 2013 by Stefan Blitz
War Passenger is a documentary film that tells the story of David Axe, a middle-class, suburban-raised South Carolina resident who walked away from his family, friends, and career to travel to Iraq in 2005 at the peak of the Middle Eastern conflict. Armed with only a backpack and a video camera, David embraced his role as a “citizen journalist” and continued to seek out the world’s worst war zones. Since 2005, he has reported from Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Somalia, Chad, Congo, and East Timor. During his travels, David began to write autobiographical comic books detailing a life at war where IEDs, piracy, and child soldiers were an everyday reality. Utilizing over 100 hours of David’s personal video footage, War Passenger takes you to the frontlines of the world’s conflicts and shows you how hard it is to come back home.
NBM readers are familiar with his multiple award winning book, War Fix, which Axe collaborated on with Steve Olexa.
Visit warpassenger.com for more information.
Stan Mack in PRINT Magazine
April 26, 2013 by Stefan Blitz
You might not be aware that Stan Mack, author of NBM’s Taxes, the Tea Party, and Those Revolting Rebels, is also considered to be one of the founding fathers of contemporary cartoon reportage.
Stan recently was profiled in Print Magazine focusing on his work in the magazine back in 1996 which predicted the new digital revolution.
Check it out HERE and also check out a previous piece where Stan discusses Taxes and the current political climate.
Family Ties: Not Your Typical Crime Thriller
April 24, 2013 by Eric Hobbs
This shouldn’t surprise anyone, really. After all, Noel and I already did a book about an alien attack without any aliens in it. The Broadcast was a character-driven thriller about families in rural America and how they might react to an alien invasion. The aliens (or lack thereof) were just a catalyst for the story Noel and I wanted to tell. Family Ties is no different. The crime stuff is there to serve the story we want to tell about this dysfunctional family.
Now, that isn’t to say Family Ties will be a crime book without crime. Not at all. Family Ties will have all the gritty elements that make crime fiction great: violence, coarse language, deplorable characters … it’s going to be fun. But at its heart, Family Ties is similar to The Broadcast in theme. It’s about a family dealing with crisis. Here’s a brief glimpse at what I mean…
NBM in June: Zombillenium hires for… eternity
April 22, 2013 by NBM
Coming in June and now being solicited in comics stores:
ZOMBILLENIUM
Vol.1: Gretchen
Arthur de Pins
Francis von Bloodt, vampire, a good family man, manages the theme park Zombillenium. They don’t just hire anyone, at Zombillenium: mere mortals need not apply, the park works only with genuine werewolves, vampires and zombies. This is what Aurelian gets to discover as, burnt out, deceived by his wife, he finally gets hired in spite of himself in this strange business. Gretchen, a plucky trainee witch, helps him get around…
9×12, 48 pp., full color hardcover, $14.99, ISBN 9781561637348
Check out the cool video for it! As well as previews.
NEW FROM EUROTICA:
We’re trying something new over at Sizzle magazine:
SIZZLE Magazine #58
A brand new kinky burlesque strip premieres! Also in the issue: Barbarian Chicks, Mona Agent X concludes, Banana Games.
Quarterly magazine, full color, $6.99
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HIGHLIGHTS FROM PAPERCUTZ:
A new ARIOL, which is getting raves everywhere!
The Smurfs Anthology which handsomely presents the Smurfs in all their original glory with background information!
And a new volume 4 of Sybil, the Backpack Fairy.
Stuff
April 22, 2013 by Margreet de Heer
Here’s some info that needs posting, concerning present and future books.
To celebrate the second printing of Philosophy: a Discovery in Comics, I made another GiveAway on GoodReads.com. Now’s your chance to win a free, autographed copy of the first print! Click here to sign into GoodReads and enter the giveaway.
In the meantime, the newest book Science: a Discovery in Comics is almost ready to go to the printer! To start promotion, I made a page on my website detailing the contents of this book, with a lot of pictures and even a large spread about genetics. Click here to check it out!
