Discounted Irregulars

Rue Morgue's review of The Irregulars, posted by publisher Dark Horse (of all people), sums up a recurring flaw of this 128-page comic for me: "the black and white medium often times works against [artist Bong Dazo's] busy paneling."

Put another way, I had a hard time telling whether the mustachioed, heavyset man in panel A was the same as the mustachioed, heavyset man in panel B, particularly on pages with several mustachioed, heavyset men. Ditto tall, thin men with no facial hair; boys with round faces and caps; and so on.

As for the story by Steven-Elliot Altman and Michael Reaves, it seemed a little too eager to set up a series for Sherlock Holmes's mudlark assistants. There are episodes introducing their special talents, but those don't all play a role in this book. The core story itself doesn't rise much above a warm hash of its sources (Doyle, Lovecraft, more Doyle).

Indeed, one lesser-noted possible reason that comics haven't gotten the critical respect that their fans think they deserve is that many are based on previously-created characters and storylines. Not that there's anything wrong with offering new takes on established legends and characters. But our culture usually values creative originality over creative derivation.

Cooper in Cambridge

I'm pleased to pass on the news that author Susan Cooper will be speaking twice in Cambridge, Massachusetts, this fall. The timing of these appearances is no doubt tied to the upcoming release of The Dark Is Rising movie, but the scope of the discussions looks far more promising.

“Unriddling the World”: Fantasy and Literature
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
7:00 P.M.

Roundtable discussion about fantasy and literature in books for children and adults with:

• Susan Cooper, author of The Dark is Rising, The Boggart, King of Shadows and Victory
• Gregory Maguire, author of The Hamlet Chronicles, Wicked, Son of a Witch, and What-the-Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy
• Roger Sutton, Editor-in-Chief, The Horn Book Magazine, as moderator

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Room 10-250, 77 Massachusetts Avenue

[ADDENDUM: In September Roger Sutton posted an alert that the venue for this event has changed to MIT’s wacky Stata Center, and that one should write to the Cambridge Public Library for one's free tickets.]

That's one. And the next day:

“Unriddling the World”: Fantasy and Children
Thursday, November 15, 2007
7:30 P.M.

Talk presented to the Cambridge Forum by Susan Cooper

What are the sources of the fantastic? George Emlen and Tony Barrand from The Revels explore the rich tradition of riddle and magic songs and lead the audience in singing to set the tone for Susan Cooper's exploration of fantasy in children's lives and literature. How do children understand fantasy? What does it add to their lives? Why do adults often find fantasy in children's literature objectionable, even threatening?

First Parish in Cambridge, 3 Church Street (Harvard Square)

Both events are free and open to the public. The sponsors are the Cambridge Forum, Cambridge Public Library, Horn Book, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Cooper's talk may eventually be available on the WGBH Forum Network.

The New YA Clichés?

The July-August SCBWI Bulletin features an article by Joëlle Anthony called "Red Hair's Not as Uncommon as You Think".

Based on her intense and dedicated reading of apprximately 300 young adult novels, Anthony came up with a "countdown of things that show up repeatedly in YA fiction." Some extracts:

#20 - References/analogies to favorite picture books from childhood - especially Horton Finds [sic] a Who
...
#16 - Authors showing their age by naming characters with names they grew up with (i.e., Debbie, Lisa, Kimberly, Alice, Linda, etc.) [a form of authorial bleed-through]
...
#14 - Using coffee, cappuccino, and café latte to describe black people's skin.

#13 - Main characters named Hannah and making a point of it being a palindrome
...
#6 - Characters who chew on their lip or tongue in times of stress - usually until they taste blood

Duly noted.

I don't think Anthony's article is available on the web. (Well, actually it is, but I don't think it's supposed to be available on the web unless one is a member of SCBWI.) Eventually it may appear on her nonfiction webpages, which now feature some of her other articles about writing.

UPDATE: Book Book Book reports that Anthony has now posted her article on her blog.

The Goblin King Sings Songs of Love

Late in 2006 Jim Fath at the Phat Phree shared his "Ultimate 11 Least Intimidating Movie Villains," which included:

David Bowie as The Goblin King Jareth in Labyrinth

Director [that would be Jim Henson]: David, this just isn't working. I'm just not buying you as a terrifying, wicked villain right now. Do you have any ideas?

Bowie: Well, I guess we could put more glitter on me.

Director: Good. That could work.

When I look at the rest of the list, it becomes clear that Fath's measures villainy largely by the potential for violence and destruction.

But the Goblin King isn't about violence. The Goblin King is about sex. Labyrinth is a movie about an adolescent girl, after all. So Jareth isn't supposed to be "intimidating." He's supposed to be seductive and scary in ways that the heroine has never experienced before.

(Click on the pic above for Danél Turner's contrasting take on the strengths and weaknesses of Labyrinth.)

Punching Out a Tyrannosaur

Bookshelves of Doom alerted me to this delightful product: a paper Tyrannosaur kit. A moving paper Tyrannosaur, yet.

My favorite piece of copy on this Flying Pig models website? "Includes free anachronistic cave man for your T.Rex to eat."

My least favorite part of the site? This instruction for the downloadable Logic Goats kit: "Download each model, print it onto thin card then cut out and assemble following the clear, fully illustrated instructions. You'll need some small coins to act as weights, PVA glue (white school glue), scissors, ruler and a sharp knife."

At my house we have a motto for any project that involves both glue and a sharp knife: "This will all end in tears." Fortunately, some kits (such as the Tyrannosaur), are available pre-cut.

The Most Exciting Part

I'm off to visit my godson and his brother and cousins. They're all reading now.

Sticking Together

It took mighty good material to make ventriloquist Edgar Bergen a star on radio since nobody could see his lips not move. So imagine the challenge of demonstrating the chemistry of how two things stick together over the airwaves. Luckily, my dad was on the case.

From National Public Radio: "What Makes Sticky Things Stick?" Try this activity at home, kids!

(Today's illustration, courtesy of Physorg.com, relates to the other, non-chemical part of the new adhesive--the part that's based on the tiny setae on geckos' feet.)

Somebody Stop That Sentence!

While reading a recently published book, I stepped on a sentence that crunched so badly it made me cringe. (Not my first such experience.) In the American edition it appears on page 93:

The room was just as messy as it had been all week; the only change was that Hermione was now sitting in the far corner, her fluffy ginger cat, Crookshanks, at her feet, sorting books, some of which Harry recognized as his own, into two enormous piles.

Crookshanks is said to be part kneazle, which might explain why he's intelligent and hard-working enough to sort books like this.

Even before that ambiguous modifier, the sentence's fourth word "just" had also appeared in the previous sentence with a slightly different meaning, producing a bit of verbal discord. And anytime a modern novelist sees a semi-colon in a manuscript, that should be a warning to consider breaking up the sentence instead.

Which might produce something like this:

The room was no cleaner than before. But now Hermione was sitting in the far corner with her fluffy ginger cat, Crookshanks, at her feet. She was sorting books, some of which Harry recognized as his own, into two enormous piles.

And you know what? The second version's six words, or over 12%, shorter. In a book over 700 pages long with over ten million copies in print, that can add up.

Anachronisms and Authorial Bleed Through

There are two kinds of anachronisms--things out of time--that writers have to watch out for. The more common pops up when we write about the past without sufficient care or research, and include a detail that doesn't belong in that period.

One example that struck me while reading Happy Birthday, Hero!, the first volume in the Caped 6th Grader series. On her twelfth birthday, young protagonist Zoe Richards starts to manifest superpowers. Her kindly grandfather, who was also a superhero before going into the dry-cleaning business, loans her the training manual he received two generations ago when he was twelve. That book tells Zoe that, until she passes her superhero tests, she should "dial 911 immediately" when she sees an emergency rather than trying to fix the problem.

According to a history of the 911 system, however, the very first 911 call was placed on 16 Feb 1968, in Haleyville, Alabama. It took several more years before 911 was a nationwide emergency number.

Grandpa is probably fifty years older than Zoe, so his training manual shouldn't mention calling 911. This common type of anachronism projects a contemporary detail back into the past, where it doesn't belong.

The opposite problem is moving a detail from the past forward to our time where it equally doesn't belong. I suspect this is a particular danger for people who write for kids because we draw ideas from our own childhoods.

An example of this from Happy Birthday, Hero! appears on page 3, when Zoe says that she admires a comics superheroine because she doesn't use "aerosol hair spray--bad for the ozone."

This EPA factsheet reminds us:

Consumer aerosol products in the US have not used ozone-depleting substances (ODS) since the late 1970s because of voluntary switching followed by federal regulation. The Clean Air Act and EPA regulations further restricted the use of ODS for non-consumer products. All consumer products, and most other aerosol products, now use propellants that do not deplete the ozone layer, such as hydrocarbons and compressed gases.

The choice of whether to use certain aerosol hair sprays so as to help preserve the upper atmosphere was significant for girls in the late 1970s--when, I presume, author Zoe Quinn was growing up. (I also presume that name is a pseudonym.) But fictional Zoe Richards and her readers have never had to confront the moral dilemma of hair sprays.

When we write about kids, especially if we don't live with kids of the right age, I think we have a tendency to project our own childhoods into our stories. This is a form of what author Janni Lee Simner recently called "Authorial bleed through". The result is a detail that may seem very significant and resonant to us, but mean next to nothing to our target readers.

Thomas the Tank Engine's Special Connection?

Recent reports from the British Daily Mail and the Canadian Broadcasting Company (alert by Book Moot) have discussed the popularity of the Thomas the Tank Engine stories and toys for children with autism.

I know a couple of little boys who have been fascinated beyond reason (at least my reason) by Thomas, so I thought this was an interesting report. But the more I looked into the news, the less it looked like news and the more it smelled like marketing.

News outlets have carried stories about a “special connection” between the Thomas the Tank Engine stories and children with autism since 2000, if not before. Websites cite an article that appeared in the New York Post that year on 26 July, headlined “Autistic Kids Make Connection with Thomas.”

The National Autism Society undertook a survey about Thomas the Tank Engine in the summer of 2001. It worked through Aidan Prior Communications, a London public relations firm; Prior is listed as coauthor of some other NAS reports. The NAS issued this study in February 2002, and its four-page summary can be downloaded from the group’s webpage. However, the actual data from the survey and information about the methodology aren't included.

This survey heard from 81 parents of children with autism--not a large sample. There’s no indication of a control group of parents whose children don’t have an autism diagnosis, so as to set a baseline for comparison. The summary doesn’t explain how researchers determined that respondents were even typical of parents with autistic children rather than self-selected Thomas fans.

The survey was undertaken based on an “assumption from anecdotal evidence that children with autism spectrum disorders associate far more strongly with Thomas the Tank Engine than with other children’s characters.” There’s no indication that the researchers tried to protect their results against that assumption from the start.

In April 2007, the NAS conducted a new survey “with support from HIT Entertainment, producers and rights-owners of Thomas & Friends.” This survey had a larger sample: “748 U.K. parents of children under 10 with autism,” the CBC reports. (The Daily Mail says 750, but that’s close enough for a tabloid.) Its summary can be downloaded here.

Here are the top findings from the 2002 report:

Children on the autism spectrum associate with Thomas before any other children’s character (57%).

These children maintain their association with Thomas longer than for other characters, commonly two years longer than their typically developing siblings.

The latest report echoes the earlier findings with uncanny precision.

58% of parents reported that Thomas & Friends was the first children’s character their child liked.

Almost 39% of parents reported that their child’s interest in Thomas & Friends lasted over two years longer than siblings’ interest in the character.

So a survey of 81 parents in 2001 and a survey of 748 parents in 2007 produce the same answer to the same question within a single percentage point? Is that how social science usually works? Blogging Autism shares my skepticism.

Of course, the NAS doesn’t claim that these surveys are scientifically valid. Instead, there are signs on the group’s website of a mutually beneficial publicity relationship between it and HIT Entertainment, owners of the Thomas brand. On its page seeking corporate support, the NAS lists among the advantages it offers, “Experience of managing high profile campaigns including Barclays, HIT Entertainment, House of Fraser, Supercook, Tesco, T-Mobile and Vodafone.”

HIT has allowed/encouraged the NAS to use its popular characters in fundraising. In return, the page thanking HIT Entertainment also tells us, “There are now two new characters to collect, Mavis and Percy, who will join Thomas, James, Henry and Gordon in this highly collectable series.”

In May 2006, the NAS recommended a new picture book titled How Do You Feel, Thomas? The NAS’s page of “Ideas for toys and leisure activities” singles out “train toys (especially Thomas the Tank Engine)” and “videos, especially Thomas the Tank Engine,” along with other products from Tomy, Duplo, Lego, Disney, Microsoft, and other corporations.

And speaking of Lego, in February the NAS announced:

LEGO UK has donated LEGO construction sets to The National Autistic Society (NAS), the UK's leading charity for people with autism, as part of a year-long partnership. The venture will see the company working closely with the NAS in a variety of ways to help raise awareness of the disability. . . .

Products including LEGO Classic House Building and LEGO Quad Bike have been distributed to NAS services around the UK, as well as to each of the Society's six schools.

A research project is also currently underway by the Cambridge Autism Research Centre into 'LEGO Therapy'.

Should we expect press releases about the effectiveness of "LEGO Therapy" for children with autism in a few months?

Now I have nothing against Thomas the Tank Engine stories and toys, though I don't personally feel the appeal. Millions of kids have gotten lots of pleasure out of those books, models, videos, goodness-knows-what-else. In the UK, the Thomas show is a mainstay of the BBC children's programming. It's possible that most British children, regardless of their brain chemistry, like Thomas first.

Naturally, some of those young Thomas fans would also have conditions on the autism spectrum. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if a disproportionate fraction of them did. And if some of those kids learn to read emotional facial expressions from Thomas and his friends, the more power to them. Similarly, the National Autism Society apparently does good work, including funding solid research and treatment, so I don't begrudge the organization its corporate sponsors.

But to posit a “special connection” between kids with autistic conditions and a specific brand should require a more scientific basis than these surveys. In particular, to suggest that that brand's books and toys are especially helpful for autistic kids may create false hopes for parents, or needless worries if their kids feel drawn to other characters or topics instead.

Furthermore, the notion of a “special connection” carries the implication that children who get all excited about Thomas might have some sort of autism spectrum disorder--another possible source of needless worry. Perhaps getting excited beyond reason about the world of a TV show is a common part of modern early childhood. Without a control group and a real study, we can't know.