Confessions of a Pop Fan

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

JAMIE, YOU'RE A STAR...IN NOBODY'S EYES BUT MINE

This is an upgrade for the reviewers at Broken Frontier, who previously called me an amateur: "Novelist and ex-Oni EIC Jamie S. Rich teams-up with newcomer extraordinaire Joëlle Jones for an original romance graphic novel that is as simple and poignant as it is experimental and complex...[Joëlle] was the perfect choice for Rich to bring onto the 12 Reasons book, and whatever flaws the script may suffer are more than covered and nearly forgotten by the startling grace of her portrayal of its contents."

To be honest, I couldn't agree more. Joëlle is awesome, though I can't get her to believe me when I tell her my enthusiasm for her work exceeds any influence that our friendship has on my opinions. And, in a moment of brutal honesty, I'd tell you my greatest fear as a writer is that I delude myself into thinking I am any more than bubblegum pop in a prog rock world. Hell, look at me at SPX faking a smile:

Even so, I think that guy is pretty wrong about my script. I can have it both ways. So, there!

For those who didn't see the link that Greg McElhatton posted in the commnets to the pdf of the edition of the Washington Post Express with the article about me, I made a large scan of it. I also scanned the little plug we got in this past Sunday's Oregonian, thanks to writer Kristi Turnquist:

And this screen cap from Amazon showing the strange company we keep cracks me up.

On another subject, as promised, I was going to mention the minicomics by Yali Lin I bought at SPX. I was unfamiliar with Yali's work, but was, of course, attracted to her collection of shorts called With Love. Two of my favorite stories from that book are excerpted at the link. Not all of the comics work as well as these two, and sometimes the characters look inconsistent from one panel to another, but there is a natural sweetness to the material that really shines through.

In addition to With Love, I also bought the first issue of Fate, which interested me as a retelling of the Apollo and Daphne story. The style of the book has a classic shojo manga feel, and while so far I like Yali's shorter pieces better, I'm curious to see what else she has. It turns out that she is currently working on an adaptation of Romeo & Juliet for another publisher. So, pretty soon she won't need a plug from little ol' me.