We have put our online store on 'vacation mode'  for our Holidays Week Vacation... and I am packing up materials to take for reading in the days to come.

Something that caught my eye while packing, was the picture shown above of the Hugh Jackman as Wolverine action figure, as Tina really likes Hugh Jackman in this role, (or any role for that matter!).

Could this be a last minute gift purchase for her to stick in her Christmas Stocking?  Sadly it is not the case... as it is only an 'upcoming' toy / action figure release for late May 2009 @ $23.99 MSRP!

Oh well.... This six-inch figure with 14 points of articulation won't be in her Christmas Stocking this year!

However we both have booked the release date of May 1st, 2009 for the upcoming Wolverine solo film! Which we will more than likely see, review and then blog about the film here, since I have liked Hugh's roles in other films, especially the 'Kate & Leopold' film!

Speaking of which, Tina and I have 468+ reviews that can be seen by clicking this link, including reviews on DVDs, graphic novels, comic book compilations, and more....

For those of you that are new to our blog today, we also have an ongoing 'Comic Con and Pop Culture Convention'  here at "Make It So Marketing Inc.", what with our daily blog posts and new listings of items for sale in our online eBay Featured Store! 

Thanks for reading this blog post today, and please join us again for more!  In the meantime I'll be sure to have something else found for Christmas Stocking!

As we are slowing down and getting ready for our Holidays Week Vacation... we are still getting emails and other communications from those that either have read our blog posts, or bought from us before. The big question right now on their mind is... "what to find for a hard to please reader?"!

Well... if the person you are thinking of is into graphic novels, then the following is what a good graphic novel should do:  

Get your attention, keep you interested in the storyline, and have good art that complements the time period or genre of the graphic novel.

This graphic novel did just that for me!

Which was surprising, because my most recent review of Orson Scott Card's work was 'Ultimate Iron Man', which defintely did nothing for me, and actually turned me off reading the rest of that series....

(That was basically because I grew up with the original Iron Man of the 1960's by Stan Lee, and this updated storyline in an alternate timeline / Ultimates Universe just didn't get my interest. But then again I wasn't the target market for this Ultimate Iron Man series...)

However this graphic novel by Orson Scott Card, Roland Bernard Brown, Renato Arlem, Miguel Montenegro, and others, is far, far different than the first book I reviewed !

From the get go the story brought in interesting characters, the artwork was very good for the time period, and the script had a story to tell that was fascinating! The storyline is of the settling and taming of the early frontier, and what could have happened if certain important persons didn't do what we know they had done in our history books! Sounds kind of cryptic... but the storyline kept me interested!

The writing, the artwork, and the compilation of the comics into one book with a good cover would make it worth the $19.99 that is the cover price of this book.

Comics, graphic novels, and picture books don't all have to be about super-heroes. And contrary to what some may think... I do read and enjoy many genres of comics! 

Maybe I enjoy running comic con photos of super-heroines, (like Wonder Woman), a bit much in our blog here on eBay (LOL)... but I do blog on other genres like this one!

This volume was so good, that I want to continue reading the series!

Now THAT's a recommendation!

Speaking of which, Tina and I have 468+ reviews that can be seen by clicking this link, including reviews on DVDs, graphic novels, comic book compilations, and more....

(Please Note: A complimentary copy for this review was NOT provided by the publisher.)

For those of you that are new to our blog today, we also have an ongoing 'Comic Con and Pop Culture Convention'  here at "Make It So Marketing Inc.", what with our daily blog posts and new listings of items for sale in our online eBay Featured Store! 

This is just a reminder that my new Facebook Friend Cheryl Myfanwy Morgan informed me that as of next year there will be a Hugo Award for Graphic Story-telling.

Although Cheryl is not a fiction writer, she is very interested in this development. She states that the new award is on a trial basis, and that there needs to be strong interest in the new category for it to be continued.

Cheryl has a Science Fiction Awards Watch web site as can be seen at:

http://www.sfawardswatch.com/?page_id=1099

You can go there to recommend your favorite Sci-Fi Graphic Novel.

Cheryl also told me the following:

"For 2009 the Montreal Worldcon is using its right to add a single one-off Hugo category to trial Graphic Story. 
 
A proposal to make Graphic Story a permanent category from 2010 onwards passed in Denver this year and goes to Montreal for ratification (changes to the Hugo rules are subject to vote by the members of the World Science Fiction Society). 
 
The proposal includes a sunset clause that allows WSFS to drop the category in 2012 if it is not attracting sufficient interest. 
 
The result of all this will be as follows: 
- if there are not enough good nominees next year then the proposal may not get ratified 
- if we don't continue to get good nominees from 2010 onwards then the sunset clause may be invoked 
- so we need to drum up interest in the category. 
 
The official definition of a Graphic Story used in the Hugo rules is as follows: 
 
" Any science fiction or fantasy story told in graphic form appearing for the first time in the previous calendar year." 
 
This can include a single issue of a comic, or even a one-off newspaper strip, though we are expecting graphic novels to dominate the category. Electronic distribution is allowed, so web comics are eligible. 
 
A major issue is the requirement for first publication in the eligibility year. Reprints are not allowed. This causes issues with serial works and collections. So, for example: 
 
- A reprint collection of 1970s X-Men would not be eligible 
- A single issue of a comic is eligible in the year in which it is published 
- A complete story arc is eligible in the year in which the final episode is published (this parallels rules for TV series, and for novels serialized in magazines) 
- A graphic novel collection of a story arc is not eligible because it is a reprint 
 
And to give some concrete examples, Girl Genius Vol 8 is eligible in 2009 because the final story in that arc was published in 2009. Girl Genius Vol 7 is not eligible in 2009. The collection was published in 2008, but that is just a reprint of a serial story whose first publication ended in 2007."

I realize that this Blog of ours does cross-over into several areas of pop culture, so if you do have an interest in the above new Hugo Award category, be sure to recommend your favorite literature at her web site:

http://www.sfawardswatch.com/?page_id=1099

BTW, the above photo at the top of this blog post is one of the several different Hugo Awards that have been presented during the many decades this award has been presented.

An interesting point is that the base of the Award trophy changes in looks, because each location that is chosen to present the awards is allowed to design their own base that the Rocket Spaceship is affixed to!