Sherman Alexie's "Part-Time" Comics

Sherman Alexie's first Young Adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, incorporates comic strips by cartoonist Ellen Forney, presented as work by the novel's protagonist and narrator. In an interview with the Seattle Times, Alexie describes the collaborative process involved:

Q: And were the cartoons your idea?

A: Yeah. When I started writing it as a novel, for some reason in the first paragraph, I made him a cartoonist. I sent Ellen Forney, who is a friend of mine, about a page, I think, and I said, "Can you draw a cartoon of this?" About five minutes later, it came back over the e-mail. So she was a part of this five minutes into its creation.

I'm getting angry, though, because people are assuming I had nothing to do with the illustrations, that the press hired her. It was a really collaborative effort. Some of them I dictated, some of them we did together, some of them she did on her own.

The book was recently nominated for a National Book Award, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports. The National Book Foundation's website carries an excerpt.

New York Comic Con Adds Kids' Day

The New York Comic Con, organized by Reed Exhibitions, announced plans to add a "Kids' Day" to the 2008 schedule. The children's comics-specific programming will consist of "a significant all-day program on Sunday, April 20 which will focus on events and activities designed to attract and entertain young fans. A key partner in the development of this program is Kids Love Comics (KLC), a nonprofit organization dedicated to the development and growth of children’s comic books in North America." The New York Comic Con will take place April 18 – 20 at the Javits Center in New York City.

Tintin in Congo Nixed

Little, Brown has cancelled plan to publish Hergé's Tintin in the Congo domestically, Publishers Weekly reports.

Publicist Melanie Chang did not give a reason for the standalone book's cancellation, but of its omission from the box set she said, "Given the controversy surrounding the Congo title, we felt including it in the box set would eclipse the true intention of the collection, which is to showcase Hergé’s extraordinary art and his remarkable contribution to the graphic arts."

The book was to have been part of a complete box set of Hergé's Tintin stories, including for the first time American editions of Tintin in the Land of the Soviets and Tintin and Alph-Art. That project has been postponed to coincide with the eventual release of a Tintin film.