It looks like scholarship is here to stay, as Sequart has announced a new scholarly organization:
An organization has been founded to study and promote comic books as a legitimate artform: Sequart Research & Literacy Organization.
“While comic books and graphic novels have increasingly been taken seriously in recent years,” according to organization founder Julian Darius, “we still have a long way to go. To many people, comics are still silly kids’ stuff or something that spurs hit movies. This organization intends to study the medium and make it accessible to new readers.”
The organization maintains its extensive website, Sequart.org < http://sequart.org/> , and will be launching a line of books on comics later this month.
The organization, based in Edwardsville, Illinois, is the successor to Sequart.com < http://sequart.com/> , a popular website devoted to the study of comic books. That site has been represented at several comic book conventions.
The organization’s initial Board of Directors consists of Julian Darius, Mike Phillips, and Peter Bukalski.
No urther details are available at this time, but we will note that the have announced
a line of books including :
The first book will be Grant Morrison: The Early Years by Timothy Callahan. It studies the popular writer’s revolutionary early period, including Zenith, Arkham Asylum, Animal Man, Batman: Gothic, and Doom Patrol. The book examines all five works in detail, drawing out their running and evolving themes. Using plain language, Callahan opens up Morrison’s sometimes difficult texts and expands the reader’s appreciation of their significance, creating a study accessible to both Grant Morrison aficionados and those new to his work. An extended interview with Morrison on his early career rounds out the volume.
and
The second book of the line will be Mutant Cinema: The X-Men Trilogy from Comics to Screen by Hollywood insider Thomas J. McLean. The book offers the definitive study of the three X-Men films, directed by Bryan Singer and Brett Ratner. It contains scene-by-scene examinations of all three films, including notes on scenes cut from the films. The book also examines their sometimes controversial development process, their prequel comics (which featured exclusive content), their popular and critical reception, and more.
Mutant Cinema: The X-Men Trilogy from Comics to Screen runs 312 pages and carries a cover price of $22.99. It is scheduled to be available for order in late June.
The line’s third book will be The DC Canon: Classic Stories of the DC Universe by organization founder Julian Darius. It is scheduled to be available in late July.
A fourth volume is planned for the fourth quarter of this year, and work is underway on four volumes for 2008.
“To many people, comics are still silly kids’ stuff or something that spurs hit movies…
“The second book of the line will be Mutant Cinema: The X-Men Trilogy from Comics to Screen by Hollywood insider Thomas J. McLean…”
Compare and contrast.
I actually have a copy of Tom’s book kicking around here somewhere, and it is pretty darned well written!
I agree with Steve.
Isn’t it a little more than ironic that some group is promoting literacy and books by making one of their books about a trilogy of movies? what the…
Good point. So you’d better just stick with my Grant Morrison book. I ignore the existence of movies for nearly 98% of its pages.
This sounds great. Are they open to hearing pitches for new books in the series?
To Steve F. and Michael (who commented above),
Come on guys… Although we’d like consumers to acknowledge the comics industry for more than just hit movies, we’re not going to shy away from critically analyzing the more popular parts of the medium. We have four books coming out this year that will cover a lot of different ground. We want to study ALL parts of the medium. Look a little closer next time.
Either way, thanks to Heidi for posting this, and thanks to you guys for posting comments.
Mike Phillips
Editor-in-Chief
Sequart.org
And to answer Bulent’s question: Yes, we’re ALWAYS willing to hear new pitches for books. We want to be THE organization that publishes the best books about the medium.
Pitch away!
And look at that wonderful cover by Xeric Award winning cartoonist, Kevin Colden!
“We want to study ALL parts of the medium.”
Film is not part of the comic medium. You seem to be getting that confused with the superhero genre.
By all means publish books about film, but don’t pretend they are about comics, please.
Wow, Steve. I haven’t offered anyone a chill pill since 1991 (when it was actually cool to say that).
The X-Men book we’re publishing IS part of the medium. The content of the book talks EXTENSIVELY about the comics that the scenes from the trilogy derive from — in fact, the comics are talked about almost as much as the films! I’ll even send you a free copy to prove it. As the car dealers say, “Satisfaction guaranteed!”
Bottom line: it seems like you’re wary that we’re “false advertising” or something. I’m 100% stating that we’re not. Please don’t be too hasty with the “hating,” homie.
Mr. Phillips, please take that language elsewhere! ;P
And Good Luck with everything. :)
By the way, the Morrison book is FINALLY AVAILABLE!
Check it out:Grant Morrison: The Early Years
Thanks for the post and discussion.
Yes, the Grant Morrison book is awesome. As are the Kevin Colden covers. He’s a great guy too.
As far as the controversy over the X-Men film book, keep in mind that it analyses the entire history of the X-Men comics, showing how the film takes from them and differs from them. The idea with the film series is to generate books like this that can be shown to people who don’t know that much about comics. I know lots of people who aren’t into comics much but love these films, and this is a way of maneuvering some percentage of smart filmgoers into comic book appreciation. Isn’t that what we all want? Sure, we want them to pick up Watchmen, Persepolis, etc. — but getting them to see how the comics are deep (even deeper than the films, I’d argue) is a major first step. Outreach is a major part of our mission.
And it’s a major, in-depth book by a real pro who’s a lifelong comics fan and who has worked for Variety.
Thanks, Heidi and everyone who’s helped get the word out. It’s all for love of the medium, which we all believe in.
chambersburg hospital
Is there a way to make contact with sequart other than twitter or facebook ?
I’d like to buy “Classics on infinite Earths: The Justice League and DC Crossover canon”, but the book is nowhere available and neither publisher nor author seem to have an e-Mail-address or any information how to get this book.
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