Not All Comics Have Superheroes...

Woo! Sorry about no update yesterday. I was, as they say, "teh sleeps." Ok, they don't say that, but if they did, it would mean I was tired. And I was.
Firstly, I had stayed up until two the night before reading "Maus" by Art Spiegelman. It's a comic that I've been meaning to read for years now, but I've just never really taken that extra little bit of time and effort and done it. Well, thankfully, Naomi Riemer has a copy conveniently in her room!
It really is excellent. Spiegelman's art seems simple on the surface, but this simplicity is a deliberate choice that stands in contrast to the serious subject matter discussed in the book. Not only that, but he has an excellent sense of framing and paneling, which subtly affect and inform our reading of the work.
The story is basically just his father's experience of living in Poland as a Jew during the Holocaust. Yet there are a few choices that add so much to the story. First, Spiegelman includes snippets of his conversations with his father, both about the war, and they're current life. It provides a rich context for the story, and anchors it in life. It isn't an abstraction, but a horrific event that has deeply affected the lives of many, and as we see, continues to affect them. Also, as you can see, the characters are drawn mostly human, but their heads are from animals. For example, the Jews are mice, the Polish are pigs, and the Germans are, you guessed it, cats. I can't quite put my finger on why I think this was such an interesting choice, but I find it very effective. The story is told about people, so it isn't about a cat holocaust on mice, it's about the Nazi's and jews and real history. But this single artistic choice somehow draws you deeper into the events. This artistic decision could quite easily be viewed as making light of the events, but it doesn't. I still have book two to finish, but it has been an excellent read so far.
Well, work was busy yesterday. Which is good. I like being busy. Basically I did what I've done before, but twice as much of it. So, lots of shipping, lots of scanning, lots of proofing, lots of getting covers approved. Lots of getting covers approved. You have to get at least 6 different signatures on those puppies: Editor, Proof-reading, Sales, etc. It involves running around a lot, but it's ok. That's what I really like about my job, is that I always have something to do. There are interns that work in the editor's offices. They mostly just sit there waiting for the editors to tell them to do something. Not as fun in my opinion, but they get to know the editors, so there are trade offs. This is definitely a business where it pays to know people, so that really is a great opportunity for them.
I had to proof one of the "Essential" books yesterday. If you don't know, the essentials are collections of much older Marvel comics that are printed in black & white. This makes them super cheap, so if you want to catch up on, say, the last thirty years of the Fantastic Four, it doesn't cost you a bajillion space-bucks. However, that meant that I had TONS of pages to proof. Luckily, because those issues are so old, if the printer has gotten the page off, it will be instantly recognizable. This is because the pages are "flat". In other words, the text is on the same level as the pictures in the file, so you can't skew one without the other. It took a long time, and I was basically just flipping pages the whole time. But hey, live and learn. I know a lot more about publishing now than I ever thought I would. Hurray for experience!