Something for the Weekend

Gosh! — Limited edition Footnotes in Gaza bookplate by Joe Sacco for Gosh! Comics in London (seen at The Ephemerist).

There is also an interesting interview with Joe Sacco about his new book on the BBC World Service’s The Strand.

How To Be An Artist — Criterion designer Eric Skillman discusses his design process for Eddie Campbell‘s Alec: The Years Have Pants published by TopShelf.

And Eddie Campbell is interviewed by USA Today about the book.

Imaginary Worlds — PW Comics Week talks to Helen McCarthy, author of The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga:

I don’t know if it’s his themes that make his work timeless, so much as his breadth of interest. He was interested in everything and everyone that lives. He gives every character in his works the respect of allowing them to exist as real individuals; whether they’re likeable or not, they’re real. I think that’s the quality that makes animation director Hayao Miyazaki resemble him most strongly, that insistence that nobody is a stereotype or a cipher, that everybody has equal validity whether they’re a ‘nice’ person or not. Personally, I love his approach to women. He treats them exactly like normal human beings, and so few writers really do that, even in these allegedly liberated times.

There is also a short interview with the author in the WSJ.

Is Publishing Dead? (PDF) — An good interview with Sarah Nelson, former editor-in-chief at PW and now book director for O, The Oprah Magazine, from the 2009 PubWest Conference (via GalleyCat):

I don’t think that digital, per se, is the culprit. I don’t even think that Google, per se, is the culprit. I think that there are a lot of people in publishing who look to those things, to Google, to eBooks, to Amazon and say that they are the devil, and they are killing our business. I think it’s not that simple. I think that publishers need to think about the business model in which they operate and to give advances – and… it’s less true of the small and medium sized publishers, and for that reason, they’re in better shape than some of the big guys – but when you’re giving several million dollar advances on books, you are destined to lose money. And that is only going to become more true if more books are read digitally, because the amount of money you’re going to make on a digital book is a lot less than the amount of money you’re going to make on hardcover.

Judging 2009 by its Cover — Amazon (somewhat ripping our friend at The BDR) have started a Best Book Cover of the Year poll. Please vote for something worthy.

And, as you’ve no doubt seen, Ben has chosen his top 10 covers of the decade at the Book Cover Archive Blog.

And last (but by no means least)…

Advent Books — Crazy Sean Cranbury of Books on the Radio, and Book Madam Julie Wilson have a Christmas book project:

The idea behind it is simple: authors, publishing professionals, bloggers, and booksellers will write short enthusiastic recommendations of their favorite books that have been published in the last year.  We’ll publish a few of these every day, including pics and links for the books… It’s what we’re calling the Digital Handsell 3.0.  Just in time for the Holiday Season.

I don’t think my selection will come as surprise to anyone who reads this blog regularly, but apparently it’s controversial.