The new issue of Bookslut is up and includes my column on boys and comics. I shuffle books around a lot as they come in, looking for most coherent and unusual way to put them together for a thematic column. (Sometimes this works really well and sometimes it doesn't - next month is just "nonfiction books" - boring theme, but great books!) This month I ended up with four books all about boys who write and draw their own comics:

The Wonder Kid by George Harrar
Stuff by Jeremy Strong
Drawing a Blank by Daniel Ehrenhaft & Trevor Ristow
Astonishing Adv of Fanboy and Goth Girl by Barry Lyga

I came at these books from a different place than many YA reviewers (I think) as I have been reading comics for most of my life (and continue to do so on a regular basis). So I knew about this literary/art form before I began reading the books and I was interested to see how the authors approached it as well.

For those of you who have asked about my opinion of Lyga's book over the past few months, I have to say that it bothered me a bit that liking comics was such a bad thing in the book. (His best friend won't discuss them because it makes him unpopular.) I was also bothered by the strange portrayal of the parents - I couldn't see why they had to come off so badly when in the end they were really decent and basically normal people. And as for Goth Girl, well she was just another train wreck. There were just so many disturbing things in the book and I couldn't help but think that Lyga relied too much on the incorrect stereotype of what a young comic book reader is like to tell his story. My brother loved comics and there was nothing about him that would stand in gym everyday and get beat up just because - no way, no how. So that reduced my enjoyment of the book a bit more than it might have for reviewers or readers who don't have an affection for comic books.

I also included the wonderful Robert Olen Butler's collection Severance as my "Cool Read" this month. It's a very unique book - if you haven't heard about it then you're really missing something. I think the creepy factor associated with his subject matter (decapitated people) is just the thing to attract teens and then once he has their notice, the writing will take over. My wonderful editor at Booklist, Donna Seaman, has posted an interview with Butler in this month's issue as well.