A mother in Halsey, Ore., has filed paperwork to have Andy Riley’s popular The Book of Bunny Suicides removed from the Central Linn High School library.

But Taffey Anderson, whose 13-year-old son borrowed the book from the library, refuses to return it so a school district committee can review her complaint. Instead, she reportedly plans to burn the graphic novel.

“I understand her feeling very strongly about her rights, values and responsibility as a parent,” Principal Julie Knoedler told The Oregonian. “But I’m disappointed that she is forcing us to buy another copy before we can review the book.”

Published in 2003, the darkly humorous book is a mix of single-image gags and multi-panel strips depicting, as the title suggests, cute little bunnies committing suicide in imaginative ways.

“I saw poor bunnies going through meat grinders; people, like, throwing them in there and they’re getting shot out,” Anderson told the Albany Democrat-Herald. “People in Nazi helmets, and there’s a bunny, and they’re shooting him.”

In her complaint to the school district, she wrote, “This book has absolutely no curriculum value to anybody.”

Anderson pledges not to return the book. And if the library were to replace it, “I’ll have somebody else check it out and keep that one. I’m just disgusted by the whole ordeal.”

I am, too. Just not about the book.

(Via Examiner.com)

Update: As a reader points out in the comments, Bunny Crisis appears to be over, at least mostly. According to an item posted Tuesday on American Libraries, Anderson has returned the book and, after numerous negative articles, has softened her stance.

She nows says she’d be satisfied if The Book of Bunny Suicides is kept behind the circulation desk and restricted to high-school students. The Central Linn High School Library serves both high-school and junior-high students.

If you’re the type of comics fan who occasionally likes to peruse the newsstand (and bless you if you do), it should be duly noted that this week’s issue of The New Yorker is their annual “Cartoon Issue,” with Steve Brodner talking about how he sees McCain and Obama everywhere; editorial cartoonist Mike Luckovich counting down the ways he’ll miss about Dubya; a cute two-page spread by Bruce McCall; a smattering of gag strips pertaining to current events; reviews of Tamara Drewe, Burma Chronicles and Bat-Manga!; spot illustrations by Joost Swarte and — for the piece de resistance — an awesome four-page strip by Robert, Aline and Sophie Crumb about their attending a Crumb family reunion in Minnesota. Hey, Drawn and Quarterly even took out an ad for this issue!

But if you can’t find a hard copy, the magazine’s Web site has a good bit of comics-related content as well, including Cartoon Editor Robert Mankoff answering readers’ questions; an audio file of McCall dissecting his cartoon; a video of Brodner drawing and satirizing the election; and an interview with Dilbert creator Scott Adams:

C.L.: Back to the new book, “Dilbert 2.0.”—What is included?

S.A.: It’s a big, beautiful, ten-pound coffee-table book with a few thousand of my favorite comics, including the ones too naughty to get published in newspapers. It also has stories about the trouble I got into for strips that did get published. I tell the story of how I went from cubicle to cartooning, which required lots of luck and the kindness of strangers. We also include a disc that has every “Dilbert” comic published in newspapers from 1989 until we went to production

Aaron Costain provides a number of eloquent, Edward Gorey-style reasons to avoid taking the bus.(hat tip: Drawn!)

The author of the acclaimed book Alan’s War shows you how he drew the blessed thing.

Related: Cory Doctrow reviews the book over at Boing Boing.

Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins, of Penny Arcade fame, have been making an online storybook based on the characters in the upcoming Prince of Persia game. (hat tip: The Ephemerist)

The Will Eisner Spirit of Comic Retailing-winning Brave New World Comics will host an art show starting this Saturday:

This Saturday, November 1, at 7pm, in the Gallery Loft of Brave New World Comics on Lyons Avenue in Newhall, California, a new kind of gallery show will be opening.

“When you tell people that you have an art gallery in your pop culture store, they tend to have a certain kind of art in mind. Usually involving capes and tights,” says Portlyn, Brave New World Comics proprietress of pretty proportions. “But this time around, we wanted to give artists a chance to speak their mind on the election season, our sitting elected officials, and the issues that face them.”

Out of that desire, the NO THIRD TERM Gallery Show was born. Featuring the works of Llyn Hunter and Matt Silady, NO THIRD TERM has also been opened up to the artistic public to make their voices heard. “Nothing’s more democratic than our First Amendment rights and we’re looking forward to seeing how the artists of our community use that right, and this show, to speak up,” Portlyn went on to say.

The opening on Saturday, November 1st will feature the works of these artists and an all American theme

Variety reports that Paramount has optioned Agnes Quill: An Anthology of Mystery, a webcomic written by Dave Roman that was collected by SLG Publishing a couple of years ago.

According to the trade:

Thor Freudenthal (“Hotel for Dogs”) is attached to direct, and Evan Spiliotopoulos is writing the script.

Pic marks the first acquisition for Adam Goodman since transitioning from DreamWorks, where he shepherded “Hotel for Dogs.”

Graphic novel’s title character turns 16 and inherits from her grandfather an estate and an ability to see and communicate with the dead.

Actually that’s kind of a weak description; I prefer the one on SLG’s site:

Agnes Quill is the story of a teenage detective, the haunted city she lives in, the strange cases she solves, and the ghosts who help, hinder, or just plain annoy her. Set in Legerdemain a congested, fog-filled, cobblestone-paved Victorian city built around a cemetery the size of Central Park Agnes adventures include confrontations with trapped spirits, cursed souls, possessed relatives, disappearing pets, decapitated scientists, ambitious zombies, and a mess of other supernatural oddities. Written by Dave Roman, and featuring stories illustrated by Jason Ho, Jen Wang, Jeff Zornow, and Eisner nominee, Raina Telgemeier.

Comedian Rich Kuras ventures inside the World of Warcraft to gauge opinions on Election ’08. How many electoral votes does Azeroth have, anyway?

(Via Andrew Sullivan)

Preacher fans take heart: There is life after HBO.

Two months after it was revealed the cable network had passed on a TV drama based on the Garth Ennis-Steve Dillon comic, The Hollywood Reporter has word that Columbia Pictures has picked up the rights to the popular Vertigo series.

Sam Mendes (Road to Perdition, American Beauty) will direct. Neal Moritz and Jason Netter, who are adapting Ennis’ The Boys for Columbia, also will produce Preacher. No writers have been attached.

The property has circled Hollywood for years. Before the planned HBO series was announced in 2006, Kevin Smith had toyed with producing a big-screen adaptation starring James Marsden.

Preacher, which ran for 66 issues from 1995 to 2000, helped to define DC’s Vertigo imprint.

Well, the news hit yesterday that Secret Invasion #8 is going to take a little longer than expected to reach our hot little hands, about two week’s worth of delay as they promise an arrival date of December 3rd.

No big deal, right?  The book’s been remarkably on time thus far and a couple weeks shouldn’t hurt the story.  Heck, look at the delays on Astonishing X-Men or Straczynski’s Thor!  Two weeks is a cakewalk!  It just might be a little difficult for retailers who were going to be given some extra, non-classified, post-SI solicitations to make their orders from.  There’s the books like Invincible Iron Man and Mighty Avengers who are going to have to do a little shuffle of their own as they wait for the sweet release that is the end of Secret Invasion.

At this point, as the finish line looms ahead, Marvel readers need answers.  How is this all going to end?  What’s Dark Reign going to be all about?  Why is the future so uncertain?  Looking at what we know and narrowing our focus down to what’s expressly penned by Mr. Bendis himself, it’s hard to guess at what he’s getting at.  Yes, there’s an invasion of alien invaders, yes the heroes are pushing themselves past their limits to defeat an immensely powered foe (yeah, that does sound a little like World War Hulk!), but what’s this all for?  In Civil War and the aforementioned World War Hulk, the line was clear:  either one thing happens or another.  Either the Pro-Registration side wins or they don’t.  Either the Hulk destroys everything or he’s defeated.  Here, the line is less clear.

Or is it?  Looking back at the history of the Bendis Blockbuster, there’s a few things we can learn about what’s ahead for us this December and beyond.

(more…)

David Lasky makes a 24-hour comic about making a 24-hour comic. How meta!

David Heatley is visited by his younger selves in this gently self-mocking parody he did for Amazon.

– Artist Shepard Fairey, who designed the “Hope” Obama poster, tells Boing Boing he’s pleased as punch to have his work parodied by Mad Magazine: “I consider a high point in my career for pop culture recognition.”

– Laura Hudson talks to James Kochalka about the 10th anniversary of his diary strip, American Elf.

– Hudson also interviews librarian and comics advocate Karen Green, who has a column over at Comixology.

– Doug Wolk looks at Bill Willingham’s upcoming plans for Fables, which include a prose novel.

– Bookslut talks to Phoebe Gloeckner.

– I hadn’t heard about this — cartoonist Carol Lay has a book coming out entitled The Big Skinny, about her lifelong battle with her weight. Wendy Werris has more details.

– Geeknerd’s annual Halloween Costume Bingo is up.

– Frank Santoro takes a look at the new Bat-Manga! collection and declares it good.

– Kristy Valenti takes time to remember the 1986 graphic novel Greenberg the Vampire, one of Marvel’s early entries into the graphic novel market.

– Noah Berlatsky thinks superhero comics are at their best when they don’t take themselves too seriously.

– Everyone and their uncle seems to be talking about Inio Asano’s Solanin, now in stores courtesy of Viz.

As I mentioned last week, we’re proud to bring you the sequel to Matt Maxwell’s first graphic novel, Strangeways: Murder Moon, page-by-page for the next few months. So check out the second page to Strangeways: The Thirsty below:

Strangeways: The Thirsty will be updated every Monday, Wednesday and Friday here on Blog@Newsarama.

* (or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Watoomb)

Last week’s talk of a possible big-screen future for Doctor Strange has triggered a groundswell of support for the Master of the Mystic Arts.

The Marvel-infatuated Motley Fool went so far as to suggest the company could become “the next Disney.” Because of a Doctor Strange movie?

“Just as Iron Man updated the comic book mythos for an audience all-too-familiar with human frailty, technological prowess, and Middle Eastern conflicts,” Tim Beyers writes, “a Dr. Strange movie could tap into our collective fascination with inner and outer demons. And Harry Potter, of course.”

Writing for AMC’s SciFi Scanner, Nick Nadel doesn’t go so far as to drop the D-word, but he does like how Doctor Strange “could expand Marvel’s ever growing bag of movie tricks.”

(more…)

Somebody’s not happy about Marvel Studios recasting James (War Machine) Rhodes in Iron Man 2.

No, not Don Cheadle; he’s probably pleased. No, not Marvel executives; they’re thrilled. Okay, I’ll give you Terrence Howard, who played Rhodey in the first film. He’s certainly chafed.

But I’m talking about these guys, who are upset enough to launch a website and petition demanding that Marvel Studios change its mind and return Howard to the role.

The message at HowardNOTCheadle.com reads:

(more…)

Nathan Fisher, the Connecticut teacher pushed out of his job last year after giving a copy of Eightball #22 to a ninth-grader, is still teaching — just not at Guilford High School.

Rick Green of the Hartford Courant updates Fisher’s story, noting that the educator landed at Coginchaug Regional High School in Durham, Conn., where he’s happily teaching English and journalism, and serving as adviser to the online student newspaper.

“It feels like a family,” Fisher told him. “It’s like they say. It’s the hardest job you will ever love.”

Fisher resigned from Guilford High School in September 2007 after complaints that he gave the Daniel Clowes comic to a student as a reading assignment. A police investigation found that no criminal charges were necessary.

Following up on my post from earlier this week about the Alternative Press Expo, here’s another round-up of various exhibitors who will attend the show. If you’re exhibiting, drop me an email before Friday and I’ll do one more post before the show this weekend.

(more…)

Empire magazine has a new batch of images from J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek, plus a cover that gives a nod to that classic photo of Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner as Spock and Kirk.

Star Trek opens in May 2009.

Here’s a new trailer for the upcoming Mortal Kombat vs. the DC Universe that offers a glimpse at the game’s story: