Many of you probably already know by now that Neil Gaiman picked up the 2009 Newbery Award for The Graveyard Book. If you’ve completely forgotten your unhappy childhood, I’ll remind you that the Newbery Medal is the most prestigious award given out in children’s publishing; all the books your parents’ friends gave you for your birthday and Christmas had the medal stamped on it.

But unless you’re connected to the children’s book world, you might not have paid attention to all the other awards the American Library Association handed out today. The Bachelder Award is given to the “most outstanding” book published in a foreign language. Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit by Nahoko Uehashi (published by, yes, Harry Potter’s American publisher, Arthur A. Levine) picked up the laurels this year. The award comes a week after the animated series based on the novel was yanked from the schedule at Cartoon Network.

This year marks the second year in a row that a novel translated from the Japanese has won the Bachelder; last year it was Miyuki Miyabe’s Brave Story, published by Viz, which had not previously been known for its non-media fiction.

Amy Goldschlager writes for FindingDulcinea.com.

WARNING: Denizens of Cynosure that are planning on attending the Time Traveler Convention held forty-four months ago are reminded that the Chronarch strictly forbids intentional time travel within Cynosure city limits; and that the early 21st Century is a generally unstable chronological era. Travelers should try the 100th anniversary convention in 2105 instead.

Yes, Rond Vidar and Michael Jon Carter, this means you.

Failure to heed this warning may result in a repeated time loop, possibly infinite.

In the 80’s and 90’s, one of the busiest inkers in the comics business was Arne Starr. A protege of Dick Giordano, Arne’s work graced the pages of The Legion of Super-Heroes, Nexus, Star Trek, and Sachs & Violens (who are now showing up in Fallen Angel), even doing uncredited work on Crisis On Infinite Earths, and he was a mainstay of a lot of east coast conventions, usually running the movie previews. Then he left the business in the mid-nineties recession.

So how come you haven’t seen him lately?

Well, you probably have seen him– just not in places where you expected.

Arne Starr packed up his bags and moved to Beverly (Hills, that is) and has been doing lots of work as an actor, finding himself doing tremendous amounts of background work all over TV and movies. Some of his more recognizable appearances are as an Attending Physician on Grey’s Anatomy, and an artist at the Sterling Cooper agency on Mad Men, in a clear case of typecasting.

If you keep your eyes open, you can also spot him in episodes of CSI, Medium, Jericho, Sleeper Cell, Bones and as a semi-regular at the Crab Shack in My Name Is Earl. In movies, he shows up in Bedtime Stories, Frost/Nixon, as the Citizen Kane cinematographer Gregg Toland inMan In The Chair, and in a nod to his comic book roots, Iron Man.

Here’s a shot from an appearnce on Grey’s Anatomy:

It’s great to see Arne doing well. But more than anything else, I’m just amazed I got to a Hollywood comic book story before Mark Evanier did.

The 2009 Oscar nominations are in, and they include a gratifying number of comic book adaptations and other geekly delights. First and most obvious is The Dark Knight. In addition to Heath Ledger’s highly anticipated posthumous Best Supporting Actor nod for his reinvention of the Joker, The Dark Knight has also gathered a slew of technical nominations: Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Mixing and Sound Editing, Best Film Editing, and Best Visual Effects.

But the Batman isn’t the only comic hero to get Oscar’s nod. Iron Man was nominated for Best Sound Editing and Best Visual Effects (though sadly, Robert Downey Jr. received no recognition for his splendid portrayal of the eponymous douchebag hero. His nomination for Tropic Thunder is a small consolation, as comedies and comic roles get snubbed by the Academy almost as much as fantasy and science fiction.) Wanted, based on Mark Millar and J.G. Jones’ comic miniseries, was nominated for Best Sound Mixing. And Hellboy II: The Golden Army got a nod for Best Makeup. No nominations at all for The Incredible Hulk – thought I wouldn’t want to be the one breaking the news to Ed Norton.

You may notice a pattern here: except for Ledger’s Best Supporting Actor nomination, all the comic book movie nominations are for technical awards: music, sound, visual effects, makeup. And even those seem a bit skimpy – where is The Golden Army’s costume or visual effects nomination? Makeup alone does not begin to cover Guillermo del Toro’s stunning visual feast. It’s sad that in a year delivering so many knockout performances and stories from the comic book world, the Academy continues to marginalize them in favor of heavy real-world dramas. (more…)