On Friday, a day after the Pulitzer Prize winner died of an apparent asthma attack in Syria, House of Stone was in the top 40 on Amazon.com. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt had planned to publish the book March 27, but House of Stone will instead come out Feb. 28.

The 43-year-old journalist had worked previously for The Associated Press, The Washington Post and The Boston Globe. He won Pulitzer Prizes for international reporting in 2004 and 2010 when he was with the Post. His other books include Night Draw Nears, based on his reporting in Iraq.

Source: HT Media

“People new to the industry are choosing varied themes to create their own space in the market. Social issues, or topics of day-to-day importance are increasingly being portrayed through comics,” says Jatin Verma, founder Comic Convention. that concluded here recently.

Increasingly welfare groups and NGOs have been seen using the medium to spread awareness about the social issues.

“We conduct workshops in different parts of India and the world to enable people to tell their own stories via comics, especially those who don’t have a voice. In a workshop conducted in Pakistan, we encouraged people to create comics about the girl child, early marriage, floods, issues which were important to them,” says Sharad Sharma, cartoonist and founder, World Comics India.

“The mainstream media often hesitates to show issues like underground movements and this is where comics play an important role,” says Sharma

Source: HT Media

Cher, known as the Goddess of Pop, is back to woo her fans in a new avatar – a comic book hero. Clad in a, black, see-through, jeweled bodysuit, Cher’s comic book avatar is definitively a threat to femme fatales of the literary world.

Blue Water Comics has released the Female Force: Cher as a part of its “Female Force” series. The comic chronicles

Cher’s life, including momentous personal events such as her marriage to Sonny Bono and the FTM sex-change operation of her son Chaz Bono, reports Huffingtonpost.com.

The Academy, Grammy, Emmy and three Golden Globes award-winning artist’s new look has floored fans worldwide and not surprisingly the comic books are being vanishing from the book shelves.

Source: HT Media

Acclaimed film-maker and creator of Munkeeman, Abhishek Sharma agreed that more children were now increasingly drawn to interactive media such as internet, than comic books. “This generation of kids is more tuned in to watch television or surf internet, than read comics,” he said.

However, he didn’t find this trend very strange.

“I’d say it is just organic growth. With increased avenues of entertainment, the kids prefer those which are more eye-catching. Most of the comic lovers are from our generation, who have grown on a staple diet of Pran and Anant Pai’s creations,” he told IANS.

From eight-page booklets to big graphic novels, the Comic Con presented a wide range of comics. The annual event celebrates the use of cartoons and comics in the ancient Indian tradition of story-telling.

The three-day event will showcase 80 participants and several interactive sessions and talks by renowned artists like Robert Crumb.

Indeed the comics with their increasingly darker themes and subjects seem to be catering more to young adults than kids.

From epic tales being told from the antagonist’s perspective, such as Ravanayana, to a graphic novel by Ari Jayaprakash based in Sonagachi, the world famous red-light district of Kolkata, the new comics seem to be breaking new grounds in story-telling.

Jayaprakash said this trend meant that comics were gathering acceptance even with more mature audiences.

“The central character of my story is an Aghori woman. It is based in an alternate Kolkata, which has become a dark place. Set in Sonagachi, the story has a lot of mature themes,” he said.

Incidentally, Aghoris were the central characters in more than one novel. Aghoris are devotees of Lord Shiva and are said to follow practices such as staying in charnel grounds and cannibalism.

Indian superheroes, such as the Avatars of Vishnu, were also a big subject for many books. However, while the stories largely followed the mythologies, the illustrations had a lot of western and Japanese-style Manga comic influences with elaborate costumes and character details.

However, despite the huge number of new books, the old favorites, Amar Chitra Katha and Raj comics titles such as Chacha Chaudhary, Billu and Pinki still drew a lot of connoisseurs.

“I love Tinkle and Chacha Chaudhary. I plan to buy several new titles,” said Shilpa Lal, 19, a self-proclaimed Pinki fan.

“I grew up reading Nagraj, Super Commando Dhruv and many other Indian superheroes. No new superheroes can replace them,” said Sanyam Kaushik, 26, a management professional.

A lot of content creators also showcased their comics as apps for popular smartphones and tablets. Amar Chitra Katha led the pack with all their titles available as apps for iPad.

Besides the comics, the Comic Con also hosted several events such as live entertainment, contests and a Cosplay competition. Cosplay is a Japanese concept where people dress up as their favourite characters and prizes are given for the best costumes

Source: HT Media

The book is fully illustrated with lavish paintings created by a group of Indian artists hand selected by Chopra, according to publisher Liquid Comics and online site Intent.com,

“The Kama Sutra is many things: a manual for lovemaking, a venerable ancient text of India and to prudes throughout the ages, a scandal. Can it also be described as an inspiring spiritual text? I strongly believe it can,” said Chopra.

The text also includes “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Love”, Chopra’s intensive meditation and affirmation of simple, practical applications that partners can bring to their relationship to enhance and entice their intimacy.

“Deepak Chopra is one of the most acclaimed thought leaders of our generation. We are honoured to work with him to bring his unique and meditative exploration of the Kama Sutra to audiences worldwide across digital E-Books and apps as the perfect Valentine’s Day gift,” said Liquid Comics Co-Founder & CEO, Sharad Devarajan.

The digital book is available through numerous E-Reader and App platforms including Graphicly, Nook, Android, Sony E-Reader and Amazon.

A Facebook version of the book, powered by Graphicly, can be purchased and downloaded at http://tinyurl.com/ChopraKamaSutra.

Source: HT Media

When I tweet, my mind works at high speed. I read or see something, process it quickly, capture a link and send a 140-character opinion. All this happens within minutes, sometimes less. As I write this review, I not only read the book, but also about the writer and the subject for latest data or trends, I masticate my words, pull them out one by one to make them fit accurately. Tweeting is like breathing, somewhat unconscious; writing involves deep breathing, highly conscious.

My tweeting belongs to what 2002 Economics Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman, in Thinking, Fast and Slow, calls System 1 (thinking fast, unconscious, intuitive, effortless); while my writing moves to System 2 (thinking slow, conscious, deductive, laborious).

We like to believe that System 2 — what Kahneman calls “lazy” — is what runs our lives. Not true. If a bat and a ball cost $1.10, Kahneman asks, and the bat costs $1 more than the ball, what is the price of the ball? Think about this question — the answer lies further down in this review. Accordingly, the book focuses on the more glamorous, high-profile, sought-after System 1 rather than the slower, pondering, and more accurate System 2.

For a long time, psychologists and economists believed in reason. Consumers were rational beings and would always act in their best interests. The entire stream of ‘efficient markets’ theory, for instance, rests on reason and legendary investor Warren Buffett has been termed an ‘aberration’. But it is largely System 1 that is our mind’s master. Not always do we act in what seems to be in our best interest — the chief investment officer of a mutual fund buying Ford shares simply because “they know how to make cars”; choosing to follow a career that gives us greater joy than money; loss aversion that prevents us from selling a stock whose price has fallen.

“Most impressions and thoughts arise in your conscious experience without your knowing how they got there,” Kahneman writes. In a stream of such day-to-day actions, he leads us to experiments that show the relationships between cognitive control and intelligence. Those with greater self control as children, for instance, are less likely to take drugs and have substantially higher scores on intelligence tests.

Coming back to the question above, if your answer was 10 cents, you think like more than half of Harvard, MIT and Princeton students and 80% of America’s less selective universities. You think like some of the top accounting and consultancy firm executives. You also think like I do. And all of us are wrong.

If the ball costs 10 cents the total cost would be $1.20 (10 cents for the ball, $1.10 for the bat). The correct answer is 5 cents. What did we do wrong? We gave the intuitive, System 1 answer, without checking if it was correct (thus the ‘laziness’) and “our System 2 endorsed an intuitive answer that it could have rejected with a small investment of using System 2 effort”.

I’d put my money on the fact that this book is very likely to be one of the best non-fiction books of 2012.

Source: HT Media

Steve Jobs – Genius By Design, in memory of the Apple founder. The 90-odd-page book will be out in April, but fans can check out the 30-page preview this month itself. The digital preview will be launched on Steve’s birthday, February 24.

“We’ve been planning this since a long time. We wanted to come out with a book that would be a tribute to him, but these things take time,” says Rajat Malhotra, content and marketing manager (digital) at Campfire.

Out under Campfire’s ‘biography’ section, the book revolves around the iPhone founder’s early life and education, his career with Apple and NeXT Computers, Pixar and Disney. It also traces his association with Apple and his life and health issues. “We’ve used material available in the public domain,” says Malhotra, adding that they don’t see any problems coming up due to the book, as they haven’t spoken about the visionary’s personal life. Instead it chooses to concentrate on his triumphs and failures, as it journeys from his birth and adoption, through the advent of the computer age and on to the digital age.

The announcement on the book is expected at the Delhi Comic Con this weekend, and the book will hit stands in April 2012. It will cost R195. Meanwhile, the digital book will be available across mobile platforms and will have an iPad version as well. It will also be available on Campfire’s website.

Source: HT Media

All he did, after all, was enroll in college at age 8 and earn his first of two Associate of Arts degrees from East Los Angeles Community College at age 9, graduating with a perfect 4.0 grade point average.

Now, at 14, he’s poised to graduate from UCLA this year. He’s also just published an English edition of his first book, “We Can Do.”

The 100-page guideline explains how other young people can accomplish what Cavalin did through such simple acts as keeping themselves focused and approaching everything with total commitment. He’s hoping it will show people there’s no genius involved, just hard work.

“That’s always the question that bothers me,” Cavalin, who turned 14 on Valentine’s Day, says when the G-word is raised. “People need to know you don’t really need to be a genius. You just have to work hard and you can accomplish anything.”

And maybe cut out some of the TV.

Although he’s a big fan of Jackie Chan movies, Cavalin says he limits his television time to four hours a week.

Not that he lacks for recreational activities or feels that his parents pressured him into studying constantly. He writes in “We Can Do” of learning to scuba dive, and he loves soccer and martial arts. He used to participate in the latter sport when he was younger, winning trophies for his age group, until his UCLA studies and his writing made things a little too hectic.

Indeed one of the key messages of his book is to stay focused and to not take on any endeavor half-heartedly.

“I was able to reach the stars, but others can reach the Milky Way,” he tells readers.

It was a professor at his first institution of higher learning, East Los Angeles City College, who inspired him, Cavalin says. He didn’t like the subject but managed to get an A in it anyway, by applying himself and seeing how enthusiastic his teacher, Richard Avila, was about the subject.

Avila, he says, inspired him to write a book explaining his methods for success so he could motivate others.

It took four years to finish, in part because Cavalin, whose mother is Chinese, decided to publish it in Mandarin, and doing the translation himself was laborious.

Han Shian Culture Publishing of Taiwan put the book in print, and it did well in Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia, as well in several bookstores in Southern California’s Asian communities. He then brought it out in English for the U.S. market.

Because of his heavy study load, Cavalin has had little opportunity to promote the book, other than a signing at UCLA, where he also lives in student housing with his parents and attends the school on a scholarship.

After earning his bachelor’s degree, the math major plans to enroll in graduate school with hopes of eventually earning a document.

After that, he’s not so sure. He points out that he’s still just barely a teenager.

“Who knows?” he says, chuckling at the thought of what lies ahead in adulthood. “That’s a very distant future, and I’m pretty much planning for just the next few years. That’s too far into the future for me to see.”

Source: HT Media

Starting from February 17 at Dilli Haat, the event, spread over three days, will feature a bunch of exciting things. Conceptualised by Jatin Verma, the event will provide a platform for aspiring writers and cartoonists to share their work with comic enthusiasts.

“There is a lot of scope in the sphere of comics and graphic novels. The secret agenda of the Comic Con this year is to give independent publishing a platform,” says Verma.

Talking about his plans to garner more readership for comics, Varma says, “You can’t create a superhero all the time, especially when you come from a country where people believe in numerous Gods who have superpowers of their own. So, by making comics more realistic and closer to normal life, we can target a niche area.”

Apart from established Indian and international publishers, many newbies will also launch their work at the event. Writer Adhiraj Singh, who launched his books Uud Bilaw Manus and Widhwa Ma Andhi Behen, at the previous editions of the Comic Con, says, “It’s an event for aspiring artists to get the right kind of guidance as well as show their work to the best in the industry.”

Another attraction this year will be the Cosplay (costume play), where one can dress up like a superhero or a villain, and win prizes. Apart from titles like The Indian Time Traveller and Suppandi – the TV series, the event will also see international names from the industry such as artist Robert Crumb, Gary Gilbert Groth, an American comic book editor, and, Chris Oliveros, the founder and head of the Drawn & Quarterly.

Highlights

Workshops
Many independent animators and authors will conduct interactive sessions including how to make a comic.

Interesting merchandise
Libera Artiste’s DIY paper toys, some really cool T-shirts with an Indian touch from Wear Your Opinion and a lot of personalised merchandise from Bombayarch will be up for grabs

Special tribute
Amar Chitra Katha pays a tribute to its master storyteller – Anant Pai, popularly known as Uncle Pai, with the launch of Anant Pai, Master Storyteller.

Get creative
Dress like a hero (but make sure you give it your own twist, too) if you want to win a trip to Hong Kong Disneyland and more. We list some places from where you can get the super wacky look:

The Costume Shop
The only costume provider at the event, they have a huge variety of superhero costumes such as Superman and Batman, and other dresses like Cindrella and Alice in Wonderland. Head here if you plan to don Victorian and Roman era clothes and accessories.
Price: R699 onwards
Where: They will have a stall at the event venue, but you can also log on to http://www.thecostumeshop.in/

Party Hunterz
Spidergirl, Batwoman, Catwoman — you name it and they have the costume. They also have a wide range of fancy hats, frames and masks that you can get on rent.
Price: Rs. 50 – Rs. 3,500 per day
Where: A-7 Ground Floor, Kailash Colony.
Tel: 9810399239 and 9958055665

Source:HT Media

So begins the first love letter to 19th century poet Elizabeth Barrett from her future husband, fellow poet Robert Browning.

Their 573 love letters, which capture their courtship, their blossoming love and their forbidden marriage, have long fascinated scholars and poetry fans. Though transcriptions of their correspondence have been published in the past, the hand-written letters could only be seen at Wellesley College, where the collection has been kept since 1930.

But beginning on Tuesday, Valentine’s Day, their famous love letters will become available online where readers can see them — just as they were written — with creased paper, fading ink, quill pen cross outs, and even the envelopes the two poets used.

The digitization project is a collaboration between Wellesley and Baylor University in Waco, Texas, which houses the world’s largest collection of books, letters and other items related to the Brownings.

Wellesley administrators hope the project will expose students, romantics, poetry lovers and others to their love story. Barrett, one of the most well-known poets of the Victorian era, suffered from chronic illness and was in her late 30s when Browning first wrote her in 1845 to tell her he admired her work.

In their fifth month of corresponding, they met for the first time, introduced by Barrett’s cousin.

After more than a year of almost daily letters between them, the couple married in secret in September 1846, defying her father’s prohibition against her ever marrying. They fled from London to Italy, where doctors had told Barrett her health might improve. Her father disinherited her and never spoke to her again.

“It’s the fact that she defied her father, she was in ill health, they fell in love through letters, she left with hardly anything,” said Ruth Rogers, Wellesley’s curator of special collections.

“If you want a perfect romance, just read the letters,” she said.

The website set up for readers to see the correspondence includes both the hand-written letters and transcriptions, as well as a zoom function for readers to try to decipher faded or illegible words. The body of letters will also be searchable by keywords.

Readers can see for themselves how they fall in love, while corresponding about other writers, philosophy and their own work. Barrett first wrote the lines of what would become her most famous poem after she met Browning, “How Do I Love Thee? Let me count the ways.”

Consider this, from Barrett’s letter to Browning on June 4, 1846: “You are too perfect, too overcomingly good & tender — dearest you are, & I have no words with which to answer you.”

Or this, from Browning to Barrett, Sept. 18, 1846, shortly before their marriage: “God bless and strengthen you, my ever dearest dearest …Write to me one word more-depend on me…”

“She met someone who she could share a seriously important part of her life with,” said Sandra Donaldson, an English professor at the University of North Dakota and a recognized scholar of Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

“Seeing these things that they touched — even though we are seeing it on the screen — has much the same effect as being able to see and touch the manuscripts,” she said.

“When you look at the transcriptions, it’s cold, black and white. It’s nothing like these letters,” she said of the hand-written online manuscripts.

Rogers said one of the most interesting things about the love letters is that Barrett almost left them behind when she and Browning left for Italy. In her last letter to Browning, dated Sept. 18, 1846, she says she had to take them with her.

“I tried to leave them, & I could not-That is, they would not be left: it was not my fault-I will not be scolded,” she wrote. Henry Durant, who founded Wellesley College in 1870, admired the Brownings and considered Elizabeth Barrett Browning to be an example of a strong, educated woman who would be a good role model for the young women of Wellesley. Durant gave his large personal library to the college, including many first editions by both poets.

Because the college was already known for its Browning room and collection, Robert Browning donated Elizabeth’s handwritten poem, “Little Mattie” to the college in 1882.

Former Wellesley President Caroline Hazard purchased the collection of Browning letters, and in 1930, donated them to Wellesley, where they have remained. The library even has the actual mahogany door to the Barrett house in London, where Browning’s letters to Elizabeth passed through a brass letter slot. The slot was screwed shut by a Wellesley librarian more than 40 years ago because students slipped through letters of their own to pay homage to the Brownings. Rogers said she is considering re-opening the slot.

The digitized letters will be made available free online through Baylor’s digital collections.

Baylor transformed 1,723 raw digital images from Wellesley into more than 4,200 edited page and envelope images, said Darryl Stuhr, manager of digitization projects for Baylor’s electronic library. Baylor also digitized more than 800 other letters written by or to the couple by friends, family and other literary greats of the era.

Stuhr said Baylor needed 107 gigabytes for the love letters alone.

“It is giving worldwide access to the collection, where somebody can actually see what the letters look like without having to travel, from the comfort of their own homes,” Stuhr said.

Source: HT Media