Ghosts!

September 23, 2016 12:42 PM

Raina Telgemeier's new book Ghosts came out recently to great reviews, so with five separate entries she is dominating the Times' graphic novels bestseller lists (again).

She is also currently doing a publicity tour and is kind of super popular.

Previously.

posted by mattamatic (16 comments total)

My local comic store's display window is nothing but her most recent book and another comic for kids.

My daughter mentioned in the previously: thread is now four and really digs sequential art books with complex/colorful art, preferably with monsters. So I'm now on the prowl for that.
posted by selfnoise at 1:02 PM on September 23, 2016

Yay!

And that's a forward thinking LCS, most of them are so tied into the endless diamond/direct market cycle that they miss out on MASSIVELY HUGE HITS like this.
posted by Artw at 1:06 PM on September 23, 2016 [1 favorite]

My daughter mentioned in the previously: thread is now four and really digs sequential art books with complex/colorful art, preferably with monsters. So I'm now on the prowl for that.

Have you tried the Zita the Spacegirl books? Soon to be a major motion picture!
posted by Artw at 1:08 PM on September 23, 2016 [3 favorites]

I keep on thinking I should read her stuff. I feel more likely to do this now that she's not writing stories about growing up with her sister; I've known Amara for years and really just don't feel like I want to pry like that. Just feels really fuckin' weird to have a story about having trouble getting along with one of your friends be pinned to the top of the NYT best-seller list.
posted by egypturnash at 1:13 PM on September 23, 2016

I read it and my son already read it twice.

Contra Lionel Schriver's claims that white people aren't allowed to write characters of color because PC POLICE RUN AMOK FREE SPEECH OH NO, I've seen barely anybody having a problem with Telgemeier building this book around Latinx protagonists. (Though here's one example.)
posted by escabeche at 1:39 PM on September 23, 2016

No, there has been good criticism about the cultural aspects of Ghosts, from multiple readers:

Reading While White
Debbie Reese at American Indians in Childrens Literature
Laura Jimenez at Booktoss
posted by mixedmetaphors at 1:43 PM on September 23, 2016 [7 favorites]

Sorry to have missed that criticism. I couldn't really judge the book for myself because my daughter lost her copy after two days, but it'll be nice to be able to give her a more well-rounded perspective of the book now.
posted by mattamatic at 2:16 PM on September 23, 2016

Raina Telgemeier is the single most successful comics creator of her generation and I can't figure out why I never see her held up as an idol beyond awesome indie-comics ladies on Twitter.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 3:01 PM on September 23, 2016 [1 favorite]

Raina Telgemeier is the single most successful comics creator of her generation and I can't figure out why I never see her held up as an idol beyond awesome indie-comics ladies on Twitter.

Mainly, comics fandom (like video games fandom and every other kind of fandom) exists within silos between which there's sometimes no communication beyond Mean Tweets and Hot Takes.
posted by selfnoise at 3:10 PM on September 23, 2016 [5 favorites]

"Silos" is a good way to put it; I subscribe to a lot of comics creators and fans on my Tumblr feed, and I have not heard Telgemeier's name mentioned once.
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:50 PM on September 23, 2016

Do you guys have kids? I have a fifth grader and I feel like everybody knows Raina Telgemeier. I couldn't tell you the name of five other graphic novelists, but I knew what day Ghosts was coming out and had our copy that afternoon.
posted by escabeche at 6:01 PM on September 23, 2016 [1 favorite]

Do you guys have kids? I have a fifth grader and I feel like everybody knows Raina Telgemeier. I couldn't tell you the name of five other graphic novelists, but I knew what day Ghosts was coming out and had our copy that afternoon.

I was a fifth grader in 1988 and I have a feeling I'm going to be REALLY surprised at what's on the reading lists when my daughter gets there.
posted by selfnoise at 8:16 PM on September 23, 2016

I loved Smile and am super happy to know that Raina Telgemeier is still making great stuff.
posted by knuckle tattoos at 8:25 PM on September 23, 2016

My 8-year-old only-sort-of-reader was given Sisters for her birthday last year, and it was one of the three books she took with when we lived abroad for a year. And my 11-year-old borrowed the 8-year-old's copy of Smile when she got her braces. I'll have to buy this for them.
posted by leahwrenn at 8:30 PM on September 23, 2016 [1 favorite]

My nine year old son and I were hanging out at our favorite comics shop when I noticed the Ghosts display. "Hey, bug," I said, "do you want this for your birthday?" He was elated. He took it home, grabbed his copies of Drama, Smile, Sisters and the first volume of Babysitter's Club, and installed himself on the couch. When he came up for air, he asked me how we could manage to meet Raina Telgemeier. In other words, he's in love.
posted by vverse23 at 11:05 PM on September 23, 2016

My nine-year-old son also loves Raina's books! And he also went to meet Raina (and got her signature!).
posted by Mo Nickels at 4:56 PM on September 24, 2016 [1 favorite]