New Titles

1 & 2) Abel, Jessica and Matt Madden. Drawing Words & Writing Pictures and Mastering Comics. 2008 and 2012. First Second. Paperbacks: 282 and 318 pages. Price: $34.99 each.

SUMMARY: Drawing Words and Writing Pictures is a course on comic creation – for college classes or for independent study – that centers on storytelling and concludes with making a finished comic. With chapters on lettering, story structure, and panel layout, the fifteen lessons offered – each complete with homework, extra credit activities and supplementary reading suggestions – provide a solid introduction for people interested in making their own comics. Additional resources, lessons, and after-class help are available on the accompanying website, www.dw-wp.com.
     A new course of material to accompany First Second’s widely acclaimed 2008 comics textbook. In their hotly anticipated follow-up to 2008’s comics textbook Drawing Words & Writing Pictures, School of Visual Arts cartooning professors Matt Madden and Jessica Abel bring their expertise to bear on the “second semester” of a course of study for the budding cartoonist. Covering advanced topics such as story composition, coloring, and file formatting, Mastering Comics is a vital companion to the introductory content of the first volume.
RECOMMENDATION: Ever thought you could do comics? These books will get you started!

3) Brown, Lester R.. Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity. 2012. W.W. Norton. Paperback: 144 pages. Price: $16.95 U.S.
SUMMARY: With food supplies tightening, countries are competing for the land and water resources needed to feed their people.
     With food scarcity driven by falling water tables, eroding soils, and rising temperatures, control of arable land and water resources is moving to center stage in the global struggle for food security. “In this era of tightening world food supplies, the ability to grow food is fast becoming a new form of geopolitical leverage. Food is the new oil,” Lester R. Brown writes.
     What will the geopolitics of food look like in a new era dominated by scarcity and food nationalism? Brown outlines the political implications of land acquisitions by grain-importing countries in Africa and elsewhere as well as the world’s shrinking buffers against poor harvests. With wisdom accumulated over decades of tracking agricultural issues, Brown exposes the increasingly volatile food situation the world is facing.
RECOMMENDATION: For those with an interest in the future of humanity.