Thursday, May 31, 2007

Trina Robbins & Neil Gaiman: just because....

I’m reading the current issue of Library Journal, with a nice overview of the career of Japanese manga artist Rumiko Takahashi (Return of Lum, Ranma ½, etc.). Along with this there reviews of a new selection of both manga translations and graphic novels from American publishers.

What caught my eye was a review of the book, “Masters of the Comic Book Universe Revealed!” by Arie Kaplan. Reviewer Martha Cornog mentions that while the book deals with well known creators like Stan Lee, Will Eisner, and the like it also discusses more recent folks like Kyle Baker and Ho Che Anderson. The striking thing is in listing some of the folks she places Neil Gaiman among the long-standing ‘grand master’ and Trina Robbins as a ‘recent notable.’

Maybe it’s just me but I seem to recall Trina having a nice career & fan following well before Neil’s name started showing up on the cover of a DC comic. I’ve been fans of both for years and have had the opportunity to actually meet both at some point face-to-face (ask me about exchanging e-mail with Gaiman sometime!). I realize that a quick mention in a book review shouldn’t be taken as a slight, but a quick Google search on Robbin’s name would not have been to much to ask.

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