All Kinds of Superheroes

In recent months there have been a number of terrific graphic novels released, including Kate Beaton’s Hark, Vagrant, Michael Kupperman’s rendition of Mark Twain’s Autobiography 1910-2010, Ludovic Debeurme’s Lucille, and Nick Bertozzi’s Lewis & Clark. Last April, as part of the PEN World Voices Festival I had the privilege of covering a special comics reading that featured a total of nine comics creators, including the four above. The program included voice artists portraying characters, live music, and bright comic images projected on a big screen. It was a special day, and in honor of all the great comics out this fall, I am sharing the write-up I did of the event, “Getting Real with Superheroes,” which ran in Publishers Weekly.