Jan 11, 2011
Vietnamerica, a graphic memoir by GB Tran, follows Tran, who was born and raised in South Carolina, as he travels to Vietnam to attend his grandparents’ funerals and learns of his family’s history. His journey leads to revelations about his parents, who fled Saigon in the last hours of the Vietnam war and struggled to adapt to American life, and their relationship as well as his grandfather, who was a Viet Cong soldier. Vietnamerica will be released by Villard on January 25th.
Editor's Note: In this excerpt, in which Tran first arrives in Vietnam and attends the funerals of his mother’s mother and his father’s father, the 4th and 5th pages as well as the 9th and 10th pages should be read as spreads.
Publishing news from across the Web
Rich Burlew, creator of the longrunning Web comic, Order of the Stick, has raised a $1 Million on Kickstarter to fund a reprint program for the seven volume trade paperback series.
The Comics Reporter blog has posted a 2004 interview with cartoonist James Sturm, challenging him after he published a reimagined version of Jack Kirby’s Fantastic Four.
Cartoonist Jean-Claude Denis was awarded the Grand Prix—the festival’s lifetime achievement award—at this year’s Angouleme Festival, France’s gigantic festival honoring comics. North Americans honored at the festival include Art Speigelman, Frank Woodring and Guy Delisle.
Although U.S. manga sales have dropped nearly 50% since 2007, manga expert Jason Thompson says the category is still popular—kids today just read it for free on pirate websites. Thompson takes a look at manga and offers some history and some hope for the category going forward.
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