GRAPHIC NOVELS AND COMICS
Whether for children or adults, my criteria are: (a) most importantly, original, honest and interesting story content (ideally of an uplifting, rewarding or beautiful nature with a good plot focusing on choices and value-conflicts--which is hard to find), especially if it can move the reader emotionally; then (b) pleasing drawings that serve the story through clarity of style.
 

•  Age of Bronze: A Thousand Ships by Eric Shanower. www.ericshanower.com. A carefully researched, vividly alive telling of The Trojan War legend.

• The Complete Chip Danger by Bill Burg. http://www.peteburg.com/bill/. A  fable about a squirrel who takes risks and challenges limits, drawn gorgeously and in perfect support of the story in Disney style.

• Prince Valiant by Hal Foster. Published by Fantagraphics Books. http://www.fantagraphics.com/classic/val/valiant.html. It takes you back to a time of heroism and integrity.

• Maus I and Maus II by Art Spiegelman. Published by Random House. http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/results.pperl?title=maus. This Holocaust story is widely acclaimed and recognized. Although a memoir, in which unimportant character flaws in the author's father and in the author himself are included alongside his father's incredible and heroic feats of self-preservation, it is a compelling story. The drawings are simple and direct. They symbolize individuals' ethnic groups as different animal species, an inspired technique that eventually conveys the wonder and beauty in the variety of beings that make up the world, thereby quietly signifying one of the absurdities of racism. After you've read it, notice this: An error made by the author's father in the penultimate panel of Maus II powerfully conveys the lasting impact of the father's earlier loss.

• DC's Origin of Metamorpho (The Brave and The Bold #57, Dec. 1964-Jan. 1965).  A grandly dramatic story.
• "The Legend of the Batman (Who He Is and How He Came to Be)" (1940) and many others to follow by Bob Kane and the uncredited Bill Finger in DC's Detective Comics. Also the Batman and Flash comics of Carmine Infantino and Julius Schwartz.
• Walt Disney's artists' pre-1980s comic book adaptations of Disney animated feature films and shorts, including Dumbo, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, The Jungle Book, The Aristocats, and many of Disney's live-action feature adaptations such as Dr. Syn, Alias the Scarecrow. Also Carl Barks' (and others') Uncle Scrooge comics.
• Ethel and Ernest by Raymond Briggs.  Published by Alfred A. Knopf. A look at the lives of the author's parents and the 20th Century's impact on them, conveyed by brilliantly selected moments. A comic book that subtly provokes deep emotion, and by doing so, proves the artistic value of the medium.
• It's A Good Life, If You Don't Weaken by Seth. Published by Drawn & Quarterly. Seth's visual style is simple yet mature, finished, sparkling. He has a fine ability to convey the atmosphere of a setting by choosing essential details. His enjoyably slow and steady pacing is impeccable. And while his stories are somewhat tragic slices of life, they are respectful toward talented hard-working people and the quality and craftsmanship seemingly more commonplace in an earlier time. Reading Seth's comics feels like watching a subtle film, or reading a decent naturalistic novel, or simply living a real moment of everyday life.
• Keyhole (magazine) by Dean Haspiel and Josh Neufeld. http://www.JoshComix.com. Slices of life and flights of fancy.
• Little Nemo in Slumberland by Winsor McKay. These early 20th century newspaper strips are unmatched in their imagination, artwork and vivid depiction of adventures in surreal dream settings.
• For children, Harvey comics of the 1960s (Casper and Wendy).
• Bone series by Jeff Smith. Enjoyable, smoothly flowing whimsical tales, as pleasurable as the old Harvey and Carl Barks comic books.
• Charles Schulz's Peanuts collections. Despite Charlie's low self-esteem and unrewarded benevolent optimism, I treasured the Charlie Brown books in my childhood for their sense of humor, well chosen words, fanciful imagination yet honest connection to real life pleasures and struggles, sometimes encouraging philosophical thoughts, and a drawing style that is efficiently perfect for its purpose. His drawings, though utterly simple and minimal, flow forward naturally and convey the essences of personality and every important emotion and attitude.
• Dennis the Menace comic books by Hank Ketcham's team of creators, especially Dennis the Menace in London and other travel-themed issues, and Christmas issues, always excellently drawn, and entertainingly written.

WRITERS
 I include here some of my favorite writers, including two childrens' book writers.

• Ayn Rand. (author of Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, Anthem, We The Living) Her continuously best-selling novels are thrilling page-turners about passionate and productive men and women who worship their own lives. Her nonfiction gives a rigorous moral and philosophical defense of capitalism, reason, and egoism. Her novels have oddly not been made into films since the 1940s despite being blatantly cinematic and hugely successful. A giant, her ideas deserve to be ubiquitous. See www.aynrand.org
• Ray Bradbury.  A favorite of mine, he is justly appreciated and recognized. I especially love Something Wicked This Way Comes and Fahrenheit 451.
• Harper Lee.  To Kill A Mockingbird transports one to an ideal childhood with a perfect parent. I loved the experience of entering that ideal family's world, especially the vivid atmosphere of the children's daily life in their town and era, and the subtle ways the children are led to discover the truth about some of their mysterious neighbors. At the end the way the reader, through the children's eyes, himself discovers such a truth and experiences with them a moment of revelation--the sort of unforgettably meaningful moment that is a milestone in the road to growing up--drives home the theme: it is wrong to pre-judge, it is just to defend the innocent "mockingbirds" of the human race. I was sad that the book ended.
• Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac.  The triumph of panache over the worst of life's struggles.
• O. Henry. Master of the clever twist,  the model short story writer.
• Rod Serling. Remembered, deservedly, for teleplays and short stories.
• Beverly Cleary.  Her children's books about Henry Huggins, Ribsy and Ramona were among my childhood favorites for being so vividly real. I wanted a paper route, and I wanted to go fishing, because of Henry Huggins.
• Robert McCloskey.  Written in the 1940s and 1950s, his Homer Price and Centerberg Tales books for older children (Puffin Books/Penguin), and his outstanding illustrations, tickle the imagination.

WEB SITES
http://www.extremespin.com/tommy/igas/main.php?section=articles--My appearance on To Tell The Truth (a TV Game Show)
http://scenemissing.blogspot.com/2004/12/interview-w-greg-zeigerson-comic.html--My interview with Scene Missing.
www.drkenner.com--Psychology and advice for happiness
www.aynrand.org--Reality-based Philosophy, Economics and Politics
www.keenspot.com--Online Comics
www.astoundingspacethrills.com -- Steve Conley's uplifting adventurous online comics and animations
www.thenorm.com -- Michael Jantze's comic: Charlie Brown grows up?
www.cuckoocomic.com -- Madison Clell's heroic struggle to integrate her multiple personalities
www.afcm.org-- Fighting for free choice in Medicine
www.artrenewal.org--Rediscovering greatness in Art
www.cordair.com--Today's best Art available for purchase
http://dismuke.org--Rediscovering happy music of the past
www.octoberproject.net--Sensitive, passionate and beautiful music of today
http://www.silentsaregolden.com--All about the nearly forgotten visual storytelling masterpieces of silent cinema