| Skim | |
|---|---|
 Cover of the first edition of Skim. | |
| Date | 2008 |
| Publisher | Groundwood Books |
| Creative team | |
| Writers | Mariko Tamaki |
| Artists | Jillian Tamaki |
| Original publication | |
| Language | English |
| ISBN | 978-0-88899-753-1 |
Skim is a Canadian graphic novel written by Mariko Tamaki and drawn by Jillian Tamaki. Set in 1993, in a Toronto Catholic girls high school, it is about an outsider girl called Skim.
Skim is a "FATTY" sixteen-year-old Japanese-Canadian who is a student at an all-girls Catholic school. She is known as a Goth, and practices Wicca. When popular girl Katie Matthews gets dumped by her athlete boyfriend, who days later kills himself, the entire school goes into mourning overdrive. With the school counsellors breathing down her neck and the popular clique (including Katie's best friend Julie Peters) forming a new club, Girls Celebrate Life (GCL), in its wake, Skim finds herself in the crosshairs, deepening her alienation. And if things cannot get more complicated, Skim starts to fall for an equally quirky teacher.
Skim was originally thought of as a "gothic Lolita story", and what eventually became part I of the story was run as a 30-page preview in an indie magazine. [11] Mariko Tamaki wrote the story much like a play's script, and Jillian Tamaki illustrated the novel as she saw fit. [12]
The splash pages usually have Kim's diary entries rather than speech bubbles as the narrative vehicle. [8]
Jillian Tamaki stated that she was influenced more by ukiyo-e than she initially believed. [2]
Reception was positive. In their review, Publishers Weekly called Skim an "auspicious graphic novel debut" with a "fine ear for dialogue" that is "rich in visuals and observations". [13] Paul Gravett called it "the most sophisticated and sensitive North American graphic novel debut of the year." [14] In Kliatt it said that the narrative manages to avoid the usual cliches of a coming of age story. [15] The Suzanne Alyssa Andrew of Toronto Star compared the story to Dead Poets Society and Heathers . [16] Elizabeth Spires of The New York Times wrote that it "deepens with successive rereadings." [17]
The Cooperative Children’s Book Center recommended Skim for ages 14 and up, [18] saying that Skim's struggles have universal qualities. [19] The Metro News praised that the narrative voice sounds authentic. [20]
Skim was listed as one of the Young Adult Library Services Association's 2009 Great Graphic Novels for Teens award. [21] Skim also won the 2008 Ignatz Award for Outstanding Graphic Novel. [22]
Skim was nominated in four categories in the 2009 Eisner Awards [23] and won Best Book at the 2009 Doug Wright Awards. [24]
Skim was a finalist for the 2008 Governor General's Awards in the children's literature category. The Canada Council for the Arts, the award program's administrator, faced some criticism around the fact that the nomination was credited to Mariko Tamaki, who wrote the graphic novel's text, but not to her cousin and co-creator Jillian Tamaki, who drew the illustrations. Jillian later said she was "extremely disappointed" that she had not been included in the nomination. [25] Two prominent Canadian graphic novelists, Seth and Chester Brown, circulated an open letter to the Canada Council asking them to revise the nomination, [26] arguing that unlike a more traditional illustrated book, a graphic novel's text and illustration are inseparable parts of the work's narrative, and that both women should accordingly be credited as equal co-authors. Their letter was also endorsed by other prominent Canadian and American graphic novelists, including Lynda Barry, Dan Clowes, Art Spiegelman, Chris Ware and Julie Doucet, as well as by Chris Oliveros of Canadian comic and graphic novel publisher Drawn & Quarterly, and Peter Birkemore of Toronto comic store The Beguiling. [27] Melanie Rutledge, a spokesperson for the Canada Council, responded that it was too late to revise the nominations for the 2008 awards, but that the council would take the feedback into account in the future. [28]
Later, both Jillian and Mariko Tamaki applied for and received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts to launch Skim in Spain. [29]
In 2023, the book was banned, in Clay County District Schools, Florida. [30]
The Ignatz Awards recognize outstanding achievements in comics and cartooning by small press creators or creator-owned projects published by larger publishers. They have been awarded each year at the Small Press Expo since 1997, only skipping a year in 2001 due to the show's cancellation after the September 11 attacks. As of 2014 SPX has been held in either Bethesda, North Bethesda, or Silver Spring, Maryland.
Steve Rolston is a Canadian artist and writer of comic books and graphic novels currently living in Vancouver, British Columbia. After working in story boards for various animated series, he got his first break from Oni Press as the penciler and inker of the first four issues of their on-going Queen & Country comic series by praised author Greg Rucka. From 2005 to 2017, Rolston taught a course at Vancouver Institute of Media Arts entitled "Introduction to Comic Book Production".
Hope Raue Larson is an American illustrator and cartoonist. Her main field is comic books.
The Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards are given out annually for outstanding achievements in the creation of comic books, graphic novels, webcomics, and comics retailers and publishers by Canadians. The awards, first handed out in April 2005, are named in honour of Joe Shuster (1914–1992), the Canadian-born co-creator of Superman.
First Second Books is an American publisher of graphic novels. An imprint of Roaring Brook Press, part of Holtzbrinck Publishers, First Second publishes fiction, biographies, personal memoirs, history, visual essays, and comics journalism. It also publishes graphic non-fiction for young readers, including the Science Comics and History Comics collections, and for adults, including the World Citizen Comics, a line of civics graphic books, and biographical works such as The Accidental Czar.
The Doug Wright Awards for Canadian Cartooning are literary awards handed out annually since 2005 during the Toronto Comic Arts Festival to Canadian cartoonists honouring excellence in comics and graphic novels published in English. The awards are named in honour of Canadian cartoonist Doug Wright. Winners are selected by a jury of Canadians who have made significant contributions to national culture, based on shortlisted selections provided by a nominating committee of five experts in the comics field. The Wrights are handed out in three main categories, "Best Book", "The Spotlight Award", and, since 2008, the "Pigskin Peters Award" for non-narrative or experimental works. In 2020, the organizers added "The Egghead", an award for best kids’ book for readers under twelve. In addition to the awards, since 2005 the organizers annually induct at least one cartoonist into the Giants of the North: The Canadian Cartoonist Hall Fame.
Faith Erin Hicks is a Canadian cartoonist and animator living in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Minx was an imprint of DC Comics that published graphic novels aimed at teenage girls. It ran from 2007 to 2008.
The 2008 Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit: Finalists in 14 categories were announced October 21, winners announced November 18. The prize for writers and illustrators was $25,000 and "a specially bound copy of the winning book".
Jillian Tamaki is a Canadian American illustrator and comic artist known for her work in The New York Times and The New Yorker in addition to the graphic novels Boundless, as well as Skim, This One Summer and Roaming written by her cousin Mariko Tamaki.
Mariko Tamaki is a Canadian artist and writer. She is known for her graphic novels Skim, Emiko Superstar, and This One Summer, and for several prose works of fiction and non-fiction. In 2016 she began writing for both Marvel and DC Comics. She has twice been named a runner-up for the Michael L. Printz Award.
"The Diary" is the thirtieth episode of the sixth season of the American animated television series Adventure Time. In the episode, Jake's son T.V. finds an old diary, which revives a decades-old mystery. It was written by Canadian illustrator Jillian Tamaki, her second episode on the show after "Astral Plane". The episode was broadcast on Cartoon Network on February 26, 2015. Writers of Wired and The A.V. Club praised Tamaki for the way she wrote the episode as well as the visuals overall.
"Astral Plane" is the twenty-fifth episode of sixth season of the American animated television series Adventure Time. It was written by Jesse Moynihan and Canadian artist Jillian Tamaki. In the episode, after a comet causes Finn to astrally project, he follows the exploits of several characters, eventually floating up to Mars, where the same comet is about to collide with the planet. The episode is the first that Tamaki wrote for the show. As a storyboard artist, she praised the unique production of the show, though she described animation as more limited than comics. The episode premiered on Cartoon Network on January 22, 2015.
The Canadian Library Association Young Adult Book Award was a literary award given annually from 1981 to 2016 to recognize a Canadian book of young adult fiction written in English and published in Canada, written by a citizen or permanent resident of Canada.
This One Summer is a graphic novel written by Mariko Tamaki and illustrated by Jillian Tamaki published by First Second Books in 2014. It is a coming of age story about two teenage friends, Rose and Windy, during a summer in Awago, a small beach town. Rose and Windy discover themselves and their sexuality while battling family dynamics and mental disabilities.
Rosemary Valero-O'Connell is an American illustrator and cartoonist. She is known for her work with DC Comics and BOOM! Studios.
Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me is a graphic novel written by Mariko Tamaki and illustrated by Rosemary Valero-O'Connell. It follows Frederica "Freddy" Riley throughout her struggles with her on-again, off-again relationship with the eponymous Laura Dean. The novel was first published by First Second Books on May 7, 2019. A young adult and lesbian teen novel, Laura Dean includes themes about teenage lesbian and queer sexuality.
Roaming is a fictional graphic novel written by Mariko Tamaki and illustrated by Jillian Tamaki, and published on September 12, 2023.
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