I cannot tell a lie. As I write this newsletter, I’m sitting on the balcony of my hotel in Santorini, and the picture on the right is the view I’m staring at while typing. I hope you’ll forgive me if this opener is a little shorter than usual. It’s not easy to stay focused on work when those magical blue waters seem to be calling your name.

I’m here in Greece with a few friends celebrating the birthday of my good friend Louie. Louie’s from San Diego and even more of a comics nut than I am, so of course we both tore up Comic-Con last month before heading abroad. In fact, both of us have brought comics and graphic novels along as our reading material on this trip. He’s going through volumes of Hack/Slash, which I hope to be able to sneak a peek at before we all go home. My biggest regret on this trip is that I wasn’t able to fit The Complete Echo, which I bought at Comic-Con, in my suitcase (not to mention it’s a special edition and I didn’t want to risk losing or damaging it along the way).

Speaking of Comic-Con, one of the people I had a lot of fun talking to there was Neil Egan, the designer for Abrams ComicArts. Neil’s work has always impressed me (beginning with Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow?, an interesting book that used design as well as different types of paper stock to achieve a marvelous effect). I wanted to talk more with Neil about the work he does and what goes into it, and that interview is posted now.

Two more interviews of note are online now as well: artists Fiona Staples and Chris Burnham, two dynamic talents making huge impacts right now. They represent some very effective visual storytelling, and I think you’ll enjoy not only their interviews but the collection of artwork from each presented along with them.

Teacher Maureen Bakis continues her series of profiles on teachers using comics to educate in Voices from the Classroom. This time, she talks to Illinois teacher Melissa Burke-Marquart, who has been using comics and graphic novels for many years. As she mentions in the interview, many of her former students are now adults with children of their own, and they now contact her saying how much they appreciated the comic-book element of her class. See how she did it, as well as a reading list of important graphic novels she uses to help, in this article.

Besides the classroom, comics also help reach out to kids and encourage them to read in the library. As you know, we were proud to be part of the $20,000+ Great Graphic Novel Giveaway, which was sponsored by Brodart, Diamond, and GNR and awarded at the American Library Association annual meeting in June. The prize went to LeVette Fuller of Shreve Memorial Library. We’ve just gotten some pictures from LeVette of the graphic novels in action with some of the library’s patrons, which is incredibly exciting.

LeVette also wrote us to say, “We are having a ribbon cutting event on August 25, 2011. There will be a costume contest and a presentation about graphic novels and comic book art by a local art collective. The interest in this collection has been phenomenal, both from patrons as well as library staff. Administration has even agreed to give the area surrounding the collection a facelift. This will be happening before we have our big event.” I can’t tell you how happy we are to hear that!

There’s plenty more news, and particularly a lot of reviews, online now. Read on to find out all that’s going on now at GraphicNovelReporter.com.

Happy reading,

John Hogan (John@bookreporter.com)

Scarlet, Book 1 by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev
After being attacked by a corrupt police officer, Scarlet’s life is irrevocably altered. Her perceptions of the world are shattered, but not her ideals. She doesn’t want revenge --- she wants a revolution, and writer Brian Michael Bendis, best known for his work on Ultimate Spider-Man and Powers, takes us to the start of a burgeoning and bloody civil war. Reviewed by Michael Hicks

Bulletproof Coffin by David Hine and Shaky Kane
One of the most innovative and original interpretations of the superhero genre in recent memory, Bulletproof Coffin is a case study in intellectual, big-idea comics done right for all readers. Reviewed by Nathan Wilson

27: First Set by Charles Soule and Renzo Podesta
Rock star Will Garland has lost the use of his left hand, and with it the ability to play guitar. He’s searched the world over for a cure, before stumbling across a shaman offering salvation. What he finds is that the cure may be worse than the disease, a one-way ticket granting him membership into the 27 Club, whose members include a legion of dead musicians struck dead in their early prime. Reviewed by Michael Hicks