Cinematical introduces the poster for the animated PERSEPOLIS poster to the world. The film is having its American debut at the NY Film Festival this weekend. There’s apparently a press screening as well but we weren’t invited. Sniff. Oh well. The film is France’s official entry into the Oscars® this year, and it’s considered a very strong contender for a nod as Best Foreign Film.

ALSO: over in the NY SUN, the rise of PERSEPOLIS is a mirror for the rise of the GN in a well written piece that we should all just clip and save and run every month or so. :

Michiko Clark, Ms. Satrapi’s publicist at Pantheon, says that it would have been hard to find support for the book 10 years ago. While Ms. Satrapi was creating her work independently from the illustration culture of America, the medium was expanding here to accommodate a wide array of voices. When that expansion found its way to “Persepolis,” Ms. Satrapi became a part of the comic culture in the states, immediately earning the respect of her peers. Her work has also been a part of a large upswing in the popularity and profitability of comic books. “People are opening up to the idea of reading a comic book,” the editor at large and associate art director at Pantheon, Chip Kidd, said. “A lot of publishers think they can get in on this and they sign people up without understanding who they are and what they do, but you need a good understanding of the art form and what to look for.”