NYCC: Abrams – #1825

Abrams, the preeminent publisher of illustrated books since 1949, announced the launch of the new imprint Abrams ComicArts at the San Diego Comic Con last year. Now, the first books to be published under the Abrams ComicArts imprint will debut at New York Comic Con and will be featured at the Abrams booth.

The first three books on Abrams ComicArts’ debut list will be featured at New York Comic Con and each of these authors will be on hand at the Abrams booth (#1825) to sign copies of their books. Craig Yoe’s groundbreaking book, Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman’s Co-creator Joe Shuster goes on sale in April and features an introduction by Stan Lee. The Laugh-Out-Loud Cats Sell Out, by Adam Koford, with an introduction by the Daily Show’s John Hodgman, goes on sale in March and combines the popular LOLcats speak with the aesthetic of George Herriman’s Krazy Kat. Erotic Comics 2: A Graphic History from the Liberated ’70s to the Internet, by Tim Pilcher and Gene Kannenberg Jr., features a foreword by Alan Moore and will go on sale in March.

The deluxe Abrams ComicArts launch brochure featuring the rich past, present, and future of Abrams’ comics-related books, will also be available at the Abrams booth. Designed by renowned graphic artist Chip Kidd, this promotional piece is a collectible itself. Supplies are limited.

Coming soon are the following lead titles on Abrams ComicArts’ debut list: The Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics by Denis Kitchen and Paul Buhle, designed by Jonathan Bennett; The Art of Jaime Hernandez: Secrets of Life and Death, by Todd Hignite, designed by Jordan Crane; Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow? by Brian Fies; and Underground Classics: The Transformation of Comics into Comix, by James Danky and Denis Kitchen.

Abrams publisher Steve Tager believes that the launch list put together by executive editor Charles Kochman set the bar high and it will remain that way. Tager says, “The fall list achieves the incredibly high standard set by the imprint’s launch list. The ideas and the talent that Charlie is lining up to publish under the Abrams ComicArts imprint are a testament to the quality of his vision and what Abrams ComicArts represents.”

Look for the following on the fall 2009 list: The TOON Treasury of Classic Children’s Comics, edited by New Yorker art editor Françoise Mouly and Pulitzer Prize–winning cartoonist Art Spiegelman; Manga Kamishibai, by Eric P. Nash; The Art of Osamu Tezuka, by Helen McCarthy; and Dread & Superficiality: Woody Allen as Comic Strip, by Stuart Hample. Future projects will involve other authors and artists such as N. C. Christopher Couch, David Lasky, Lela Lee, and Frank M. Young; subjects such as the Carter Family; and monographs on comic legends Will Eisner, Jules Feiffer, Rube Goldberg, Jerry Robinson, and Joe Simon. Future lists will continue to focus on the legends and history of comic arts as well as new graphic novels and other comics-based material.

“At Abrams ComicArts we will continue to execute the quality of design and production that we are known for at Abrams and apply it to the medium of comics,” says Charles Kochman. “Our recent books, like Kirby: King of Comics, Nat Turner, and Wacky Packages paved the way for Abrams ComicArts, showing how a venerable art book publisher like Abrams treats this material—we make no distinction between fine art and comics art. It’s all art.”

2009 marks Abrams’ 60th anniversary. Since the company’s inception in 1949, Abrams has identified and celebrated contemporary and groundbreaking art, championed burgeoning creative forms, and presented them to the public in beautifully produced and authoritatively written illustrated books. Abrams ComicArts proudly carries on this tradition.