New Wimpy Kid sells 1 million in first week
The Wimpy Kid is the new Twilight. The latest book in the series, Cabin Fever, sold over one million hardcovers in its first week on sale. Sales were 25% higher than last year's November release, The Ugly Truth.
RE: the recent sales figure discussions -- with numbers this good, there's no reason not to trumpet them aloud.
Top Shelf launches app
Top Shelf has just announced a team-up with comiXology that includes their own iOS app, and a separate app for the Kids Club line. Books from LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN to OWLY will be available across various platforms.
Interestingly, Top Shelf is the first "alt.comix" type publisher to go whole hog with digital. D&Q and Fantagraphics and most of the smaller indies have remained remained aloof to the ecomics world. Although most art comics are best suited to the paper medium -- and are, indeed the very type of objects that will keep print books alive for quite some time -- a lot of indie cartoonists read just fine on the screen — we've found some of the "panel grid layout" types even look great on an iPhone. It seems like only a matter of time before everyone has their own app and storefront...but how long?
Former Nickelodeon editors launch COMIXER iPad app for kids
This is just the news day for comics folks developing their own apps. Former Nickelodeon Magazine comics editor Chris Duffy, and his co-workers Laura Galen, and Carmen Morais all had some free time when the magazine was canceled. And now they've come up with Comixer, an iPad app aimed at kids that allows them to mix and match panels in various genres to make their own stories. The app is on sale for 99¢ at launch. More here:
Raina Telgemeier announces Drama!
On her panel at SDCC, Raina Telgemeier announced some info on her next book: it's called
Drama!
SHOCK: James Patterson teams with Laura Park
James Patterson is a mega-author franchise, writer of such series as Alex Cross, Maximum Ride and Witch and Wizard -- the latter two series gave also been adapted into graphic novels.
Laura Park is an indie cartoonist from Chicago whose gorgeous work has made her a cartoonist's cartoonist in the indie world.
So hearing they've teamed up on a book about middle school sounds unlikely. But it's true.
Reminder: Kids like comics
Kids comics remain one of the book segments that is still growing, and certainly for comics publishers, it's a great way to get the younglings hooked so they will grow up reading comics. School Library Journal has a list of thirty-nine graphic novels that kids can’t resist:
The Wimpy Kid — a $500 million franchise
Jeff Kinney's Wimpy Kid series get profiled revealing that is has now joined such publishing behemoths as Twilight and Stieg Larsson - indeed only the late Swedish author beat Kinney as best selling author in the US last year. The piece expands a bit on how YA publishing is still strong as other genres fade:
Wimpy Kid 6 announced: “Cabin Fever” gets 6 million first printing
Debate whether it counts as comics or not, one thing is certain: Jeff Kinney's WIMPY KID series is HUGE. The sixth book in the series is out this November with a massive 6 million copy first printing, the biggest release of 2011.
The storyline finds the Heffley family suffering from cabin fever as they're stuck inside during a huge blizzard. The theme says, Kinney is "being stuck inside the identity you create for yourself."
AMULET movie still in the works with Edwards to write
Kazu Kibuishi's AMULET series has been a strong seller for Scholastic and also a strong candidate for the next graphic novel series to get...
Marvel to publish Langridge's Muppet comics
With Marvel picking up most of the licensed Disney material that BOOM! Studios had published, it's no surprise that they'll be publishing the much-loved Muppets comics by Roger Langridge in a 96-page collection called "MUPPETS PRESENTS: MEET THE MUPPETS" -- previously collected by BOOM! in 2009. Bringing back Langridge's great comics is a no-brainer, but there is still the question of the Langridge comics that were left in publishing limbo. On his blog, Langridge suggested that the material in question was in a contractual limbo, with DIsney unable to publish it until it had been published by BOOM!.
Asked whether the lost material would be showing up at Marvel, a spokesman had only a "No comment."
comiXology releases Kids Comics app with 15 publishers
Long discussed, the comiXology phone and tablet app for kids comics is available today. Such popular characters as Archie, Sonic the Hedgehog, Secret of Kells, Atomic Robo and dozens more kid-friendly, parent-approved characters will be available. Complete PR is below, but the main idea is that if you are a parent -- or know of one -- you know that iPhones and iPads are increasingly being used as babysitters for small children, and kids book apps top the iPhone charts. As the app is non log-in based, everything on it is preapproved; it's not hard to see how this is going to make buying digital comics for children in the classic "reward" method much easier.
The app has launched with 15 publishers and 175 comics; notably absent are Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, and IDW, but hopefully they'll be coming on board in some way.
Teen Boat signed to Houghton
They said it would never happen but it has: Teen Boat is being collected as a book by Clarion/Houghton Mifflin -- created by Dave Roman and John Green, Teen Boat, the story of a boy who can transform into a small yacht, has long charmed readers with a series of mini comics combining "the angst of being a teen with the thrill of being a boat." There's even a trailer, above. PR below:
