First Second

New comics! Fun stuff for everyone! (And, of course, before you hand the book over to a young impressionable mind, you have to read it first to make sure it is age-appropriate!)

Okay... continuing on with Fall previews, we move to one of the Big Six pubishers. No, not comics, the mainstream Big Six, the ones which dominate American and English bookselling. Macmillan is part of of the Holtzbrinck Group, and includes such marques as Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Henry Holt, St. Martin's, Tor, Scientific American, and, of particular interest to comics fans, First Second Books.

Trying something a little different this month...

This is from the Enquirer so salt and all that, but apparently Maddox Pitt-Jolie, adapted son of Angelina and Brad Pitt, is dying to be an action star, so they are grooming him to play the lead in the movie adaptation of Paul Pope's upcoming BATTLING BOY comic -- which PItt's production company has optioned.

Ever wondered why there isn't a webseries that doesfor indie cartoonists with THE GUILD does for gamers? Well now there is! A few days ago The Beat's Shannon O'Leary alerted you to the existence of Derek Kirk Kim's new webseries, MYTHOMANIA, and now having watched it ourselves, it is SUPER AMAZING. Two episodes (or 9) now out tell the story of Andy Go, an aspiring indie cartoonists who lives in LA, gets rejected by publishers, hangs out with his friends arguing about Alan Moore, and hankers after a cool girl nerd cartoonist. Written and directed by Kim, it's sharp, funny and looks great -- AND it has cameos by Scott McCloud and, in an upcoming episode, Jason Shiga! WATCH IT NOW then come back for the commentary.

Ah... Memorial Day approaches, and with it, summer vacation. Day after day of nothing which must be done, but full of possibilities! Maybe an escape to the air-conditioned refuge of your local library. Perhaps a day spent on the porch, sipping something cold and sinful (I prefer Brown Cows, served in a large ice tea glass). Or maybe hiding away up in a hayloft, or deep in a cool root cellar, where no one can find you. Whatever your preference, there's nothing like a good book to make you forget the world around you. Below are some suggestions for your summer reading pleasures. (And if you need a nap to avoid the afternoon heat, give your kids something to read. It'll keep them quiet long enough for you to recharge your batteries.)

Gene Luen Yang's new book, LEVEL UP, covers some territory that may be familiar to many people -- a young man whose parents want him to make something of himself, while he just wants to play video games. Drawn by Thien Pham, it's Yang's latest exploration of growth and personal identity, especially as it relates to Asian Americans. But the book isn't just about video game addiction. At Wired's GeekDad, he explains where the book is really coming from in his own experience.

February has only 28 days, but is jam-packed with lots of great graphic novels and related titles! Warning... looking at what appears so far on BarnesAndNoble.com, the rest of 2011 is going to be just as amazing! Click this link to discover more! (Sweet Kirby Crackle! Corto Maltese, in English, from Rizzoli?!) Better start shopping for bookshelves now.

Jane Yolen, Matt Madden, and Faith Erin Hicks are just a few of the fine authors signing at the First Second booth.

MK Reed writes to point us to a new website, SAVE APATHEA! which will be serializing her upcoming First Second graphic novel Americus, which is due out in late 2011. It's described as the story of "Neil Barton, a teenager growing up in Oklahoma, and his fight to keep his favorite fantasy series, The Chronicles of Apathea Ravenchilde, in his public library." Reed (a sometime Beat contributor) writes and Jonathan Hill provides art. The first chapter was previously published in Papercutter #7. News pages will go up Monday-Wednesday-Friday.

It seems that First Second is getting into the webcomics business. First it was E-i-C Mark Siegel's Sailor Twain Or The Mermaid In The Hudson and now Zahra's Paradise, a timely comic about the...

Jolie, who is a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees when she isn't making movies, or tabloid headlines, has praised the acclaimed graphic novel by Emmanuel Guibert.