Mystery of the week: Literary comics mainstay D&Q is suddenly getting into prose with 15-year-old Tavi Gevinson’s ‘Rookie Yearbook One’ , a collection of the popular online magazine for teenage girls? With a company-high 40k first printing? Who? How? Why? All this is shocking enough. But here’s the stunning drawing room reveal: it was Chris Ware’s idea! What th–? Will Ware’s unnamed one-legged protagonist suddenly be modeling Fit-Flops?
The truth has more to do (attn: Drudge Report) with nitty gritty inside Chicago politics. It appears that Ware and Rookie editorial director Anaheed Alani are both Chicago residents! So it was Ware who brought the magazine to D&Q’s attention, along with artist Sonja Ahlers, who contributes to both. Totally a conspiracy.
Of course, D&Q Peggy Burns has a cover story. “Rookie is the smartest magazine ever created for teenagers,” she told PW. “[It’s] The New Yorker crossed with Vogue and a teen magazine for girls,. [D&Q publisher/founder Chris Oliveros was] totally on board from the beginning. There was no hesitation to do this book at all. We’re all fans.”
Hoping to get to the bottom of the conspiracy, The Beat checked out the Rookie web page. Our investigation revealed that it was smart, funny and so cool that we allllllmost wished we were a teen-aged girl again.
Rookie Yearbook One comes out next month from D&Q.
Wow. I’m not the intended audience, but there’s some cool stuff here! Check out the books and comics section!
(Sending the link to my niece, ’cause I’m the “cool uncle”.)
I’ve been a huge fan of Tavi and her endeavors for years and I can’t wait to patronize more of her (& others’) hard work. Comic shops can always use more content aimed at young women as well. My shop will be carrying this for sure!
I never noticed that Ware’s character has never been named.
I’m a tremendous fan of Rookie and Tavi both. How cool!
art-house publisher to publish a collection of a 15 year old. i am sorry, but they should do this under an imprint