Tag: Books

X'ed OUT was one of 2010's best comics, a fantasmic, multi-leveled horror fantasy by the man who practically invented the category, Charles Burns. It was also an interesting experiment for publisher Pantheon, as it was at a slender 56 pages really only the first chapter in a story. The second part has been long in coming, but Entrecomics has posted what appears to be the cover to part two, THE HIVE. Dunno if it's the real thing or not, but hopefully the next part is coming in 2012.

Over on their blog, DC has announced the rollout for the New 52 collections. Instead of dumping 52 trades in one month, they will be staggered from May-November, with 7 or 8 books released a month. Justice League, Batman, Green Lantern, Detective, Batman & Robin, Batgirl, Batwoman, Batman: The Dark Knight, Aquaman, Green Lantern Corps, Green Lantern: New Guardians, Action, Superman and Flash are all getting hardcovers; the rest get TPBs. Missing from the list: Wonder Woman.

Imagine a cartoonist-centric comic convention, held in a city that is equal parts Kiki’s Delivery Service and the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and you get a small taste of what it’s like to attend Quai des Bulles. You would have to consume many delicious butter-filled pastries to get the full taste!

While Heidi and Torsten were off having fun at NYCC, the rest of us had to sadly experience all the comics-related mayhem vicariously. Nevertheless, on the digital comics front matters continue to develop in interesting ways, particularly in relation to online retailing behemoth, Amazon. The explosive Amazon-DC graphic novel exclusive agreement for the upcoming Kindle Fire tablet device remains a hot topic and shows no signs of fading from view, with even the New York Times jumping on the controversy.

UK publisher SelfMadeHero -- which has put out GNs by a European cast of all-stars such as David B as well as such things as Manga Shakespeare and Eye Classics— will be acquired by Abrams, with a US line coming in 2012.

Internet author sensation Amanda Hocking is coming to comics with a deal at Dynamite to publish her Hollowland books—a zombie-based fantasy— as GNs. Hocking self published her books as e-books with over a million books sold, and now a print deal at St. Martin's. She's also a comics fan, and will be involved in writing the books herself.

People looking for a surefire way to print money, comics division, have often suggested a Harry Potter comic book. Since that ain't happening (JK Rowling just isn't interested), Vertigo has just landed the next best thing: a graphic novel adaptation of Stieg Larsson's best-selling Millennium Trilogy, with the comics version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo set to appear in 2012. Subsequent volumes will appear in 2013 and 2014.

Here's an update on the status of the CCS Schulz Library, which was endangered by flood waters but saved by a plucky and heartwarming band of volunteers who risked danger and dampness to rescue every single book from the library. Although the books are high and dry, the building they were housed in is in questionable shape, and the books are extremely jumbled from the sudden move. In order to get things organized for the new class, arriving in scant days, a call has gone out for some help:

If you have been around the nerdier sectors of the net in the last decade you have surely seen The Brick Testament, by Brendan Powell Smith a loving recreation of the BIble's most gruesome, perverted and vengeful moment rendered in Lego brick men and women. What you may NOT have known is that the whole glorious thing is coming out this month in a paperback from Skyhorse.

Over on the Atlantic website, Kirsten Butler offers a list of 10 non-fiction comics that goes way beyond the usual Maus/Persepolis/Joe Sacco list.

June was another down month, with periodical comics sales down 4.62 percent from June of 2010. The GN picture was more complicated. Overall, these numbers paint a pretty dicey picture for the Fantasy Economy. (See Larry Marder's comment's here). June 2010 may have been an abnormal month for GN sales but there is a need for more franchises like Hellboys, Chews and Narutos.

On her panel at SDCC, Raina Telgemeier announced some info on her next book: it's called

Drama!