The Beat’s editorial team and contributors present a list of the best comics of the year. Is your favorite here?
GIVEAWAY! Take Home a Bundle of Video Game-Related Goodness from Scholastic AFK!
Scholastic wants YOU to take home some primo books from their AFK video game-centric line.
EXCLUSIVE COVER REVEAL: The Jedi Academy will Tremble During the REVENGE OF THE SIS
Attention all padawans and Jedi masters alike! The Starspeeder family saga continues, this time with Christina Starspeeder, one of the Jedi Academy’s star students, in the seventh installment of the wildly popular middle grade graphic novel series from Scholastic. In case you haven’t had the pleasure to explore these thoroughly charming books, Jedi Academy follows the […]
INTERVIEW: A Witness to Addiction, Angst, and Art in JARRETT J. KROSOCZKA’s Intimate Memoir HEY KIDDO
No matter the context, heroin addiction is an incredibly painful subject. The curse of heroin is that it is not a solitary drug. Everyone who comes into contact with this most potent opioid–from users to their loved ones–is affected in some tangible way. For many, the pain of addiction is translated into shame: shame for […]
INTERVIEW: Revisiting Old Friends & Soaring the Skies of Whimsy in Jeff Smith’s SMILEY’S DREAM BOOK
The loveable Smiley Bone returns for a fun adventure that the whole family can enjoy!
COVER REVEAL: The end of the Amulet saga nears in Vol. 8: Supernova
Kazu Kibuishi’s Amulet series has quietly become one of the most loved graphic novel series for kids over the last decade. I say “quietly,” because most comics industry people don’t mention it, but I see kids reading it on the streets and around town all the time. It’s a #1 NY Times Bestseller and is […]
Graphix is 10 and reveals covers to new Craig Thompson and Jenni and Matthew Holm
When Scholastic launched its Graphix imprint 10 years ago, graphic novels were a novelty, if you can pardon the expression, in the mainstream publishing world. And kids comics were an unknown quantity—comics shops didn’t want them and bookstores didn’t know what to do with them. In the first wave, there were many miscues and misunderstandings at many houses along the way. But Graphix wasn’t the one making them. Granted, starting out a line with Jeff Smith’s Bone is about as much a sure thing as possible—6.9 million copies in print and counting. But picking Raina Telgemeier to do a Babysitter’s Club relaunch and eventually Smile, and Kazu Kibuishi to publish his Amulet series weren’t as sure—but they sure paid off. Along the way Graphix has picked up multiple Eisner Award wins and nominations, a Stonewall Book Award, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Honor, an Edgar Allan Poe nomination, and 14 New York Times bestsellers. They’ve published many more top cartoonists such as Doug TenNapel, Greg Ruth, Mike Maihack and Jimmy Gownley. And there’s more to come.