Tag: mike maihack

More thoughts on the past and future of the industry, guilty pleasures and self-care tips from a wide swatch of comics creators.

Flung from ancient Egypt to the distant future, will Cleopatra have what it takes to save the day and get back to her time period?

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.

Mike Maihack (Cleopatra in Space) is someone I consider one of the progenitors of the "cutecore" movement in comics. I know I'm the only one who calls it that, but when I first noticed...