Berlin, Book Two: City of Smoke By Jason Lutes Drawn & Quarterly, September 2008, $19.95 More than ten years ago, Jason Lutes began serializing his long graphic novel [[[Berlin]]] in a comic of the same name. Making long-form comics is long, hard work – more like an ultramarathon than any other art form – and…
Nate Powell hits upon some pretty heavy subject matter in his latest graphic novel Swallow Me Whole, now out frolm Top Shelf. We’re talking childhood schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder, family breakdown, animal telepathy, and misguided love, just to name a few. The Indiana-based cartoonist traverses the familiar territory of teen angst and all the growing…
Paramount has picked up the screen rights to Dave Roman’s graphic novel Agnes Quill: An Anthology of Mystery. Thor Freudenthal (Hotel for Dogs) will direct from a script by Evan Spiliotopoulos. Variety reports that Agnes Quill is "the first acquisition for Adam Goodman since transitioning from DreamWorks." Publisher Slave Labor Graphics describes Agnes Quill: An…
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Universal has picked up the movie rights to the upcoming Viper Comics graphic novel Villains. Universal reportedly paid a mid-six-figure sum for the rights, which could prove profitable if the lesser-known property enjoys the same super-hero buzz that other films in the genre have yielded. Sean Bailey produces via his…
The Night of Your Life By Jessie Reklaw Dark Horse, September 2008, $15.95 For the last thirteen years, Jessie Reklaw has been turning dreams – mostly those of strangers – into comics, on his website and in a growing number of alternative weeklies nationwide. (Not to derail my own train of thought, but are there…
Aya of Yop City By Marguerite Abouet and Clement Oubrerie Drawn & Quarterly, September 2008, $19.95 [[[Aya]]] was one of the surprise pleasures of last year, a slice-of-life story about three young women and their families and friends in the neighborhood of Yopougon in late ‘70s Ivory Coast. The title character was actually the least…
The Good Neighbors: Book One – Kin By Holly Black and Ted Naifeh Scholastic Graphix, October 2008, $16.99 Holly Black made her name with [[[The Spiderwick Chronicles]]] and following that enormous hit, the pressure was no doubt on to follow it with something equally compelling. Fortunately, [[[The Good Neighbors]]] may well be that second hit….
The Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics Edited by Paul Gravett Running Press, August 2008, $17.95 Every genre or medium has a great schism – the thing that practitioners and fans argue about when they can’t think of anything more substantive. For “speculative fiction,” it’s the battle between science fiction and fantasy. For “crime fiction,”…
Burma Chronicles By Guy Delisle Drawn & Quarterly, September 2008, $19.95Delisle has a quirky history for a newish graphic novelist: he’s in his early forties, a Canadian long resident in France who spent ten years working in animation (both in France and overseeing animation production various places in Asia) before quitting that to concentrate on…
As recently announced, Blind Ferret Entertainment will be taking Tim Buckley’s self-published Ctrl+Alt+Del collections onto the mass market. The three self-published volumes are currently available through online retailer Split Reason. The new books are expected to be seen in bookstores, libraries, comic shops and other mass merchandise outlets worldwide. Volume one, tentatively re-titled This Is…
Variety reports that Warner Bros. has acquired screen rights to Headshot, a three-book graphic novel series from Alexis Nolent. Alessandro Camon will write the script based on the French novel, with Alexandra Milchan and Smallville creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar on board to produce. Headshot focuses on "an unlikely alliance between a cop and…
French Milk Lucy Knisley Touchstone Books, October 2008, $15 These days, people record their every inner thought and deed via Twitter, LiveJournal, Facebook and other social networking sites. It’s a fast and easy way to tell the multitudes what you’re up to. This is especially true for people who travel far from friends and family….
