Faith Erin Hicks continues her glimpses into the life of a freelancer by telling you how to pitch a graphic novel to a publisher. Or how she did it, anyway. As she says, They’re tough to do, because you’re trying to convey a lot through the shortest and most succinct language possible, and you’re also trying to do it in a way that is 1) enthusiastic (“you really want to buy this comic, publisher!”) and 2) clear eyed and cool […]

In this lengthy interview with Jimmy Gownley at PublishersWeekly.com, the author looks back at the history of his series Amelia Rules! From being self-published to being picked up by Simon & Schuster in 2008, his series has been running for over 10 years. It’s a wonderful overview of what used to be possible in the comic market, how much things have changed over the years, and how Gownley has adapted to the changing industry. The most recent Amelia Rules!, The […]

Raina Telgemeier (author of Smile, one of the best graphic novels of 2010) has released this cover to her next book, Drama. Due in September 2012 from Scholastic, Drama involves theater geeks working stage crew in middle school. What a great title! And I love that strong purple. Update: The book is now available at Amazon with this description: Callie loves theater. And while she would totally try out for her middle school’s production of Moon Over Mississippi, she’s a […]

Tom Spurgeon posted today this thought-provoking quote: there’s a bunch of stuff out there right now on creative teams fighting and/or dissolving. It’s not something I care to link to, but you can find it pretty easily if you look around. The thing that I wanted to note is that this kind of public griping always seems to happen when comics is in a real emotionally stressful period; I think the mini-era we’re in qualifies, for sure. I think we’re […]

DC’s in the news again, and not necessarily for good reasons. First, there was the report done by a Washington, D.C. TV station. According to ICv2, the story was introduced “with the titillating lead-in ‘Graphic violence and sex: that’s what you’ll find in the pages of DC Comics today.’” While I’m against dragging out the old falsehood that all comics are for kids, like many other people, I was disturbed by the bottom-feeding adolescent approach of such titles as Catwoman […]

The new DC 52, the complete reboot of their superhero comic line that restarted with Justice League #1, began in September 2011, so it’s now four months old. Apparently, that’s provided enough data for the decision-makers to make some changes in the line. (And for the first delay. Flagship title Justice League will ship issue #5 a week late. Since it’s drawn by Jim Lee, who also has other responsibilities as a company official, this is not terribly surprising.) The […]

Oh, this isn’t going to end well, I suspect. Alex de Campi set up a Kickstarter campaign to publish a graphic novel, Ashes, written by her and illustrated by Jimmy Broxton. Based on that creative team, and a lot of publicity, they raised over $32,000 (on a goal of $27,000). As The Beat pointed out, that makes it the #7 most funded comic project on the site. Now that funding has successfully completed, de Campi has fired Broxton (real name […]

Here’s what I thought were the best graphic novels of 2011, in order, based on what affected, entertained, and enlightened me. For more information on any of the following titles, the links take you to my reviews. Finder: Voice by Carla Speed McNeilI simply adore this series, and yet it invariably makes me feel inferior, because I do not have the language or ability to tell you how incredible it all is. Page by Paige by Laura Lee GulledgeI was […]