June Comics Bestsellers

Jeffy Kinney’s Wimpy Kid: Last Straw rules the roost but Stephen King’s Dark Tower: Treachery; IDW’s Star Trek: Countdown and Marvel Zombies 3 all make the Top Ten.

Kidjutsu: A Kid-Safe Site for Webcomics

The internet is full of great comics created specifically for children, but young readers don’t have any way to find them. After all, there is no children’s room on the internet. But Brian Leung is hoping to solve that problem with Kidjutsu, a site that collects kid-friendly webcomics and displays them using an easy-to-use online comics viewer.

New Graphic Novel, Film from Melvin Van Peebles

Acclaimed film director, actor, playwright and composer, Melvin Van Peebles, director of the groundbreaking 1971 black film Sweet Sweetback’s Badass Song, is teaming up with Brooklyn indie Akashic Books to publish, Confessions of a Ex-Doofus-Itchyfooted Mutha, a graphic novel created by Van Peebles and the odd-named artist Caktus Tree…? that was also the basis for a new film that Van Peebles will screen this summer.

Comics Briefly

Taschen Readies $1,000 Apollo 11 Book

Famously edgy illustrated book publisher Taschen is about to release its biggest project since GOAT, the $5,000 homage to Muhammad Ali it published in 2004. Next month, Norman Mailer, MoonFire: The Epic Journey of Apollo 11 will go on sale for $1,000.

Desert Noir: Crossers by Philip Caputo

At first glance, this multifarious book skirts country familiar to readers of McCarthy or McMurtry, but Caputo's west supersedes elemental cowboys and lone justice with the malaise of post-9/11 America and the violence of the Mexican desert—as gruesome as in Iraq—frothing with moral ambiguity and fraught with complicity.

Allworth Press: Helping Artists Live in the Real World

Writers and artists don't always have their heads in the clouds—sometimes they need real world advice. At least that's the premise on which Tad Crawford founded Allworth Press in 1989. From its inaugural title, Legal Guide for the Visual Artist, Crawford explained, “I wanted to create a company to give practical advice to the creative professional.

Finder Ties Comic To Novel

Late last year, bestselling thriller writer Joseph Finder was walking around Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention, and ran into “a couple of guys” from DC Comics. He had just finished Vanished, a novel coming out this August featuring a young alienated teenager who is creating his own comic book.

Children's Book Reviews: Week of 6/15/2009

This week's reviews include a picture book debut from swimmer and Olympian Michael Phelps; new novels from Sharon Draper, Jamila Gavin and Phyllis Reynolds Naylor; and a round-up of science-themed titles just in time for summer exploration and experimentation.

Galley Talk

Nothing about Ian MacKenzie's City of Strangers (Penguin, July) tips the reader that this complex and riveting work is a first novel by an author not yet 30. MacKenzie's ideas suggest experience and depth. The central character is a writer in his mid-30s who is not quite estranged from an older half-brother; he's also not nearly over his ex-wife and struggling with the impending death of his on...

Fiction Book Reviews: 6/15/2009

Reviewed this week, new novels by Faye Kellerman, Victor LaValle, Kathy Reichs, J.A. Jance and Sophie Kinsella. Plus, a hapless couple courts trouble in upstate New York in Nancy Maruo's off-beat debut, Dixie Cash cranks out another fun chicken-fried cowgirl-power crime novel, and Luanne Rice maintains her status as a tear-jerking force of nature.

A New Role for ‘Nanny Diaries’ Authors

In 2002, Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus suddenly found themselves in the spotlight when The Nanny Diaries, their debut novel based on their experiences as Manhattan nannies, hit the bestseller lists. Now, seven years later, they have published their first YA novel, The Real Real (HarperTeen), centering on a 17-year-old whose life takes a similarly dramatic turn when she is cast in a reality show filmed at her Long Island high school.

A Tweet Treat?

Forget watching The View. On Wednesday morning, plugged-in booksellers, writers and fans instead viewed a live, one-hour Twitter exchange between Nancy Mercado, executive editor of Roaring Brook Press, and Nan Marino, author of Neil Armstrong Is My Uncle and Other Lies Muscle Man McGinty Told Me. Are author-editor tweet-fests the marketing wave of the future? Perhaps.

I Spy... a Series with Legs

Aimed at readers who like heroines that are more concerned about pulling off covert operations than pulling off the perfect outfit, the first two books in Ally Carter’s Gallagher Girls series have been steadily gaining fans for the past few years. This week, the third book, Don’t Judge a Girl by Her Cover, also starring teenage spy-in-training Cammie Morgan, went on sale with a 250,000-copy first printing.

MoCCA Festival's Heated Success

Overcoming some administrative snafus and a lack of air conditioning, this year's MoCCA festival was another successful show for indie comics, with long-awaited major works—David Mazzucchelli's Asterios Polyp, Seth's George Sprott—vying with unexpected treats—Kazimir Strzepek's The Mourning Star #2—and a wealth of foreign cartoonists showing off their chops.

The Wages of Sinfest

After nearly 10 years of writing and drawing Sinfest, a popular satirical webcomic about angels, devils, sex and politics, Tatsuya Ishida is publishing a book collection of the strip due from Dark Horse this month.

Terry Moore Talks Echo; SiP Omnibus and More

Terry Moore prepares to release a three-volume hardcover Strangers in Paradise omnibus at San Diego Comic Con, while he also publishes the sci-fi romance/thriller, Echo.

Comics Briefly

Sales, Temperatures Sizzle at MoCCA 2009

Despite having to overcome the daunting combination of a new venue, an overheated hall and organizational gaffes, this year’s MoCCA Art Festival drew impressive crowds and offered another vibrant display of the state of indie comics and graphic novel publishing.

Photo Mania: MoCCA Art Festival 2009

Pictures from the 2009 MoCCA Art Festival at the Lexington Avenue Armory