'Big Foot', 'Fears' Selling for Manic D

With its just-released Fears of Your Life, a handwritten, illustrated book by artist/author Michael Bernard Loggins, Manic D Press is hoping the sales lightning it experienced with the unusual hip-hop–influenced graphic novel In Me Own Words: The Autobiography of Bigfoot, a spoof of the big foot myth by Graham Roumieu, strikes again.

"I am not sure what [these books] are, but they cross over into graphic novels," observed publisher Jennifer Joseph. Publishers Group West, Manic D's distributor, got behind In Me Own Words early, she told PW, and then booksellers gave the unusual book excellent placement, often on the counter. "We sold over 12,000 copies," she said, which is huge for the small San Francisco–based house.

Fears of Your Life is literally a list of the author's fears, from "#1. Fears of Hospitals and Needles" to "#45. Afraid this is the last thing that ever occur [sic] to me." Loggins, who has developmental disabilities, has shown his art in the Mark Moore Gallery in Los Angeles and the Bronwyn Keenan Gallery in New York. Fears of Your Life was originally published as a chap book by the Creativity Explored center in San Francisco, where Loggins has worked on his art since 1983.

While it's not a straight narrative, Joseph said, the hand-drawn quality of the book places it as a graphic novel. "Something very strong occurs when something is handwritten," she added.

Another recent Manic D release offers a new perspective in this election season: Red, White, Black and Blue, an anthology of (th)ink cartoons by Keith Knight, of K Chronicles fame.