Rosen Offers Comics Interview Series
by Wil Moss, PW Comics Week, Publishers Weekly -- Publishers Weekly, 7/3/2007
Rosen Publishing, a nonfiction book publisher that caters to libraries and educational markets, will release four books this fall collecting a series of interviews with acclaimed comics creators Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, George Perez and Michael Avon Oeming. The interviews were conducted by veteran comics journalist Bill Baker over the years and have been published before in different formats by different publishers.
The hardcover books are part of Rosen’s Talking with Graphic Novelists series and will be offered through Rosen’s long-established distribution channels to the library and educational markets as well as through comics shops and general bookstores. Priced at $22.95 each with an approximate page count of 96, the books will be released in September.
“We’re delighted that this dynamic format is being embraced and that we’re able to help bring it into the young adult market,” said Kristin Eck, associate publisher at Rosen. “We had lots of interest in and did very well with our Library of Graphic Novelists [a biography series], and the graphic nonfiction material that we’ve been building in-house for the young adult market and even the elementary market has been performing beautifully. The academic community and libraries continue to embrace this format.”
The books include Alan Moore on His Work and Career, originally published in 2006 under a different title for Airwave Publishing. Baker said this interview covers the entirety of Moore’s creative approach, the role that magic plays in his work and other related topics. It will also feature a cover painting of Moore done specifically for this volume by his Lost Girls cocreator, and now wife, Melinda Gebbie. The George Perez book reprints an extended interview the artist originally published over several issues of Comic Book Marketplace magazine. Mike Oeming on His Work and Career presents the full version of an interview with Oeming that originally appeared in the first and only issue of Comics Explorer magazine. And the Neil Gaiman book collects three interviews with Gaiman that cover his career, creative process and his work on behalf of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Each hardcover volume will also include supplemental material on the artists and their work including a reading list, bibliography and Web links.
“It’s one of the many signs we’re seeing that comics are finally being accepted," said Baker. "They’re not just seen as junk literature."
