While many New York trade book publishers have launched in-house graphic novel publishing units, few, if any, can boast the kind of growth seen at Del Rey Manga over the past three years.

Del Rey launched its manga line in 2004 with four series licensed through an agreement between Random House and Japanese publisher Kodansha. In its first year, the line sold more than one million copies combined of all four series. Three years later, Del Rey plans to publish about 150 licensed manga titles spread over 40 different series, all secured through the Kodansha agreement. Last month the house announced plans to release its first original manga, Make 5 Wishes (created by writer Joshua Dysart and artist Camilla d'Errico), produced in collaboration with singer Avril Lavigne to coincide with the release of her new album in April.

Tel Aviv-–based Modan gives American comics readers a sharp sense of Israeli life in this brilliant and moving graphic novel. The story follows Koby Franco, a young taxi driver and lost soul, as he searches for his missing father, a man who long ago left the family and may or may not have been killed in a suicide bomb attack. Assisting and prodding him is Nuni, a young soldier who was romantically involved with the missing father. Modan takes her characters across Israel and through a variety of different Israeli social strata as the search progresses. Along the way it becomes clear that Koby’s father’s identity is in flux—he leaves all those that he loves, but touches on everything it means to be an Israeli: family man, soldier, religious practitioner and, perhaps, victim. Modan is a deft and subtle storyteller, and her meditation on Israeli identity and the possibilities of love and trust (between father and son, woman and man) are finely wrought. Her loose, expressive drawing is both tremendously evocative and precise—always enhancing the plot. The stellar combination makes this one of the major graphic novels of 2007. (May)

The Goon, the hero of Eric Powell's satirical horror comic, has faced all kinds of tough situations—zombie priests, prison, giant Mexican lizards—but now he’s up against two new challenges: controversy and his past. The controversy goes back to issue 18 of The Goon, which was supposed to be a story called "Satan’s Sodomy Baby." As for the Goon’s past, that will be dealt with in this fall’s original graphic novel Chinatown.

• Beyond! (Marvel)
• Drink & Draw vol. 1 (Image)
• EC Archives: Tales From The Crypt vol. 1 (Gemstone Publishing)
• Franklin Richards: Lab Brat (Marvel)
• Galaxy Angel II vol. 1 (Broccoli Books)
• Hot Gimmick S (VIZ Media)
• Inubaka: Crazy For Dogs vol. 1 (VIZ Media)
• Hellshock: The Definitive Edition (Image)
• Journeys: The Collected Stories vol. 1 (Mahrwood Press)
• King For A Moment: Meyer's Secret vol. 1 (Mahrwood Press)
• Kolchak: The Night Stalker Casebook (Moonstone)
• Krazy & Ignatz 1939-1940: A Brick Stuffed With Moombins (Fantagraphics)
• Need More Love: A Graphic Memoir (MQP)
• Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere (DC/Vertigo)
• Nextwave Agents Of HATE: This Is What They Want
• XTNCT (Rebellion)

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• Thomas Nelson, RealBuzz Ink Christian Manga Pact
  
• New Position at VIZ
  
• Africa Comics Panel In February
  
• Room Change For NYCC Graphic Novel Panel