KCC organizer Alex Simmons said attendance was likely about the same as last year, and he estimated the show drew about 600 attendees, most of them children. KCC also featured an exhibition hall with about 50 exhibitors, including such first-time exhibitors as Hyperion Books for Kids and Random House/Del Rey Manga.

Simmons said crowds at KCC peaked about noon on Saturday and said, "I was most impressed by the kids that came from outside Bronx. There were kids from Yonkers, from Stamford, Conn.; from Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island. We even had a group of special needs kids." The KCC is also working with the New York Comic-Con to provide some of the programming for the upcoming kids day at NYCC 2008, slated to run April 18-20 at the Javits Center.

Long before Criterion DVDs or the Independent Film Channel-which is to say, in 1990-painter Muth adapted Fritz Lang's classic serial killer tale M into a four-part comics miniseries. He hewed closely to Lang's original German script, employing a painterly, photorealistic style that evoked the grainy, tinted footage of early talkies. The result, more influential than popular in an era of rampant speculation and chromium covers, was undeniably gorgeous. Eighteen years later, after popular artists like Alex Ross have cited Muth as a major influence, Abrams has re-released M as a hardcover graphic novel, and the deluxe treatment only adds luster to the project. Lang's story-an unidentified serial killer stalks children in a small German city-is simple but compelling, allowing Muth's masterful technique to shine through. The watercolors are primarily sepia-toned, with occasional splashes of color for emphasis, giving the project a surreal, dreamlike quality that serves to heighten suspense. Muth's layouts are excellent, creating mise-en-scènes that evoke Lang without copying him, and his figures' "acting" (body language and facial expressions) also serves both story and mood. An informative afterword lets readers hear from Muth about technique and why he would even try to remake Lang: to see what he could learn. Readers will find it an impressive lesson. (Apr.)

1-2-3-4. 1-2-3-4. No, Leslie Feist hasn't made her way to comics. Veronique Tanaka has takes the pulse of a metronome and used it for the rigid pacing of her book, Metronome, published by NBM. Thus far, the French-Japanese artist's career has been in fine arts, but this is her first graphic novel. Within the pages lies a story of a couple who relate to each other only on a sexual level. The look of the book is part manga, part European, but it's mostly the rhythm of the comic that grabs the reader. Tanaka explains her approach.

• Rabbis Cat 2 (Random House)
• Benny and Penny in Just Pretend (Raw Junior)
• Little Things: A Memoir in Slices (Touchstone)
• Shakespeares Hamlet: The Manga Edition (John Wiley & Sons)
• New Avengers Vol. 2 (Marvel)
• Holmes (AiT/ PlanetLar)
• Silly Lilly and the Four Seasons (Raw Junior)
• Awkward and Definition (Touchstone)
• Leaders High Vol. 1 (DC/ CMX)
• Le Chevalier Deon Vol. 4 (Del Ray Manga)
• Gun Blaze West Vol. 1 (Viz Media)
• Hotel Africa (Tokyopop)
• Color of Love (Digital Manga Publishing)

• Siegel Copyright Returns
• Frank Miller at NYCC
• Murakami at Brooklyn Museum
• Making a Bestseller
• Dark Horse Comics Online
• Jeffery Brown on SexTV
• Comic Exhibit at MCAD