TODAY'S NEWS

More Crowds, More Comics at San Diego
by Heidi MacDonald, Calvin Reid and Kai-Ming Cha
After Preview Night’s freebie pillaging crowds, the Comic-Con International in San Diego got down to business Thursday, with panels, presentations, costumes and crowds. While comics news emerged from various panels, it was the big movie panels that dominated the headlines.

Del Rey had several title announcements at the Random House Panel. Editor Tricia Narwani has signed an original graphic novel collection of literary short stories called In The Flesh by Koren Shadmi, an Israeli and graduate of SVA; it will be published in February 2009. Del Rey will also publish Brenden Burford's previously self-published comics-as-reportage series Syncopated in May 2009. The book will have all new material. They're also publishing a new Harvey Pekar work called Huntington, W.V On The Fly and have signed Paul Hornschemier's new work Life With Dr. Dangerous in Jan. 20. The biggest news is that CLAMP in America, a newly commissioned work from Shaenon Garrity about the superstar Japanese manga collective CLAMP, will document CLAMP's history and cultural impact on the manga market in the U.S.. The book is due in 2009.

In a move reflective of the times, CMX, DC Comics manga imprint, has acquired another movie-based manga property. Ghengis Khan is an adaptation of the Funimation feature length anime which was originally adapted from Seiichi Morimura's fictionalized account of the life of Ghengis Khan. The stand-alone volume will be released in April of next year. CMX is also broadening its library with another new manga acquisition, March on Earth, due in March. This series is a more somber, tragic story about a young high school girl who finds herself responsible for raising her nephew after a car accidentally kills the rest of her family. Read on »

Hachette USA Has “Rapid Pace” Growth
Revenue at Lagardere Publishing rose 1.3% in the first six months of 2008, to 908 million euros, parent company Lagardere reported. The overall increase was negatively impacted by currency exchanges with the dollar, but Hachette Book Group USA nevertheless turned in a strong performance, with sales increasing at a “rapid pace” in the second period, the company said. James Patterson and Stephenie Meyer continued to be the key authors for the house.

In other areas, the U.K. had a “highly satisfaction quarter” led by bestsellers and children’s books. Education sales were up in Spain, while in France Larousse and Hatier sales were up, but literature sales were down.

For the second half, Lagardere expects publishing to have a strong finish, particularly for education in Spain and fiction in the U.S.

Candlewick Revamps Sales and Marketing, Launches Templar Imprint
By Judith Rosen
Given the tough economic climate, Candlewick Press in Somerville, Mass., has begun to diversify its revenue stream, according to president Karen Lotz. “We’ve been very fortunate to be driven by big, big bestsellers,” she says. “But it’s important to have a base. We’re trying to maneuver now for all the areas [of the children’s market]. It’s a new model of working that we’re thinking about.” Lotz does not intend to increase the number of Candlewick-originated books, saying, “If anything, we’ll pull back a bit.” Read on »

King Story Adapted as Made-for-Mobile Video
Scribner, S&S Digital, CBS Mobile and Marvel Entertainment have teamed up to create “N,” a series of made-for-mobile-phone video episodes adapted from a story in Stephen King’s forthcoming story collection Just After Sunset due out in November. Drawn by a team from Marvel, adapted by TV show creator Marc Guggenheim with King, and featuring a full cast of voice actors, the approximately two-minute episodes will be released one per weekday beginning Monday July 28 and ending August 29. The episodes will be available to mobile phone users at no extra charge through CBS Mobile; on the Web through CBS Audience Network and its partners, including AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo; and at www.NisHere.com. Episodes will also be available for paid download, at $.99 for five, or $3.99 for all 25. A limited printed collectors edition of the book, packaged with a DVD of all 25 episodes, will be available when the regular edition of Just After Sunset goes on sale in November.

Monday's Reviews Today: Atkinson's New Mystery & Vowell's Puritans
Kate Atkinson's "stellar" new mystery, When Will There Be Good News?, PI Jackson Brodie is back tracking a 30-year-old family murder. Juggling various storylines and a shifting timeline, Atkinson "brilliantly, simultaneously ties up loose ends from Turn and opens new doors for further Brodie misadventures." In sarah Vowell's "witty" The Wordy Shipmates the author visits our Puritan roots, tracing the 1630 journey of notable colinists to the New World. Our critic notes: "Gracefully interspersing her history lesson with personal anecdotes, Vowell offers reflections that are both amusing and tender." Read on »

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AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: Brideshead Revisited; Nick Sagan; Jeff Shaara
Today in select theaters, the movie Brideshead Revisited opens, based on Evelyn Waugh’s 1945 novel (Back Bay Books, $14.99) and starring Emma Thompson and Michael Gambon. After the jump: Carl Sagan's son, Shirley MacLaine, and others. Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Talking Undead at Comic-Con
Mysterious Galaxy Books manager Patrick Heffernan and Charlaine Harris were caught on camera yesterday, hanging out at the Mysterious Galaxy booth at Comic-Con International. Harris was in San Diego to talk about the forthcoming HBO series True Blood, based on her Sookie Stackhouse novels. Submit your pictures here »

JOB OF THE DAY

PW VIRTUAL EDITION

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