Graphic Novel Lifts Curtain on Modeling Business

Petite model Isobella Jade has already written a memoir, Almost 5’4”, and now she's written a fictional graphic novel based on her experiences in modeling. Model Life, illustrated by Jazmin Ruotolo, will be published by Soft Skull Press in October.

Comics Briefly

Quebecor Leaves Bankruptcy; Diamond Drops Yen Press Books; Asian American Comicon; Eisner Awards iPhone; iPod App; Netcomics at San Diego; Diamond Deal; Frank Frazetta Regains Rights to Art; Transformers Comics Top iTunes; Runaways Theme Song & Video;Bluewater Michael Jackson Comic; Archaia Launches Hardcover Promotion; Prism Comics Press Grant Call; Oni; Viper; Starz Talent Search; ICv2 Confab; G4 at San Diego; and This Week @ Good Comics for Kids

Ms. Finnegan Goes to Tokyo: The Manga Taisho Awards

I'm in Tokyo to be fitted for my zero gravity wedding dress, but that's another story. I meet up with Ed Chavez, an American-born manga translator, freelance writer and now marketing director at Vertical Inc., for the Manga Taisho Award ceremony. We're waiting outside the Nippon Housou Building with a small group of other journalists. It's cold for March in Tokyo, and the sakura (cherry blossoms) have not fully bloomed, much to my disappointment.

Jackson Books Trickle Out

Books about Michael Jackson enter the pipeline.

Books on Michael Jackson Gain Little Traction

While Michael Jackson singles shot up to top perches in the iTunes store over the weekend, after celebrations of the King of Pop's life took hold in the wake of his sudden death late last week, the run on MJ books has been, well, less noticeable.

Children's Book Reviews: 6/29/2009

Reviewed this week: the latest picture book from the Emberley clan, a picture-book biography of the inventors of Day-Glo paint, new novels from Richard W. Jennings and Elizabeth Scott, as well as a round-up of concept books for younger readers.

Men at War: PW talks with Evie Wyld

Repressed trauma trickles down through generations of Australian veterans, POWs and recluses in Evie Wyld's After the Fire, a Still Small Voice. Think Annie Proulx by way of North Queensland.

Fiction Book Reviews: 6/29/2009

This week, reviews of new novels from James Ellroy, Jeff Lindsay, Philippa Gregory, Richard Russo and Mary B. Morrison. Plus, Dick and Felix Francis deliver another horse caper, Tilly Bagshawe channels Sidney Sheldon, senator Barbara Boxer weighs in with another Beltway thriller.

Winning ‘Hunger Games’ Essay Announced

Scholastic announced today that 17-year-old Kayley Hyde of Seattle has won the publisher’s The Hunger Games essay contest. As grand prize winner, she will receive a trip to New York City, where she will be treated to lunch with author Suzanne Collins. Kaylee will also be given a signed, personalized copy of The Hunger Games, an autographed ARC of Catching Fire, and a collectible “mockingjay” pin.

Alexander Street and Arcadia Publishing Launch Online Local History Collection

Electronic publisher Alexander Street Press and local history book publisher Arcadia Publishing are collaborating on a research website that will collect images and text from every region and state in the U.S. and many areas of Canada. The site will eventually contain more than one million searchable images, including photos, postcards and maps.

Gotham Buys Achatz Memoir

Gotham Books has acquired rights to chef Grant Achatz’s memoir, Life, On the Line. The deal was for North American rights and was brokered by Pilar Queen and David McCormick of McCormick & Williams. Rachel Holtzman will edit.

It’s the Dog Days of Summer at Square Fish

Square Fish Books is going to the dogs this season: Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group’s paperback imprint is featuring its six new canine capers in The Dog Days of Summer promotion. The cover of each book displays a crisp, close-up photo of a pooch on its cover, giving the middle-grade novels a uniform look and surefire appeal to young dog devotees. The promotion encompasses five reprints of books originally published by one of the group’s imprints, as well as one Square Fish original.

Volcano Stories: A PW Web-Exclusive Profile of Yrsa Sigurdardottir

Internationally bestselling Icelandic crime writer Yrsa Sigurdardottir on lame crime, being in Amazon.com's psycho database and shaking up the Scandinavian crime novel boys club.

Yet Another Evangelion Manga Spinoff

In June Dark Horse will launch The Shinji Ikari Raising Project manga series by Takahashi Osamu, the latest spin-off of the immensely popular, award winning Neon Genesis Evangelion animation series, which has spawned two previous manga series, several video games, three feature films, and countless toys and figures. 2009 marks the 14th anniversary of the Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise in Japan.

Garth Ennis’s Preacher Returns in Hardcover

Garth Ennis’s Preacher, a profane religious satire full of gleeful death and dismemberment, is being collected into thick hardback volumes by Vertigo. The first volume clocks in at a hefty 352 pages and reprints periodical issues 1-12 with a publication date of June 24 and a pricetag of $39.99. The first volume will also reprint the pinups drawn by the series' admirers—artists like Dave Gibbons, JG Jones, and Tim Bradstreet—for Preacher nos. 50 and 66.

Heroes Con Holds Steady in Tough Economy

As a banking center of the southeast, Charlotte, N.C., has been hit hard by the economic downturn. So several retailers said they were pleased that sales at the 2009 Heroes Con either held level or dipped only slightly from previous years. “It’s no secret that Shelton Drumm runs one of the best shows in the country,” said Boom! Studios publisher Ross Richie. “Even in an economic downturn the fans came out and great fans they are."

Henson Co., Archaia Ink Graphic Novel Pact

Indie comics publisher Archaia has reached a multiyear agreement with the Jim Henson Company to produce a series of comic book serials and graphic novels based on popular Henson properties as well as creating new and original co-branded properties. Henson and Archaia will jointly put together the creative teams for each property; the first title will be released this fall.

Comics Briefly

Chicago School Keeps Alexie Novel on Summer Reading List

Despite public calls to do so from a group of parents, Sherman Alexie’s critically acclaimed YA novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, will not be pulled as required summer reading for 400 incoming freshmen students at Antioch (Ill.) Community High School. In a meeting on Monday night, school district 117 superintendent Jay Sabatino and the seven-member school board voiced their strong support for the book as an educational tool that engages young readers.

Doug Wright: Rediscovering Canada’s Master Cartoonist

Writer Brad Mackay and cartoonist Seth are attempting to restore Doug Wright's life and work to the public memory. As co-founders of the Doug Wright Awards, they have explicitly elevated Wright to patron saint status within that country's comics art tradition. As co-editors of the first volume of The Collected Doug Wright (published by Montreal-based Drawn and Quarterly),they seek to restore Wright's work to public view within a broader world of contemporary comics publishing.