Dabel Bros, Del Rey Turn ‘Wheel of Time’ into Comics

Dabel Brothers Publishing announced plans to team up with Del Rey Books to create a comics version of acclaimed fantasy novelist Robert Jordan’s bestselling 11-volume Wheel of Time series.

Comics Briefly

Not Your Daddy's Seinen; Violent Gantz Comes to the U.S.

This month, Dark Horse will publish Gantz, a violent, sexually explicit and surreal series that many American manga fans thought would never be licensed for the U.S. market.

Life in Comics #5: Creator Rights and Small Publishers

Tokyopop's controversial new Manga Pilot program has reignited discussion of creators rights in comics.

Secret Acres: Not So Secret Any More

One of the most impressive debuts at this year's MoCCA Festival was Secret Acres, a new comics imprint launched by Barry Matthews and Leon Avelino. Their first two books and Samuel C. Gaskin's Fatal Faux-Pas and Eamon Espey's Wormdye.

Brian K. Vaughan In A New York State of Mind

This month DC Comics Wildstorm imprint is releasing a deluxe hardcover edition of Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris's superhero series Ex Machina.

Crime and Comic Books: Gary Phillips’s High Roller

Boom! Studios is publishing High Rollers, a new four-issue comics mini-series written by crime and mystery novelist Gary Phillips, detailing the rise of a Los Angeles gangster.

PW Talks with Paul and Anne Ehrlich: A Web-Exclusive Q&A

In Dominant Animal (Island Press), ecologists Paul and Anne Ehrlich, who authored the highly influential The Population Bombforty years ago, recalibrate their vision and find that, despite some progress (heading off some of their more dire 1968 predictions), our species is still overshooting the capacity of the planet to sustain itself, and must change our ways.

Web Exclusive Reviews: Week of 6/30/2008

This week on the Web: death and what you can do about it, death and what a war zone reporter does about it, more speculative history from China enthusiast Gavin Menzies, an author's memoir of the tour supporting her last memoir, scientists examine the human-centric importance of all Earth's critters, and a classic of American photography turns fifty.

Hit Parade: PW Talks with Lawrence BlockA Web-Exclusive Q&A

Prolific mystery writer Lawrence Blocks talks to PW about his latest series starring Keller, the laconic, stamp-collecting hitman on the brink of retirement. William Morrow will publish Hit and Run on Block’s 70th birthday.

Viz Media Owners Revamp Licensing Unit

Shueisha and Shogakukan—the two Japanese publishers that own the American-based manga publisher Viz Media—have entered into a new partnership to expand the company’s licensing and mechandising arm.

A New Love & Rockets In a New Format

Fantagraphics will relaunch the Hernandez brother’s acclaimed series, Love and Rockets, calling the series Love and Rockets: New Stories, and publishing it as a 112-page trade paperback collection starting in September.

Koontz’s Odd Thomas Goes Graphic

Dean Koontz’s character Odd Thomas makes the leap from paragraphs to panels in the new graphic novel In Odd We Trust, published on June 24 by Del Rey.

ADV Manga Is Still in the Picture

Despite a lack of new releases and continuing rumors about its future, ADV Manga is still alive and keeping its books in print, according to Chris Oarr, the ADV sales account manager who oversees the manga line.

‘Turning Them into Movies Is Just an Added Benefit’: Kingdom Comics at Disney

Ahmet Zappa and Christian Beranek are launching a new line of graphic novels at Disney to be distributed via Disney Worldwide Publishing

Comics Briefly

2008 Harvey Awards; PW The Beat: Didio, Heroes Con; EW’s 100 Best Books; Brian K. Vaughan at Midtown Comics; Guests at NYAF; Vanguard at SDCC; Transfuzion at Wizard World Chicago; and Don Parent at Wizard World Chicago

Bad Moon Setting

After nearly four decades of marriage, Anne Roiphe's husband collapsed from a fatal heart attack in the lobby of their apartment building. In her new memoir, Epilogue, she puts to the test the old saying, “Time is the widow's friend,” as she begins rebuilding her life. Tell me about the significance of the moon in the book.

Miami Book Fair Adds Graphic Novel Focus

The Miami Book Fair International, which attracts more than 250,000 visitors over eight days, is partnering with Diamond Comics Distributors to expand the comics and graphic novel presence at the 25th annual fair set for November 9—16 on the campus of Miami-Dade College. Pulitzer Prize—winning cartoonist Art Spiegelman will be a featured guest and will create this year's poster.

Nonfiction Reviews

Wounded Warriors: Those for Whom the War Never Ends Mike Sager . Da Capo , $16.95 paper (288p) ISBN 978-0-306-81735-9 Veteran journalist Sager (Revenge of the Donut Boys) presents an amalgam of celebrity portraits and cautionary tales in a collection as addictive as the drugs and violence that fuel much of the author’s reporting.

Children's Book Reviews

Picture Books Ten Tiny Babies Karen Katz . S&S/McElderry , $14.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-4169-3546-9 Kicking off with “1 tiny baby starts to run” and ending with 10 sleeping babies tucked into their cribs, Katz (Princess Baby) once again puts her kewpie doll crew through their paces, this time enumerating all the fun things that babies do, from toe wriggling and noisemaking to eati...