Comics Reviews: 10/26/2009

Panel Mania: Graylight

Graylight is by Naomi Nowak, the creator of Unholy Kinship and House of Clay. In this preview, a young woman divulges to her friends a surreal occurance from her childhood. Graylight is due out from NBM in December.

Cooking the Books with Ann Mah

Former Viking assistant editor Ann Mah left New York for Beijing, took a job as the dining editor for the English-language magazine That’s Beijing, and wrote a novel about a young Chinese-American woman who moves to Beijing in the midst of an identity crisis. Mah spoke to PW from Paris, where she now lives, about Kitchen Chinese: A Novel about Food, Family, and Finding Yourself, which Avon will publish as a paperback original.

Recipe Report: October 26

Short Order: October 26

This week, pics of Mark Peel celebrating at Campanile in L.A., Alicia Silverstone signing copies of her new book at the NYC Wine & Food Festival, Alton Brown answering questions at a B&N in Manhattan, John Besh partying in New Orleans, and Sarah Levy toasting her new baking book in Chicago. Also: news about HarperCollins picking up the self-published culinary novel The Recipe Club, and ATK founder Chris Kimball talks to PW about the Kindle.

Gourmet Today Benefits from Magazine's Closing

Gourmet Today had a lot going for it before the magazine folded on October 5. But now that Gourmet’s final issue is on newsstands, sales of the book have jumped. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has seen sales increase since the magazine closed—which was only two weeks after the book went on sale—and former editor-in-chief Ruth Reichl, who’d committed to touring to promote the book months ago, has been a hotter than usual ticket in light of recent events.

Make Room for Books on Cheese

It's a big season for books about cheese. The coming months will see the publication of books on making cheese at home, building and running a small dairy, and cooking with cheese. There are books about people who’ve devoted their lives to cheese, and even a memoir by one of them. And, of course, there are reference books (which are necessary, since there are some 700 kinds of cheese in existence). Here's a summary of what's coming up.

Review: Knives at Dawn

In Knives at Dawn: America's Quest for Culinary Glory at the Legendary Bocuse d'Or Competition, Andrew Friedman follows a grueling cooking competition through the selection of two cooks from Thomas Keller's French Laundry. His fly-on-the-wall reporting captures both the obsessive, perfectionist mindset of great chefs and their creative spontaneity under pressure—as small a matter as the sudden, intuitive selection of celeriac as an ingredient in a tart becomes a moment of high drama.

Fiction Book Reviews: 10/26/2009

Reviewed this week, new fiction from Robert Crais, Sandra Brown, Stephen Coonts, Ron Rash, Nicholas Coleridge and Jude Deveraux. Also, Leila Meacham delivers a big, fat Texas epic, Canadian radio host Stuart McLean revisits the Vinyl Cafe, Johanna Moran finds inspriation in an old polygamy case, and Susan Abulhawa revisits Palestinian-Jewish conflicts.

It’s the End of the World as We Know It

Vampires may live forever, but the recent vampire trend in YA fiction won't. Author Michael Grant, for one, is "sick to death of vampires," and he is not alone. But when one hugely popular trend ends, what will take its place? Some readers have their fingers crossed for postapocalyptic fiction. Grant, along with fellow authors Scott Westerfeld, Carrie Ryan, and James Dashner, gathered with fans at a Barnes & Noble in Manhattan last Thursday to discuss their latest books...

Com.x is Back with a Bang

Com.x, an independent comic publisher operating out of London, England and Venice, California, launched in England in 2002 with the beautifully designed and drawn comics Cla$$War and Razorjack. But then a long operational hiatus set in. Now armed with new investors and new projects, they’ve had an extremely busy 2009.

A Talk with Guy Delisle: Looking for the Details

Cartoonist and animator Guy Delisle has lived and worked in both Shenzhen, China and Pyongyang, North Korea. He recorded his experiences living in these cities (and in their respective national cultures) in two well-received book-length comics works, Shenzhen (Drawn &Quarterly 2006) and Pyongyang (D&Q 2005), utilizing his unique dry humor, conversational tone, and focus on the everyday to capture the contradictions of the place and the experience of a foreigner encountering them for the first time.

Web Exclusive Children's Book Reviews: 10/20/2009

This selection of web-exclusive children's book reviews includes new works from Sujean Rim, Geoffrey Norman and E.B. Lewis, Adam Selzer and Jean Little.

Orca Book Publishers' Graphic Adventure Line

Much like other publishers focused on the kids' and teen educational market, Canadian house Orca Book Publishing added a line of graphic novels to its list in hopes attracting teen readers as well as their teachers and librarians. In 2007 Orca launched the Graphic Guide Adventure Series, a line of fictional adventure graphic novels aimed at middle graders, focusing on the environment, skateboarding, soccer and, now, media literacy.

Comics Briefly

Marvel Fest and Motion Comic Live; Archie Exhibit Opening at MoCCA; Marvel Comic Unveils New Digital Comics Reader 3.0; Digital Comics Subscription Service Comes To India; Stephen King Plans New Marvel Dark Tower Comic; Seth Video Interview; Launch Party for Best American Comics 2009; This Week @ The Beat; and This Week @ Good Comics For Kids

Panel Mania: Like A Dog

Like a Dog by Zak Sally collects the first two issues of his series Recidivist, along with other of if his stories from the last 15 years. In this preview there are excerpts from three stories: "Two Idiot Brothers," "At the Scaffold," and "The Man Who Killed Wally Wood." Like a Dog will be released by Fantagraphics in the last week of October.

Comics Reviews: 10/19/2009

Upbeat Diamond Summit Draws New Retailers

Although it's been a tumultuous month in the comics industry, retailers and publishers got down to business at the Diamond Retailer Summit, held October 11—12 in Baltimore. Organized and run by Diamond Distribution, the exclusive distributor for the top four comics and graphic novel publishers, the yearly meeting drew nearly 600 retailers from around North America.

Kane/Miller Conspires to Build a Hit

Educational Development Corp. chairman Randall White was pretty sure he had uncovered a gem of a small company when he acquired Kane/Miller Book Publishers last December, but the purchase has worked out even better than he thought. With the holiday season still to come, revenue at Kane/Miller in 2009 has already topped that of all of 2008, according to White.

Children's Book Reviews: 10/19/2009

This week, stars for Jim Aylesworth and Barbara McClintock's The Mitten, John Hendrix's John Brown: His Fight for Freedom, Sharon Shinn's Gateway, and Julie Halpern's Into the Wild Nerd Yonder. Plus: roundups of Hanukkah titles and gift ideas.