The year 2010 promises to deliver a wide variety of exciting new graphic works with new graphic novels coming from such artists as Dan Clowes (D&Q), Charles Burns (Pantheon), and Dash Shaw (Pantheon) on the literary comics side, as well as the continued and growing presence of work from prose writers looking to try their skills in the comics medium.

Look for new comics work from such well-known writers as YA author Jane Yolen, whose first graphic novel Foiled,is coming from First Second; Dark Horse is publishing Janet Evanovich's Troublemaker: A Barnaby Adventure, her first graphic novel; Del Rey will continue its foray into serialized comics with an adaptation of Stephen King and Peter Straub’sThe Talisman, and look for still more Stephen King from Marvel (The Stand) and DC (American Vampire). On the manga side, Viz Media continues to diversify the kinds of manga available in the US with works by Natsume Ono, offering a more “indie-style” manga-ka, and Vertical Inc. branches out from classics with more contemporary multi-volume titles. Even indie graphic novel house Top Shelf will get in on the manga scene, and plans to offer an anthology of alternative manga selected from the Japanese indie comics magazineAX.

Following is a selective listing of some of the upcoming graphic novels of 2010 from a selection of publishers.

AdHouse Books

Afrodisiac (January) Brian Maruca and Jim Rugg. A collection of the “Afrodisiac” stories that combine the style of 1970’s Marvel comics and blaxploitation movies.

Dark Horse

The Oddly Compelling Art of Denis Kitchen(June) Denis Kitchen. A collection of comics, illustrations, and covers by the underground cartoonist and publisher. The book also features an extensive look at his career with an introduction by Neil Gaiman and an essay by Charles Brownstein, director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which was founded by Kitchen.

Troublemaker: A Barnaby Adventure (July). Janet Evanovich. The bestselling novelist's first graphic novel and the next book in her bestselling Alex Barnady prose series.

Mesmo Delivery (March) Rafael Grampa. Grampa’s debut full-length graphic novel follows an ex-boxer, an Elvis impersonator, and a rowdy crew of drunks whom get involved with the wrong delivery service.

Del Rey

The Exile: An Outlander Graphic Novel(September) Diana Gabaldon, art by Hoang Nguyen. A graphic novel set in the world and featuring the main character of the Outlander novel series by Gabaldon.

Odd is On Our Side (October) Dean Koontz and Fred Van Lente, Illustrated by Queenie Chan. The second volume in the manga prequel to Koontz’s “Odd Thomas” series of novels.

Penny Arcade 6: The Halls Below (June) Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik. The first collection of the webcomic to be published by Del Rey after their move from Dark Horse.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Graphic Novel(May) Seth Grahame and Jane Austen; adapted by Tony Lee, illustrated by Cliff Richards. A graphic novel adaptation of the novel, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

The Talisman: The Road of Trials (May) Stephen King and Peter Straub; adapted by Robin Furth, illustrated by Tony Shasteen. A graphic novel adaptation of the King and Straub novel about Jack Sawyer, a teenager who can save his mother by traveling between a parallel world to retrieve a talisman.

Drawn & Quarterly

Black Blizzard (April) Yoshihiro Tatsumi. The first full length graphic novel from one of the founders of “Gekiga” about a pianist arrested for murder, who while handcuffed to a career criminal, is stranded in a blizzard after an avalanche derails the train they’re on.

Hicksville(February) Dylan Horrocks. A re-printing of the classic comic about Dick Burger, a world famous cartoonist, and his dark secrets his biographer, Leonard Batts, discovers at his New Zealand hometown.

Market Day (April) James Sturm. Set in the early 1900s, a rug craftsman and expectant father, Mendleman, struggles at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution as shops turn to cheaply manufactured rugs over his.

Wilson (May) Dan Clowes. A middle-age loner, Wilson, attempts to kindle human connections after his father’s death with his ex-wife and the teenage daughter he didn’t know he had.

 Fantagraphics Books

It Was the War of the Trenches (April) Jacques Tardi. The third book by French master-cartoonist published by Fantagraphics, this book documents World War I from the point of view of day-to-day life in the trenches and explores the underlying causes of the war.

Weathercraft(April) Jim Woodring. Woodring’s first full-length graphic novel, which includes characters from his wordless series, Frank, focuses on Manhog, a brutish everyman, on his search for enlightenment.

Nancy is Happy: Complete Dailies 1942-1945 (July) Ernie Bushmiller. The first book in Fantagraphics’ collections of the classic newspaper comic strip.

First Second

Foiled (April) Written by Jane Yolen, illustrated by Mike Cavallaro. In the first graphic novel from children’s and YA author, Jane Yolen, Aliera Carstairs is an outstanding fencer and develops a crush on Avery Castle; when on their first date Carstairs begins seeing strange fairies.

Prime Baby (April) Gene Luen Yang. Thaddeus is convinced his new little sister is an alien, only to discover she is actually an inter-dimensional conduit. With ambitions to be president one day, Thaddeus wants to conquer the aliens, but the peace-loving, sock-knitting aliens make things difficult.

Solomon’s Thieves (May) Written by Jordan Mechner, Illustrated by LeUyen Pham and Alex Puvilland. A Templar knight returning from war in the Holy Land, Martin uncovers a plot to destroy the Templar Order and steal their treasure. This is the first volume of a trilogy.

Hill and Wang

Anne Frank: The Anne Frank House Authorized Graphic Biography(May) Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon. The creators of The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation present a graphic biography of Anne Frank.

The Cartoon Introduction to Economics(January) Yoram Bauman and Grady Klein. A digestible and humorous introduction to microeconomics by a stand-up economist and educator, Bauman.

Image Comics

Choker (February) Ben McCool and Ben Templesmith. A once promising police officer with a case of Alien Hand Syndrome, Johnny “Choker” Jackson, is now a private detective, who is given a chance to rejoin the police force if he can catch a twisted drug dealer.

Turf (April) Jonathan Ross and Tommy Lee Edwards. In prohibition New York, a family of vampires from Eastern Europe feed on the city’s gangsters and tough guy Eddie Falco teams up with an alien against them.

Marvel

Dark Tower: The Fall of Gilead(February) Written by Peter David and Robin Furth, Illustrated by Richard Isanove. A continuation of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series.

The Stand(January) Written by Roberto Aquirre-Sacasa, Illustrated by Mike Perkins. The first volume, Captain Trips, and the second volume, American Nightmare, both which came out in January, are an adaptation of the Stephan King novel.

NBM

A Home for Mr. Easter (March) Brooke A. Allen. By a new talent, the book presents the adventures of Tesana, a daydreaming misfit, as she tries to return the Easter Bunny to his natural habitat after discovering him when she joined a pep rally planning committee.

The Terrible Axe-Man of New Orleans(April) Rick Geary. The latest volume in Geary’s series, Treasury of XXth Century Murder, which deals with the axe-murders of grocers in New Orleans after World War I.

On the Odd Hours (February) Eric Liberge. The third in a series of comics co-published with the Louve, after Glacial Period and Museum Vaults. In this one, the deaf night watchman who can communicate with the souls of the art, gives a guided tour of the museum at night when the art comes alive.

Pantheon

Body World(April) Dash Shaw. From the author of Mother’s Mouth and Bottomless Belly Button, a dark, fantastical story about a small town, a lowlife botanist, and a mysterious plat with strange powers.

Rough Justice (March) Alex Ross. A sketchbook featuring Ross’s work for DC.

X’ed Out(Octber) Charles Burns. A new graphic novel from the author of Black Hole, X’ed Out weaves the erotic and horrifying in parallel worlds of adolescent longing and a dreamscape set in China.

Top Shelf

Alec: The Years Have Pants (January) Eddie Campbell. A collection of Campbell’s autobiographic “Alec” stories, presenting the transition over the years from wild pub-crawls to becoming a breadwinner.

AX Vol.1(June) Ed. Sean Michael Wilson. A collection of comics from the alternative Japanese comics magazine, AX, which features works by Yoshihiro Tatsumi and Shinichi Abe.

The Playwright (July) Daren White and Eddie Campbell. A cynical, comedy about the sex life of a celibate middle-aged man.

The Collected Bojeffries Saga (December) Alan Moore and Steve Parkhouse. A collection of the Bojeffries comics, first started in 1983, which follows a strange English family of werewolves, vampires, and monsters.

Vertical

7 Billion Needles Vol. 1(August) Nobuaki Tadano. Inspired by Hal Clement’s Needle, Hikaru, a teenage loner, has an alien life form living in her bloodstream, who traveled the galaxy pursuing a mass-murderer intent on destroying the human race.

Chi’s Sweet Home Vol. 1 (June) Konami Kanata. This series features the adventures and daily life of Chi, a kitten, who after being separated from her family is taken in by the Yamada family, who isn’t permitted to have pets in their apartment.

Twin Spica Vol. 1 (May) Kou Yaginuma. Asumi Kagayama enrolls in Tokyo Space School; both of her parents were involved in space exploration, which ended in tragedy, yet Asumi works to be an astronaut with the help of a lion-masked guardian angel.

Viz Media

Natsume’s Book of Friends (January) Yuki Midorikawa. Takashi can see spirits and discovers the book his Grandmother Reiko bound the names of demons and spirits in, forcing them to do what she wanted; now Takashi endeavors to return the names to their owners and free them.

not simple (January) Natsume Ono. In search of his sister, Ian travels from Australia to England and throughout America; framed by the narrative of Jim, a reporter who documents Ian’s life in a novel, it is reveled Ian’s troubled childhood and roaming adult life is not that simple.

Ristorante Paradiso (March) Natsume Ono. Nicoletta comes to Rome to find her estranged mother, yet is forced to pretend to be a daughter of a friend to apprentice at a restaurant, owned by her mother’s husband, which is staffed only by older gentleman who wear spectacles.

Yen Press

Black Butler Vol. 1 (January) Yana Toboso. Yen Press will publish the first three volumes of the series this year, which follows the twelve year-old Earl Ceil Phantomhive and his demon butler, Sebastian, as they serve Queen Victoria to solve mysterious problems in London.

Kobato Vol. 1, 2 (May) CLAMP. Hanato Kobato attempts to mend the wounded hearts of people she meets and fill a magic bottle with the suffering she has relieved in order to fulfill a wish she has. A blue dog with a nasty attitude, Iryogi-san, aids Kobato on her quest.