Continuing to add to its growing list of comics works, Harry N. Abrams has acquired world rights to Jon J. Muth’s out-of-print adaptation of M, Fritz Lang’s classic film, and plans to republish the book in hardcover packaged with a DVD of the movie in Spring 2008. The book was acquired by Abrams senior editor Charles Kochman in a deal brokered by agent Allen Spiegel.
Muth is an acclaimed comics artist and children’s book illustrator. He is the author of the bestselling children’s picture books Zen Shorts and Three Questions (2005, 2002 both from Scholastic) and also illustrated Carolyn Kennedy’s national bestseller A Family of Poems (Hyperion) in 2005. His adaptation of Fritz Lang’s classic thriller was originally published in 1990 as a serial by Eclipse Comics and has never been collected into a single volume. 
Kochman, formerly an editor at DC Comics, has worked with Muth in the past on comics projects. Kochman told PWCW that he remembers seeing the comics adaptation of M long before working with Muth on a Batman project at DC. “The four issue graphic novel M was the first work of his I ever saw and it’s also one of my favorite movies.” Indeed Muth has a long professional history with both Kochman and with Abrams president and CEO Michael Jacobs, who formerly headed up Scholastic’s trade division before moving to Abrams in 2004.
Kochman joined Abrams in 2005 after working at DC Comics. Since joining the company he has worked to publish a line of graphic novels and comics pop culture works at the art book publishing house. In addition to publishing Brian Fies Mom’s Caoncer, an Eisner Award-winning web comic published as a print graphic novel and was subsequently nominated for a Quill Award in 2006. He also published Diary of A Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney, a kids novel with cartoons; and Art Out of Time: Unknown Comics Visionaries by Dan Nadel, a survey of little known comics creators .
Muth described Jacobs as “an early supporter of my work in children’s books,” and said Kochman was “an old friend who has done a lot to bring graphic novels into their own. M is probably the most fully realized project I have done in comics.”Jacobs called Muth a“talented artist and illustrator, whose work I’’ve long admired. Adding Jon to Abrams’s growing list of graphic artists is both a pleasure and a privilege.”
Lang’s M is the story a serial killer and child molestor brought to justice by the police and the Berlin underworld. Kochman was careful to emphasize that the graphic novel is aimed at adults will not be marketed to children. The film is in the public domain but Kochman said the copy that will be packaged with the graphic novel was licensed from Sinister Cinema, which has a master copy of the film and offers a high quality edition.
“It’s one of my favorite films,” said Kochman, “Sinister has a great print and we think we’ll be able to introduce the film and Muth’s graphic novel to a whole new generation of fans.”
