Ever hear of Bryan Lee O’Malley, Raina Telgemier, Hope Larson, Gene Luen Yang or Jimmy Gownley? They’re just a few of the critically acclaimed comics artists represented by Judy Hansen and the Hansen Literary agency. Here's an update on new works—some just signed up, others slated for publication in 2014—by artists represented by the Hansen Ageny.
Bryan Lee O’Malley, author of the deliriously successful Scott Pilgrim graphic novels, is hard at work on Seconds, his forthcoming graphic novel set in a Toronto restaurant and slated to be published by Random House’s Villard Books in July 2014, after a delay pushed its publication back a year. The book is being edited by Ryan Doherty at Random House and according to Hansen (and the Random House subrights department), the book is also getting “great attention for translation [rights] from publishers around the world."
Comics theoretician Scott McCloud is marking the 20th anniversary of his classic work Understanding Comics, published by HarperCollins. Hansen said that right now there are no details on any plans to mark the publishing anniversary of the book.
Over at Scholastic, Jimmy Gownley, creator of the popular Amelia Rules! Series, is publishing his new series, Dumbest Idea Ever!. Raina Telgemeir, kids graphic novel “rockstar” and creator of the Babysitters Club bestselling adaptation and Smile, which has been on the New York Times bestseller list for 48 weeks, is publishing a new graphic novel called Sisters, which is a companion book to smile.
Kazu Kibuishi’s Amulet series will release the volume six, the latest book in the series, in September 2014, also from Scholastic. Kibuishi is also launching the publication of Explorer, a new comics anthology series that will be published by Abrams ComicArts in 2014.
Nidhi Chanani, an Indian-American born in Calcutta and raised in California, has signed with First Second to produce a new graphic novel to be called Pashmina. Hansen was tipped off to Chanani’s work by National Book Award nominee Gene Yang. (Yang, Hansen told us, has turned in the script for volume 9 of Avatar: The last Airbender, the bestselling series published by Dark Horse.)
Ben Hatke, creator of the Zita the Spacegirl series for First Second, is working on the third volume of the series which will be published in 2014. Hatke has also been selected to be a guest at Angouleme, the annual French comics festival held at the end of January.
Comics artists Sungyoon Choi is at work on Emperor Poet, a new graphic novel signed by First Second. Choi was the artist on Alisa Torres’ 2008 graphic novel American Widow (Villard) and illustrated this year’s much-lauded comics business book, Mission in a Bottle: the Honest Guide to Doing Business Differently--and Succeeding by Seth Goldman and Barry Nalebuff (Crown). In addition Choi is providing illustrations for Still Life Las Vegas, a prose novel that will be published by St. Martin’s Press and edited by Sara Goodman.
Hope Larson, author of the Eisner Award-winning comics adaptation of Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle In Time, is at work on two books, Four Points: Compass South, and Four Points: Knife’s Edge, companion volumes that will be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. The books will be edited by Margaret Ferguson at FSG.
Educational publisher Capstone plans to reissue Kean Soo’s Jellaby in 2014 with plans to the launch the reprint with a Free Comic Book Day publication. Soo is also looking to publish another work with Capstone although contracts have not been signed. And last, but certainly not least, Frank Cammuso has completed volume two of his kids’ comics series, Salem Hyde, published by Abrams ComicArts under editor Maggie Lehrman.
