News pg. 32

AX superstar Akino Kondoh speaks in New York tomorrow!

April 20, 2010 / More →

Image for AX superstar Akino Kondoh speaks in New York tomorrow!

Manga scholar Ryan Holmberg has been a big help with our upcoming book Ax: A Collection of Alternative Manga -- he wrote the artist biographies printed in the back of the book. He's also the curator of an excellent new exhibit at New York's Center for Book Arts, called "Garo Manga: The First Decade, 1964-1973," showcasing the early years of legendary underground magazine Garo (an ancestor of Ax)!

The exhibit runs through June 26, but tomorrow night (Wednesday, April 21) Ryan is holding an artist talk with contemporary underground manga-ka Akino Kondoh! Ms. Kondoh is internationally known as a gallery artist, illustrator, and animator, but she'll also be prominently featured in our Ax book -- contributing two stories and the gorgeous cover!

Anybody in the New York area should check this out, 6:30pm at the Center for Book Arts. And stay tuned for more details on Ax, coming to you this summer!


Framåt! Top Shelf and Sweden invade CHICAGO!

April 15, 2010 / More →

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Hey Chi-town friends, the Top Shelf Swedish Invasion is coming to you! Starting Friday and all weekend long, the new Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2) takes over the lakeside McCormick Center in downtown Chicago, and we'll be there in full force!

Come out and meet:

And don't forget to swing by the Nerd City / Top Shelf Swedish Invasion party, Saturday, April 17, at the Double Door in Wicker Park!


Coming in June: THE PLAYWRIGHT and a new JOHNNY BOO!

April 15, 2010 / More →

Image for Coming in June: THE PLAYWRIGHT and a new JOHNNY BOO!

Available now for pre-order at your favorite comic shop are two totally different (and totally excellent) graphic novels from Top Shelf! The mature-readers heavyweight this month is The Playwright from writer Daren White and artist Eddie Campbell, a gorgeous fully-painted romantic comedy about the sex life of a celibate middle-aged man -- it's a witty blend of cynicism and sweetness, from the award-winning artist of Alec and From Hell.

Also featured is the hilarious fourth adventure in the infectiously goofy Johnny Boo series by James Kochalka, Johnny Boo and the Mean Little Boy. In their latest episode, Johnny Boo and Squiggle meet a new friend who loves to play games -- but as you can guess, some of his games aren't very nice! Our heroes learn a few lessons about making friends, getting revenge, and changing your pants.

Place your orders now for these two beautiful, hardcover books... June'll be here before we know it!


Thanks for a sell-out success at MoCCA!

April 13, 2010 / More →

Image for Thanks for a sell-out success at MoCCA!

The Swedish Invasion is officially a hit! Top Shelf packed heavy for the MoCCA Festival this past weekend in New York, knowing that we'd be joined by over half a dozen Swedish guests and debuting tons of new books... and still we sold out of almost every book we brought!

The three hot Swedish debuts (Hey Princess, The Troll King, and 120 Days of Simon) were definitely among the star books of the show. Check out this photo of authors Mats Jonsson, Kolbeinn Karlsson, and Simon Gärdenfors signing copies, and click here to see it full-size.

Thanks to all our Swedish friends, the hard-working MoCCA staff and volunteers, and most importantly the fans who came out to our Swedish Invasion pre-party at Rocketship and to the Festival!

Now the Invasion rolls on... to Chicago for C2E2 this weekend! Good thing we've got a whole new shipment of books on the way...

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Sätt igång! The SWEDISH INVASION begins TONIGHT!

April 9, 2010 / More →

Image for Sätt igång! The SWEDISH INVASION begins TONIGHT!

The SWEDISH INVASION begins TONIGHT at ROCKETSHIP COMICS & continues all MoCCA weekend, April 10TH-11TH!



Come meet and party with Simon Gärdenfors (THE 120 DAYS OF SIMON), Mats Jonsson (HEY PRINCESS), Kolbeinn Karlsson (THE TROLL KING), Niklas Asker (SECOND THOUGHTS), Fredrik Strömberg (SWEDISH COMICS HISTORY), as well as Chris Staros, Leigh Walton, Johannes Klenell, and many of the contributors to the Swedish Anthology FROM THE SHADOW OF THE NORTHERN LIGHTS at:



THE ROCKETSHIP SWEDISH INVASION PARTY
FRI, APRIL 9TH, 8:00PM

@ 208 SMITH ST, BROOKLYN, NY



And join us this weekend for:



THE MoCCA ARTS FESTIVAL
SAT & SUN, APRIL 10TH & 11TH

@ THE 69TH REGIMENT ARMORY
68 LEXINGTON AVENUE (BETWEEN 25TH & 26TH)



(Next weekend we're heading to CHICAGO for C2E2, the CHICAGO COMIC & ENTERTAINMENT EXPO (FRI - SUN, APR 16TH-18TH) -- don't miss the Nerd City/Top Shelf Swedish Invasion Party on SAT APR 17TH at the famed Chicago nightclub, the Double Door.)

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CAMPBELL, LEMIRE, CANNON honored with EISNER nominations!

April 8, 2010 / More →

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Today the comic industry's hotly-anticipated Eisner Award candidates were announced, with Eddie Campbell's Alec: The Years Have Pants, Jeff Lemire's Essex County, and Kevin Cannon's Far Arden receiving the honor of a nomination.

In his acclaimed career, Eddie Campbell has won multiple Eisners for the monumental From Hell (with Alan Moore) in addition to countless nominations for his solo work on the Alec and Bacchus stories. This year sees him nominated for Alec: The Years Have Pants, a "Life-Sized Omnibus" collection of his groundbreaking autobiographical comics, in the category of Best Reprint Graphic Album.

Jeff Lemire is nominated this year for The Complete Essex County, his sweeping portrait of the power of family in small-town Ontario, as Best Reprint Graphic Album. In previous years, the individual Essex County volumes earned nominations in the Best Writer/Artist and Best New Graphic Album categories. Jeff is also up this year for his Vertigo series Sweet Tooth, which is nominated as Best New Series!

Kevin Cannon has got to be pleased to receive an Eisner nomination for his debut graphic novel Far Arden, a rip-roaring adventure on the Arctic high seas. He broke onto the scene drawing science-based nonfiction comics with studio mate Zander Cannon, but Far Arden, his first full-length solo graphic novel, has established him as a master storyteller and is now up for an Eisner in the category Best Publication for Teens.

Our proudest congratulations to Eddie, Jeff, and Kevin, as well as all the other fine nominees!


BOOKLIST loves MOVING PICTURES!

April 5, 2010 / More →

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Advance praise is starting to roll in for Kathryn & Stuart Immonen's gripping drama of Nazi occupation, art smuggling, and impossible choices, Moving Pictures! Booklist reviewer Francisca Goldsmith awards it a starred review: "This elegant and evocative historical graphic novel explores the personal relationships involved in protecting internationally recognized works of fine art during the Nazi occupation of Paris ... the storytelling and the characters are as sober as the crisp, heavy black-and-white of its images ... Deftly told, the whole story resonates long after its appropriately ambiguous final pages."

The full review will run in the May 1 issue of Booklist. For more info on Moving Pictures or to pre-order the book, click below!


ALEC heads "Best of 2009" list at Comics Reporter... FAR ARDEN too!

April 4, 2010 / More →

Image for ALEC heads "Best of 2009" list at Comics Reporter... FAR ARDEN too!

Prominent industry journalist Tom Spurgeon (The Comics Reporter) has finally presented his picks for best comics of the year, with Eddie Campbell's landmark collection Alec: The Years Have Pants receiving the #1 spot for archival/reprint books. Also honored as one of the year's best was Far Arden, the rip-roaring Arctic adventure by Kevin Cannon.

Spurgeon singles out Alec as "extraordinary" and "life-affirming," pointing out that "Campbell's work reflects not just a life as lived but mirrors the process of understanding that life." He praises Far Arden, meanwhile, not only for its formal tricks but also for "its world-building and capacity for melancholy." Click here to read the whole list!


CBR's Big Bad Interview with Rich & JD on BB WOLF!

April 2, 2010 / More →

Image for CBR's Big Bad Interview with Rich & JD on BB WOLF!

Comic Book Resources staff writer Alex Dueben emcees a great in-depth interview with JD Arnold and Rich Koslowski, creators of the upcoming blues/racism/revenge thriller BB WOLF AND THE THREE LPs! Find out how the JD's script and Rich's art made "a story that is so familiar" into something "as moving and powerful as this book is," and find out why Alex calls it "one of the best graphic novels of the year and a must read for any comics fan!" Click here to read the interview!


The Swedish Invasion Begins April 9th!

April 1, 2010 / More →

Image for The Swedish Invasion Begins April 9th!

THE SWEDISH INVASION BEGINS AT ROCKETSHIP COMICS ON FRI APRIL 9TH & CONTINUES ALL MOCCA WEEKEND APRIL 10TH-11TH!



Come meet and party with Simon Gärdenfors (THE 120 DAYS OF SIMON), Mats Jonsson (HEY PRINCESS), Kolbeinn Karlsson (THE TROLL KING), Niklas Asker (SECOND THOUGHTS), Fredrik Strömberg (SWEDISH COMICS HISTORY), as well as Chris Staros, Leigh Walton, Johannes Klenell, and many of the contributors to the Swedish Anthology FROM THE SHADOW OF THE NORTHERN LIGHTS at:



THE ROCKETSHIP SWEDISH INVASION PARTY
FRI, APRIL 9TH, 8:00PM

@ 208 SMITH ST, BROOKLYN, NY



&



THE MoCCA ARTS FESTIVAL
SAT & SUN, APRIL 10TH & 11TH

@ THE 69TH REGIMENT ARMORY
68 LEXINGTON AVENUE (BETWEEN 25TH & 26TH)



(And they’ll also be at C2E2, the CHICAGO COMIC & ENTERTAINMENT EXPO (FRI - SUN, APR 16TH-18TH) and at the Nerd City/Top Shelf Swedish Invasion Party on SAT APR 17TH at the famed Chicago nightclub, the Double Door.)

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Top Shelf on the Road!

March 31, 2010 / More →

We just had some fantastic recent appearances in Seattle for Emerald City Comic-Con (with Andy Runton, Matt Kindt, and Jeff Lemire), in Memphis for the ComicsPRO retailer conference, and in Portland for the Public Library Association's conference! All three were excellent events, with some great opportunities to hear from fans, retailers, and librarians. The 2010 convention season is off to a beautiful start, and we can't wait to see you at the next show!

Coming up next are these events in the month of April:
APR 10-11: MoCCA ART FESTIVAL (New York, New York)

APR 16-18: C2E2 - CHICAGO COMIC & ENTERTAINMENT EXPO (Chicago, Illinois)

APR 24-25: SWEDISH SMALL PRESS EXPO (Stockholm, Sweden)

APR 24-25: STUMPTOWN COMICS FEST (Portland, Oregon)

  • with Leigh Walton!

APR 24-25: CALGARY COMIC EXPO (Calgary, Alberta, Canada)


WIRED explores the many worlds of James Kochalka!

March 22, 2010 / More →

Image for WIRED explores the many worlds of James Kochalka!

Indie superstar James Kochalka is famous for creating huge amounts of material in all sorts of areas (graphic novels, kids' books, webcomics, painting, music), but this year he looks to be busier than ever before! As this new profile in WIRED explains, he's got a lot on his plate!

The long-awaited vinyl-bound collected edition of his foul-mouthed super-sitcom comic SuperF*ckers hits stores in just a few weeks, he's got a successful series of kids' graphic novels called Johnny Boo (and a new one coming this summer called Dragon Puncher), and he's just teamed up with indie game developers PixelJam to make his dream video game Glorkian Warrior a reality. They used the website Kickstarter to solicit $10,000 in donations from fans in order to fund the game's creation, surpassing that goal well before their deadline! Finally, he has a significant role in the new rotoscoped sci-fi romance film Mars, which just debuted at SXSW! Pretty sure that officially makes him the busiest man in Burlington, Vermont.

See below to grab copies of some of his books, or click here for our full Kochalka catalog!


First look at THE PLAYWRIGHT, coming soon from Eddie Campbell & Daren White!

March 20, 2010 / More →

Image for First look at THE PLAYWRIGHT, coming soon from Eddie Campbell & Daren White!

The good folks at Comic Book Resources just unveiled an exclusive first look at the opening scene of The Playwright, coming this June from Top Shelf!

Written by Daren White with full-color painted art by Eddie Campbell, The Playwright is a truly delightful piece of work that blends romance and emotional complexity with a dry British wit. It's a dark comedy about the sex life of a celibate middle-aged man. Take a look at the first scene now!


Shuster Award nominations for Top Shelf's Canadian greats!

March 17, 2010 / More →

Image for Shuster Award nominations for Top Shelf's Canadian greats!

The prestigious Joe Shuster Awards, honoring Canadian comic book creators, have announced their nominees for 2010... and three Top Shelf creators are on the list!

First up, the excellent Stuart Immonen is nominated for Best Artist/Dessinateur, largely for his work at Marvel on Ultimate Spider-Man and New Avengers. Scripter supreme Kathryn Immonen likewise earns a nomination for Best Writer/Écrivain primarily for Runaways and Patsy Walker: Hellcat. Also mentioned is the Immonen-Immonen collaboration "Trampoline Hall" from a CBLDF benefit book. Finally, Shuster veteran Jeff Lemire returns for another shot at the award he won two years ago, Best Cartoonist/Créateur. The nomination honors his work on The Nobody and his story from Awesome 2: Awesomer, among other things.

But the best part? All three have amazing new graphic novels coming up from Top Shelf!

  • Kathryn and Stuart have collaborated on the nail-bitingly dramatic thriller Moving Pictures -- about love, war, and Nazi art theft -- which is in Previews now for a May 2010 release.
  • And Jeff Lemire has just announced his next major book with us, The Underwater Welder, for a 2012 release!

Congratulations to Stuart, Kathryn, Jeff, and all the nominees!


Library Journal names FROM HELL a classic!

March 16, 2010 / More →

Image for Library Journal names FROM HELL a classic!

Library Journal's Neal Wyatt and Tom Batten have assembled a cream-of-the-crop short list of absolutely essential graphic novels -- "classics that not only stand out as great starting points for newbies but also serve as examples of the best work done by masters of the form." Such a list would hardly be complete without something by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell, and the writers kill two birds with one stone by recommending Alan & Eddie's monumental collaboration From Hell!

As Batten writes, "Moore weaves together a huge cast of characters, ranging from royalty to doomed footmen, and Campbell's scratchy, dark illustrations create a gloriously grimy and terrifyingly realistic London for them to inhabit." If you haven't braved the dark depths of From Hell before, why not dive in today? We can safely say that it will blow your mind.