News pg. 3

Top Shelf is the talk of the town!

January 5, 2023 / More →


Happiness Is… Funny Things: A Comic Strip Biography of Charles M. Schulz

November 30, 2022 / More →

Image for Happiness Is… Funny Things: A Comic Strip Biography of Charles M. Schulz

Luca Debus and Francesco Matteuzzi’s Must-Have Hardcover Tribute Evokes the Style, Pathos, and Gentle Comedy of the Peanuts Comic Strip

SAN DIEGO, CA (November 30, 2022) – In celebration of the cartoonist’s recent 100th birthday, Top Shelf Productions is proud to announce Funny Things: A Comic Strip Biography of Charles M. Schulz, an imaginative and tender-hearted tribute to the man behind Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the Peanuts gang, created in the style of Schulz by Luca Debus and Francesco Matteuzzi and scheduled for publication in August 2023.

Read More →


Awesome new books for kids, teens, & families: out now!

October 1, 2022 / More →


We've just wrapped up an amazing month of children's and young adult graphic novels!

Read More →


25 years of Top Shelf @ SPX!

September 16, 2022 / More →

It's so good to be back! Come join us at the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, MD this weekend to meet your favorite cartoonists — longtime favorites and newcomers alike. Plus: don't miss a slew of great panels for old and young, including the Top Shelf spotlight on Sunday @ 2:30!

Come to the Top Shelf table (W56-59) to meet:

Read More →


Three more Top Shelf titles in development for TV!

August 12, 2022 / More →

Cover art for RIVERS, BALLAD FOR SOPHIE, and THE DELICACYThis week our colleagues at IDW Entertainment announced five new TV development deals, including three based on Top Shelf graphic novels:

  • Dan Berry and David Gaffney's dryly profound Rivers at HBO Max,
  • Filipe Melo & Juan Cavia's achingly beautiful Ballad for Sophie at Universal International Studios,
  • and James Albon's sumptuously grim The Delicacy at WBTV.

With Kim Dwinell's beloved middle-grade series Surfside Girls making its live-action debut on Apple TV+ next Friday (August 19), it's a very exciting time to bring these creators' amazing books to new audiences!


Celebrate with Top Shelf at San Diego Comic-Con!

July 21, 2022 / More →

We're so excited to see you all at Comic-Con's return and to celebrate our 25th anniversary!

Read on to find our author signing schedule, our 25th-anniversary panel, and the just-released video trailer for Kim Dwinell's Surfside Girls TV show!

Read More →


BALLAD FOR SOPHIE leads SIX incredible Eisner nominations!

May 18, 2022 / More →

Top Shelf's 2022 Eisner nominees: Ballad for Sophie, The Science of Surfing: A Surfside Girls Guide to the Ocean, and ParenthesisComic-Con International has announced the nominees for the 2022 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, and congratulations are in order for the creators of three outstanding graphic novels that showcase the breadth and richness of Top Shelf's 2021 lineup:

  • The transatlantic team of Filipe Melo and Juan Cavia have received a record-breaking four Eisner Award nominations for their heart-wrenching tale of passions and pianos, Ballad for Sophie, in the categories of Best Graphic Album: New, Best U.S. Edition of International Material, Best Writer, and Best Painter/Multimedia Artist!
  • The Science of Surfing: A Surfside Girls Guide to the Ocean, the newest adventure in Kim Dwinell's beloved Surfside Girls series, follows Sam and Jade as they discover the joys of ocean science and is nominated in the category of Best Publication for Kids (ages 9-12). Don't miss the chance to join the Surfside Girls before their live-action TV debut on Apple TV+, just announced for August 19th!
  • Finally, French cartoonist Élodie Durand's critically acclaimed Parenthesis, which depicts with stunning power the subjective experience of living through a brain tumor, is nominated in the category Best Graphic Memoir.

Congratulations to these outstanding creators and all the nominees — we look forward to celebrating with you at San Diego Comic-Con in July!


PARENTHESIS shortlisted for Graphic Medicine Award!

April 15, 2022 / More →

Image for PARENTHESIS shortlisted for Graphic Medicine Award!

Congratulations to Élodie Durand, whose heartfelt and harrowing graphic memoir Parenthesis has just been shortlisted for the inaugural Graphic Medicine Award from the Graphic Medicine International Collective.

This landmark story, exploring the subjective experience of living through a brain tumor, has already received many honors around the world, including the Revelation Prize, Liberation Readers’ Prize, and Poland Prize from the Angoulême International Comics Festival and inclusion in such lists as the American Library Association's Best Graphic Novels for Adults, FNAC’s Top 10 Graphic Novels About Illness, and JAMA's Top 2 Best Graphic Novels of 2021. Discover why the Guardian called it "extraordinary" and Publishers Weekly dubbed it "unforgettable" — and why Top Shelf is eager to bring you the next graphic novel from Élodie Durand next year!


BALLAD FOR SOPHIE tops ALA's Best Graphic Novels for Adults list!

January 29, 2022 / More →

Image for BALLAD FOR SOPHIE tops ALA's Best Graphic Novels for Adults list!

A huge congratulations to Filipe Melo and Juan Cavia: their book Ballad for Sophie made the Top Ten of the American Library Association's 2021 Best Graphic Novels for Adults list! The list also features three other phenomenal Top Shelf titles: The Delicacy by James Albon, Parenthesis by Élodie Durand, and Under-Earth by Chris Gooch.


Rob Harrell's MONSTER ON THE HILL inspired the major motion picture RUMBLE, now streaming!

December 15, 2021 / More →


Rob Harrell's beloved book Monster on the Hill now gets the star treatment on Paramount+ as an original animated film! Launched on the streaming platform today, Rumble is set in a world where monster wrestling is a global sport and monsters are superstar athletes... but one monster needs a little bit of help to find his flow.

Top Shelf Productions and IDW Publishing are thrilled to see this underdog story reach Hollywood heights — bringing new readers to Rob's lively, tender, and hilarious graphic novel.

Perfect for monsters of every age, new and old fans will delight in the new 10-page epilogue in Monster on the Hill (Expanded Edition). Want to know how our melancholy monster Raymond went from zero to hero? Order from your local comic shop, IndieBound, Top Shelf, or wherever books are sold!


SURFSIDE GIRLS is making waves — and coming to your screen!

December 14, 2021 / More →

Miya Cech, YaYa Gosselin, and Kim Dwinell

L-R: Miya Cech (Jade), Surfside Girls Book One, YaYa Gosselin (Sam), author Kim Dwinell

Top Shelf Productions and IDW Publishing are thrilled to announce that Kim Dwinell's Surfside Girls will stream as a 10-episode, live-action kids and family series on Apple TV+, starring Miya Cech as Jade and YaYa Gosselin as Sam.

Produced for Apple TV+ by Endeavor Content and IDW Entertainment, "Surfside Girls" will be written and executive produced by May Chan ("An American Girl Story: Ivy & Julie 1976," "Avatar: the Last Airbender"), who also serves as showrunner. Alex Diaz and Julie Sagalowsky Diaz ("The Shannara Chronicles," "What's Up Warthogs!") serve as writers and executive producers alongside Chan. America Young ("Roswell, New Mexico," "Legacies") will direct and executive produce the first two episodes. Paul Stupin and Lydia Antonini ("Locke & Key," "Halo Forward Unto Dawn," "October Faction") will also serve as executive producers on the series. Paul Davidson and Jeff Brustrom will serve as executive producers on behalf of IDW.

Check out the exclusive on Deadline to learn more.

Celebrate by picking up Kim's brand-new book, The Science of Surfing: A Surfside Girls Guide to the Ocean, hot off the press this week!

Covers to the three SURFSIDE GIRLS graphic novels.


Super siblings save the world in Red Panda & Moon Bear 2!

December 3, 2021 / More →


In their second amazing graphic novel, these Cuban American kids are getting even better at using their powers to protect the community... but has their luck just run out?

When an evil curse descends upon the city of Martí, it’s up to Red Panda and Moon Bear to put a stop to it... but it won’t be easy! First, they’ll have to solve weird mysteries, fend off new monsters, and uncover the secret history of their neighborhood. With their trusty dog companions and some magical new friends by their side, Red Panda and Moon Bear must find a way to defeat Mal de Ojo — The Evil Eye — and keep it from ruining the lives of everyone they love!

Read More →


2022 brings a new life for Alan Moore's debut novel!

November 3, 2021 / More →

Image for 2022 brings a new life for Alan Moore's debut novel!

"A burning bush of a novel full of earthy wonder and wisdom, Voice of the Fire is a head-spinning trip down time’s sacred whirlpool." — The Village Voice

Returning in a gorgeous new paperback format: the astonishing first prose novel from the legendary Alan Moore — an epic yet intimate portrait of a single English town across the whole span of human history.

In a story full of lust, madness, and ecstasy, we meet twelve distinctive characters that lived in the same region of central England over the span of six thousand years. Their narratives are woven together in patterns of recurring events, strange traditions, and uncanny visions.

With a new cover design by John Coulthart.

Read More →


Public pressure meets public service in RADICAL — coming June 2022!

October 25, 2021 / More →

Radical: My Year with a Socialist Senator, by Sofia Warren, coming in June 2022
You won the election... now what? Activist organizing meets government gridlock as a millennial New Yorker cartoonist follows a first-year state senator on her unforgettable journey — from outsider to insider.

In early 2018, cartoonist Sofia Warren was not paying attention to New York state politics. But that summer, her Brooklyn neighborhood began buzzing about Julia Salazar, a 27-year-old democratic socialist running for state senate whose grassroots campaign was inspiring an army of volunteers. When they beat the odds and won, Warren found herself wondering what would happen next. How does it work when an outsider who runs on revolutionary change has to actually do the job? So she decided to find out.

A graphic memoir to be published by Top Shelf Productions in June 2022, Radical: My Year with a Socialist Senator is a remarkable first-hand account of Warren’s experience embedded with Julia Salazar and her staff during their first year in office. From candid conversations and eyewitness experiences, Warren builds a gripping and intimate portrait of a scrappy team of community organizers battling entrenched power structures, particularly to advance Julia’s marquee issue of housing rights.

Read More →


James Kochalka's GLORK PATROL Takes a Bath in Feb '22!

September 10, 2021 / More →



Families come in all kinds… even in outer space. This kooky, colorful adventure will feel hilariously relatable and have kids giggling through story time and bath time alike! 

It’s a sticky, soapy, messy delight from the award-winning creator of Johnny Boo.

Read More →