Top Shelf Productions

If you've followed Jeffrey Brown's blog, you may have seen the amazing Change-Bots-themed art he's been creating lately to celebrate the release of Incredible Change-Bots Two.

Well, if you live near New York, now's your chance to see it (and him) in person! Jeffrey will appear at Scott Eder Gallery Friday night, May 13 to open a monthlong exhibit of his art from Change-Bots Two, which runs through June 23.

THEN, join Jeffrey for a signing the next night, Saturday, May 14, at Desert Island in Brooklyn!

Click "Read More" to see the flyer for the event, as well as a photo of Bew! Bew! Bew!, the giant battle drawing he'll unveil at the gallery!

On May 7-8, Ludovic Debeurme and Jess Fink will join us in Toronto for the Toronto Comics Art Festival, where we will debut both Lucille and Chester 5000.

Ludovic and Jess are part of a killer Top Shelf lineup at TCAF, including Matt Kindt (Super Spy), Jeff Lemire (Essex County ), Kathryn & Stuart Immonen (Moving Pictures), Nate Powell (Swallow Me Whole), and Eric Skillman (Liar's Kiss, which made a big splash at its debut at MoCCA just a couple weeks ago).

In anticipation of the American release of his award-winning graphic novel Lucille, French cartoonist Ludovic Debeurme is making a few US appearances this week! Those in the New York area will get an early look at Lucille at these events, part of the PEN World Voices Festival. (The rest of us can read an excerpt on the PEN web site!)

First up is a free lunchtime conversation between Ludovic and Norwegian novelist Kjersti Annesdatter Skomsvold, at La Maison Française in New York City! Tuesday, April 26 at noon. Details here.

Then on Saturday, April 30, Ludovic joins a host of comic-book talent including Kate Beaton, Nick Bertozzi, Michael Kupperman, R. Sikoryak and more, in "Comic Books Come Alive on Stage" at Cooper Union in New York! This multimedia show begins at noon and tickets are $15/$10. Details here.

Then on May 7-8, Ludovic will join us in Toronto for the Toronto Comics Art Festival, where we will debut his incredible book Lucille! You'll fall in love with its young heroes, Lucille and Arthur, and see for yourself why their story won the Goscinny Prize and the Angouleme Essential award in France.

Now, we wouldn't presume to make that call -- there are tons of talented folks in the Twin Cities, including Will Dinski, Tim Sievert, Lars Martinson, and plenty more. Top Shelf co-publisher Brett Warnock saw firsthand what a hopping comics town Minneapolis is at the MIX expo last year!

But CityPages just announced their 2011 Best Of awards, and we can't help but celebrate with Kevin Cannon as he landed the "Best Cartoonist" crown! CP has praise for his thrill-a-minute Top Shelf graphic novel debut, Far Arden, "which started out as a rollicking Arctic adventure story and bloomed into a narrative that was surprisingly affecting and devastating," as well as the many & varied other projects he's worked on.

Congratulations, Kevin!

To Celebrate, we're offering $5 off all our books by Minneapolis cartoonists! Take a chance and try something new from this great scene.

Portland, Oregon: where even the mayor is a comic book character! Home of hippies, hipsters, Top Shelf's production office, and one of our favorite comic conventions: the Stumptown Comics Fest!

It's this weekend, part of Portland's annual Comics Month, and it kicks off tonight with a Jeffrey Brown signing at Floating World Comics for his new book Incredible Change-Bots Two!

THEN: hit the Oregon Convention Center Saturday and Sunday. We're debuting the amazing Gingerbread Girl by Paul Tobin & Colleen Coover (who are featured guests of the festival, along with Jeffrey Brown)! This beguiling graphic novel is even set in Portland and prominently features local landmarks, as you know if you've been following its free online serialization, so we had to give locals the first crack at it! We'll also have plenty of Incredible Change-Bots (volumes 1 and 2) for Jeffrey to sign, and our other buzzed-about new releases Night Animals and Liar's Kiss.

Last but not least, head to the programming rooms on Sunday for two panels with Jeffrey Brown, an autobio comics roundtable at noon and an spotlight interview with Inkstuds' Robin McConnell at 1:00. For details, see the Festival events page.

See you soon!

The late great Harvey Pekar pioneered autobiographical comics, mining the mundane for magic beginning in 1976 with his American Splendor comics (and Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning film starring Paul Giamatti as Pekar and Pekar as himself), and later with graphic novels like Our Cancer Year (with Joyce Brabner & Frank Stack) and The Quitter (with Dean Haspiel) and webcomics with The Pekar Project up until his passing on July 12, 2010.

Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland will be a 112-page graphic novel written by Harvey, illustrated by Pekar Project artist Joseph Remnant, edited by Jeff Newelt, and published by newcomer ZIP Comics in collaboration with indie comix veterans Top Shelf. Top Shelf will be providing ZIP with their distribution network, marketing support, a slot in their catalog, and booth signings by Joseph at conventions.

“It’s a privilege to publish one of my idols, especially a graphic novel with such breathtaking art by Joseph who really hit it out of the park, in this case Cleveland’s Progressive Field,” says Josh Frankel, president of ZIP Comics. “And its a true honor & treat to work with Top Shelf who put out so many of my favorite graphic novels like Blankets, Super Spy, and Jeffrey Brown’s terrific books.”

The graphic novel will be composed of 50% history of Cleveland and its characters and 50% autobiography. “The script was complete before Harvey passed and twenty pages had already been finished by Joseph,” says Jeff Newelt, editor of The Pekar Project and Harvey Pekar’s CLEVELAND. “So our man did get to see the book’s beginning and was super-pleased with how the art was shaping up.”

Harvey Pekar’s CLEVELAND covers familiar American Splendor-ous territory while weaving in chunks of Cleveland history, including the Indians winning the 1948 World Series, the notorious 1969 fire on the Cuyahoga River as well as profiles of Cleveland “characters” like Charles Ruthenberg, leader of the city’s Communist party whose ashes were buried in the Kremlin wall. And of course cameos by Pekarverse regulars like Toby the Genuine Nerd, Mr. Boats and Harvey’s wife Joyce.

“We jumped at the chance to play a part in the publication of this historic and exquisitely crafted comic,” says Chris Staros, publisher, Top Shelf Productions. “Long time fans are in for something special.”

This is Remnant’s first full-length work. His previous Pekar Project collaborations include “Legendary Vienna,” “Sweeping Problem,” “Muncie Part 1” and “Muncie Part 2.” He recently wrote / illustrated a self-published a one-shot, “Blindspot.”

Free prints of the Harvey Pekar's CLEVELAND cover were available 4/9 & 4/10 at MoCCA at both the ZIP Comics and Top Shelf Booths, as well as at the MoCCA pre-party co-sponsored by ZIP & Top Shelf.

New York's indie comics show, MoCCA Festival, is this weekend -- and it'll be a blast! Here's the plan:

Eric Skillman is best known as a graphic designer (those are his gorgeous designs on Alec: The Years Have Pants, Ax: Alternative Manga, and The Playwright, to say nothing of his day job at the Criterion Collection) but he's also one heck of a writer, and his slick noir graphic novel Liar's Kiss, with artist Jhomar Soriano, is an unmissable debut. He'll be with us at MoCCA signing copies all weekend, along with...

...young Belgian comics star Brecht Evens, who's pulling double duty signing his acclaimed new books Night Animals (at Top Shelf) and The Wrong Place (at Drawn & Quarterly). He's come 4000 miles to meet YOU, thanks in large part to the Flemish Literature Fund, so come say hello!

Alex Robinson will join us as well, selling a brand-new Box Office Poison mini-comic (the first new BOP comics in a decade!) plus the redesigned edition of his award-winning graphic novel Tricked!

PLUS Mats Jonsson (Hey Princess) is coming once again from Sweden! And we'll have copies of the new books Incredible Change-Bots Two by Jeffrey Brown and Owly & Wormy: Friends All Aflutter by Andy Runton.

AND we're co-sponsoring a kickoff party tomorrow (Friday) night at Sutra in the East Village! Check this post or the official Facebook invite for more details.

So if you're anywhere close to New York, come on out! We'd love to see you.

When we first read Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie's incredible Lost Girls, it was clear to us that sexually explicit comics can have as much visual and literary sophistication as any other graphic novel. And the massive success of that book has confirmed beyond a doubt that there are plenty of readers out there interested in erotic comics that are created with warmth, wit, and wisdom.

That's why we are so excited to bring you Chester 5000 by Jess Fink! Jess has built a loyal audience already with the online version of Chester, and next month we'll present this sweet, silly, sexy, romance in a beautiful hardcover edition. It's the irresistible story of a Victorian-era love robot and the woman who loves him -- and the man who loves her, and the woman who loves him, and... well, you get the picture.

Jess spoke with Tim O'Shea at Robot 6 for a wide-ranging interview that just went live! Find out about her creative process, her own Alan Moore connection, her upcoming autobigraphical book We Can Fix It!, her much-publicized battles with merchandise bootleggers, and more! Dive in, won't you?

Hey, do you smell delicious burritos? Must be time to head to San Francisco!

Yes, WonderCon begins tomorrow, and Top Shelf will be there! Stop by our booth (#414) and say hello. Team BB Wolf -- Rich Koslowski and J.D. "Johnnie" Arnold -- will be on hand to hook you up with their great books as well as our much-talked about new releases, Night Animals by Brecht Evens and Incredible Change-Bots Two by Jeffrey Brown!

See you there!

One of our most beloved authors, Jeffrey Brown has done books in a whole variety of genres: from heartfelt (and sometimes heartbroken) autobiography, to stream-of-consciousness goofy gags, to all-out balls-to-the-wall adventure.

In a thoughtful new comics-essay for the Graphic NYC site, Jeffrey does an amazing job tying all those strands of his career together. It's called "I'm Really Good at Playing," and it's a great "state of the artist" snapshot -- particularly given the release of Jeffrey's Incredible Change-Bots Two, which will reach stores next month.

Following hot on the heels of a Stumptown Award nomination, Kathryn and Stuart Immonen picked up another honor late yesterday: their acclaimed graphic novel Moving Pictures is a nominee for the 2011 Doug Wright Awards, honoring the best in English-language Canadian comics.

Moving Pictures is a nominee for the Best Book category. The most recent Doug Wright Award for Top Shelf went to Jeff Lemire for Best Emerging Talent, honoring his work on Essex County.

Our warmest congratulations to Kathryn, Stuart, and all the other nominees! Head to the Toronto Comics Art Festival (TCAF) May 7th and join us at the award ceremony, won't you?

We're delighted to see Top Shelf so well represented at the 2011 Stumptown Awards, whose nominees were announced this morning! Among a ton of great books from publishers large and small, Top Shelf leads the pack with five nominations - not to mention many other nominations in the extended Top Shelf family!

Brecht Evens' spellbinding Night Animals is one of the most recognized books, with nominations in three categories: Best Artist, Best Colorist, and Best Publication Design. That ties him with Carla Speed McNeil's Finder and The Unsinkable Walker Bean by Top Shelf alumnus Aaron Renier, with three nominations each.

There are also nods for Stuart Immonen as Best Artist for the powerful Moving Pictures and the eye-opening Ax: A Collection of Alternative Manga, edited by Sean Michael Wilson, as Best Anthology.

We're proud to see several veterans of Top Shelf 2.0 nominated as well, including Aidan Koch, Michael Deforge, and Emi Lenox!

Hats off to all the nominees.

Now, friends, it's your turn. Out of these nominees, the winners are being determined by an online vote, so head over to the voting page and pick your favorites!

The new all-digital incarnation of Wizard sports a beautiful cover this week - because it's a huge feature on the upcoming graphic novel by Robert Venditti and Mike Huddleston, The Homeland Directive!

You can download the issue for free right here at WizardWorld.com in a variety of formats. The cover story (beginning on page 10) features a long interview with author Robert Venditti, in which he explains the creation of The Homeland Directive, describes the process of working with Mike Huddleston, and shares his thoughts on the big-budget film adaptation of his bestselling book The Surrogates -- plus his all-time favorite conspiracy stories! There's also plenty of gorgeous art previews from the inimitable Mr. Huddleston. Check it out here!

The Homeland Directive is available for pre-order now and will hit stores in May. Don't miss it - the fate of the country is in your hands!