Top Shelf Productions

As part of Pride 2023, Top Shelf celebrates two of our most dazzling LGBTQ+ series: one hot new release from Hannah Templer and one amazing pre-order from Axelle Lenoir.

Yesterday Newsarama broke the news of our upcoming publication of Lisa Cheese and Ghost Guitar: Attack of the Snack by the incredible Brooklyn powerhouse Kevin Alvir!

This action-packed, outrageously funny, and remarkably relatable graphic novel will hit stores in September. Read on for the full press release:

Coming soon to a retailer near you, check out our June on-sale comics in Penguin Random House’s March Direct Market Catalog!

• Cosmoknights (Book Two) by Hannah Templer
  On sale June 13th!
  Escape was just the beginning. The sensational “gays in space” webcomic/graphic novel returns, with new faces, long-awaited reunions, higher stakes, and more thrilling action!
• Chester 5000 (Book 1) by Jesse Fink — new edition with updated artwork!
  On sale June 27th (for adults only, 18+)
  A vintage delight for adult readers of all stripes, Jess Fink’s award-winning graphic novel debut reads like a whimsical love child of steampunk, silent film, and erotic comics.
• The Unpetables by Dennis Messner
  On sale June 20th!
  These two best friends have had ENOUGH of being petted! It’s a non-stop zany middle-grade adventure as they bust out of the petting zoo and hit the road to find their destiny.

Super Trash Clash and Onion Skin author Edgar Camacho joined Comix Experience’s Brian Hibbs not long ago for a delightful conversation about childhood video games, drawing cartoon characters with his mom, the comics scene in Mexico, his self-published Spanish-language collector’s edition of Super Trash Clash, and what makes nostalgia so powerful in graphic novels. Check out the hour-long video here!

In Álvaro Ortiz's Ashes, hitting stores today, three old friends reunite for the road trip of a lifetime.

• “Ortiz’s classic cartoon art style lends itself well to the wacky and surprising elements of his road trip story, while the characters’ reasons for growing apart and coming back together feel true. Ortiz’s English debut will be perfect for fans of Guy Delisle’s work.” —Booklist
• "Subtle, lyrical, friendly and funny... An adventure paced like a madcap movie plot, with underlying minor chords." —Library Journal
• “This laid-back, sneakily smart charmer should garner Ortiz a new audience.” —Publishers Weekly

Our parents can’t stop a galactic war… but maybe we can? Strap in for a colorful and action-packed space adventure about friendship, family, and fear of the unknown!

Humanity has gone to the stars, and the ESS Khonsu and its crew are leading the charge to explore the galaxy. As the son of the ship’s captain, Jimmil might not always live up to his mom’s expectations… but right now he and his friends might be the galaxy’s only hope.

Edmund White’s A Boy’s Own Story: The Graphic Novel has just hit stores, and readers are loving it:

• Featured in Interview Magazine, Harper’s Magazine, and The Daily Beast
• "A provocative coming-of-age story, adapted for a new generation of readers, offering further insight and emotional depth to a landmark work in the panoply of LGBTQ fiction." —John Irving, author of The World According to Garp and The Cider House Rules
• "This is a vivid and sensuous new take on White’s coming-of-age classic." —Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home and The Secret to Superhuman Strength
• "A revelatory account of growing up gay, Edmund White’s A Boy’s Own Story is an honest, affecting graphic memoir." —Foreword Reviews
• "This artful, heartfelt adaptation illuminates a modern classic for a new generation of readers." —Publishers Weekly
• “A Boy’s Own Story is lyrical, witty, unabashed, and authentic…The poetic nuances of White’s language float across sumptuously painted panels that evoke 1950s Cincinnati, 1980s Paris, and every dreamlike moment in between.” —Graphic Policy
• “[A Boy’s Own Story] is made artfully new, transformed into an impressive, dazzling graphic novel.” —Shelf Awareness

• Radical: My Year with a Socialist Senator, Better Place, and Doughnuts and Doom have all been selected for the Texas Library Association’s Maverick Graphic Novel List!
• Balascz Lorinci’s bubbly YA graphic novel, Doughnuts and Doom, has been nominated for the 34th GLAAD Media Awards!
• Publishers Weekly shouted out the upcoming Shelley Frankenstein: CowPiggy by Colleen Madden in their Spring 2023 Cutie Classics round-up!
• Nick Tapalansky and Kate Glasheen’s sci-fi stunner, A Radical Shift of Gravity, will be adapted into a feature film by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Matt Charman!

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.

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

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:

• Sofia Warren (Radical: My Year with a Socialist Senator) — SPX GUEST
• Jeffrey Brown (Loved & Lost: A Relationship Trilogy, Incredible Change-Bots)
• Jonathan Schnapp (Order of the Night Jay)
• Jarod Rosello (Red Panda & Moon Bear: The Curse of the Evil Eye)
• Jared Cullum (Kodi)

This 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!

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!

Comic-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!