Archives de catégorie : Comics & Graphic Novels

FOX FIRES d’Emilia Ojala

A fantasy-adventure graphic novel addressing the relationship between humans and nature, friendships, family, self-growth, and Finnish folklore, told from an animal’s perspective.

FOX FIRES
by Emilia Ojala
Rocketship Entertainment, May 2022
(via JABberwocky)

“Fox Fires” refers to the Northern Lights; a literal translation from the Finnish word “revontulet.” (Revontulet = Repo’s fires.) The Fox Fires are a gate between this world and the land of the dead – it allows souls to visit their loved ones. But suddenly, the Fox Fires disappear. Our main character, a young raccoon dog named Raate, heads north to find what’s happened to Repo, the fire fox whose burning fur is said to make the Fox Fires appear in the sky. On her journey, Raate meets all kinds of interesting creatures, and also new friends. 

Emilia Ojala, also known as « Pipilia », hails from the small, cold country of Finland. A self-taught artist with a degree in graphic design, Emilia had always dreamed of writing and illustrating folk stories (while also owning many pets, of course!). Her passion for storytelling, art, and animation led her to develop her own stories at a very young age. Even back then her stories centered around animals, typically the adventures of her family pets. The small, Finnish towns she grew up in, with their close proximity to the fields and forests, provided Emilia with many opportunities to spend ample time in nature. These experiences have driven her creative process for tales about what might happen within nature when people aren’t around to see it. A fan of folklore and mythology, it was while Emilia was reading Finnish tales one afternoon she was inspired to create FOX FIRES. Since Finnish myths are somewhat lesser known she felt FOX FIRES could be a wonderful opportunity to open them up to the rest of the world.

BUNNICULA, THE GRAPHIC NOVEL by James Howe, Andrew Donkin, & Stephen Gilpin

Celebrate over forty years of the modern classic BUNNICULA with this fang-tastic graphic novelization that will send a shiver down your spine and leave you howling with laughter!

BUNNICULA, THE GRAPHIC NOVEL
written by James Howe & Andrew Donkin
illustrated by Stephen Gilpin
Atheneum/Simon & Schuster, August 2022
(via Writers House)

Beware the hare! Harold the dog and Chester the cat must find out the truth about the newest pet in the Monroe household—a suspicious-looking bunny with unusual habits…and fangs! Could this innocent-seeming rabbit actually be a vampire? Experience the chills and thrills of this classic tale in an all-new graphic novel format!

James Howe is the author of more than ninety books for young readers. Bunnicula, coauthored by his late wife Deborah and published in 1979, is considered a modern classic of children’s literature. The author has written six highly popular sequels, along with the spinoff series Tales from the House of Bunnicula and Bunnicula and Friends. Among his other books are picture books such as Horace and Morris but Mostly Dolores and beginning reader series that include the Pinky and Rex and Houndsley and Catina books. He has also written for older readers. The Misfits, published in 2001, inspired the nationwide antibullying initiative No Name-Calling Week, as well as three sequels. A common theme in James Howe’s books from preschool through teens is the acceptance of difference and being true to oneself.
Andrew Donkin is a writer and graphic novelist. He was described by The Times (London) as “the graphic novel supremo,” which is what he’ll have on his tombstone in the unlikely event he ever dies. Andrew has written more than seventy books that sold more than nine million copies, including children’s books, graphic novels, and even the odd book for grown-ups. He is a longtime collaborator with Eoin Colfer. The pair recently coauthored the award-winning graphic novel, Illegal. Andrew lives near the river Thames in London with his partner, their two children, and no vampire bunny rabbits.
Stephen Gilpin graduated from the NYC School of Visual Arts where he studied painting and cartooning. He is the illustrator of the Who Shrunk Daniel Funk series and The Extraordinary Adventures of Ordinary Boy series. Stephen currently lives in Hiawatha, Kansas.

BEA WOLF de Zach Weinersmith, illustré par Boulet

A modern middle-grade graphic novel retelling of Beowulf, featuring a gang of troublemaking kids who must defend their tree house from a fun-hating adult who can instantly turn children into grown-ups.

BEA WOLF
by Zach Weinersmith
illustrated by Boulet
First Second/Roaring Brook, February 2023
(via The Gernert Company)

Listen! Hear a tale of mallow-munchers and warriors who answer candy’s clarion call! Somewhere in a generic suburb stands Treeheart, a kid-forged sanctuary where generations of tireless tykes have spent their youths making merry, spilling soda, and staving off the shadow of adulthood.
One day, these brave warriors find their fun cut short by their nefarious neighbor Grindle, who can no longer tolerate the sounds of mirth seeping into his joyless adult life. As the guardian of gloom lays siege to Treeheart, scores of kids suddenly find themselves transformed into teenagers, beset by the plagues of hormones and pimples! The survivors of the onslaught cry out for a savior—a warrior whose will is unbreakable and whose appetite for mischief is unbounded. They call for Bea Wolf!

Zach Weinersmith is acclaimed creator of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (smbccomics.com) an online comic with over 250,000 daily readers and over 300 million annual views. He’s the author of the New York Times bestseller Soonish.
Boulet is the critically-acclaimed French artist and cartoonist, most noted for his self published work Bouletcorp which receives over 200,000 visitors a month on the English side alone! His work has been featured on Slate, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and many more. He lives in France.

GIVE ME SPACE BUT DON’T GO FAR de Haley Weaver

A graphic memoir of one woman’s utterly relatable and life-affirming anxiety journey.

GIVE ME SPACE BUT DON’T GO FAR
by Haley Weaver
‎Avery, Spring/Summer 2023
(via Neon Literary)

Through eleven illustrated essays, GIVE ME SPACE BUT DON’T GO FAR encourages readers to understand anxiety as a part of them, a neutral thing as unavoidable and intrinsic as any other part of their body. Anxiety isn’t an obstacle, it’s a roommate. Or in Haley Weaver’s case, her anxiety is represented by a wide-eyed tangle of string, Weaver reveals over the course of the book that it isn’t an enemy to defeat or an obstacle to overcome. Anxiety just is, and it’s never going away, but if we care for it with tender curiosity and attention, it has many gifts to offer. With care, practice, and the friendship of some really great coping mechanisms, you can learn how to live with your anxiety roommate in a mutually respectful, affectionate, even meaningful way.
GIVE ME SPACE BUT DON’T GO FAR is more than just a memoir; it’s a valentine to selfacceptance and forgiveness.

Haley Weaver illustrates and shares webcomics about anxiety + mental health, relationships, and selfhood on her Instagram account @HaleyDrewThis. Her illustrations have been featured on other notable accounts and websites, including Bustle, Betches, New York Magazine, and Bored Panda. She has a knack for transforming universal (and sometimes overwhelming) feelings into digestible, relatable illustrations. Since sharing her first doodle to Instagram in 2017, Haley has accrued a fan base of almost 300,000 followers on Instagram.

SILVER #1 OF TREASURES AND THIEVES de Stephan Franck

A rollicking vampire-filled graphic novel heist that will keep you guessing until the very end for fans of Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Ocean’s Eleven, from award-nominated animator and comic book creator Stephan Franck.

SILVER: OF TREASURES AND THIEVES (Book 1)
by Stephan Franck
‎ Abrams ComicArts, October 2022

There are only two kinds of objects in this world. The ones that shine and the ones that don’t.
SILVER’s protagonist, James Finnigan, only concerns himself with objects from the first category. Those objects don’t hide in plain sight. They hide in dark places.
When Finnigan loses his grifter gang’s lifetime fortune in a heist gone wrong, he stumbles on a consolation prize in the crypt of the Harker Foundation—a notebook that tells of an ancient, immeasurable treasure, accompanied by a bar of pure silver to prove it. It’s a tall tale, but also Finnigan’s only lead. In an effort to make up for what he’s lost, he mounts the heist of the millennium in search of the Silver Dragon. Just one catch: The famed treasure is said to be hidden in a castle full of vampires. 
Set in the noir-pulp era of the 1930s, award-nominated animator Stephan Franck’s Silver is a rip-roaring, genre-bending graphic novel that draws on the best of gothic horror and heist tropes to tell a story that is pure adventure. Silver offers the captivating dynamics of an ensemble cast of misfits, while inviting us to accept that Bram Stoker’s Dracula was a tale of fact, not fiction. The result is a smart, innovative story complete with world-class visuals and sharply drawn characters that’s equal parts action, humor, and heart.

Stephan Franck is an animator/writer/director/comic book creator. He was a supervising animator on the cult classic The Iron Giant and contributed story to Despicable Me. He cocreated the animated TV series Corneil & Bernie (Nicktoons-Hub Network), received an Annie Award nomination for Best Director in a TV Program for Smurfs: The Legend of Smurfy Hollow, and supervised the animation of Marvel Studios’ What If…?. He lives in Los Angeles.