New Release: CURVEBALL

CURVEBALL by Jeremy Sorese
Nobrow Press, November 2015

CURVEBALL is an epic, sci-fi graphic novel about a waiter named Avery coping with the ending of a difficult relationship. Having spent years attempting to build something substantial with an indecisive sailor named Christophe, Avery stubbornly holds on despite the mounting evidence against him. The idea of the relationship has eclipsed its reality, and in Avery's already troubled life, the allure of something dependable is a powerful force.

Curveball focuses on the duality of hope and delusion - how ignorance is integral to surviving our day to day lives, but can be incredibly destructive if allowed to blossom into 'optimism'. It is the most universal of tales: a love story.

Select praise for CURVEBALL:
- Library Journal review: "This story truly intrigues in its visual riot—pages splattered with a wild neon orange, electrical surges literally full of emotion, crowds rushing past skyscrapers and scurrying across ship decks, bringing an exotic new world to life."
- Sequential State review: "Curveball is the nightcap of 2015’s sci-fi comics, the grand finale; a gorgeous comic, beautifully illustrated, full of heart. Recommended."

2016 YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teens nominations!

BABA YAGA'S ASSISTANT and STRONG FEMALE PROTAGONIST (VOL. 1) have been nominated for the 2016 YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teens list in the Fiction category.

The list presents graphic novels published in the past 16 months that are recommended reading for teens aged 12-18. It is a general list of graphic novels, both fiction and nonfiction, selected for proven or potential appeal to the personal reading tastes of teens.

The committee will meet, discuss nominations, and select the final list at the at the ALA Midwinter conference (January 2016). 

View the full list of nominees: http://www.ala.org/yalsa/ggnt/nominations

Shortlisted: 2015 Autostraddle Comic + Sequential Arts Awards!

This week, Autostraddle announced their nominations for the 2nd Annual Autostraddle Comic and Sequential Arts Awards, which celebrate positive representation for queer women and feminist issues in comics, webcomics and graphic novels. 

I'm OVER THE MOON to see some familiar (client) faces amongst the nominees - and they are in incredible company. Shout-outs commence:

Favorite All-Ages Comic:
Help Us! Great Warrior by Madeleine Flores (Boom Studios) - her colorist, Trillian Gunn, is also nominated in the Best Colorist category.

Favorite Webcomic - Serial: 
Strong Female Protagonist by Brennan Lee Mulligan and Molly Ostertag

Favorite Webcomic - Episodic:
Emily Carroll’s online comics (“When the Darkness Presses,” “All Along the Wall” and “The Groom“)
Annie Mok’s work for Rookie (“The Delaney Comets,” “No, No, No: A Guide to Girling Wrong” and “Florals“)

Favorite Graphic Novel / Book:
Baba Yaga’s Assistant by Marika McCoola and Emily Carroll
Dear Amanda by Cathy G. Johnson

Favorite Writer / Artist:
Emily Carroll (online work)
Annie Mok (work on Rookie)

New Release: THE HEARTLESS CITY

THE HEARTLESS CITY by Andrea Berthot
Curiosity Quills Press, August 2015

Henry Jekyll was a brilliant doctor, a passionate idealist who aimed to free mankind of selfishness and vice. He’s also the man who carelessly created a race of monsters.

Once shared secretly among the good doctor’s inner circle, the Hyde drug was smuggled into mass-production - but in pill form, it corrupted its users at the genetic level, leaving them liable to transform without warning. A quarter of the population are now clandestine killers - ticking bombs that could detonate at any given moment.

It’s 1903, and London has been quarantined for thirteen years.

Son of the city’s most prominent physician and cure-seeker, seventeen-year-old Elliot Morrissey has had his own devastating brush with science, downing a potion meant to remove his human weaknesses and strengthen him against the Hydes - and finding instead he’s become an empath, leveled by the emotions of a dying city.

He finds an unlikely ally in Iris Faye, a waitress at one of the city’s rowdier music halls, whose emotions nearly blind him; her fearlessness is a beacon in a city rife with terror. Iris, however, is more than what she seems, and reveals a mission to bring down the establishment that has crippled the people of London.

Together, they aim to discover who’s really pulling the strings in Jekyll’s wake, and why citizens are waking up in the street infected, with no memory of ever having taken the Hyde drug…

Heart-eating monsters, it turns out, are not the greatest evil they must face.

New Release: BABA YAGA'S ASSISTANT

BABA YAGA'S ASSISTANT
by Marika McCoola / art by Emily Carroll
Candlewick, August 2015

Most children think twice before braving a haunted wood filled with terrifying beasties to match wits with a witch, but not Masha. Her beloved grandma taught her many things: that stories are useful, that magic is fickle, that nothing is too difficult or too dirty to clean. The fearsome witch of folklore needs an assistant, and Masha needs an adventure. She may be clever enough to enter Baba Yaga’s house-on-chicken-legs, but within its walls, deceit is the rule. To earn her place, Masha must pass a series of tests, outfox a territorial bear, and make dinner for her host. No easy task, with children on the menu! Spooky and poignant, Marika McCoola’s stunning debut—with richly layered art by acclaimed graphic artist Emily Carroll—is a storytelling feat and a visual feast.

Select praise for BABA YAGA'S ASSISTANT:
- #3 debut on The New York Times HC graphic books list
- 2015 NEIBA Book Award winner
- 2015 Junior Library Guild selection
- Shortlisted for the 2015 Autostraddle Comic and Sequential Art Awards in the Favorite Graphic Novel/Book category
- Kirkus starred review: "A magnificently magical must-read for all fairy-tale fans."
- PW review: "Strong, complex characters and the inventive fusion of contemporary and fairy tale elements make this a noteworthy collaboration."
- Booklist review: "Carroll’s dark yet luminous artwork is a perfect match for McCoola’s tale...full of eerie shading and delicate detail."