Top Shelf Productions

Convention season is really here - no sooner do we wrap up Stumptown, MoCCA, and Calgary than we head off to Toronto for the Toronto Comics Art Festival!

It's a big crowd this year: joining our man Leigh Walton are (deep breath) Andy Runton (Owly), Brendan Leach (Pterodactyl Hunters), Jeff Lemire (Essex County, Lost Dogs), Jess Fink (Chester 5000), Kagan McLeod (Infinite Kung Fu), Matt Kindt (Super Spy), Nate Powell (Swallow Me Whole, Any Empire), and Pat Grant (Blue)!

Meanwhile, if you're not in Ontario, head to your local comic shop and grab your absolutely FREE copy of the 2012 Top Shelf Kids Club comic book, with six ALL-NEW stories featuring Owly, Korgi, Johnny Boo, and more!

Happy reading!

The new issue of Diamond Previews has arrived, so pre-orders are now open for our JULY 2012 releases... and you're not gonna want to miss these books!

WIZZYWIG is the first solo graphic novel from Ed Piskor, and it's a triumph years in the making, full of criminal thrills and retro-techno delight.

We also have the long-awaited next landmark from James Kochalka, the Cartoonist Laureate of Vermont: Book 4 of his award-winning autobiographical opus, AMERICAN ELF!

And finally: a new issue of WW3 ILLUSTRATED, on the topic of censorship!

Pre-order now to snag these great July books!

Savvy to digital comics and looking for something new to read? Curious about e-reading and hesitant to take the plunge? Look no further than the Top Shelf Action Pack, packed with 168 pages of our most thrilling comics, and yours for the price of ZERO!

Inside are full chapters from seven graphic novels: Infinite Kung Fu, The Homeland Directive, Lost Dogs, From Hell, SuperF*ckers, Bighead, and Any Empire!

It's available on Comixology and iVerse now, with more formats coming soon. Check it out!

Top Shelf's quest to be available on every digital platform continues, as we announce that our graphic novels are now available for Kobo, reaching readers and devices in over 170 countries! 40 titles are available in our Kobo catalog so far, with more coming soon!

Librarians, we're got your backs: Top Shelf is partnering with Overdrive, the leading digital distributor for libraries! Libraries can now purchase ebooks of the full Top Shelf Kids Club line -- 19 titles -- and offer them for free e-lending to patrons. So contact your local library and let them know you'd like to read OWLY, KORGI, JOHNNY BOO and more on your electronic device!

The day is here! The long-awaited posthumous graphic novel from Cleveland's beloved son, Harvey Pekar, is in stores now, including your favorite comic shop, digital retailers, and direct from Top Shelf. Order your copy today!

The Beat, which celebrates today with an exclusive preview of the book, offers a great synopsis: "The late Harvey Pekar left behind several projects in various stages of composition, but none was as close to him as CLEVELAND, a love letter to and social history of the city that was his muse—an everyman town of ordinary people and the mundane swirl of life that is nonetheless extraordinary. For Cleveland, Pekar’s script found an artist among the greatest of his collaborators: Joseph Remnant, whose dense crosshatched naturalism recalls Crumb but finds its own look with expansive staging and detail."

Hats off to everyone whose hard work made this book a reality: Harvey, his wife Joyce Brabner, artist Joseph Remnant, editor Jeff Newelt, and Zip Comics publisher Josh Frankel. Your partners at Top Shelf are honored to be playing a part.

Top Shelf offers huge congratulations to James Kochalka and Brecht Evens, who were nominated today for the Eisner Awards!

James Kochalka receives his third Eisner nomination this year, for Dragon Puncher 2: Dragon Puncher Island in the category of Best Publication for Early Readers. His earlier book Pinky & Stinky was nominated for a similar category in 2003. Dragon Puncher Island has the unique distinction of featuring both of James' sons, Eli and Oliver, as "actors" in the story, along with their cats Nooko and Spandy.

Brecht Evens makes his first appearance on the Eisner nomination list with Night Animals, in the category of Best U.S. Edition of International Material. This honor follows on the heels of three nominations for Night Animals at the Stumptown Awards! Readers continue to fall under the spell of Brecht's incredible colors and wordless storytelling.

To celebrate, we've marked down prices on both Dragon Puncher books (for all ages) and Night Animals (for mature readers). If you haven't checked them out yet, now's the time!

"A stunning return to form."
"Marvelously layered."
"Among the finest works in Moore's oevre... Fast-paced, visually dense and wildly imaginative."

These are just a few of the rave reviews Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill have received since bringing The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century trilogy to Top Shelf & Knockabout. It's also been Diamond Comics' #1 bestselling graphic novel in America, with each new book -- even hitting the New York Times Bestseller list!

Now, at last, the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century trilogy reaches its apocalyptic finale!

In this third and final chapter, our narrative draws to its cataclysmic close in London 2009. The magical child whose ominous coming has been foretold for the past hundred years has now been born and has grown up to claim his dreadful heritage. His promised aeon of unending terror can commence, the world can now be ended starting with North London, and there is no League, extraordinary or otherwise, that now stands in his way. The bitter, intractable war of attrition in Q'umar crawls bloodily to its fifth year, away in Kashmir a Sikh terrorist with a now-nuclear-armed submarine wages a holy war against Islam that might push the whole world into atomic holocaust, and in a London mental institution there's a patient who insists that she has all the answers.

It's a spectacular finish that must be seen to be believed.

Pre-order your copy now in the current (April) DIAMOND PREVIEWS!

THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN (VOL III): CENTURY (#3 of 3) "2009"
by Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill
-- 80-page softcover
-- 6.625" x 10.125", full-color graphic novel
-- For mature readers (16+)
-- ISBN 978-1-60309-007-0
-- Diamond DM code: APR12-1232
-- $9.95 (US)
-- Shipping to stores in June!
-- Co-published by Top Shelf Productions (US) and Knockabout Comics (UK)

John Parker from ComicsAlliance recently took an advance look at Eddie Campbell's upcoming graphic novel about money, The Lovely Horrible Stuff, and loved it: "Campbell is perhaps the most natural storyteller in comics... Generous with his wisdom but quick to point out how unwise he is, he is both the storyteller and the story, entering the fourth decade of his career with a book on money that's lively, poignant, and never dull. Tight as times are, The Lovely Horrible Stuff is worth every hard-earned penny you can find."

Check out his review -- along with a 7-page preview -- at ComicsAlliance!

Yes, Nate Powell (Eisner-Award-winning author of Swallow Me Whole and Any Empire, as well as the new The Silence of Our Friends) is a featured guest at this weekend's Emerald City Comicon in Seattle!

And that's not all - come by the Top Shelf booth (#803) and not only can you meet Nate Powell, you could be one of the first people in the world to snag an early copy of Harvey Pekar's CLEVELAND! We'll also have Pat Grant's incredible new coming-of-age/racism/surfing saga BLUE and a host of other great stuff, brought to you by Top Shelf's west coast chief Brett Warnock. See you soon!

"Yes, it's true! I'm a Professor now. -- Well...part time. ... Along with running Top Shelf, I started teaching a (single) class on Getting Published/Self-Publishing at the Savannah College of Art and Design's Atlanta Campus. And I'm really enjoying it." -- Chris Staros

The SCAD Press Release follows...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 27, 2012

Industry veteran Chris Staros will teach at SCAD Atlanta

ATLANTA— Chris Staros, president and publisher of Top Shelf Productions, will be joining the sequential department at SCAD Atlanta as an adjunct professor for the Spring 2012 quarter. Since 1997, Staros has edited and published over 250 critically-acclaimed and award-winning graphic novels that have helped to revitalize interest in comics as a literary art form.

“Chris has been a long time friend of the university, sharing his insights with our students over the years and we’re extremely fortunate to have him teaching for us,” says Pat Quinn, associate dean of the SCAD communication arts. “Our sequential art students have yet another opportunity to learn from a well known industry professional that brings knowledge and experience into the classroom.”

Add another feather in the cap -- or should that be another decal on the helmet? -- of Nate Powell's graphic novel Any Empire. The American Library Association's official review magazine Booklist has just released its list of the past year's Top 10 Graphic Novels, and ranked among the excellent company of Anders Nilsen and Craig Thompson is Nate's unsettling domestic war story.

Here's Booklist's short summary: "Powell flashes his considerable cartooning talents in this complex, open-ended antiwar parable. The story follows three characters, first as children and then 10 years later, as their lives are upended by violence." For the full (starred) review, click here.

This latest plug joins Any Empire's previous "Best Of Year" honors, racked up from The AV Club, Comic Book Resources, Complex, and Graphic Novel Reporter. Hats off to Nate!

Ed Piskor's complex portrait of hackers and tech culture, Wizzywig, is still several months away... but this week we decided to share a peek at the amazing cover designed by Ed and our digital director Chris Ross. Heidi MacDonald got the exclusive over at The Beat, and adds "it’s definitely on our must list for 2012." Johanna Draper Carlson adds additional praise & commentary at Comics Worth Reading.

Pre-order the book now, remember to bookmark Ed's webcomic Brain Rot over at Boing Boing, and keep your eyes peeled for more Wizzywig news to come!

One of the greatest cartoonists in the game, the man behind Alec: The Years Have Pants, The Playwright, and From Hell, is back -- with a gorgeous new hardcover graphic novel. And it's on the most fundamental of topics: MONEY.

“One of the premier cartoonists of his generation.” — Publishers Weekly

“No one else in the medium combines emotional truth, literary intelligence, and formal daring with such adroitness and elegance.” — Booklist

Eddie Campbell's THE LOVELY HORRIBLE STUFF is a delightful autobiographical voyage into the financial wilderness, ranging from the imaginary wealth of Ponzi schemes to the all-too-tangible stone currency of the Micronesian island of Yap.

This is no dry and dusty treatise on finance; any complexities are pleasingly reduced to the level of bubblegum trading cards. In here you will hear about the corporation that Campbell keeps under his bed; you will meet colorful historical characters and be taken on dangerous shark-infested sea adventures; and after that, we will all plunge to the depths to retrieve our loose change.

Campbell's wry eye and vivid full-color artwork imbue the proceedings with real humanity, making THE LOVELY HORRIBLE STUFF an investment that's worth every penny.

It's being offered in the current Diamond Previews catalog, so pre-order now!

THE LOVELY HORRIBLE STUFF by Eddie Campbell
-- 96-page deluxe hardcover
-- 6.5" x 9", full-color graphic novel
-- For mature readers (16+)
-- ISBN 978-1-60309-152-7
-- Diamond DM code: MAR12-1193
-- $14.95 (US)
-- Co-published by Top Shelf Productions (US) and Knockabout (UK)

Also re-offered in Diamond Previews this month are two of Eddie's most amazing works: the autobiographical epic Alec: The Years Have Pants and the colorfully quiet comedy about the creative life, The Playwright. Take the chance to fill out your Eddie Campbell library!

We've always been big fans of Free Comic Book Day, the first Saturday in May when everybody, young or old, can visit their local comic shop and get FREE comic books! And for many years, we've made FCBD an occasion to pick up a brand-new story featuring Andy Runton's Owly and other Top Shelf characters for all ages.

This year, the official Free Comic Book Day button features a collaboration between two Top Shelf artists: Andy Runton has designed an awesome button featuring his character Owly, with art from Ray Friesen's cover to our 2012 FCBD book: Top Shelf Kids Club!

For more details, check the official announcement!