Top Shelf Productions

Our pals at Publishers Weekly just published a great new article exploring the burgeoning relationship between Top Shelf and the alternative comics community in Sweden!

The first product of that relationship, Niklas Asker's multi-layered romance Second Thoughts, just arrived from the printer and looks gorgeous! It should be in stores soon.

Down the road in 2010, look for two new releases that have been big hits in Sweden, translated into English for the first time and published by Top Shelf: The 120 Days of Simon by Simon Gärdenfors and Hey Princess by Mats Jonsson! We're all very excited to be bringing these amazing books to English-language readers.

Despite our small staff, we've always been a road crew -- year-round, Top Shelf exhibits at more conventions, trade shows, festivals and conferences than any other publisher in the comics biz. Now this weekend, we swing into action on both coasts!

Top Shelf East is heading to Athens, GA for the tiny-but-awesome FLUKE! festival, where you can meet Robert Venditti (The Surrogates) and Andy Runton (Owly). Meanwhile, the West Coast team is driving up to Seattle, WA for the Emerald City Comicon! And how about this for star power: in addition to Brett Warnock and Leigh Walton, we're bringing James Kochalka (American Elf, Johnny Boo), Matt Kindt (Super Spy), and Nate Powell (Swallow Me Whole)! Don't be surprised to see a Top Shelf 2.0 contributor or two, either!

James Kochalka's power-packed potty-mouths continue their quest for Total Internet Domination! You thought they would stop at video game reviews for Boing Boing Offworld? Fools! Behold!

The inimitable musical genius of James Kochalka Superstar has teamed up with the fine folks at Bindle Dog Animation (including Top Shelf 2.0 star Jeff Zwirek) to produce the first ever animated music video for the SuperF*ckers theme song!

Four issues of the SuperF*ckers comic book are available now, and the 144-page omnibus collection will be out in late 2009 or early 2010!

Note: SuperF*ckers is, of course, for mature readers only!

If you've ever read an issue of Superf*ckers, you know they don't do much in the way of superheroics -- most of their time is spent sitting around the clubhouse playing video games! So who better to review the new game Killzone 2 than Superf*ckers supreme Jack Krak and Orange Lightning?

Our pals at Boing Boing's videogame site Offworld (well-established Kochalkaholics, who've previously worked with James on the Monster Mii series) are exclusively hosting the review here - check it out!

Top Shelf Productions is bursting with pride to announce that Nate Powell's graphic novel Swallow Me Whole has been nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize!

Swallow Me Whole is one of five official finalists in the category of Young Adult Fiction, making it the first graphic novel to be nominated for this prize, in any category, since Art Spiegelman's Maus won the Fiction category in 1992! "I'm honored just to be considered," says Powell, "and feel dizzy having my book even placed in the same sentence as Maus."

Although Swallow Me Whole was not created exclusively for young adult readers, it is fundamentally a story about the dark, quiet corners of adolescence. The book follows two teenage stepsiblings, Ruth and Perry, through the ups and downs of school, family, and suburban restlessness -- all complicated by the insect armies, swirling visions, and haunting voices that no one else can perceive.

"To be a young person is to be surrounded at all times by frightening transition and the terror of losing touch with a safe and familiar world," says Powell. "Sometimes the only salvation from that terror is in what a teenager can create for themselves."

Hey Surrogates fans, if you've already hit up the Virtual Self website, caught the first movie trailer at New York Comic-Con, re-read the graphic novel, and flipped your wig over set photos, you're probably dying for a look at the upcoming prequel graphic novel, The Surrogates: Flesh and Bone.

Well, thanks to the good folks at MTV Splash Page, that's exactly what we can give you! Click here for an 11-page look at the new book, which takes place 15 years before the first story and should be in stores this July.

Your agent in the field snapped this eyewitness view of the first Surrogates movie poster, which was unveiled at last weekend's New York Comic Con!

Fans were also treated to a screening of the sweet new trailer, as well as an army of real-life surrogates who wormed their way through the show floor, passing out business cards for a certain Virtual Self Inc. What's that about? And what's up with this www.ChooseYourSurrogate.com web site?

Only one way to find out...

The excellent video game blog Offworld (part of the Boing Boing empire) has teamed with Top Shelf superstar cartoonist James Kochalka to create the official James Kochalka's Monster Mii series!

If you have a Nintendo Wii, you know about Miis, the little avatars that you can create, import, and customize to add some personality to your games. Now James, always on the cutting edge of toy technology, has turned his creative juices to making the most monstrous Mii faces he can imagine! And you can download them yourself, using the codes provided! There are three so far, with more on the way: Kzorx, Zex, and Dorgie! Some of them even have their own theme song! So add a little Kochalka to your gaming life today!

Disney/Touchstone has released the first production still from the upcoming Surrogates movie, based on the Top Shelf graphic novel by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele! Here we see Bruce Willis as Agent Greer... or is it his surrogate?! More details are available at SuperHeroHype.com. Mark your calendars now for the September 25, 2009 release -- and pick up a copy of the Surrogates graphic novel for friends & family, so they can be in on this brilliant story before it hits the big screen! Last but not least, you can pre-order the prequel graphic novel The Surrogates: Flesh and Bone, which will be out in July! Sweet!

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran a great couple of articles on Top Shelf this week, including a wide-ranging profile of Chris Staros and the company as well as an in-depth article on Robert Venditti and The Surrogates! And speaking of Surrogates, MTV recently ran an interview with Elizabeth Banks (Zack & Miri Make a Porno, Spider-Man), who's an executive producer on the upcoming Surrogates movie! Check out the video clips from the interview as well, and mark your calendars for September 25!

Great news from our friends at Amazon.com: Alex Robinson's TOO COOL TO BE FORGOTTEN has been named one of the Best Books of 2008 in the Comics & Graphic Novels category! Alex's book landed at #7, edging out Dilbert -- quite an achievement!

Congratulations to Alex and all the other creators on the list. It's been a fine year for comics!

"Quirky, soulful, and surprising, James Kochalka's ten-year run on his diary comic is a remarkable and singular achievement. No wonder it has influenced countless cartoonists!" - James Sturm (award-winning cartoonist and director of the Center for Cartoon Studies)

Top Shelf is very proud to announce that October 26, 2008 marked the 10-year anniversary of James Kochalka's sketchbook diaries, AMERICAN ELF. Day after day for 10 years now, James has been capturing moments large and small, recording his life on paper and in pixels, and inviting the world to live it with him.

James Kochalka began his groundbreaking American Elf sketchbook diaries October 26, 1998 -- and he's kept it up every day for ten years now! Vermont's Seven Days newspaper has made this fantastic short documentary showing how life and art blend together in the Kochalka household - check it out!

Click here to check out the awesome Incredible Change-Bots trailer that's just been completed!

Blair Butler of G4TV's Attack of the Show has hyped another Top Shelf book on her "Fresh Ink" segment: Alex Robinson's Too Cool to be Forgotten! To see her take on Too Cool and some other great books, click here. Thanks, Blair! You rock.