Pantheon Graphic Novels News

Times of London best books

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:20:12 -0500

The Times of London just announced their Best Books of the Decade with Pantheon titles in abundance: Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi coming in at #2and Jimmy Corrigan by Chris Ware at #79.

ASTERIOS POLYP indie pick

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:42:51 -0500

Three independent area booksellers visited The Brian Lehrer Show this morning and left their recommendations for holiday gift suggestions.

Christina Onorati of WORD Bookstore chose our own Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli!

Be sure to stock up in time for the holidays!

PGN Enews Dec09

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:34:20 -0500

The holidays are just around the corner and if you're like me, you can't even begin to think about what to buy each person on your list. When you're stumped about what to purchase this holiday season, consider this--

BOOKS MAKE GREAT GIFTS!

Just think about it:

You can buy 10 hardcovers for the price of an iPhone
A book costs less than a movie and popcorn
A book has the potential to change someone's life
Reading a book lasts longer than wearing a new sweater (and you never grow out of it)
A book is the easiest gift to wrap
A book is the easiest item to re-gift!

These are some of the books I plan to give as gifts this holiday season. And don't forget to get something for yourself while you're browsing!

Until next time, happy holidays and happy reading!

Lauren Helman
Pantheon@randomhouse.com

HOLIDAY GIFT DIRECTORY
For the activist

The perfect gifts for your politically and socially conscious friends!

I Live Here (Mia Kirshner) is a visually stunning narrative - told through journals, stories, images, and graphic novellas - in which the lives of refugees and displaced people become at once personal and global. Bearing witness to stories that are too often overlooked, it is a raw and intimate journey through crises in four corners of the world: war in Chechnya, ethnic cleansing in Burma, globalization in Mexico, and AIDS in Malawi.

Order your copy here

Cancer Vixen (Marisa Acocella Marchetto), now available in paperback, is the groundbreaking graphic memoir that has inspired breast cancer patients to fight back - and do it with style. One of Time.com's top ten graphic novels of the year, with a taboo-breaking sense of humor, Cancer Vixen tells the story of Marchetto's eleven-month, ultimately triumphant battle against breast cancer - from diagnosis to cure, and every challenging step in between.

Order your copy here
Read an interview with the author
Watch an inspirational video for The Cancer Vixen Fund
Visit the author's website

After spending three weeks as an American Red Cross volunteer in Biloxi, Mississippi, cartoonist Josh Neufeld created A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, a masterful portrait of a city under siege. Depicting seven extraordinary true stories of survival in the days leading up to and following Hurricane Katrina, A.D. presents a city in chaos and shines a bright, profoundly human light on the tragedies and triumphs that took place within it.

Order your copy here
Visit Josh Neufeld's website

For the teen

Everyone is familiar with the name Marjane Satrapi these days, and now you can have both volumes of her best-selling, internationally acclaimed comic memoir in one package - The Complete Persepolis. Edgy, searingly observant, and candid, often heartbreaking but threaded throughout with humor and wisdom - Persepolis is a stunning work from one of the most highly regarded graphic artists at work today.

Order your copy here, and be sure to check out Marjane's other graphic novels: Chicken with Plums and Embroideries.

A memoir that should be read in every school, here is the definitive edition of the book acclaimed as "the most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the Holocaust" (Wall Street Journal) and "the first masterpiece in comic book history" (The New Yorker). It now appears as it was originally envisioned by the author: The Complete Maus.

Order your copy here

Hailed by Time as "another of his hilariously slightly off-center worlds that have a vague sense of dread about them. Kind of like where you live," Ice Haven is a brilliant graphic novel by Daniel Clowes, author of Ghost World (for which he received an Oscar nomination for the screen adaptation!).

Order your copy here

For the superhero fan:
Attention collectors!! The two hottest genres in comics gleefully collide head-on, as the most beloved American superhero gets the coolest Japanese manga makeover ever in Geoff Spear & Chip Kidd's Bat-Manga! This is The Dynamic Duo as you've never seen them: with a distinctly Japanese twist as they battle aliens, mutated dinosaurs, and villains who won't stay dead. And as a bonus: Jiro Kuwata, the manga master who originally wrote and drew this material, is interviewed by Chip exclusively in this book. More than just a dazzling novelty, Bat-Manga! is an invaluable, long-lost chapter in the history of one of the most timeless figures in comics.

The deluxe, expanded, and limited hardcover edition has a distinctive cover, full-color printed endpapers, and an amazing extra adventure written by Jiro Kuwata (not included in the paperback), about a band of rogue alien robot art thieves at large in Gotham City.

Order your copy of the limited edition hardcover
Order your copy of the trade paperback

For the sci-fi geek:
Meet Cole: hapless space rogue, part-time smuggler, on a path to being full-time dead. Follow his adventures through a delightfully absurd science-fiction universe, where the artificial intelligence is stupid, dust motes carry branding messages, and middle-management zombies have overrun a corporate training satellite. In the spirit of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett, The Sheriff of Yrnameer is sci-fi comedy at its best--mordant, raucously funny, and a thrilling page-turner.

Order your copy here

The setting: suburban Seattle, the mid-1970s. We learn from the outset that a strange plague has descended upon the area's teenagers, transmitted by sexual contact. The disease is manifested in any number of ways - from the hideously grotesque to the subtle - but once you've got it, that's it. There's no turning back. Winner of the Eisner, Harvey, and Ignatz Awards, Black Hole (Charles Burns) is as hypnotically beautiful as it is horrifying.

Order your copy here

For the New Yorker
We still can't get you a seat at The Waverly Inn, but we can bring you the wonderful, witty mural by Edward Sorel that graces its walls. Sorel - whose caricatures and drawings regularly appear in The New Yorker and on its cover - chose forty Greenwich Village greats from the past 150 years to cavort in bacchanalian splendor. Each of the 40 makes a solo appearance in these pages alongside a charming, telling vignette of his or her life by Dorothy Gallagher. Then, the entire mural appears in a foldout at the back of the book. Here you will find Edna St. Vincent Millay, Jackson Pollack, James Baldwin, Thelonius Monk, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Andy Warhol, Fran Lebowitz, Margaret Sanger, Marlon Brando, and many others.
The Mural at the Waverly Inn is an enduring delight to treasure, and the perfect gift for this holiday season.

Order your copy here

Perfect for your coffee table - big gift books that are guaranteed to be enjoyed:

"It's as if John Updike had discovered a bag of art supplies and LSD. Elegant, deceptively simple line work and nearly subliminal color symbolism make everything go down like candy." --Entertainment Weekly

The triumphant return of one of comics' greatest talents, Asterios Polyp is an engrossing story of one man's search for love, meaning, sanity, and perfect architectural proportions. An epic story long awaited, and well worth the wait. This is David Mazzucchelli's masterpiece: a great American graphic novel.

Order your copy here

One of the most promising young talents in cartooning makes his debut with a dazzling collection--part freakish dreamlife, part quirk-o-rama autobiography, all genius. My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down is David Heatley's life story told in six different but connected narrative threads. Every inch of this book is filled with visceral art and emotionally resonant storytelling, that is at once stunning, truthful, and uncomfortably hilarious.

Order your copy here

Free Pizza at B&N Greenwich Village

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:55:02 -0500

Free Pizza at B&N Greenwich Village

Marisa Acocella Marchetto will be reading from Cancer Vixen, now on sale from Pantheon Books, on Friday, October 23 at 7:30 pm at Barnes & Noble Greenwich Village. Featuring a PowerPoint presentation, book signing, and free pizza from Greenwich Village's Scuderia, this event is not to be missed.

"Marchetto is an inspiration, and her story is one that is definitely worth reading" (Sacramento Book Review).

Marisa Acocella Marchetto on Cancer Vixen

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:41:59 -0500

THE CANCER VIXEN HERSELF!

Listen to author Marisa Acocella Marchetto on Conversations LIVE! Radio as she discusses her graphic novel Cancer Vixen, now on sale in paperback from Pantheon Books.

On National Mammogram Day (Friday, October 16), Marisa will be at St. Vincent's Hospital in NYC handing out free signed copies of Cancer Vixen to the first 10 women in line for their free mammograms.

Also, be sure not to miss Marisa's appearance at B&N Greenwich Village on Friday, October 23.

Buy a copy here!

pen american event - Art Spiegelman

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:09:30 -0500

Reckoning with Torture: Memos and Testimonies from the "War on Terror"

When: Tuesday, October 13
Where: The Great Hall at Cooper Union, 7 East 7th St., NYC
What time: 7 p.m.

With Matthew Alexander, Jonathan Ames, K. Anthony Appiah, Paul Auster, Ishmael Beah, Don DeLillo, Eve Ensler, Jenny Holzer, A.M. Homes, Jameel Jaffer, Susanna Moore, Jack Rice, Amrit Singh, and Art Spiegelman

Tickets: $15/$10 for PEN/ACLU Members and students with valid ID at www.smarttix.com. Tickets may also be purchased at the door.

PEN and the ACLU will join forces to address the acts of torture and abuse carried out on behalf of the United States government since 9/11. At a time when the world's eyes are on America and the Obama administration has taken some important steps toward addressing the abuses that have occurred over the past eight years, writers and artists will take the stage with lawyers, a former U.S. interrogator, and other special guests.

In an evening of readings and responses, these Members and friends of PEN will read from the recently-released secret documents that have brought these abuses to light--memos, declassified communications, and testimonies by detainees--and reflect on how we can move forward as a nation.

This event is a first step in the long process of national reflection and reconciliation.

Rare video of David Mazzucchelli

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:35:33 -0500

Watch a rare video of David Mazzucchelli, author of the "haunting and beautiful" (Los Angeles Times) Asterios Polyp, as he discusses his writing process and inspiration for the graphic novel that has the world buzzing.

JOSH NEUFELD EVENT TONIGHT

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:38:37 -0500

REMINDER!
Thursday, September 24th at 7:00 p.m.

Josh Neufeld event happening tonight in Brooklyn! Be sure to stop by Bergen Street Comics (470 Bergen Street, Brooklyn NY 11217) for your chance to chat with Josh and buy a copy. Josh will be signing books and refreshments will be served. Donations to benefit Common Ground Relief would be appreciated, but are not mandatory.

Limited-edition giclee prints will be for sale, with all proceeds going to Common Ground. Hope to see you all there!

For more info on Bergen Street Comics, click here

THINGS WE DIDN'T SEE COMING

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:56:25 -0500

Coming soon from Pantheon: THINGS WE DIDN'T SEE COMING, the debut story collection from Steven Amsterdam set in a not-too-distant dystopian future is one to keep a close eye on. Amsterdam has already received fantastic praise in Australia and the Aussies are so fanatical about the book, they recently named it The Age Book of the Year (A major honor)! Random House's own Field Rep, Ann Kingman, raved about the book on Booksonthenightstand.com: "I began a new book the other night, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it....I can't seem to get the landscape out of my head....There are moments of light and humor in this book even amidst the bleak, and perhaps that is why I can think about it as I go about my day. I've been rationing my reading: a story a night. I'm savoring it as it haunts me."

Richly imagined, dark, and darkly comic, these nine stories follow the narrator over three decades as he tries to survive in a world that is becoming more savage as cataclysmic events unfold one after another. In the first story-set on the eve of the millennium, when the world as we know it is still recognizable-we meet the then nine-year-old narrator fleeing the city with his parents, just ahead of a Y2K breakdown of the grid, signaling the world's transformation and decline. The remaining stories capture the strange- sometimes horrific, sometimes unexpectedly funny-circumstances he encounters in the no-longerso- simple act of survival. Yet, in each story, we see that despite the violence and brutality of his days, the narrator retains a hold on his essential humanity.

Send the words "DIDN'T SEE IT COMING" in an email to pantheon@randomhouse.com and the first 3 responses will receive an early galley of the book!

THINGS WE DIDN'T SEE COMING will be available in stores on February 10, 2010, but in the meantime, preorder your copy here.

NEW David Heatley video

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:48:14 -0500

Watch David Heatley's (author of MY BRAIN IS HANGING UPSIDE DOWN) new music video "Suburban White Girls". It features the work of 34 artists from all over the world. The song is from my "My Brain is Hanging Upside Down" EP, released by WonderSound Records in 2008 on iTunes. The original song was written when Heatley was 19 years old and recorded on a 4-track tape recorder in his bedroom in Teaneck, NJ.

BODYWORLD

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:45:16 -0500

Check out this trailor for Dash Shaw's new graphic novel BODYWORLD, a darkly fantastical graphic novel about a small town, a lowlife botanist, and a mysterious plant with strange powers. You can read the original webcomic here. Or preorder your copy here

Nominated for a 2009 Eisner Award and with a bold, innovative design, BodyWorld is a mind-blowing blend of science-fiction, classic high school drama, and futuristic what-if. It is at once funny and fearless-and sure to be the graphic novel event of the year.

Cancer Vixen Fund!

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:42:14 -0500

SAVE THE DATE: October 28th, 6:30-9:30 at Saint Vincent's Hospital

Have fun. Raise Funds. Help benefit uninsured and underinsured women
AND get to meet the CANCER VIXEN herself: Marisa Acocella Marchetto
If you'd like to buy a copy of CANCER VIXEN before the event, click here

A.D. GIVE AWAY

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:48:37 -0500

In his raw and sweeping graphic nonfiction masterpiece A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, veteran nonfiction comic book writer and long-time artist for American Splendor Josh Neufeld chronicles the lives of six native New Orleanians in the wake of Hurricane Katrina that he met during his time volunteering with the Red Cross.
Enter the world of:
Denise, a sixth-generation New Orlinean artist and counselor
The Doctor, who, while not directly affected by the storm, stays behind to help those less fortunate
Hamid and Mansell, who face the storm from the roof of Hamid's family-run market
Kevin, a pastor's son just entering his senior year of high school
Leo and Michelle, a twenty-something couple that grew up in the city.

All of whom face the terrifying and increasingly universal reality that home is not an immutable fact, and question what it would mean to stay or to evacuate. With beautiful illustrations, A.D. presents the characters' stories as they unfold, frame by frame, alongside the building storm, vividly portraying what it means to have to decide to leave everything you know behind.

And here's the best part:
Email the phrase AFTER THE DELUGE, along with your mailing address to pantheon@randomhouse.com and you will automatically enter yourself into a drawing to win a free copy of the book! There will be 3 lucky winners selected at random. Please note: U.S. mailing addresses only.

Be sure to stop by the following events for your chance to chat with Josh and pick up a copy of the book:
Wednesday, September 16, 7:00 p.m.--McNally Jackson, 52 Prince St, NYC. Panel with Josh, Lisa and Jeff Newelt.

Thursday, September 247:00 p.m.--Bergen Street Comics, 470 Bergen Street, Brooklyn NY 11217

Visit Josh Neufeld's website here.

And buy a copy of the book here.

Praise for A.D.:
"A.D. is a sterling example of comics with a social consciousness, and is exactly the kind of thing we need to keep the human dimension of this unimaginable disaster and its ongoing aftermath in the public eye."-- Wired.com
"Referring to A.D. as a 'comic book' is a bit like calling Schindler's List a 'talkie.'"
-- The Los Angeles Times
"A.D.'s ... stunning panels ... retell the harrowing experience of what it was like to live through the disaster."--Rolling Stone
"[A.D.]'s stirring images are sure to linger in memory, perhaps even longer than hours of news footage already have."--The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"Josh Neufeld's cultural and class observations are enormously rare in the world of comix subject matter."-- The Comics Journal

Pantheon Comics at the BROOKLYN BOOK FESTIVAL!

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 10:22:22 -0500

For the first time ever, Pantheon will have a booth at the Brooklyn Book Festival this Sunday, 9/13 from 10am - 6pm. Make sure to stop by and check it out (I'll be working there all day, so come say hi)!

To find out more about this year's Brooklyn Book Festival, click here.

You can also follow the Brooklyn Book Festival on Twitter: @bkbf

Some panels that may be of interest:
11:00 a.m. The International Graphic Novel. Three acclaimed graphic novelists who tackle big social and political themes in their work discuss what the form can accomplish, from an international and domestic perspective. Featuring Guy Delisle (The Burma Chronicles), Peter Kuper (Diario de Oaxaca: A Sketchbook Journal of Two Years in Mexico) and Sarah Glidden (How To Understand Israel In 60 Days Or Less). Moderated by Matt Madden.

NEW YORK COMIC CON AT THE BROOKLYN BOOK FESTIVAL

10:00 a.m. Comics Get Syncopated: Memoir, History, Biography and Reportage in Comics Today. Brendan Burford (editor, Syncopated: An Anthology of Nonfiction Picto-Essays), comics editor at King Features Syndicate, moderates panel with other Syncopated contributors as they discuss how the comic format has opened new doors in nonfiction storytelling. Syncopated collects memoirs, profiles and reports from comics creators in a graphic novel format.

11:00 a.m. Fact vs. Fiction in Action-Adventure Comics. Comics artists and writers Matt Loux, Fred van Lente, Chris Giarruso, Kevin Pyle and Barry Lyga discuss how they are inspired by real events, scientific research and even math and physics to come up with action-packed adventure stories. They give a behind-the-scenes look at the process of creating comics. For kids of all ages. Moderated by Alex Simmons.

12:00 p.m. Sci Fi and Fantasy in NYC. Is there anything hotter than sci-fi and fantasy right now? We don't think so. Join authors S.C. Butler, Peter Brett, Anton Strout and Dave Roman as they discuss all that is paranormal in NYC.

1:00 p.m. Marvel Writers. How do they do it? Some of Marvel's hottest writers talk about their work on your favorite comics. Moderated by Jim McCann.

2:00 p.m. Spotlight on Tom DeFalco, Phil Jimenez and Dennis O'Neil. Veteran artists Tom DeFalco, Phil Jimenez and Dennis O'Neil gather to speak about their common influences, current projects and the trends that are shaping the future. Moderated by Danny Fingeroth.

3:00 The ACT-I-VATE Renaissance. There is a comic book renaissance happening in Gowanus, Brooklyn, and members from both DEEP6 and XOXOs Studios, featuring Dean Haspiel, Mike Cavallaro, Tim Hamilton, Joe Infurnari, Simon Fraser, Molly Crabapple and Mike Dawson (among others) will discuss the genesis of ACT-I-VATE, their premier webcomix collective, and sneak-peek their upcoming print anthology, THE ACT-I-VATE PRIMER. Moderated by Jeff Newelt, who will also announce two new members to ACT-I-VATE.

4:00 p.m. Hip Hop Hearts Anime. A conversation on the cross-pollination of urban culture in Japan and hip hop into popular anime. Our group of anime fanatics, hip hop artists, activists and social entrepreneurs will come together based on their love for anime culture to discuss the good, the bad and the ugly of this cultural exchange and how it will stay with our youth in the years to come.

1:00 p.m. Comics Jam with Jessica Abel and Matt Madden A jam comic is an improvised collaborative comic. One person draws a single panel and then passes it on to the next person, who draws a new panel that continues the story. Get ready to draw and collaborate! For teens and adults. Participation limited to 25.

Directions:

Festival Site Address

Brooklyn Borough Hall
209 Joralemon Street
Brooklyn, New York 11201

By car from Manhattan: Coming over the Brooklyn Bridge, stay straight on Adams Street. Turn right on Joralemon Street.

By car from New Jersey and Staten Island: Verrazano Bridge to 278West. Take Exit 27/Atlantic Avenue and turn onto Atlantic Avenue. Turn left on Boerum Place. Turn left on Joralemon Street.

Public Transportation: 2, 3, 4, 5 to Borough Hall; R to Court Street; A, C, F to Jay Street/Borough Hall

For the latest information about subway service visit www.mta.info
To plan your trip to the Brooklyn Book Festival, visit www.hopstop.com

See you there!
~Lauren

Conversational Comics Concludes on August 15

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:26:35 -0500

Conversational Comics Concludes on August 15

Conversational Comics, the three-panel speaker series sponsored by the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, concludes at host venue Union Pool in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on Saturday, August 15 at 2:00 pm.

Austin English (Windy Corner, Christina and Charles), Lisa Hanawalt (Stay Away From Other People, I Want You) and Dash Shaw (Bottomless Belly Button, Bodyworld) will talk with comics critic Bill Kartalopoulos (Parsons, Print Magazine) about the relationship between image-making and drawing for comics. How do pictures work differently in comics than they do on gallery walls?

Then stick around to get a book signed, hit the taco truck, and sip a summer drink with the featured cartoonists. This is the concluding event in a three panel series of live conversations with contemporary cartoonists. Do not miss this final opportunity to listen to and mingle with artists currently changing the face of comics!

All events take place at 2:00 pm in the back room at Union Pool. Union Pool is located at 484 Union Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11211, one block from the Lorimer-Metropolitan G and L stop.

Suggested donation for each event is $5. All proceeds go to benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

Audio of the first installment in the series, Autobiography: My Life in Comics with David Heatley, Lauren Weinstein, and Julia Wertz is available here.