MattBrady
11-15-2002, 03:34 PM
<a href="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/BakerStreet.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/BakerStreet_t.jpg" width="175" height="314" alt="cover detail from No Honor Among Punks" border="0" align="right"></a>The graphic novel market will get a new player this coming April as Byron Preiss’ iBooks launches a monthly graphic novel line which will include works by Don Lomax, Harlan Ellison, Richard Corben, Guy Davis, David Lloyd, and others. Despite what it may look like on the surface, iBooks’ foray into the graphic novel market isn’t completely new – in fact, as far as graphic novels go, they’ve never been too far away from them…
As an imprint, iBooks has been around since 1999, and made a name for themselves among genre fans by repackaging and publishing classic science fiction by the likes of Brian Aldiss, Alfred Bester, and Harlan Ellison, as well as X-Men and Spider-Man novelizations. According to iBooks publisher Byron Preiss, about half of line’s 200 books a year are reprints, while the others are original, and cover every topic, from science to history and pet care.
For Preiss, officially launching a graphic novel line marks a return to the field – in different forms over the years, he has been responsible for a wide variety of comic projects, such as writing DC’s Elseworlds Robin 3000 which was illustrated by P. Craig Russell, packaging Ray Bradbury Comics for Topps, as well as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Roger Zelazny’s Amber projects for DC. Preiss isn’t the only comics vet in the iBooks offices, either, as the publisher is the home for former Marvel, DC and Topps editors and creators.
“So it’s not as though we’ve been uninvolved,” Preiss said. “On the other hand, given the capital expense, it’s really a luxury to delve into the market, when you’re a small company. So we hope that, given the combination of bookseller market and the revived direct market, and the library market, there’s enough ground to do serious work – that’s why we entered into it again. We never really wanted not to be doing them, so it was really just a question of when we could do them again.”
The publishing program calls for iBooks to have one release a month, beginning in April of 2003. Like the publisher’s prose line, there won’t be any kind of unifying theme to the releases, save Preiss’ overall vision: “These are works that need to be in print, and to work both in the bookstore/library market as well as the comics market. In other words, they have to have a crossover appeal. As a graphic novel publisher, I’d say we’re a little to the right of Top Shelf in terms of commercial appeal – the works are less personal and more commercial, but a little to the left of a mainstream comics publisher.”
<img src="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/vietnam3a.jpg" width="175" height="260" alt="original cover to Vietnam Journal #3" border="0" align="left">Among the first releases on the schedule of iBooks is Don Lomax’s 192-page Vietnam Journal, chronicling the exploits of Vietnam war correspondent Scott “Journal” Neithammer. Originally published by Apple Comics between 1987 and 1989, the series a specials were critically acclaimed at the time of release for Lomax’s (a Vietnam vet) accurate portrayal of both the events as well as the feel of the soldiers fighting in the bush. iBooks’ collected edition will feature two special features, “Back in the World,” small pieces about what was occurring in America at the same time as Journal was in Vietnam, and “Missing American,” a series of profiles of soldiers who are still MIA from the conflict.
Also in the early releases will be Vic and Blood: The Chronicles of A Boy And His Dog by Harlan Ellison and Richard Corben – an illustrated version of the story which the film A Boy and His Dog was based upon. “This will be the original graphic novel which was previously published, plus the three Ellison/Corben collaborations, which will include the full color work Richard did to illustrate Harlan’s stories. All in all, you’ll have a combination of the full graphic novel with three prose stories with illustration.
“Perhaps the most important book to me that we’re doing early on is a collection of Guy Davis’ Baker Street, which we’re using the title of the first collected work, Honor Among Punks, for the work as a whole, which I think is a stronger, and more descriptive name,” Preiss continued. “That will be a 336-page book, entirely of Guy’s work with Gary Reed. I think that’s a major book.”
<img src="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/vicblood_cvr.jpg" width="175" height="228" alt="original cover to Vic & Blood gn" border="0" align="right">The publisher will also release Raymond Chandler’s Marlowe, a collection of authorized adaptations of the writer’s Philip Marlowe stories, with contributions by David (V for Vendetta) Lloyd, Ryan (Dan Dare) Hughes, Jerome Charyn, and Lee Moyer, a protégé of Mike Kaluta, who will illustrate “Trouble is my Business. According to Preiss, the Marlowe volume will be two thirds color, one third black and white.
While he is excited about all of the early released, the upcoming collections of Jacques Tardi’s Leo Malet works are what Preiss is looking forward to the most. “Those are some of the most important graphic story works in the last 20 years, and they’ve never been in English,” Preiss said. “Jean-Marc Lofficier is doing the adaptation for us, and we’ll be doing a series of those. Normally, our books will be regular comics trim size, but with something like Tardi, it would be a crime to reduce them, so we’ll make those volumes larger.”
The look of the line is being designed by Dean Motter, and Preiss said that some of iBooks’ upcoming graphic novel releases will be original works by new artists as well as veteran creators, but will continue to blend older material together as well.
Ideally, the line is aimed at a middle-ground audience, somewhere between the direct comic market and the bookstore. “I believe in doing anything that helps the comics direct market, which we’ve been supporting from day one, but I do think the reality is there are now additional markets that hopefully bring new readers to all stores,” Preiss said. “All of our books will be available through our distribution partner, Simon and Schuster for bookstores, and Diamond for comic shops – so really, there should be no problem for anyone, going to any store that sells books finding these.”
As an imprint, iBooks has been around since 1999, and made a name for themselves among genre fans by repackaging and publishing classic science fiction by the likes of Brian Aldiss, Alfred Bester, and Harlan Ellison, as well as X-Men and Spider-Man novelizations. According to iBooks publisher Byron Preiss, about half of line’s 200 books a year are reprints, while the others are original, and cover every topic, from science to history and pet care.
For Preiss, officially launching a graphic novel line marks a return to the field – in different forms over the years, he has been responsible for a wide variety of comic projects, such as writing DC’s Elseworlds Robin 3000 which was illustrated by P. Craig Russell, packaging Ray Bradbury Comics for Topps, as well as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Roger Zelazny’s Amber projects for DC. Preiss isn’t the only comics vet in the iBooks offices, either, as the publisher is the home for former Marvel, DC and Topps editors and creators.
“So it’s not as though we’ve been uninvolved,” Preiss said. “On the other hand, given the capital expense, it’s really a luxury to delve into the market, when you’re a small company. So we hope that, given the combination of bookseller market and the revived direct market, and the library market, there’s enough ground to do serious work – that’s why we entered into it again. We never really wanted not to be doing them, so it was really just a question of when we could do them again.”
The publishing program calls for iBooks to have one release a month, beginning in April of 2003. Like the publisher’s prose line, there won’t be any kind of unifying theme to the releases, save Preiss’ overall vision: “These are works that need to be in print, and to work both in the bookstore/library market as well as the comics market. In other words, they have to have a crossover appeal. As a graphic novel publisher, I’d say we’re a little to the right of Top Shelf in terms of commercial appeal – the works are less personal and more commercial, but a little to the left of a mainstream comics publisher.”
<img src="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/vietnam3a.jpg" width="175" height="260" alt="original cover to Vietnam Journal #3" border="0" align="left">Among the first releases on the schedule of iBooks is Don Lomax’s 192-page Vietnam Journal, chronicling the exploits of Vietnam war correspondent Scott “Journal” Neithammer. Originally published by Apple Comics between 1987 and 1989, the series a specials were critically acclaimed at the time of release for Lomax’s (a Vietnam vet) accurate portrayal of both the events as well as the feel of the soldiers fighting in the bush. iBooks’ collected edition will feature two special features, “Back in the World,” small pieces about what was occurring in America at the same time as Journal was in Vietnam, and “Missing American,” a series of profiles of soldiers who are still MIA from the conflict.
Also in the early releases will be Vic and Blood: The Chronicles of A Boy And His Dog by Harlan Ellison and Richard Corben – an illustrated version of the story which the film A Boy and His Dog was based upon. “This will be the original graphic novel which was previously published, plus the three Ellison/Corben collaborations, which will include the full color work Richard did to illustrate Harlan’s stories. All in all, you’ll have a combination of the full graphic novel with three prose stories with illustration.
“Perhaps the most important book to me that we’re doing early on is a collection of Guy Davis’ Baker Street, which we’re using the title of the first collected work, Honor Among Punks, for the work as a whole, which I think is a stronger, and more descriptive name,” Preiss continued. “That will be a 336-page book, entirely of Guy’s work with Gary Reed. I think that’s a major book.”
<img src="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/vicblood_cvr.jpg" width="175" height="228" alt="original cover to Vic & Blood gn" border="0" align="right">The publisher will also release Raymond Chandler’s Marlowe, a collection of authorized adaptations of the writer’s Philip Marlowe stories, with contributions by David (V for Vendetta) Lloyd, Ryan (Dan Dare) Hughes, Jerome Charyn, and Lee Moyer, a protégé of Mike Kaluta, who will illustrate “Trouble is my Business. According to Preiss, the Marlowe volume will be two thirds color, one third black and white.
While he is excited about all of the early released, the upcoming collections of Jacques Tardi’s Leo Malet works are what Preiss is looking forward to the most. “Those are some of the most important graphic story works in the last 20 years, and they’ve never been in English,” Preiss said. “Jean-Marc Lofficier is doing the adaptation for us, and we’ll be doing a series of those. Normally, our books will be regular comics trim size, but with something like Tardi, it would be a crime to reduce them, so we’ll make those volumes larger.”
The look of the line is being designed by Dean Motter, and Preiss said that some of iBooks’ upcoming graphic novel releases will be original works by new artists as well as veteran creators, but will continue to blend older material together as well.
Ideally, the line is aimed at a middle-ground audience, somewhere between the direct comic market and the bookstore. “I believe in doing anything that helps the comics direct market, which we’ve been supporting from day one, but I do think the reality is there are now additional markets that hopefully bring new readers to all stores,” Preiss said. “All of our books will be available through our distribution partner, Simon and Schuster for bookstores, and Diamond for comic shops – so really, there should be no problem for anyone, going to any store that sells books finding these.”