Andre Frattino will tell Tom Petty’s ‘origin story’ in a new graphic novel

University Press of Florida will publish ‘Tom Petty’s Dreamville: A Graphic Novel’ in September.

University Press of Florida will publish Tom Petty’s Dreamville: A Graphic Novel by Andre Frattino, the creator of A Land Remembered: A Graphic Novel and Tokyo Rose: Zero Hour.

The biographical graphic novel will tell the story of the early life of the late singer, whose legendary musical career produced such hits as American Girl, Free Falling and Mary Jane’s Last Dance (which isn’t about Spider-Man). Petty grew up in Gainesville, Florida in the 1970s, and Frattino interviewed several of Petty’s friends and fellow musicians to put the story together.

“Tom Petty’s origin story felt like a road trip adventure, with our hero encountering many pitfalls and peaks on his journey to discover himself and his music,” Frattino said. “It was unlike any rock star origin story I had ever heard, and it happened in my own backyard! It wasn’t so much an interest to me to tell this story…as it was a dream.”

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Exclusive: ‘Black Cat Social Club’ preview and trailer

The new graphic novel by Christopher Painter, Bob Quinn and more will arrive from Humanoids on April 25.

Today we have an exclusive first look at the trailer for Black Cat Social Club, fresh twist on the story of musicians selling their soul to the devil, coming out on April 25 from Humanoids. Take a look:

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Berger Books will adapt the opera ‘The Emperor of Atlantis’

Electronic Frontier Foundation Director of Investigations Dave Maass and artist Patrick Lay will bring to life a story written by two concentration camp prisoners.

While imprisoned at the Terezín concentration camp in Czechoslovakia by Hitler’s Nazi regime in 1943, Peter Kien and Viktor Ullmann wrote Der Kaiser von Atlantis, or The Emperor of Atlantis, a one-act opera that they never got to see performed. Now Dark Horse’s Berger Books will adapt the story into a graphic novel by Electronic Frontier Foundation Director of Investigations Dave Maass and artist Patrick Lay.

Death Strikes: The Emperor of Atlantis will also feature character designs by Ezra Rose and lettering by Richard Bruning. In addition to adapting the opera, the graphic novel will also feature an historical essay on the opera’s creators, as well as Kien’s artwork and photographs.

“Written in a concentration camp, Peter Kien and Viktor Ullmann’s opera is the truest form of artistic resistance, a middle finger to the Nazis and all authoritarians across history,” Maass said. “By adapting this fierce, genre-blending satire, we hope to introduce this nearly lost masterpiece to new audiences–and to challenge the tyrants of today.”

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Dark Horse will publish ‘The Unlikely Story of Felix and Macabber’ this fall

Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou and Juni Ba team on the all-ages graphic novel.

Acclaimed letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou will write (and letter!) the new graphic novel The Unlikely Story of Felix and Macabber, joined by Juni Ba (Djeliya, Monkey Meat) as the artist and colorist. Dark Horse will publish the all-ages graphic novel this October.

“With Felix and Macabber, Juni and I wanted to explore the idea of doing whatever it takes to become something great,” the writer said. “Who are the role models that people look up to? And how do the pressures on your own life change the way we understand those role models? Which all sounds quite serious, but it’s also a great excuse to let Juni’s imagination loose on these wonderful weird monster designs and big, bombastic fight sequences – which he’s a master at. We’re really excited about readers meeting our cast of monster-characters, from the big guy himself to his arch-nemesis, to the big dog that lives in a cave and creates knights-in-armor from his own saliva. Yep. You’re going to love it.”

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Alex de Campi + Erica Henderson show the dark side of fandom in ‘Parasocial’

The new graphic novel arrives in October.

Image Comics has announced a new graphic novel from the creative team of Dracula, Motherf**ker. Alex de Campi and Erica Henderson will team up again for Parasocial, a thriller about fandom, celebrity and the pandemic.

Parasocial is a twisted exploitation thriller that will leave you never feeling safe at a convention again. It’s a deep dive into all the things we’ve agreed not to talk about in modern fandom and celebrity… with an ending you’ll never see coming,” said De Campi. “Most importantly, it’s Erica’s most beautiful and strikingly innovative book yet. I’m just here to cover up some of her art with words.”

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Fantagraphics will publish a new Daniel Clowes graphic novel this fall

The creator of ‘Ghost World’ and ‘Wilson’ returns to comics with ‘Monica’ later this year.

Fantagraphics has announced a new project by Daniel Clowes that will arrive in stores this fall — Monica, the life story of a woman that the publisher describes as “mysterious, uncategorizable and quintessentially Clowesian.”

The award-winning creator of Ghost World, The Death-Ray, Wilson, Patience and more took about six years to finish the new project, which will no doubt be one of this year’s biggest releases.

“Daniel Clowes had already created what might well be my favorite body of work in the medium’s history,” said Fantagraphics’ Eric Reynolds. “But Monica raises his own bar even higher, as both a writer of fiction and as a cartoonist. It’s a masterpiece that is both utterly Clowes and unlike anything else I’ve ever read.”

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Oeming + Santos go gonzo in conspiracy-filled ‘Project Monarch’

The new graphic novel arrives from Dark Horse in September.

Michael Avon Oeming (Powers) and Victor Santos (Polar) are pulling out all the stops in their new graphic novel Project Monarch — a story that will involve fake moon landings, the Illuminati, child stars turned assassins and a film that can control minds.

It sounds bonkers and like a lot of fun.

“This story was born in a time when we needed to deal with uncertainty everyday,” said Santos. “So this is a book about embracing chaos and living nonetheless, and I can’t imagine a better partner for this crazy trip than Mike Oeming.”

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Marvel + Abrams will release ‘Marvel Super Stories’ anthology in October

Jerry Craft, Mike Curato, George O’Connor, Nathan Hale, John Gallagher and more will contribute stories to the new anthology, which is edited by John Jennings.

Middle-grade creators, assemble! Marvel and Abrams have announced a new anthology for later this year featuring stories by some of the hottest names in middle-grade graphic novels. They’ll be writing and drawing six-page stories featuring Spider-Man, Ms. Marvel, Hawkeye, Shang-Chi, Hulk and many more.

The project is being edited by John Jennings, who heads up Abrams’ award-winning Megascope imprint. He’s also doing a Daredevil story for the anthology.

“I’m so thrilled to have helped bring this amazing collection of Marvel stories to a new generation,” Jennings said. “Working with these super-talented storytellers has been a dream. Marvel Comics is an institution that has inspired so many imaginations across the world, including my own. With Marvel Super Stories we get to continue that legacy, presenting the best and brightest creators coupled with the most marvelous heroes.”

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Throw up some devil horns for ‘The Rock Gods of Jackson, Tennessee’

Dark Horse will publish a new graphic novel by Rafer Roberts and Mike Norton later this year.

Rafer Roberts and Mike Norton are getting the band back together in the upcoming graphic novel The Rock Gods of Jackson, Tennessee, which Dark Horse will publish in June. They’ll be joined by colorist Allen Passalaqua and letterer Crank!

It’s about a group of high school friends who form a band and battle “a rampaging horde of mutated monsters.”

Rock Gods started with Mike throwing ideas at me,” Roberts said. “His idea about his high school friends starting a rock band (but having to fight monsters instead) seemed like it would be in my wheelhouse. And, like Mike, I was also in a terrible rock band back in high school and thought I might have something to say.”

“The idea of this book was originally to make a serious autobiographical story about my hometown,” Norton said, “but I soon realized that wasn’t as fun as working with Rafer and making stuff up that never happened!”

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Emily Carroll’s ‘A Guest in the House’ will haunt your dreams in August

First Second will publish the new graphic novel by a contemporary horror master.

Horror fans take note — Emily Carroll’s next project will arrive from First Second in August.

A Guest in the House is about a woman who marries a widower and moves in with him and his daughter, only to become haunted by the memory of his dead wife — and obsessed with finding out what really happened to her.

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Marvel + Scholastic will release a new Shang-Chi graphic novel this fall

Victoria Ying will write and draw the adventure of a young Shang-Chi and his sister Shi-Hua.

Victoria Ying will write and draw a new all-ages Shang-Chi graphic novel as part of the partnership between Marvel and Scholastic.

Shang-Chi and the Quest for Immortality will take a young Shang-Chi and his sister Shi-Hua out of their father’s castle and into the larger world, as Shang-Chi seeks a means to help his father restore his immortality.

“One of the things that intrigued me the most about Shang-Chi as a character was his complicated relationship to his father,” Ying told Marvel.com. “I wanted to explore what it would be like to be a young person and what it felt like to constantly crave and strive for approval, before throwing it all away and rejecting the need for understanding from his father. It’s a journey I can relate to and I wanted to show Shang-Chi in the years before he set out against his father.”

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Fantagraphics will publish Maria Bamford + Scott Marvel Cassidy’s ‘Hogbook and Lazer Eyes’

The new graphic novel will arrive in stores in June.

Fantagraphics has announced Hogbook and Lazer Eyes, a new graphic novel from actress and comedian Maria Bamford and painter Scott Marvel Cassidy.

The two creators, who were married in 2015, met through the dating app OK Cupid, as chronicled on the quasi-autobiographical Lady Dynamite! show on Netflix. The graphic novel will recount their story through the eyes of their pug housemates.

“As a dog lover, and as a comics fan, I was immediately charmed by Hogbook and Lazer Eyes from almost the first page,” said Fantagraphics Associate Publisher Eric Reynolds. “Maria and Scott have crafted something as sweet and beautiful as it is laugh out loud funny.”

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