Top Shelf’s ‘We Are Pan’ recounts the secret operation that brought 14,000 Cuban children to America

Andre Frattino and Yasmin Flores Montanez tell the true story of Operation Pedro Pan, which brought 14,000 children from Cuba to the United States between 1960 and 1962.

Top Shelf Productions will publish We Are Pan, an original graphic novel written by Andre Frattino and illustrated by Yasmin Flores Montanez, this summer. The hardcover tells the true story of Operación Pedro Pan, a secret joint effort between the U.S. government and the Catholic Welfare Bureau to evacuate Cuban children to the United States in the wake of Fidel Castro’s revolution.

Between 1960 and 1962, 14,000 children were sent from Cuba to America by parents who feared for their futures under communism. The children, later known as “Pedro Pans,” were relocated across the United States, most living in foster homes. In many cases, they never saw their families again.

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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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