Thanks to all who’ve wished me a happy birthday today – it’s been nice to hear from so many friends and fellow travelers across the virtual world.

A special nod to ol’ pal Jim Salicrup for his birthday blog cleverly disguised as a plug for all my work.  Mucho obligado, Jim!

I’ve really got to get around to redesigning this web page and posting about all the exciting projects I have coming up, but I’ve been too busy writing (and occasionally playing Stubbs the Zombie…)!

Importantly, though, the first reviews are out for my upcoming book from Walker, Split, which hits bookstores March 16.

From Publisher’s Weekly:  "Petrucha offers a reality-bending take on the idea of split personalities.  [His] story should leave readers considering the power of fate versus choice and the internal urges and desires that regularly jostle for control.

From Booklist:  The shifting action keeps the fast-paced dual plots moving, and teens will be entertained by the two Wades’ embodiment of the tension between being success oriented and following your whims.

That cover again is:

Pax!

One of the questions comicbook editors are asked most often is “What exactly does a comicbook editor do?” Comicbook editing is such a mysterious profession, that you might be better off asking Nancy Drew for the answer. Some of the answer is fairly obvious—assigning writers and artists to create comicbooks or graphic novels on an agreed upon schedule. And one of the things that makes any editors’ job incredibly easier is to be lucky enough to assign a writer who just happens to be brilliantly talented, incredibly reliable, and always a pleasure to work with. Such a writer is Stefan Petrucha.

Stefan Petrucha is all those things and more. As writer or co-writer (with Sarah Kinney) of the NANCY DREW graphic novels he has kept our favorite Girl Detective hopping in one amazing mystery after another:

In “The Demon of River Heights,” Nancy exposes the true demon and the dangers of cigarette smoking. And this premiere Nancy Drew graphic novel wins the Benjamin Franklin Award.

“Writ In Stone” questions who really discovered America.

“The Haunted Dollhouse” celebrates and namedrops many of the classic Carolyn Keene Nancy Drew Mysteries.

“The Girl Who Wasn’t There” brings Nancy, George, and Bess to India to help a friend Nancy meant when call tech support.

“The Fake Heir” shows that even when Nancy has a bad day, which included a spider bite on her nose, she can still solve a mystery.

In “Mr. Cheeters is Missing” Nancy must find a kidnapped chimp, without making a monkey of herself.

Nancy also discovers “The Charmed Bracelet” is actually cursed.

“Global Warning” is not only an ecological thriller, it actually ties-in with one of the great Her Interactive Nancy Drew computer games.

Then there’s the “High Miles Mystery,” a Nancy Drew trilogy, that includes “Ghost in the Machinery,” “The Disoriented Express,” and “Monkey Wrench Blues.” See what happens when a new fuel is invented that could change the world.

After such a awesome adventures, Nancy is brought back down to Earth with “Dress Reversal” – a tale that actually sees her trapped in a van with Deirdre Shannon.

After finding various missing persons—including a chimp—Nancy is challenged to find and entire missing community in “Doggone Town.” She also finds Togo, her new dog.

Sometimes finding a missing person, or in this case, a missing tiger can be dangerous as Nancy learns in “Tiger Counter.” This one is a Distinguished iParenting Media Award Winner!

With nothing up her sleeves, Nancy matches wits with a popular professional magician in “Sleight of Dan.”

Balloon rides can be fun, but not when you’re dangling from one like Nancy does in “What Goes Up…”

Nancy travels to Turkey with her dad, and after surviving a “Night of the Living Chatchke” winds up trapped in the “City Under the Basement.”

Nancy spends most of “Ciffhanger” literally hanging from a ledge, but that doesn’t impede her powers of deduction.

And coming soon, in time to celebrate Nancy’s 80^th Anniversary, “High School Musical Mystery Part One,” featuring the very first encounter between Nancy Drew and Carolyn Keene’s sister sleuths, the Dana Girls!

And that’s just what Stefan’s been dreaming up for Nancy Drew! Somehow he’s not only found time to write such novels as The Timetripper series, The Shadow of Frankenstein, The Wicked Dead series (with Thomas Pendleton), Teen Inc., The Rule of Won, and coming in March, Split, but he’s also written comics such as Mickey Mouse, Duckman, The X-Files, Spider-Man, Squalor, Meta-4, and for Papercutz, several stories for TALES FROM THE CRYPT, including the super-popular parody “Diary of a Stinky Dead Kid.”

As you can probably guess, I’m not only Stefan’s editor at Papercutz, I’m also a big fan of his work, which I’m sure you will be too if you check out any Petrucha-penned publication! So, Happy Birthday, Stefan!  And keep those scripts coming!

Hello There!

I’m very excited that so many people have contacted Papercutz to tell us how much you’ve enjoyed my first two graphic novels, full of rat-tastic adventures!  Oh, Excuse me, I haven’t introduced myself yet! My name is Stilton, Geronimo Stilton! And I edit the Rodent’s Gazette, the most famous paper on Mouse Island. I’ve also been asked by Papercutz to write about my adventures - in graphic novel form. I write graphic novels for Papercutz about stopping the Pirate Cats from changing the future for their own benefit. Time-travel is fun, but I always need a nap when I come back!

My latest graphic novel is called “The Coliseum Con” and I can’t wait to share with you this mouseriffic adventure! I traveled to Ancient Rome with my sister Thea, my nephew Benjamin, Benjamin’s friend Pandora and my friend Nosymouse Squeak. For those of you who don’t know Nosymouse, we grew up together on Mouse Island and he runs the Squeak Detective Agency. Nosymouse is good at sniffing out clues, but he loves to play tricks on me and is a banana-maniac! We heard from Professor Volt that the Pirate Cats were up to no good and had to go stop them! I won’t give away any of the secrets, but we got to meet Emperor Titus and made some great friends. Of course, there were some bumps along the way…

Moldy Mozarella! Riding a chariot isn’t as easy as it looks in the movies! I won’t spoil it by letting you know what happens; you’ll have to pick up a copy of “The Coliseum Con” for yourself! Those nice people at Papercutz have all the information on my latest graphic novel here. You can even see some more previews from our adventure! Well, my dear friends, farewell until the next tale…another whiskerful of an adventure written by Stilton…Geronimo Stilton!

HI EVERYONE!

It sure has been a long time since I’ve written, but I will try to make it up to you with a lot of links to some neat stuff going on in the world of Papercutz. 2010 is the 80th anniversary of NANCY DREW and we plan on celebrating in style! If you are a NANCY DREW fan and you have a facebook account, make it official! Go to this page, log in, and join! I’ll be posting previews and other cool stuff there.

If you haven’t yet noticed, TALES FROM THE CRYPT #8 “Diary of a Stinky Dead Kid” was a smash hit for Papercutz. We couldn’t be happier! On that note, if you are still not sure about this book and want more info you can ask Publisher’s Weekly what they thought, or perhaps Booklist. It seems like Glugg (the stinky dead kid) can be found here, there and everywhere! The same can be said for our good friend Geronimo Stilton. He’s popping up everywhere! Have fun surfing the web!

Speaking of young troublemakers like Glugg, if you haven’t checked out CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED #5 “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” read this review:

“Tom Sawyer, that original American bad boy, returns in graphic-novel format. The manga-influenced, full-color illustrations bring a new level of dynamism to a text that is already quite dramatic, what with its murder, buried treasure, youthful romance, and presumed deaths. (Tom himself is thought dead twice.) This version doesn’t shy away from the culture of the time; Injun Joe is still Injun Joe and Tom’s bare backside still has many run-ins with Aunt Polly’s slipper. In regard to the latter, there is brief, occasional nudity as a result of the skinny-dipping and spankings, but nothing gratuitous. While the overall work is of a generally high quality, it is not perfect. Visually, it is often difficult to distinguish among the supporting characters. In addition, the speech balloons are occasionally confusing, leaving readers unsure of who is speaking. Despite those minor flaws, this volume serves as a fine introduction to the story, the author, and his time and place.”

–Douglas P. Davey, Halton Hills Public Library, Ontario, Canada

Wow! Thanks Mr. Davey! That’s all I have time for today but make sure you watch out for Papercutz! There should be a new blog contributor here soon that I think will surprise you!

-Michael

Hi Everyone,

Editorial Assistant Michael Petranek here, and I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted. Things have been a little bit crazy at the Papercutz offices the last month with lots of new books and some exciting new developments in the works. Of course, I can’t reveal anything just yet! But we think you’ll be excited once you hear what we have in store for the rest of 2010. I’ll be posting a big blog this week with lots of links to articles about Papercutz graphic novels. In the meantime, enjoy this interview with Papercutz very own Editor-In-Chief Jim Salicrup from Comics Bulletin. I think you’ll find it quite entertaining and you’ll get some hints as to what’s in store for the future! Until next time, Watch out for Papercutz!

-Mike

From all of us at Papercutz, we wish you a happy and healthy Holiday, and a really wonderful New Year!

Hi everyone,

Editorial assistant Michael here to share with all of our Papercutz fans the brand new TALES FROM THE CRYPT “Diary of a Stinky Dead Kid” video!

Let us know what you think, and share the video with your friends! That’s me playing the bass guitar near the end of the video. Enjoy!

-Michael

Hi Everyone,

Mike the editorial assistant here with some great news: TALES FROM THE CRYPT “Diary of a Stinky Dead Kid” is going back to press AGAIN! This will be the fourth printing! The graphic novel is in such high demand that hardcovers, which booksellers everywhere are sold out of, are going for $90 a pop on Ebay! I suggest you wait two weeks when more hardcovers will be available. 90 dollars is a lot for a graphic novel! We’re doing our best to keep up with the high demand this great graphic novel has generated.

Recently, Peggy Tibbets wrote a review of “Diary of a Stinky Dead Kid” that was so positive I had to post it, even though it may seem like I’ve shared positive review upon positive review of this book here on the blog. You can find Peggy’s review on her myspace page and her blog “Advice From a Caterpillar“. Peggy has  a lot to say about all the stories from “Diary of a Stinky Dead Kid”:

” ‘Diary of a Stinky Dead Kid’ is a zany parody of ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’. Follow the adventures of Glugg as he is accidentally killed by his brother [Rock] then returns as a zombie to haunt those who tormented him in life. The story layout is unique and the artwork is comical.
” ‘Dielite’ is a hilarious send up of Twilight’. Dedward is a pathetic vampire with a hopeless crush Lou Anne Lugosi who wishes he would just drop dead. The artwork here is detailed and extraordinary.
” ‘Carrier’ is the wacky story about Dan Warren, a truck driving, reluctant werewolf and his murderous friends. The style is classic comic book and the artwork is action-packed.

“Fans of ‘Mad Magazine’ will love this book. Once they read it, middle school age boys will be hooked on the Tales from the Crypt series. Caution: You could die laughing.”

Wow! Thanks Peggy. I’d like to take the chance to open up the floodgates to the fans of TALES FROM THE CRYPT. We’ve posted so much from reviewers about this book, but nothing from YOU, the fans! The fans are the most important part of Papercutz; we wouldn’t exist without you. Let us know here on the blog: have you read “Diary of a Stinky Dead Kid”? What did you like or not like about the graphic novel? What would you like to see parodied in TALES FROM THE CRYPT in the future? We’d love to hear from you! Until next time, thanks for picking up our graphic novels and reading this blog, and WATCH OUT FOR PAPERCUTZ!

-Michael

Hi everyone!

I hope that those of you in the United States had a great Thanksgiving holiday. Everyone is back at the Papercutz office today, working on a lot of new graphic novels we’re very excited about. Today however, I’d like to talk about one of our older graphic novels, CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED #4 “The Raven and Other Poems” by Edgar Allan Poe, illustrated by Gahan Wilson.

Recently the Bloomsbury Review published a rave review about The Raven (try saying “rave review about the raven” five times fast), and we couldn’t be happier. As winter turns your days colder and colder, The Raven and Other Poems is one of many great CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED graphic novels you can curl up with! While the article isn’t available online yet, I can tell you that the Bloomsbury Review proclaims the graphic novel is “enhanced by the striking and lurid illustrations” of Gahan Wilson, and that “Papercutz has built a reputation for itself in the graphic novel field…and their Classics Illustrated series will only enhance their reputation as masters in the field.” Wow!

To see preview pages from CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED #4 “The Raven and Other Poems” click here.  It’s a great way to spend a cold winter’s night. Thanks for stopping by, and Watch out for Papercutz!

-Michael

Two great new bits about Diary of a Stinky Dead Kid, which is now already in it’s third printing.  First, from the local Maplewood section of the New York Times:

Rick Parker’s Macabre (But Funny) Mind

And this great write-up in the esteemed Publisher’s Weekly:

Wimpy Kid Becomes Hit Zombie Parody for Papercutz!

Couldn’t be more tickled!