First of all, please don’t think we at Papercutz have anything against cats (except for those mean ol’ Pirate Cats who are always giving Geronimo Stilton a tough time)! I’ve had several pet cats over the years, and loved ‘em all. Now, water bugs we’re not too crazy about, but the one who invaded the Papercutz offices not long ago hasn’t been seen in some time, so this will be the last mention of our little friend.
But since we featured the “dead cat” sequence from CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED DELUXE #4 “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” another graphic novel featuring the demise of a beloved pet cat came to our attention. It’s by the incredibly talented cartoonist Lewis Trondheim, and it was featured in his autobiographical comics blog, which has been collected by NBM Publishing in the full-color series “Little Nothings.” This sequence is from the second volume, entitled “The Prisoner Syndrome.” One thing you should know, is that for some reason Lewis portrays all the humans in his cartoon blog with either animal or bird-like heads. We’re not sure why, but it works fine, so we happily accept it. If you’ve never read any of Trondheim’s work before, we highly recommend it — he’s an incredibly talented, award-winning cartoonist, whose work is a never-ending delight. In the first page below, Trondheim is on his way to a comics convention when he gets the bad news…

At last, patient Papercutz People, posted below should be some spiffy Séverine Lefèbvre-drawn pages from CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED DELUXE #4 “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”:

For our fans who love gross icky things, we hope you appreciate this dead cat sequence since we have nothing new to report on our office water bug.

It’s been a few days, Papercutz People, and I’m happy to report that we’ve haven’t seen any further signs of our little friend, the water bug. He boldly strode into the Papercutz editorial offices and scurried under some big wooden shelves used to store artwork and stuff, and hasn’t been seen since. As I type this, I keep glancing over to see if I can spot ‘im, but no such luck. The Mysterious Ortho, the NBM Art Director I share an office with, believes our little friend probably sneaked into my bag and made his way to my home, but I’ve seen no evidence of that — yet.

I also promised to post a few sample pages of CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED DELUXE #4 “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” here on the Papercutz Blog to show off Séverine Lefèbvre’s beautiful artwork, but I’m afraid that’ll have to wait just one more day. Without Manly Micheal Petranek to help me with all things computer-related, I’m afraid I’ll post the wrong pages!

But until then, I thought you might enjoy these comments from Séverine Lefèbvre herself…

I was very taken with the cartoon adaptation of Tom Sawyer when I was 10 years old, and then by Mark Twain’s novel. I’d never imagined drawing my own Tom Sawyer one day! The principal difficulty lay in the necessity, from a graphics standpoint, of getting detached from the character’s image in the cartoon in order to make him my own. It was difficult at first, but you have to get into your characters’ skin, to absorb the story into yourself, and let the magic of drawing take place—

If all goes well, we’ll take a peek at some of that magic tomorrow!

For those of you fanatical Papercutz followers and hardcore CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED fans who may be wondering whatever happened to CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED DELUXE #4 “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” the good news is that the graphic novel is almost done! Artist Severine Lefebvre wanted to make her debut graphic novel has beautiful as possible, and she has done just that! Unfortunately, that means CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED DELUXE #4 will be a few months late getting to your favorite bookseller, but we believe it’ll be worth the wait!

In the meantime, I thought I’d share this true-life behind-the-scenes story with you. As I was standing by the mysterious Ortho’s desk, as he was completing various production corrections on CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED DELUXE #4 “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” something caught my eye — it was a little, dark shape boldly entering our room. Distracted, I had to see what it was. Well, if you’re a New Yorker, you know what a water bug is. It’s an inch-long bug, that is just the ickiest! And worst of all, it can fly! It scurried under a big set of wooden shelves where artwork and films to old books are stored. These shelves are very close to where my desk is, so as I write this, I keep looking over to where our uninvited guest went– checking to see if he’s about to come out! ‘Cause if he does, we’re ready for him! We don’t call CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED DELUXE “DELUXE” for nothing! What with those thick hardcovers and over 140 pages of comics, it’s ready to come down hard on any intruders– if you know what I mean! It’s not easy working when you’re constantly looking over your shoulder for any signs of insect life, but when you also edit BIONICLE and TALES FROM THE CRYPT an icky flying bug is no big deal!

I hope you all enjoyed this exclusive peek into the highly glamourous world of graphic novel editing! I’ll report back tomorrow with an update on a current bug crisis, and I should be able to post some scenes from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer– maybe the scene with the dead cat! Don’t miss it!

Check out this new video from Papercutz! GERONIMO STILTON #1 and #2 are in stores on August 18th!

One cool thing about writing mysteries is that sometimes they’re real! In ND 17, Nancy solves a few mysteries that co-writer Stefan Petrucha and I made up. But the biggest puzzle in the plot, the one that Nancy almost pays the ultimate price to solve has to do with an ancient technological wonder, called the Antikythera device. It’s pretty easy to get caught up in the speculation about what kind of brilliant mind could create what was touted “the first computer ” 2000 years ago. Nancy and I were hooked.

Figuring out exactly how to end this story was kind of the opposite of a deus ex machina in which a convenient device arrives at the end to explain all kinds of loose plot ends. Instead, time consuming research and even math (!) was needed to come up with a plot that brought Nancy to a very specific ending. It was sometimes necessary to do a little writing backwards (which I don’t recommend!!). For those of you who aren’t caught up on your reading and haven’t gotten to Nancy Drew, issue 17, I won’t give away the ending. But the denouement, thanks to the art of Sho Murase, was spectacular. Thanks, Sho!

Newsflash! We just got news that the Antikythera device is even older than we thought.

Here’s the link so you can stay up-to-date on the discovery.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2009/jul/29/archaeology-astronomy

Hi Everbody!

This is editorial assistant Mike Petranek here to share some photos and articles from San Diego Comic Con 2009 with you! We had a blast, even though not everyone could make it this year with the economy and scheduling conflicts.

First off, Geronimo Stilton made the biggest splash at Comic Con, followed very closely by TALES FROM THE CRYPT #13 “Diary of a Stinky Dead Kid”. Here’s a couple of articles that mention us:

Publisher’s Weekly: San Diego Not Just for Grown-Ups

School Library Journal: Good comics for Kids

Of course, we love the recognition but stress that our comics and graphic novels are for people of all ages. We hope that the audience for Geronimo Stilton ranges from age 4 to age 84!

I carried around a small camera and took some pictures at our booth. Here’s a chance to see some of your favorite Papercutz contributors in action!

HARDY BOYS writer Scott Lobdell and NANCY DREW artist Sho Murase

Miran Kim, artist of the upcoming TALES FROM THE CRYPT story “DieLite”, with Editor-in-Chief Jim Salicrup.

From left to right: TALES FROM THE CRYPT artist Rick Parker, Jim Salicrup, TALES FROM THE CRYPT writer and artist Mort Todd, and Editorial Assistant Mike Petranek…Or as Rick would say, “The Four Horsemen of the Apocolypse” (ha ha!)

Publisher Terry Nantier with Eisner Award-winner Rick Geary, adaptor of CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED #1 “Great Expectations” and #2 “The Invisible Man”.

BIONICLE scribe and huge Yankees fan Greg Farshtey with Jim.

Some big fans of CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED #3 “Through the Looking-Glass”

Me, at home, uploading pictures for your enjoyment after landing back in New York at 6:30am. Don’t I look cheery?

I hope you’ve enjoyed taking a look at our trip to San Diego. TALES FROM THE CRYPT comicbook #13 “Diary of a Stinky Dead Kid”, BIONICLE #6 “The Underwater City”, and NANCY DREW #18 “City Under the Basement” are all in stores now! Don’t let Summer pass you by without checking out the newest titles from Papercutz. Thanks for stopping by!

-Mike