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!

Hi Everyone,

Well it looks like we’re going to have to go back to ANOTHER printing of TALES FROM THE CRYPT #8 “Diary of a Stinky Dead Kid”! It seems that people can’t get enough of Glugg, the crew from “DieLite,” and our “Carrier” werewolves! We couldn’t be happier.

You may find that a lot of online sites are out of stock until December. You can still get Crypt #8 and Crypt #’s 5-7 in the TALES FROM THE CRYPT Boxed Set available from Amazon.com and BarnesandNobles.com. Of course, we like anyone who sells are books just the same and you can find these boxed sets at wonderful comicbook stores all around. If they don’t have it, ask them to order it for you!

Recently, Editor-In-Chief Jim Salicrup along with “Stinky Dead Kid” artist Rick Parker took over a bookstore in Maplewood, NJ to promote our favorite living dead kid, Glugg! You can check out a neat article with some great pictures here. Way to go! Still not convinced that this Crypt is right for you? Well, check out this review at horrornews.net. Also, the folks at Broken Frontier urge you to forger swine flu, CRYPT fever is here! If you’re not convinced, I’m still gonna keep trying!

While the Stinky Dead Kid Glugg has been getting a lot of attention, our Twilight spoof “DieLite” has also turned a few heads as it was written by the father-daughter team of Stefan Petrucha and Maia Kinney-Petrucha! If you haven’t seen the links from Stefan’s blog post below, you can read a little bit about the collaboration here.  Also, don’t forget that Maia and Stefan will be interviewed on Mix 94.1 in Canton, OH Monday November 16th on their morning show! A link to the interview will be available as soon as we get it.

As for Maia, let me just say “WOW!” When I was 14 I was still trying to figure out how to get Oreo cookies out of my teeth and what to do about the monster under my bed. What can I say? I was  a late bloomer. Great job Maia! We’ll keep you updated on CRYPT news and everything Papercutz here at the blog. Keep checking in, as I have a feeling you’re going to start seeing some more entries from your favorite Papercutz contributors.

Thanks,

-Michael

Hi everyone!

Great news for all of you Geronimo Stilton fans: Geronimo Stilton #3 “The Coliseum Con” is in stores now!

It looks like the Pirate Cats are up to no good once again, as Geronimo and his friends must travel to the year 80 A.D. to stop the felines from infiltrating the Senate! A great time for any fans of the series. This book also introduces a new character, Nosymouse Squeak:

We think you’ll enjoy Nosymouse and a few other new characters that make their way into Geronimo Stilton #3. “Who,” You may ask? Well, you’ll have to get your hands on a copy of Geronimo Stilton #3 “The Coliseum Con” to find out!

-Michael

Seems like it, anyway.  Papercutz’ Tales from the Crypt #8, featuring Diary of a Stinky Dead Kid, by yours truly and Rick Parker, and Twilight satire, Die-Light, by yours truly, daughter Maia Kinney-Petrucha and artist Miran Kim has been breaking records and making news!

Not only has the graphic story collection been in the top ten Children’s Books at B&N online (where some reviewers have been giving it low marks without even reading the darn thing! Sheesh!) and sundry top ten lists at Amazon, the press has been terrific.

Just yesterday, Maia and I did a brief interview with Monica Garske at Flash News and it’s already being picked up by sundry media.  Next week, Maia will be on radio, talking Die-Light with Kathy Vogel for Ohio’s WHBC-FM, aka Mix 94.1.  The interview will be taped at 5:45 AM, so I’m sure we’ll be groggy, but at least we’ll get to listen to it afterwards!  I’ll post the link as soon as it’s available.

Meanwhile, a neat article spotlighting Rick Parker’s great work on Stinky Dead Kid appeared in The Maplewood Patch.  Last but not least, Amazon top 10 Reviewer Grady Harp gave us a glowing 4 stars.

Add to that the fact that the book is already in its second printing, could a sequel be far behind?  Pax.

As the Austin American-Statesman noted recently, the bicentennial of Edgar Allan Poe’s birth has not gone unnoticed by the publishing industry. The paper mentions several incredible books published to celebrate the Master of the Macabre’s 200th birthday, featuring works by authors such as Peter Straub, Stephen King, and Neil Gaiman, as well as Papercutz’s CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED #4 “The Raven and Other Poems” by Edgar Allan Poe and illustrated by Gahan Wilson. “Wilson — whom you probably think of as a frequent cartoonist for The New Yorker, but I will always think of as the illustrator of the Matthew Looney series of kids’ books — lends his aptly creepy sensibility to nine Poe poems.” Well, we completely agree!

Funny, but even though the title of the series is CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED, because the series has traditionally adapted Stories by the World’s Greatest Authors into comics, we actually received one complaint that objected to these CLASSIC poems actually being ILLUSTRATED, rather being turned into comics. I couldn’t help but be amused that someone was actually upset because we literally lived up to the title of the series, but I knew what the person meant.

Speaking of CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED, we need to give a shout out to the great folks at Dr Comics and Mr Games, located at 4014 Piedmont Ave, Oakland, CA 94611, for devoting an entire window to both our CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED and CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED DELUXE lines of graphic novels. Thanks, guys– we really appreciate it, and hope that folks enjoy these artful adaptations as much as we do.

Also, we want to mention that anyone looking for information on the original CLASSICS COMICS and CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED comics, we highly recommend CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED: A CULTURAL HISTORY (McFarland, 2002) by William B. Jones Jr. — it’s not only filled with fascinating facts, it’s also a great read about one of the greatest, yet most underrated, comics publishers in the world. And if you want to see what those original comics are like, go to www.jacklakeproductions.com and see how many of the original 169 are now back in print as hardcover reproductions.

Yes, now is a great time to be a fan of CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED! Papercutz is proud to keep this great comics publishing tradition alive, and thank YOU for your loyal support.