Interview with the Nancy Drew Crew!

Happy Friday Everyone!

Associate Editor Michael Petranek here, very excited about the Drew’s Clues interview with Stefan Petrucha, Sarah Kinney, and Sho Murase about all things Nancy Drew. You can access the interview here. It’s great to see all three of these wonderful friends and colleagues interviewed in the same place. I think you’ll enjoy it!

Things are going well here at Papercutz. Last weekend I did a podcast interview that you can check out here. Right now Jim and I are slowly but surely getting through all 192 pages of CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED DELUXE #6 “The Three Musketeers”. It’s a big project but it’s going to be a cool graphic novel. I’m also looking forward to getting started on THE SMURFS #7 and PAPERCUTZ SLICES #3 very soon! I can’t wait to get some emails from Adam Grano and Rick Parker. Until next time, have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!

-Michael

Happy Birthday to Paulo Henrique!

Hi Everyone,

Today is Paulo Henrique’s birthday and everyone at Papercutz would like to wish him a Happy Birthday! Here’s one of my favorite pages from the upcoming HARDY BOYS The New Case Files #2 “Break Up!” Enjoy.

-Michael

Smurfs and Geronimo Start of 2011

Hi Everyone!

It’s been far too long since I’ve stopped in to share Papercutz news with you, and boy is there a lot! GERONIMO STILTON #7 “Dinosaurs in Action” and THE SMURFS #4 ‘The Smurfette” were the first two books released by Papercutz in 2011. This is all getting us ready for May 7th, 2011. Why this date, you ask? Because that is Free Comic Book Day — the day when you will be able to pick up your free copies of GERONIMO STILTON & THE SMURFS free comic! Visit the Free Comic Book Day website for more info. For now, here’s a sneak peek of our free comicbook cover:

We’re very excited about this comic! I love working with Ortho on Geronimo Stilton and Adam Grano on The Smurfs, so it should be pretty cool to see these two titles come together. Recently, The Comics Journal put together an essay on The Smurfs and their creator, Peyo. You can read the article here. It’s great if you’ve ever wondered where these little blue guys came from and how they’ve changed throughout the years.

Speaking of The Smurfs, THE SMURFS #4 was recently named a “Good Comic For Kids” by School Library Journal along with NANCY DREW The New Case Files Vol. 2 “Vampire Slayer Part II”, DISNEY FAIRIES Vol. 4 “Tinker Bell to the Rescue”, and CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED Deluxe Vol. 5 “Treasure Island”. A great start to the year, indeed! We’ve been getting a lot of attention, which is wonderful. However, I can’t write about this great start to 2011 without mentioning our parody titles, which are no exception!

TALES FROM THE CRYPT and PAPERCUTZ SLICES have both been in the news today. It seems that people’s interest in HARRY POTTY and WICKEDER have only grown with time. Over the last few weeks TALES FROM THE CRYPT has been reviewed and/or mentioned in the Comic Book Recourses and The Graphic Novel Reporter. Meanwhile, PAPERCUTZ SLICES #1 “Harry Potty” has popped up on Curled Up Kids and in The Miami Herald! With all of this news regarding books by Stefan Petrucha and Rick Parker, why not take a look back at our HARRY POTTY video?

I hope your 2011 has started out safely and that you are enjoying the Year of the Rabbit. Until next time, take care and thanks for stopping by!

-Mike

NANCY DREW Video!

Hi There!

Associate Editor Michael Petranek here to drop by and share our NEW video for NANCY DREW The New Case Files! We’re very excited about this video and this series and hope you are too! For more info, please visit our NANCY DREW page. As for the video, check it out here:

What did you think? Are you excited to see Nancy Drew head in a new direction? Let us know!

Over the past weekend I also received a lot of links to articles about NANCY DREW The New Case Files and THE HARDY BOYS The New Case Files. Check out ABC Action News’ coverage of a great article by Scripps Howard News Service that includes an interview with THE HARDY BOYS The New Case Files scribe Gerry Conway here. I also found some coverage of the HARDY BOYS video here. Needless to say, I was pleased as punch! Well until next time, take care and thanks for stopping by!

-Michael

The HARDY BOYS The New Case Files #1 Video!

Hi Everyone!

Associate Editor Mike Petranek here excited about the new video for THE HARDY BOYS The New Case Files #1 “Crawling with Zombies!” The video came together with help from a lot of people — Sandra Schmidt edited the video, the art is from Paulo Henrique, the script by Jim Salicrup and me… the list goes on. Take a look, and be sure to turn up the speakers on your computer!

The reason I ask you to turn up the volume is because that’s me on guitar, bass, and –with a little help from ProTools– the drums! I wrote and recorded that bit in one night and had a great time. So what do you think? Let us know! And for more information on THE HARDY BOYS The New Case Files visit our website. Until next time, have a great weekend, and thanks for stopping by!

-Michael

New on the Papercutz Website!

Hi Everyone,

There’s a lot of cool new stuff on the Papercutz website I’d like to share with you. First off, we’ve got a brand new SMURFS game called “Greedy’s Bakeries” that is a lot of fun. Head over here to play! It’s reminiscent of a platform game made popular by NES and Atari in the late 1980′s and early 90′s. If you have Flash enabled on a smartphone, you can play it anywhere you have an internet connection for FREE! Now THAT’S Smurftastic!

Next up, we’ve posted the cover and preview pages from THE HARDY BOYS The New Case Files #2 “Break-Up!” This is a cool graphic novel that we’re really excited about. Joe and Frank vow never to work together again?! That’s something we haven’t seen before.

Also new on the site are preview pages from THE SMURFS #5 “The Smurfs and The Egg” and PAPERCUTZ SLICES #2 “breaking down.” If you’re in for a good laugh, I suggest checking out these pages to see what’s coming up. That’s all for now. I’ll be back  tomorrow with something very cool… An ALL-NEW HARDY BOYS video! Until then, take care, and thanks for stopping by

-Michael

CBG Fan Awards and GERONIMO STILTON #5

Hi Everyone!

Associate Editor Michael Petranek here, wishing all of you a Happy 2011! I hope that your year has started out well. I was very pleased to receive news today that GERONIMO STILTON #5 “The Great Ice Age” was chosen by the Bearamy Book Club as one of its winter spotlight books! Congratulations to Mr. Stilton. You can see more info on this graphic novel here. The cover is below:

Editor-In-Chief Jim Salicrup showed me another cool link today: the Comic Book Buyer’s Guide Reader’s Choice Awards! If you visit the CBG Website, you can vote for your favorite comics creators and series from 2010, whatever they may be. It’s a cool way to have your opinion heard. Check back tomorrow as by then the new SMURFS game “Greedy’s Bakeries” should be live on our website. I’ll be sure to blog about it when it’s up. Until next time have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

-Michael

Enter the HARRY POTTY video contest!

Happy Friday Everyone!

This morning I was delighted to see that Papercutz was in the NY DAILY News! The subject: our Harry Potty video contest! I highly suggest you enter as it is a fun contest and you can win autographed books and the grand prize… A $100 shopping spree of Papercutz graphic novels! See the article here and the contest here! Have a great weekend everybody!

-Michael

School Library Journal makes HARRY POTTY a Pick of the Week!

Hi There!

Recently, the School Library Journal named PAPERCUTZ SLICES #1 one of its All-Ages picks for the week of 12/2/10! You can see the article here. Congratulations to Rick Parker and Stefan Petrucha!

-Michael

Q&A with Papercutz Author Stefan Petrucha

Hi There! Recently, Papercutz author Stefan Petrucha participated in a short Question and Answer session with Papercutz, and I am happy to share it with you. Before that though, I want to fill you in with a little more biographical info on Stefan.

Papercutz Slices (C) 2010 Stefan Petrucha and Barking Dog Studios. All rights reserved.

If you frequent our blog, you know Stefan as the writer of PAPERCUTZ SLICES, NANCY DREW, and several stories in TALES FROM THE CRYPT, including “Diary of a Stinky Dead Kid.” What you might not know is that aside from his work for Papercutz, Stefan has scripted comics for “Web of Spider-Man” and “What If?” (Marvel Comics), “The X-Files” (Topps Comics), and multiple titles for Comico Comics, Moonstone Books, and Dark Horse Comics. He is a novelist whose latest work “Blood Prophecy” was released to rave reviews (I highly recommend it), and who has appeared on the A&E television show “Paranormal State.” If that wasn’t enough, Stefan is also a musician and a fun person to be around. Why not check out his website to see more of his work and learn more about this very cool writer!

Stefan’s newest Papercutz graphic novel, PAPERCUTZ SLICES #1 “Harry Potty” has been turning a lot of heads recently.  It was no surprise to me that the Comics Waiting Room described Stefan and collaborator Rick Parker as a “demented dynamic duo” in a recent review, and that the website Artistic License described the work as “humorous in all the right places.” So, without further ado, here is the Papercutz Q&A with Stefan Petrucha. Enjoy!

PAPERCUTZ: What first inspired you to write such a book? [Harry Potty and the Deathly Boring]

STEFAN PETRUCHA: With two daughters, my wife and I had the pleasure of reading all seven “Harry Potter” books aloud twice.  Along the way, we’d enjoy making fun of certain things, using funny voices and so on.  Following the success of “Diary of a Stinky Dead Kid” (in the 8th issue of Papercutz’ TALES FROM THE CRYPT series, now in its seventh printing) I pitched publisher Jim Salicrup and Terry Nantier the idea of doing a parody series.  Harry Potter seemed the best place to start.

PZ: And, with regard the title, did you check into all connected-copyright laws and such beforehand?!

SP: Over the years I’ve done a lot of research into copyright and intellectual property (IP) law, even ghost-writing a book on the subject.  Unfortunately, many people misunderstand where the line is legally.  Parody is a protected part of copyright law, specifically mentioned in the “fair use” clause.  The rule of thumb is that you can use enough of the original material so readers know what you’re talking about, but not so much that people think they’re actually buying the original.  So, our title and cover suggest the series, but also clearly states that this is an unauthorized parody.  Though we think we’re the best, we’re hardly the first Harry Potter parody to see print.  For instance, there’s an entire book series published in the UK called Barry Trotter – the author’s website boasts 700,000 copies sold.

I look at it this way – from Siskel and Ebert on up, many people make a living critiquing film and books.  Parody is the same thing, only in a narrative form.  It’s also important to distinguish between parody (which makes fun of the original) and satire (which uses the original to make fun of something else).  MAD, Saturday Night Live and so on have been doing it successfully for decades.

PZ: How much fun did you have coming up with the character names?

SP: A lot, but ultimately the names JK Rowling came up with in the original are pretty strange to begin with.  Even more fun was coming up with the names of the spells – like rememberallthisstufficus, cappuccino vente, and gluteus maximus!

PZ: What’s your favorite part of the now-finished book?

That would have to be the giant Haggard’s fondness for stepping on mouse-elves because they make a popping sound just like bubble wrap.

I have to say, though, that artist Rick Parker did a fantastic job sticking in background jokes and fun stuff that I’m still spotting when I look at the book.

PZ: Once someone has read it, what thoughts would you like them to take away?

SP: I’d like them not so much to have any thoughts as to be completely seized with laughter.

PZ: Lastly, what’s next for you?

SP: In a more serious vein, I currently have a historical vampire novel out from Grand Central Books entitled Blood Prophecy.  As for our next Slices effort, we’ll be dicing up the popular Twlight series with Breaking Down, appearing in March 2011.  I’m pleased and proud to say the script was co-written with my daughter, Maia Kinney-Petrucha.  Rick tells us he’s bent on making the art even funnier than the first book!

[END]

I hope you enjoyed this Q&A with Stefan Petrucha. I’ll be posting a Q&A with artist Rick Parker soon, which is sure to be very entertaining. Until next time, take it easy, and thanks for stopping by!

-Michael

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