Hi everyone!

I know school has started for almost all of you, and you may be looking for some new reading material aside from what your teachers are assigning you. Feeling tired of Algebra, Grammar studies, or Chemistry? I can’t blame you. These things are all good, and you should absolutely read everything your teacher assigns you, but sometimes you just need a break from school, sports and videogames! That’s where Papercutz comes in.

Today I thought I would share with you two very different titles from Papercutz that have both received a great review recently. The first is CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED DELUXE #2 “Tales from the Brothers Grimm.”

What I’ve always loved about this volume is that while most of us know the story of “Hansel and Gretel,” many have never experienced “The Valiant Tailor,” “Learning to Shutter,” or “The Devil and the Three Golden Hairs.” These are great stories, and if you take a look at the following excerpt, I think you’ll see why Scripps News called this collection “beautiful” and “rewarding for kids, adults”.

How’s that for a cliffhanger! CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED DELUXE “Tales from the Brothers Grimm” is great reading whether your on the bus on your way to school, on the train going to work, or just relaxing. Just make sure you don’t read it while you’re driving. Sorry Bus Drivers, you’ll have to wait until your shift is over before you can enjoy this book.

I first began working for Jim Salicrup when Papercutz started publishing BIONICLE, and I’ve seen that title grow and grow! As some of you now know, we’re approaching the 8th volume with ALL-NEW stories and art! It should be exciting. Meanwhile, the BIONICLE Juggernaut continues to prosper. Just recently, WIRED magazine ran an article about BIONICLE that I think you’ll like. The author mentions the new story we published in volume 6 (Hydraxon’s Tale),  and seemed to really enjoy it. Here’s a panel wonderfully drawn by Christian Zanier for “Hydraxon’s Tale”

All I can say is, more to come soon! BIONICLE 7 “Realm of Fear” is out in stores in November, and next Spring will see the release of BIONICLE 8 “Legends of Bara Magna”: the first Papercutz BIONICLE graphic novel featuring all-new stories and art. If you haven’t become acquainted with BIONICLE yet, there’s never been a better time to start!

In closing, now that Fall is upon us soon it will be Winter, when sometimes the best thing one can do is curl up with a good story and relax indoors to escape the bitter cold. What better way to do so than with a Papercutz graphic novel? I can’t think of one! Thanks for reading!

-Mike

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!