We’re all also tremendously excited and thankful for the unbelievable success of NINJAGO #1 “The Challenge of Samukai!” Written by Greg Farshtey and drawn by Paulo Henrique, NINJAGO #1 is the most successful graphic novel Papercutz has published yet!

Even though NINJAGO #1 just went on sale in November, it’s already up to its fourth big printing! Obviously, fans of the LEGO toys can’t get enough of their favorite ninja! There’s already been a hit Cartoon Network movie, trading cards, and a video game, but fans want more, more, MORE! And we’re happy to offer the NINJAGO graphic novel series to help meet that demand.

It’s truly an understatement to say we’re thankful for writer Greg Farshtey. As the author of all nine of the BIONICLE graphic novels from Papercutz, as well as the two incredible BIONICLE Guide books– MAKUTA’S GUIDE TO THE UNIVERSE and MATA NUI’S GUIDE TO BARA MAGNA, Greg was the perfect choice to write NINJAGO! Greg is not only a great writer, but he also works for LEGO, which gives him insights and knowledge to all these amazing characters an outsider couldn’t possibly have.

We’re also thankful for NINJAGO artist Paulo Henrique. Believe it or not, it’s a tricky transition for an artist to make– to go from the human proportions of THE HARDY BOYS, which Paulo has illustrated for years, to the unique anatomical requirements of LEGO figures. Fortunately, Paulo is one of the most enthusiastic artists we know, and he accepted the challenge and completely threw himself into the exciting world of NINJAGO! We think the results speak for themselves!

We’re also thankful to Laurie E. Smith who provided the blues on Jay, the black on Cole, the white on Zane, and the red on Kai! Laurie’s one of the very best colorists in comics, and we’re fortunate to have her at Papercutz! She’s been the long-time colorist on THE HARDY BOYS, so she has lots of experience making Paulo’s dynamic artwork look even more dramatic and exciting in color!

We’re also thankful to letterer Bryan Senka, who has been with Papercutz since the very beginning– lettering our premiere titles NANCY DREW and THE HARDY BOYS. Lettering is one of the great unsung arts in comics, and it’s especially important at Papercutz because all of our titles are aimed at all-ages. That means our comics must be as clear as possible, so even if someone has never picked up a comicbook before, they won’t have any problem following the captions, word balloons, and sound effects on every page. Poor placement of word balloons and captions would be like watching a movie with the sound all messed up, and not being able to tell who is speaking at any given moment.

And last, but far from least, we’re all very thankful for the valiant efforts of Associate Editor Michael Petranek. Not only did Michael work very closely with both Paulo and LEGO to make sure every detail in the story was drawn correctly, but Michael was intimately involved in making sure that NINJAGO was printed at the very best printers in the world, meeting the high standards of The LEGO Group, as well as virtually tracking every copy of NINJAGO #1 as it made its way through various distribution systems to your favorite booksellers. While ordinarily such things flow rather smoothly, many unforeseen circumstances combined to create even more stress than usual for our poor put-upon Petranek, but he hung in there like a real ninja, and never gave up until each and every NINJAGO graphic novel wound up where it was supposed to be! Thanks again, Michael!

Well, that’s it for today. As you can see, I do tend to get a tad long-winded whenever I talk about anything related to Papercutz, but I promise to not get so carried away on a daily basis. Somedays I may just pop in with just a few sentences, keeping it short and sweet, but being me, I suspect I may not always be able to shut up. That’s because when it comes to Papercutz, I can’t help getting passionate! I believe it’s my duty to share my enthusiasm with you and let you know what we’re up to. Every day all of us at Papercutz are trying our very best to produce comics that you will truly love, and as I said, for that I’m incredibly thankful.

Thanks,

Jim

Associate Editor Michael Petranek here, and I’m surrounded by Smurfs! First, we just launched the newest Smurfs game “Baby Smurf’s Couples” — it’s a smurfilization of “Tetris” that introduces the variable of Jokey Smurf’s bombs! It’s quite addictive, indeed! Not only that, but this past weekend The Washington Post published an item on “The Smurf King,” saying that it’s really a great graphic novel for both kids and adults. I couldn’t agree more! On top of that,  today Editor-in-Chief Jim Salicrup and I approved Geronimo Stilton & The Smurfs, Papercutz free comic book that’s in stores on May 7th, 2011, off to the presses! But that’s not all! I also got news today that the Comic Book Reporter has posted an article about the comicbook, and the Free Comic Book Day website has posted am  interview with Editor-in-Chief Jim Salicrup! All of this Smurf action has got me seeing blue!

If you haven’t yet seen the trailer for The Smurfs 3-D, head over to their website and watch it. If you pause it at the 0:26 second mark, you’ll see the Trinity Church, an old landmark of New York City where Founding Father Alexander Hamilton is buried. Not only that, but the Papercutz offices are two blocks away from that church! Every day when I’m on my way to work I get out at the subway stop right next to it. If you ask me, that’s a pretty smurfy coincidence!  Well, it’s time for me to get back to the comics that I’ve got in front of me. Until next time, take care, and thanks for stopping by.

-Michael

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

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

A big “thank you” to everyone who came out to see us along with Rick Parker, Stefan Petrucha, Maia Kinney-Petrucha, Margo Kinney-Petrucha, Sarah Kinney, Jim Salicrup, and myself at the Papercutz booth at New York Comic-Con 2010! You may have also run into Janice Chiang and other Papercutz contributors. It was fun for everyone except, well, me! It seems that I caught a case of the black plague at Comic-Con which I am still recovering from. A panel from THE SMURFS #1 sums up my Comic-Con experience:

That’s about it! I missed Saturday because of the worse cold I’ve had in years. Lucky for me, the great writers and artists along with Jim and Tony Shenton stepped up in my absence and I am extremely grateful for their help. People went gaga over PAPERCUTZ SLICES, DISNEY FAIRIES, and THE SMURFS and we couldn’t be happier! It was a fun time, with over 90,000 people attending.

While I’m on the subject of THE SMURFS, the reviews just keep rolling on in! The response has been great and we are very pleased. Over at PopCultureaddict.com, a great overview of the first two graphic novels was recently posted. Plus, if you travel to comics&more at blogspot, you’ll find even more info on THE SMURFS. It’s smurftastic!

Lastly, it’s become more and more apparent that our fans have been using facebook a lot more and Myspace a lot less. Thus, we’ve decided to up our presence on facebook. Please, add us as your friend! Just log in and search for Papercutz. You can’t miss us. Until next time, thanks for stopping by and stay smurfy!

-Michael

Associate Editor Michael Petranek here, very excited about this year’s New York Comic Con. We will be at booth #2304 and encourage you to stop by and see our new titles and say hello! Not only that, but Stefan Petrucha and Rick Parker will be signing books at the booth! Here’s our signing schedule:

Friday October 8th

10:00 to 11:00AM – Stefan Petrucha
11:00AM to 12:00PM -  Rick Parker
1:00 to 2:30PM – Stefan Petrucha
4:00 to 5:30PM – Stefan and Rick

Saturday October 9th

11:00AM to 12:30PM – Stefan Petrucha
1:30 to 3:00PM – Rick Parker
3:30to 5:00PM – Stefan Petrucha
5:00 to 6:30PM – Rick Parker

Sunday October 10th

10:30AM to 12:00PM -Rick Parker
1:30 to 3:00PM – Stefan Petrucha

We’ll have plenty of copies of TALES FROM THE CRYPT, PAPERCUTZ SLICES, NANCY DREW  and much more for Stefan and Rick to sign! NANCY DREW The New Case Files #1 just received a great review at comicsbulletin.com and the Comics Journal loves the Stinky Dead kid! It should be a lot of fun.

Another great reason to stop by our booth is to see all of the new graphic novels we have including THE SMURFS, THE HARDY BOYS The New Case Files, NANCY DREW The New Case Files, PAPERCUTZ SLICES, and TALES FROM THE CRYPT #9 “Wickeder” – featuring the return of Glugg, the Stinky Dead Kid! I’ve received so many reviews over the past few weeks I thought I should share them with you so you can see why we’re so excited about all of our new titles.

In the October issue of “Library Media Connection,” CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED #7 “The Jungle” is praised for its use of color and text! Though the review isn’t online, I can tell you that the LMC says “Kuper uses dark tones to relay to the reader the visual hardships while lighter tones help the reader see what good can still happen.” You can see preview pages of “The Jungle” here.

THE SMURFS have been taking over a lot of the reviews I’ve received. For those of you unfamiliar with THE SMURFS, School Library Journal has a nice write-up to get you started. You can access the article here. The first two graphic novels have received glowing reviews from Antic Musings, Newsarama, The Celebrity Cafe , Comic Book Resources, Comics Comics Magazine, Publisher’s Weekly, and Readaboutcomics.com.  WHEW! That’s a lot of reviews! If these reviews don’t make you want to at least take a look at our SMURFS graphic novels, you can join Grouchy Smurf over here:

In DISNEY FAIRIES news, “Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue” was recently released on DVD. I’m happy to announce that we’ll have copies of the official graphic novel adaptation at New York Comic-Con, and that School Library Journal just published a big article on the DVD, graphic novel, and more! Read the article here.

So if you’re going to be at New York Comic-Con, stop by our booth! It should be a lot of fun. Thanks for stopping by and have  a great weekend!

-Michael

Associate Editor Michael Petranek here, very excited about all of the great press surrounding our books, especially THE SMURFS! I’m walking on sunshine — or rather — smurfshine! I feel like this little guy from THE SMURFS #1 “The Purple Smurfs”

First off, the School Library Journal called our graphic novels “smurftastic,” and ran an article that not only gave a glowing review of the comics, but also has some words from Jim Salicrup, our Smurf-In-Chief! Click here for the article. It’s smurf-errific!

When most of us think of The Wall Street Journal, we think of businessmen, the Stock Market, and politics. Well, it seems that The Wall Street Journal isn’t immune to Smurf Fever! Check out this link! Even the traders at the Stock Exchange can’t get enough of our little blue pals.

Lastly, for a very in-depth review, visit this site for a look at both THE SMURFS #1 “The Purple Smurfs” and THE SMURFS #2 “The Smurfs and the Magic Flute.” While I can’t say I agree with the reviewers assessment of where we put lettering on objects, it’s a great review and it’s very well written.

You might be thinking “I want to read these Smurfs graphic novels, but I can’t afford them right now!” Well, have no fear. Jump over to Fushion Magazine‘s website for a chance to not only win FREE copies of the first two Smurfs graphic novels, but a book and a DVD as well! You can also find a review of both Smurfs graphic novels at postmodernbarney.com.  The book and DVD are not related to Papercutz. Well, that’s it for me! Back to work. Until next time, thanks for stopping by, and stay smurfy!

-Michael

Associate Editor Mike Petranek here to say hello and share some exciting goings-on at Papercutz that have me jumping for joy! Not only will you be able to pick up the first two SMURFS graphic novels next Tuesday, but in three weeks the first volume of NANCY DREW THE NEW CASE FILES #1 will arrive too! With the DISNEY FAIRIES buzzing around the office (giving poor GERONIMO STILTON no chance for a cheese-break) and those little blue Smurfs always up to something, we’ve been extra busy in August and having a blast! It’s been fun sliding from one project to the next and everyone seems to be enjoying it — well, almost everyone…

So with that said, let me take the chance to share with you some news and reviews of our upcoming releases!

From Fusion Magazine to Animation World Magazine there has been a lot of buzz about our SMURFS graphic novels. I hope that you have as much fun and laughs as I did helping to edit them when you dive into these great collections of comics. I have to thank Adam Grano at Fantagraphics for doing such a great job putting these together, as well as Janice Chiang for breathing new life into the lettering and our Editor in Chief Jim Salicrup for bringing these great little fellas back!

I booted up my computer this morning to find that The Huffington Post named CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED #9 “The Jungle” one of the best graphic novel adaptations of classic books – EVER! That was a great way to start my morning! Jump over here to get more info on “The Jungle.”

That’s all I’ve got time for right now. Check out Rick and Stefan’s blogs below for more info on TALES FROM THE CRYPT and PAPERCUTZ SLICES. Warning: do not drink milk while reading Rick Parker’s blog entries as laughter can cause it to shoot out your nose. Until next time, thanks for stopping by!

-Michael

I felt this was definitely worth sharing. Rick Parker did a little Photoshop work on a picture of me, Terry Nantier and Jim Salicrup at Comic Con. Enjoy!

-Michael