Study Shows How Comics Aid Learning; Andrews McMeel Launches Original Comics

News How Comics Help Students Retain Knowledge is a Growing Field of Study A new study showing that comics help students recall verbatim knowledge is the latest in a growing field of study on how graphic novels can be used to aid in teaching and communication. more New from Andrews McMeel: 'Desmond Pucket,' Big Nate and Downton Parody Andrews McMeel Publishing is expanding the AMP! Comics for Kids line with the launch of Mark Tatulli's Desmond Pucket: Makes Monster Magic, a hardcover illustrated kids' story and activity book, while adding new titles from Lincoln Pierce's bestselling Big Nate series and releasing its first adult graphic novel, Agent Gates and The Secret Adventures of Devonton Abbey, a parody of the popular Downtown Abbey TV series. more How Stable Are DC Comics' Sales After Their Relaunch? Since its blockbuster launch in 2011, DC's New 52 titles have had remarkably stable sales as a whole. Is this success here to stay? There are a few different ways to measure sales in a large line of comics. Total sales and per title average sales are the big picture. Sales bands can tell you the vectors and show the effect of sales decay. more Spring 2013 Announcements: Comics & Graphic Novels: Childhood Rediscovered Although new works by Bryan Lee O'Malley and Paul Pope will come later in the year, early 2013 boasts two past winners of the PW Graphic Novel Critics Poll: Dash Shaw and Rutu Modan. One recurring theme of the Spring season's best books is an examination of childhood: the momentary joys and terrors of an average child's day told with the detachment and sympathy of passing time. more Today's Job Zondervan is seeking an Editorial Director, Zonderkidz. Maybe it's you! For more about this and other jobs, visit PW JobZone. To post a new job, click here. Marvel, Hyperion Plan Women's Fiction Starring She-Hulk and Rogue Marvel Entertainment and Hyperion Books, both owned by the Disney Company, are teaming up to produce two novels based on the popular female Marvel super heroines She-Hulk and Rogue. The two books, The She-Hulk Diaries and Rogue Touch, target women readers with stories of dynamic female super heroes who split their time between fighting villains and searching for a decent guy to date. more Rep. John Lewis To Visit BEA, San Diego Comic-Con To Promote 'March' Slated for publication in August 2013 by Top Shelf Productions, March is a three volume graphic autobiography of longtime Congressman and legendary Civil Rights veteran John Lewis, that will be co-produced by Andrew Aydin, Lewis' co-writer, and award-winning cartoonist Nate Powell. In a phone call, Lewis discussed his interest in comics, his desire to reach a new generation of young people with his story and plans to visit BEA and the San Diego Comic-Con to promote the book. more Alvin Lu Leaves Viz Media In an unexpected development, it has been reported by the pop culture news site ICv2.com that Alvin Lu, Viz Media executive v-p of publishing, has left the company. more Viz's 'Weekly Shonen Jump' Debuts New Era of Simultaneous Releases Manga publisher and anime distributor Viz Media embarked on a new era of simultaneous Japanese and English manga publishing January 21 after releasing the first issue of the renamed and redesigned Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha. Now called Weekly Shonen Jump, the digital manga anthology will now publish weekly installments of many of Viz's bestselling manga series on the same day they appear in the pages of its counterpart anthology in Japan. more Diamond Book Distributors Reports Double-Digit Gains in 2012 Diamond Book Distributors, a graphic novel and pop culture merchandise distributor, reports 2012 sales and revenue rose "in double digits across the board," and that its returns for the year were down. Kuo-Yu Liang, v-p, sales and marketing at DBD, said results were up in every channel including indie bookstores, chains, libraries, online and international markets. more Digital Comics Are Getting Cheaper Digital comics are in a transitional period as they enter the traditional world of e-books, with wider availability but total inconsistency in pricing. more DMI to Shut Down Digital Manga Direct Digital Manga Inc., a California-based manga publishers specializing in the yaoi genre and digital delivery, will close Digital Manga Direct, its wholesale division. The move follows DMI's announcement in November that it is suspending all of its print publication until June 2013, while continuing to offer digital editions of its publishing list. more DC Comics Looks to the Library Market in 2013 In a year that started with an agreement to add Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data to all of its graphic novel collections, DC Comics also reported that overall sales of its graphic novels to the library market grew by "double digits" in 2012 and the publisher is looking to continue that growth in 2013. more New Apps Spotlight Indie and Web Comic As digital comics have risen to become a $25 million a year business, even more specialized apps for different comics genres are emerging. San Francisco-based start-up Emanata is an iOS app that distributes indie comics with an interface part ComiXology, part Deviant Art. Comic Chameleon is a more grassroots venture by cartoonist Bernie Hou to deliver popular web comics to mobiles devices. more More To Come: The PW Comics World Podcast More To Come 42: Barnes & Noble Pulls Back In this week's podcast the More to Come Crew - Heidi "The Beat" MacDonald, Calvin Reid and Kate Fitzsimons - discuss the declining number of Barnes & Noble stores, Warner Bros. and DC's new CEO, Kyle Baker's digital experiment, when should artists give up (or not), graphic novel textbooks and much more on PWCW's More to Come. More More To Come 41: Losing the Battle for Superman In this week's podcast the More to Come Crew - Heidi "The Beat" MacDonald, Calvin Reid and Kate Fitzsimons - discuss the details of Marvel Now, the end of the legal battle for Superman, the 7th annual PW Comics World Critics Poll, new publishers of creator-owned comics, the possible return of Tokyopop and much more on PWCW's More to Come. More Reviews Army of God David Axe and Tim Hamilton. Public Affairs, $14.99 trade paper (128p) ISBN 978-1-61039-299-0 It is not easy to contemplate horrors like those perpetuated by guerilla army leader Joseph Kony against the people of Central Africa—and it's equally difficult to get a good picture of the political involvement of the nations allied together to end the threat of Kony's Lord's Resistance Army. Journalist Axe and Eisner-nominee Hamilton bring the history of the LRA into its proper context, from the history of the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo to Invisible Children's viral video "Kony2012." Barrel of Monkeys Florent Ruppert and Jérôme Mulot. Rebus Books (rebusbooks.net), $19.95 trade paper (112p) ISBN 978-0-615-62235-4 Imagine Funny Games with an artistic twist, compounded by inextricable graphic dissections, and you have this award-winning French import. A few of the stories (the last, in particular) in this collection veer to the acutely unpalatable, though in France the word for that is a "provocation." The two protagonists in Barrel of Monkeys are portraitists who ply their trade around S-M parties, seeing-eye dog agility competitions, and a "masquerade ball for the maimed and disfigured." In one of the tamer episodes, two peace activists kill an arms dealer as he is posing to have his portrait taken, then foil their own escape by getting into a fight with each other. more The Heart of Thomas Moto Hagio. Fantagraphics, $39.99 (528p) ISBN 978-1-60699-551-8 The impact of Hagio's work on the shojo (Girls) and shonen-ai (boy love) genres of manga is clear from this classic, trailblazing story of boarding school love, appearing for the first time in English. Opening with the suicide of an angelic boy named Thomas, the story follows the friendships between the fraught Juli, rebellious Oskar, and a new transfer student, Erich, who looks exactly like the dead boy. Juli blames himself for Thomas's death, and Erich's presence drives him into madness; Oskar tries to protect both Juli and Erich from themselves, as the secrets that all of them bear are slowly revealed. more The Couriers Complete Collection Brian Wood, Rob G and Brett Weldele. Image (Diamond, dist.), $24.99 trade paper (360p) ISBN 978-1-60706-641-5 Eisner-nominated writer Wood collects the four books of his decade-old series. An action movie in print, the book introduces readers to two freelance couriers for delicate—and often illegal and violent—jobs: hard-core street girl Special, and rich boy turned ace mercenary Moustafa. Despite their bloody line of work, they are charming protagonists, action heroes on the wrong side of the law. There are some lines that the pair will not cross, and they fall into situations where they must protect a small girl from a murderous ex-Red Army general, take revenge on a racist militia, kill a mob boss, and save a family restaurant from violent takeover. more Graphic Preview Panel Mania: Archie: The Married Life Book 3 Archie: The Married Life Book 3 follows Archie in two universes, one where he marries Veronica and the other where he marries Betty. In this volume, the mysterious Dilton Doiley subplot begins to affect both story lines. Also featured in this volume is the marriage of Kevin Keller. The book is written by Paul Kupperberg with art by Fernando Ruiz and Pat and Tim Kennedy. more Panel Mania: The New Deadwardians Set in post-Victorian England, The New Deadwardians is Downton Abbey meets The Walking Dead. Everyone in the upperclass has voluntarily become a vampire to escape the lower classes who are all zombies. When the body of a young aristocrat is found dead on the bank of the Thames, Chief Inspector George Suttle must investigate the murder in a world where everyone is already dead. The New Deadwardians is written by Dan Abnett and illustrated by I. N. J. Culbard, and it is published by Vertigo. more Panel Mania: Stormwatch Vol. 2: Enemies of Earth In Stormwatch Vol. 2: Enemies of Earth, Stormwatch struggles against the threat of the Gravity Miners, and the Martian Manhunter attempts to quit the team. It will be released by DC Comics on February 13th. more Panel Mania: Benny Breakiron As part of their event "The Summer of Peyo" Papercutzs is publishing The Smurfs Anthology and Benny Breakiron both by the creator of The Smurfs, Peyo. Benny Breakiron is Peyo's super-powered grade school champion, and this will be its first time published in the U.S. The Smurfs Anthology Vol. 1 will be released on June 25th, and Benny Breakiron will be released on May 7th. more Panel Mania: Darwin: A Graphic Biography Darwin: A Graphic Biography presents the physical and intellectual adventures of Charles Darwin and the scientific world of the 1800s. The book is published by Smithsonian Books. more	Comics Events Upcoming Comics Events 2/13 Kelly Sue DeConnick & Pete Woods "Avengers Assemble" Signing in Portland, OR 2/21 Nicole Georges, Sally Madden and Monica Gallagher in Baltimore, MD 2/23, 2/24 Scott McCloud's 2-Day Making Comics Class in Los Angeles, CA more On Sale Calendar The Adventures of Superhero Girl (Dark Horse) Daredevil by Mark Waid, Vol. 1 (Marvel) Extreme Finale (IDW) Hand-Drying in America: And Other Stories (Pantheon) The Massive, Vol. 1: Black Pacific (Dark Horse) The New Deadwardians (DC) The Shade by James Robinson (DC) Tales Designed To Thrizzle Vol. 2 (Fantagraphics) Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made (Candlewick) Thor: The Mighty Avenger: The Complete Collection (Marvel)

PW Comics World editors: Calvin Reid and Heidi MacDonald Assistant Editor: Matt White Panel Mania editor: Ada Price Podcast Producer and Comics Events editor: Kate Fitzsimons Follow us on Twitter at @PWComicsWeek and on Facebook. Send advertising questions about this eNewsletter to: cbryerman@publishersweekly.com For additional assistance, contact us by email or at the address below. Publishers Weekly, 71 West 23 St. #1608 New York, NY 10010 Phone 212-377-5500 Copyright 2012, PWxyz LLC Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. You are receiving this email because you subscribed to a Publishers Weekly e-newsletter. To unsubscribe, click the link below.

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