Links: Dark Horse to Publish Minecraft Graphic Novels

Big news: Dark Horse has grabbed the license for the first official Minecraft graphic novels, and the books will start coming out next summer. (If you’re thinking “Huh, Sky Pony has been publishing those for years,” you’ve missed the word “unofficial” in their titles. Those books are still available on Amazon, but if you like them, I’d grab ’em now.) Dark Horse has set the creative team of writer Sfé R. Monster (The Beyond Anthology, Seven Stories from the Sea), artist Sarah Graley (Kim Reaper, Our Super Adventure) and letterer John J. Hill (Bedtime Games, Superman) to work on the first book, which will be 80 pages long and will retail for $9.99. There are some preview pages up at the Dark Horse website.

In other news, IDW has announced the creative team for its all ages Marvel Action: Avengers series: Writer Matthew K. Manning and artist Jon Sommariva, both of whom have worked on IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics. IDW has three new kid-friendly Marvel series in the works: Marvel Action: Spider-Man, which launches in November, Marvel Action: Avengers, coming in December, and Marvel Action: Black Panther, which starts in January.

Having just published an omnibus edition of David Gallaher and Steve Ellis’s The Only Living Boy, Papercutz is following it up with a new series, The Only Living Girl. Launching in March, The Only Living Girl puts the spotlight on three characters from the original: Zandra “Zee” Parfitt, Erik Farrell, and Morgan.

Kazu Kibuishi thought Amulet would be a single volume, then it stretched to two, then five, then seven. Now he has wrapped up volume 8, which went on sale this week, and is heading toward the ninth and final volume of his middle-grade fantasy saga.

Katie Green talks about Lighter Than My Shadow on the PW KidsCast podcast.

Fred Fordham, who was the artist for Philip Pullman’s The Adventures of John Blake: The Ghost Ship, is the artist for a new adaptation of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, which is due out from Harper on October 30.

Reviews
Stergios Botzakis on Brief Histories of Everyday Objects (Graphic Novel Resources)
Gail DeVos on The Dragon Slayer: Folktales from Latin America (No Flying, No Tights)
Jo Hennes on Fraggle Rock #4 (Tough Pigs)
Travis Jonker on Mr. Wolf’s Class (100 Scope Notes)
Nick Smith on vol. 1 of Radiant (ICv2)
Kelly Jahng on Secret Smithsonian Adventures, vol. 3: It’s Treason, By George! (No Flying, No Tights)
Stergios Botzakis on vol. 1 of Spill Zone (Graphic Novel Resources)
Stergios Botzakis on Strange Fruit Vol II: More Uncelebrated Narratives from Black History (Graphic Novel Resources)
Henry Chamberlain on The Witch Boy (Comics Grinder)

Filed under: News