Author Archives: Ashley Kronsberg

Kill A Man

kam

Published by AfterShock Comics

ISBN: 9781949028478
Price: $17.99
Genre: LGBTQ+
Ages: 13+

On Sale: December 8, 2020

A brand new original graphic novel from writers Steve Orlando and Phillip Kennedy Johnson featuring art by Alec Morgan and lettering by Jim Campbell.

In the early days of Mixed Martial Arts, kickboxer icon DJ Bellyi is beaten to death in the ring after yelling a homosexual slur at an opponent, while his young son James watches in horror from the stands.

Sixteen years later, young James Bellyi has become an MMA star in his own right, with top-tier endorsements and an imminent title shot. But when James is outed as gay by an opponent in a press conference, he loses everything: his title shot, his fans, his team, even his family. To fight his way back, he turns to the only one left in the world willing to train him: Xavier Mayne, the man who killed his father.

Says Johnson: “We’re living in an important and dynamic time in American History, when we have the power and responsibility to decide what kind of nation the United States is going to be going forward. Telling a story with such an unlikely crossover — male queer culture and MMA culture — is Steve’s, Alec’s and my way of making that decision for ourselves.”

Key Selling Points

Creator(s) Bio

  • Extremely relevant story right now, as culture in general and sports culture in particular is coming to grips with masculine archetypes who are insisting to be allowed to be who they are.

  • Though action packed and very much a personal story, can stand on the shelf alongside recent graphic novels that address key moments from the history of the fight for civil rights, like March and They Called Us Enemy.

  • Scheduled release during LGBT History Month.

STEVE ORLANDO‘s first book ever was poorly drawn in fifth-grade classroom pencils on Xerox paper, and featured a doughboy with superpowers, and names changed from trademark purposes. He was a precocious child. Today he writes and produces comics, including Virgil, Crude and stories in the Eisner Award Nominated Outlaw Territory at Image Comics. He launched Midnighter and took part in Batman and Robin Eternal and CMYK: Yellow at DC Entertainment. Find him at your convenience deep down the rabbit hole of discussing wine, spirits, or mythology.

Digital Assets

Kill A Man Twitter Banner

Kill A Man Poster

Kill A Man Bookmark

Violence and Manhood in Comics

LibraryCon Live 2020 Livestream Interview

Preview Pages

Altered Carbon: One Life, One Death

6

Published by Dynamite

ISBN: 9781524119874
Price: $24.99
Genre: Science Fiction
Ages: 16+

On Sale: February 23, 2021

From the world of the best-selling trilogy of books and the hit Netflix show comes a new chapter in the ALTERED CARBON universe! In the future, bodies can be changed like clothes, giving life an entirely new meaning—or lack of meaning.

Takeshi Kovacs—once a member of the Envoy Corps, the elite, deadly troops of the Interstellar Earth Protectorate—now finds himself imprisoned . . . both in a jail and in an extremely weak body. When he learns that Envoys he served with in a battle he somehow can’t remember have been stolen and sold to one of the richest people in the universe, Kovacs vows to rescue them and get revenge. Leaving behind a staggering body count as he blazes across the galaxy, he wonders why he has a hole in his memory . . . and what secrets that gap holds for understanding his future and himself.

ALTERED CARBON writer/creator RICHARD K. MORGAN is joined by writer SCOTT BRYAN WILSON (Batman Annual, Batman: Gotham Nights) and artist MAX FUCHS (Halcyon Days) to deliver the original graphic novel ALTERED CARBON: ONE LIFE, ONE DEATH, a violent, galaxy-spanning adventure of prison breaks, political intrigue, and sinister machinations.

Key Selling Points

  • A new original story written by Richard K. Morgan

  • Two successful season’s on Netflix. Season 3 release date is TBD.

  • Follows in the footsteps of Dynamites other prose/graphic novel successes; Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files, Brandon Sanderson’s White Sand & Pierce Brown’s Red Rising.

Rainbow Brite: Digest Edition

5

Published by Dynamite

ISBN: 9781524119560
Price: $9.99
Genre: Juvenile Fiction, Media Tie-In
Ages: 9+

On Sale: January 19, 2021

The adventure begins for children and adults alike, as the classic character Rainbow Brite comes to comics and brings a little color to your life!

Wisp and Willow are best friends who live in a small town. They are inseparable, until one night Wisp discovers something is stealing the color from the world! To escape their grasp, Wisp must use her wits and the help of a new friend…from somewhere else! Then the adventure begins!

Follow along with writer Jeremy Whitley (My Little Pony, Unstoppable Wasp) and artist Brittney Williams (Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat!, Goldie Vance) as we find out how this seemingly normal girl becomes Rainbow Brite and how it changes Wisp, Willow, and their world!

Contains all five of the Rainbow Brite comics and a gallery of Rainbow Brite cover art.

Key Selling Points

  • Created in 1983, the animated series debuted in 1984 and led to the creation of toys, games, cereal, clothing, specials and a movie.

  • Characters that entertained generations of fans

  • Using the power of the rainbow, she’ll bring color and happiness to people everywhere!

Preview Pages

The Boys: Dear Becky

7

Published by Dynamite

ISBN: 9781524119904
Price: $19.99
Genre: Superheroes
Ages: 16+

On Sale: March 16, 2021

Twelve years after the events of The Boys, Hughie finds himself back home in Scotland where he intends to finally marry Annie in the company of friends and family.

But the sudden appearance of a peculiar document sends our hero into a tailspin and threatens to bring the events of his nightmarish past crashing down on him in the worst possible way. There was one story about The Boys that Hughie never knew. Now, whether he likes it or not, he’s going to.

Key Selling Points

  • Brought to you by the original team of Garth Ennis, Darrick Robertson and Russ Braun.

  • Amazon superhero drama The Boys debuts 2019. Was picked up for a second season running in 2020.

  • The Boys has been picked up for a third season.

  • Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s The Boys was nominated for two 2007 Spike TV Scream awards.

Digital Assets

Garth Ennis Interview

Facebook Cover

Twitter Cover

Bookmark

Preview Pages

Dead Day

4

Published by AfterShock Comics

ISBN: 9781949028546
Price: $16.99
Genre: Horror
Ages: 16+

On Sale: March 16, 2021

YOU JUST CAN’T KEEP A GOOD CORPSE DOWN

If the dead could come back for just one night, would we want them to?

Meet the Haskins, a seemingly normal suburban family, as they prepare for the annual macabre holiday known as “Dead Day” – when the deceased rise from the grave from sunset to sunrise. Some come back to reunite with family and friends, others for one last night of debauchery, still others with only one thing on their decomposing minds: revenge.

From writer Ryan Parrott (OBERON, VOLITION, Power Rangers) and artist Evgeniy Bornyakov (DESCENDENT, YOU ARE OBSOLETE) comes an unnerving tale of existential horror with grave consequences.

Key Selling Points

  • DEAD DAY capitalizes on the enduring popularity of “zombie” tales as evidenced by Night of the Living Dead and The Walking Dead, yet takes it in a new, more thoughtful direction – focusing on the relationships between the living and the dearly departed

  • Ryan Parrott is one of the most prolific creators in comics, from helming the Power Rangers franchise to his creator-owned books like VOLITION and OBERON

  • Artist Evgeniy Bornyakov brings accessible realism into this work here, as he did for AfterShock’s DESCENDENT

Preview Pages

The Goon Volume 1 : A Ragged Return to Lonely Street

2

Published by Albatross Funnybooks

ISBN: 9781949889925
Price: $17.99
Genre: Horror
Ages: 16+

On Sale: October 08, 2019

For two decades, the Goon’s adventures have thrilled fans, critics, and creators with their bold creativity, classic style, and irreverent humor.

This volume contains Eric Powell’s highly anticipated return to his flagship series for its 20th anniversary.

The next era in the legacy of The Goon starts here, and takes the series to its humor-based roots as Goon & Franky return from strange adventures abroad to find a horde of unsavory characters have filled the void left in his absence from Lonely Street

Key Selling Points

  • Five time Eisner Award winning series.

  • A new fresh start for new readers wanting to jump into the series.

  • Collects the first new Goon material since 2015

  • Great for fans of dark humor!

The Goon: Bunch of Old Crap Volume 1: An Omnibus

1

Published by Albatross Funnybooks

ISBN: 9780998379296
Price: $29.99
Genre: Horror
Ages: 13+

On Sale: June 11, 2019

The first omnibus volume of Eric Powell’s Eisner Award winning series, THE GOON! The Nameless Man, the Zombie Priest, has come to town to build a gang from the undead.

Yet even with an unlimited supply of soldiers, the Priest cannot move in on the territory controlled by the crime boss Labrazio and his unstoppable enforcer-the Goon. But when the Priest discovers Goon’s most closely held secret, the balance of power threatens to change forever!

The Goon: Bunch of Old Crap Book Volume 1 collects The Goon books 0-3 (The Goon: Rough Stuff, The Goon: Nothing But Misery, The Goon: My Murderous Childhood, & The Goon: Heaps of Ruination)

Key Selling Points

  • Collects the very first Goon Material. Good Jumping on point.

  • Multiple Eisner Award winning series.

  • Coincides with the 20th anniversary and relaunch of the Goon!

Man Who F#&%ed Up Time

3

Published by AfterShock Comics

ISBN: 9781949028454
Price: $16.99
Genre: Dystopian
Ages: 16+

On Sale: July 13, 2021

TIME IS NOT ON HIS SIDE.

Sean Bennett is just your everyday, ordinary lab worker in a high-tech lab with a prototype time machine. And, yeah, he’s got the same temptations any of us would have about going back in time, just a bit, to correct mistakes of the past and right old wrongs. So when he meets a version of himself from the future who encourages him to do just that, Sean takes the temporal plunge. Only … can you guess what happens next? Did you read the book title? Yup. All of TIME is f#&%ed up now, and it’s up to Sean to correct it – or else!

Presenting a time-twisted sci-fi action-comedy, a butterfly effect noir, by multiple Eisner-winning writer John Layman (Chew, Outer Darkness, ELEANOR & THE EGRET) and talented newcomer Karl Mostert.

Key Selling Points

Author Bio(s)

  • Melds time-travel adventure with gritty crime noir.

  • “Takes the notion of the butterfly effect to the craziest, most absurd situations possible. One small change to the space-time continuum, and a million crazy repercussions as a result.”

  • Eisner Award winner John Layman (Chew) does his take on classic time travel adventure – and takes it to an unexpected extreme

JOHN LAYMAN is the creator, writer and letterer of Chew, the New York Times best-selling, Harvey Award and multi-Eisner Award winning cannibal cop comedy series from Image Comics. Layman was an editor for WildStorm Production and has written or lettered for every major publisher in comics for the last decade and a half. He’s written CyclopsDetective ComicsMars AttacksGodzillaAliensThundercatsGambitScarfaceRed SonjaMarvel Zombies Vs. Army of DarknessHouse of M: Fantastic Four, the Marvel Identity Wars Annuals, Stephen Colbert’s Tek Jansen… and a whole lotta other stuff. He’s currently the writer of Leviathan with artist Nick Pitarra and Outer Darkness with artist Afu Chan, both published by Image Comics

Preview Pages

Joe Carriker Discusses LGBTQ+ Inclusion and Superheroes

Author Joe Carriker discusses his novel SACRED BAND with Francisca Goldsmith of Publisher Spotlight.

Rusty may have been a kid during that glorious age but he remembers his idol, Sentinel, saving lives and righting wrongs — until he was outed in an incredible scandal that forced him into isolation. When a gay friend of Rusty living in the Czech Republic goes missing, Rusty is forced to acknowledge that while the world’s governments claim that super teams are outdated and replaced by legal law enforcement, there are simply some places where the law doesn’t protect everyone — so he manages to find and recruit Sentinel to help him find his friend.

But the disappearance of the friend is merely one move in a terrible plot against queer youth. A team of supers may be old-fashioned, but this may be a battle requiring some incredible reinforcements.

Fore more information on SACRED BAND, click here

Shelf Awareness 2020 Holiday Giveaway

ENTER TO WIN!

‘Tis the season for graphic novels! We have a flurry of best-sellers and thrilling genres for every reader, making holiday shopping a breeze. For a full list of titles that are perfect for you or your loved ones, check out our 2020 Holiday Gift Guide here.

Below are some of the best-selling books of 2020 and most anticipated titles for 2021 from our publishers! You have a chance to win one of these titles by filling out the form at the end of this page. 

The Goon: Bunch of Old Crap Volume 1: An Omnibus

ALBATROSS FUNNYBOOKS
9780998379296
Horror | Ages 13+
On sale: June 11, 2020
Learn More Here

The Goon Volume 1: A Ragged Return to Lonely Street

ALBATROSS FUNNYBOOKS
9781949889925
Horror | Ages 16+
On sale: October 08, 2020
Learn More Here

The Man Who F#&%ed Up Time

AFTERSHOCK
9781949028454
Dystopian | Ages 16+
On sale: December 22, 2020
Learn More Here

Dead Day

AFTERSHOCK
9781949028546
Horror | Ages 16+
On sale: March 16, 2021
Learn More Here

Rainbow Brite: Digest Edition

DYNAMITE
9781524119560
Juvenile Fiction | Ages 9+
On sale: January 05, 2021
Learn More Here

Altered Carbon: One Life, One Death

DYNAMITE
9781524119874
Science Fiction | Ages 16+
On sale: February 23, 2021
Learn More Here

The Boys: Dear Becky

DYNAMITE
9781524119904
Superheroes | Ages 16+
On sale: February 23, 2021
Learn More Here