COVER REVEAL: THE SURPRISE ATTACK OF JABBA THE PUPPETT

Dark times have fallen on McQuarrie Middle School. When Principal Rabbski cancels art, music, and other elective classes to make time for a new program called FunTime, which is intended to raise standardized test scores, the students form a Rebel Alliance with the help of Origami Yoda. United, can they defeat the FunTime Menace and cope with a surprise attack from Jabba the Puppett?

JABBA THE HUTT SLITHERS INTO THE SPOTLIGHT AS THE STAR OF
THE SURPRISE ATTACK OF JABBA THE PUPPETT, THE FOURTH BOOK IN THE BESTSELLING ORIGAMI YODA SERIES BY TOM ANGLEBERGER. NATIONAL LAYDOWN: AUGUST 6, 2013. FIRST PRINTING: 500,000 COPIES.

New York, NY, April 16, 2013—Amulet Books, an imprint of ABRAMS, announced today that wildly popular Star Wars™ bad guy Jabba the Hutt, transformed into origami star Jabba the Puppett, will be the lead character in Tom Angleberger’s next book in the bestselling Origami Yoda series. One of the biggest book releases of 2013, THE SURPRISE ATTACK OF JABBA THE PUPPETT has an announced first printing of 500,000 copies and will have a national one-day laydown on Tuesday, August 6, 2013. It follows the March 26, 2013, release of ART2-D2’s Guide to Folding and Doodling, which debuted on national bestseller lists its first week on sale. With more than 4.1 million copies of the books in print, this series is quickly folding its way into the hearts and halls of middle schools across the galaxy.

“We have a very surprising cover star this time,” says bestselling author Tom Angleberger. “Jabba the Hutt wasn’t the lead character I was expecting. But I think once fans read the book, they will agree that it’s hard to say no to him!”

An extensive marketing and publicity campaign for the series will last throughout 2013. In addition to a planned
15-city tour, Tom Angleberger will be featured at the International Reading Association Annual Convention (San Antonio) and at the Texas Library Association Annual Conference (Fort Worth). The promotions—including a national consumer contest, national publicity, book trailers, origami video instructions, online events, trade and consumer advertising, additional appearances at national educational and library conferences, and a big social media push—will continue into the summer until August 6, when the book releases.

About the Origami Yoda series: The Strange Case of Origami Yoda was published in spring 2010, followed by Darth Paper Strikes Back, in summer 2011. Upon the publication of the third book, The Secret of the Fortune Wookiee, which appeared in August 2012, the series debuted on the New York Times series bestseller list. Art2-D2’s Guide to Folding and Doodling, an interactive companion book to the series, came out in March 2013. The books have also appeared on the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Indie Bound, and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists. The Strange Case of Origami Yoda won the Association of Booksellers for Children’s 2011 E. B. White Read-Aloud award, was named a 2011 Notable Children’s Book by the Association for Library Service to Children, and has been nominated and won numerous state children’s awards across the country. There are more than 4.1 million books in print of all the books in the series.

The illustrations depicting Yoda and any and all other Star Wars properties are copyright © 2010-2013 Lucasfilm Ltd & TM. Title and character and place names protected by all applicable trademark laws. All rights reserved. Used under authorization.

FOR MORE VISIT TOM ANGLEBERGER at WWW. ORIGAMIYODA.COM

Abrams ComicArts and SelfMadeHero received a total of SIX Eisner nominations this year!

Fantastic News!!!

Abrams ComicArts and SelfMadeHero received a total of SIX Eisner nominations this year! 

For Abrams ComicArts:

Best Reality-Based Work - The Carter Family

Best Writer - Frank M. Young, The Carter Family

Best Comic Related Book –

The Art of Daniel Clowes 

For SelfMadeHero:

Best Reality Based Work - A Chinese Life

Best Adaptation from Another Medium - Chico and Rita

Best U.S. Edition of International Material – Asia - A Chinese Life

The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards are prizes given for creative achievement in comic books, and are the comic world's equivalent of the Academy Awards. Voting for the awards is held online, and the ballot will be available soon online, and we will send out another email when that happens. 

All professionals in the comic book industry are eligible to vote. The results of the voting will be announced in a gala awards ceremony on the evening of Friday, July 19 at Comic-Con International.

Congratulations to everyone involved!!!

A for Abrams from Daniel Kirk

Illustrator Daniel Kirk has gone above and beyond and found and amazing selection of A's for  @abramskids #aforabrams campgain.

If you would like to join in hashtag your A's #aforabrams on Twitter and Instagram. Don't for get to let @abramskids and @abramsbooks know about your A's

http://instagram.com/p/WPDgsQQc0P/

Be sure to Follow me @chadwbecks and ABRAMS Kids @abramskids on Twitter and Instagram

http://instagram.com/abramskids

I was a Communication Arts Judge for there Illustration Annual!

Bill Haverchuck

Origami Yoda says: Get pencils ready, you must. It's time to doodle–Star Wars style.

New Drawing!

More drawings!

http://cwdrawings.blogspot.com/

All drawings reasonable priced.

Email

chadwbecks@gmail.com

for pricing

AMULET BOOKS WINS NEW MIDDLE GRADE BOOK SERIES

The news of our the new series Susan Van Metre and Charlie Kochman acquired by bestselling author Jon Scieszka broke over the holiday week. Our official statement is below. Publishers Weekly ran an exclusive in the 12/24 print magazine, which is attached for you to forward to your accounts that can use the news.  Please note that the series will not be published until fall 2014. We needed to release the news now as there were other publishers who bid on the series so waiting too long would allow the news to be broken by another source as people were speculating. It’s very exciting to have Jon on board.

AMULET BOOKS WINS NEW MIDDLE GRADE BOOK SERIES FROM BESTSELLING AUTHOR JON SCIESZKA IN A HEATED 6-WAY AUCTION

Senior Vice President and Publisher Susan Van Metre and Editorial Director Charles Kochman at ABRAMS Amulet Books imprint beat out five other children’s publishers for the first six books in a new illustrated middle grade series by bestselling author Jon Scieszka, the nation’s first National Ambassador of Children’s literature. Titled Frank Einstein, Kid Scientist and illustrated by Brian Biggs, the series is about a budding scientist who battles an evil genius with the help of two well-meaning but imperfect robots that he invents. The first book will appear in fall 2014. Scieszka’s longtime agent Steven Malk at Writers House orchestrated the deal. Amulet Books plans an extensive marketing and publicity campaign for the launch.

Jon Scieszka always wanted to be a kid science genius. The closest he got was winning a green "Participant" ribbon at his fourth grade Science Fair and dressing up one Halloween as a bloody Albert Einstein. Scieszka studied pre-med in college. He taught elementary school, including second grade science, in New York City for ten years.  For over twenty years, he has been a children's book writer, and is the author of The True Story of 3 Little Pigs!, The Stinky Cheese Man, the Time Warp Trio series, Math Curse, Science Verse, the Trucktown series, the Spaceheadz series, and more. In 2008, Scieszka was named the nation's first National Ambassador of Young People's Literature by the Library of Congress and the Children's Book Council.  He is also the founder of the web-based literacy initiative for boys called Guys Read, and is the editor of the Guys Read Library of Great Reading series.

Founded by Harry N. Abrams in 1949, ABRAMS was the first company in the United States to specialize in the creation and distribution of art and illustrated books. Now a subsidiary of La Martinière Groupe, the company publishes visually stunning illustrated books in the areas of art, photography, cooking, interior and garden design, craft, architecture, entertainment, fashion, sports, pop culture, as well as children's books and general interest titles. The company's imprints include Abrams, Abrams ComicArts, Abrams Image, Abrams Books for Young Readers, Amulet Books, Abrams Appleseed, Stewart, Tabori & Chang, and STC Craft/Melanie Falick Books. Abrams also distributes books for The Vendome Press, Victoria & Albert Museum, Tate, Royal Academy of Arts, Booth-Clibborn Editions, Five Continents and others.

www.abramsbooks.com

The Evolution of a NERDS book cover

"I imagine people will be surprised at how much work goes into this type of project. I'm surprised, and I participated in it!" —Ethen Beavers

Illustrator: ETHEN BEAVERS

The following shows the process Ethen and I went through working on the cover for Michael Buckley's latest series, NERDS. I wish I could have better descriptions but I don't want to give away all my secrets.

Step one find an Illustrator.

To find the perfect illustrator I teamed up with Michael and headed down to our local comic store, Rocketship  (sadly, now closed) on a cold January afternoon. We shifted through comics and graphic novels , compiling a list of ten names that we would present to our editor Susan Van Metre. In the end Ethen Beavers was the nerd for us. I tracked Ethen down by leaving a message on his art message board since all other searches came up flat. He responded which was a welcomed surprise.

I then sent him Michael's 2nd draft manuscript and a brief summary.

NERDS book description:

A secret spy ring of nerdy elementary school misfits

Combining all the excitement of international espionage and all the awkwardness of elementary school, NERDS, featuring a group of unpopular students who run a spy network from inside their school, hits the mark. With the help of cutting-edge science, their nerdy qualities are enhanced and transformed into incredible abilities! They battle the Hyena, a former junior beauty pageant contestant turned assassin, and an array of James Bond–style villains, each with an evil plan more diabolical and more ridiculous than the last.

Step two begin sketch phase

Ethen's first sketch

My first alternate compositional sketch. The idea was to introduce the all the characters.


Here the idea is the same but a little more realized. We added braces in the type. I add to a nerdy style as well as to highlight the main characters nerdy quality. This would be repeated through out the series. Only there was something still not quite working.

We where forgetting the Spy angle to the NERDS story.
here are some additional sketches working out new compositions



The idea of and official seal came up.
Finally a font was chosen

Here we begin to work out color and how it will be used throughout a 6 book series

Next how to treat the type. I wanted a techie feel to the type as seen below.



Final type

But the seal still is working correctly. So we tried to nerd that up as well.
In the end it proved to be to much.

At last the color and composition is worked out.
Only something is still not working.

Again we needed more spy imagery. So we research James Bond and Mission Impossible imagery.
Ethen worked up these great sketches reworking the characters.

Ethen then combined the two ideas in to a final sketch



Then we took it to a cover meeting to see if we were on track.
Turns out we were!

Final art with out text.

Final Cover with text

Back cover design

Each book features a character. Book 1 features Jackson " Braceface" Jones, the new recruit. The fourteen pounds of metal in his mouth make him the team's go-to gadget guy!

One last bit a of business the CASE COVER! 

Did you know we designed the case covers for NERDS series with a different image than the jacket. I knew it you didn't. Who looks at the case cover anyway. GULP! I do.

Case Cover

The idea for the different case was to reveal the NERDS secret identities as normal kids. Apparently when they are not saving the world they also become fashion disasters.

Also in the NERDS series

NERDS book 2: M is For Mama's Boy

 NERDS Book 3: The Cheerleaders of Doom

NERDS Book 4: The Villain Virus

About the book

Michael Buckley is at his comic best in this madcap new series sure to appeal to kids looking for a quick, exciting read.

Combining all the excitement of international espionage and all the awkwardness of elementary school, NERDS, featuring a group of unpopular students who run a spy network from inside their school, hits the mark. With the help of cutting-edge science, their nerdy qualities are enhanced and transformed into incredible abilities! They battle the Hyena, a former junior beauty pageant contestant turned assassin, and an array of James Bond–style villains, each with an evil plan more diabolical and more ridiculous than the last.

F&P level: V

Praise for NERDS
“An action-packed, tongue-in-cheek take on the world of superheroes and villains. The pacing is quick and the action is plentiful—kids will almost hear the sound effects as they read. NERDS brings a worthy message to the fore—that uncool kids can grow up to be anything but. Funny, clever, and thoroughly entertaining, this title should be popular.”
–School Library Journal 

"The unique format of this book, combined with the imaginative and playful storyline, will appeal to many readers."
–Children's Literature

About the author

Michael Buckley is the author of the New York Times bestselling series and Today Show Al Roker Book Club pick The Sisters Grimm. He has also written and developed shows for Nickelodeon, Disney, MTV Animation, the Sci- Fi Channel, the Discovery Channel, and VH1. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Alison, and son, Finn.