NBM Heads To MoCCA Arts Festival on April 6th – 7th
March 25, 2013 by Stefan Blitz
NBM is once again heading to the MoCCA Arts Festival and we’re happy to have Stan Mack (Taxes, the Tea Party, and Those Revolting Rebels) signing on Saturday following his 11:30 am panel, Art As Passion: Celebrating the spirit of comics through observation and reportage which will be moderated by Dan Nadel.
Also hanging out at the NBM booth will be cartoonist Lance Tooks making a rare U.S. appearance. He’ll be signing copies of his series Lucifer’s Garden.
We’ll also have a special free sample of Persia Blues by Dara Naraghi and Brent Bowman as well as our latest titles including An Enchantment by Christian Durieux, The Initiates by Etienne Davodeau, and Abelard by Régis Hautière and Renaud Dillies. We’ll also have plenty of Papercutz titles including Annoying Orange, The Smurfs, Ariol, Ninjago, Power Rangers, and more.
So come on by, meet some cool folks and celebrate comics!
NBM/Papercutz
Booths 161-162
I Have the Persia Blues – my Husband is a Brigand!
March 18, 2013 by Margreet de Heer
Last week the digital debut of the graphic novel ‘Persia Blues’ happened, one of the newest releases of my American publisher NBM. I had the pleasure of backing creators Dara Naraghi and Brent Bowman through Kickstarter, which bought me the thrilling perk of being depicted as a character in the story! To surprise my husband, I asked him to be drawn in, and last week we saw the result – Yiri’s wonderfully pencilled incarnation as Brigand #1!
Yiri takes the stage for three action-packed pages, after which he is unceremoniously uhm, well, annihilated basically.
To counter his gruesome graphic demise, I drew up this alternative ending:
If you want to read the whole of his performance, you can download the first issue for just 99 cents on Comixology by clicking here.
Or you can wait until June, when the entire graphic novel will be on sale in comic stores and beyond!
Persia Blues: Fun with Kickstarter
March 16, 2013 by Dara Naraghi
Sorry I’ve been incommunicado for a while. Between trying to finish the book, an increased workload at my day job, and oh yeah, getting married, my free time had all but disappeared. But now that at least the wedding is behind me, I’m going to get back into a semi-regular blogging schedule here.
To ease back into things, I thought I’d start by sharing a couple pieces of art related to our Kickstarter campaign (which, by the way, was quite successful, coming in at 112% of our initial goal). First, here are images of the front and back of the giant 6×9 postcard we’ll be sending out to all our backers, to thank them for their support:
I’m quite pleased with how they turned out. With a nice matte finish, these cards are nice little artifacts suitable for framing, and we plan on handing them out at conventions and shows to help promote the book. By the way, if you would like to receive one for yourself, please contact me (via the official Persia Blues website) and I’ll be more than happy to mail you one.
Next up is page 3 of the book, beautifully rendered by series artist Brent Bowman. This page is the start of a four-page sequence wherein our protagonists are confronted by some rather unsavory brigands. But what makes this especially fun is that the likeness of the lead brigand is based on Yiri, the husband of fellow NBM creator Margreet de Heer (Philosophy: a Discovery in Comics, Science: a Discovery in Comics):
Margreet was an early and generous supporter of our Kickstarter campaign, and took us up on our offer to “appear as a character in the book.” But she actually wanted to surprise her husband Yiri by having him drawn in the book. So we set off on a clandestine mission to gather photo references for the artwork, friending Yiri on Facebook and trying to be inconspicuous in our efforts. But then Margreet confessed that she’s terrible at keeping secrets, and had already spilled the beans to her husband!
Yiri, we hope you enjoy your small role in our story, and please accept my apologies for the rather unfortunate fate of your “character” in the book.
Next: more artowrk, and a look at the non-fantasy aspects of the book.
NBM in May: Persia Blues
March 14, 2013 by NBM
A fascinating new series is the highlight of NBM’s solicits for May in Diamond’s Previews out this month in comics stores:
PERSIA BLUES, VOL.1
Dara Naraghi, Brent Bowman
Minoo Shirazi is a rebellious young Iranian woman, struggling to define herself amidst the strict social conventions of an oppressive regime, and the differing wishes of an overbearing father, in between life in Iran and life in midwestern America. Minoo Shirazi is also a free-spirited adventurer in a fantasy world, a place where aspects of modern America and ancient Persia meld into a unique landscape. And yet, neither of these women are the true Minoo Shirazi. At the intersection of guilt and freedom, family and self, ancient myths and modern enigmas, lies…Persia Blues.
6×9, 128pp., B&W trade pb., $12.99, ISBN 9781561637065
As mentioned in this post, this is being pre-serialized in e-comic book form over at Comixology, in 4 issues, one every 2 weeks, check it out. This was also the subject of a successful Kickstarter campaign end of last year.
Follow Dara’s blog entries.
Also this month, we resolicit for the last few copies of a keepsake full presentation on Peyo with rare art and sketches: PEYO, The Life and Work of a Marvelous Storyteller. See it here (scroll down a bit). This may be allocated, frankly, order from here now before it goes forever!
and in Eurotica we resolicit Liberatore’s awesome pin up book LE DONNE. If you missed it, now’s your chance to order it through your comic bookstore:
The Italian artist of the controversial RanXerox comic series which shook the world of comics in the eighties presents women in-your-face proud of their feminity. Women in all their physical glory and empowered. This explores limits without shame or fear and is occasionally pornographic, bizarre, or even disturbing. Includes chapters entitled ‘Desire’, ‘Pulse’ with stark black & white illustrations, ‘Embraces’ with a fearless abandonment to sheer lust, ‘Chiaroscuro’, ‘Intimacies’ with never before seen angles on the nude figure, ‘Flesh’ with soft beautiful aquarelles. This book challenges and does not leave indifferent.
“This is the most thrilling part of the works featured, the personalization, the intimate look into the sheer joy in Tanino Liberatore’s art”
Mark Squirek, NY Journal of Books
“An intriguing – and provocative – collection of Liberatore’s work.” -Comics Waiting Room
9×12, 168pp., full color clothbound: $39.99, ISBN 978-1-56163-713-3
Same goes for issue 56 of SIZZLE which presents the grand finale of the legendary OMAHA saga!
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AS FOR PAPERCUTZ, our sister company with fun kids comics, we present a never before seen series by the great Peyo, ladies & gentlemen, the charming:
Benny Breakiron #1: “The Red Taxis”
Peyo, writer and artist
Will Maltaite, artist
Peyo, creator of The Smurfs, brings everybody’s childhood fantasy to life in this charming new graphic novel series! Benny Breakiron is an honest, polite little boy with an en exceptional quality: he possesses superhuman strength, can leap over huge distances, and can run unbelievably fast. This little kid packs quite a punch, and he devotes his play time to stopping crime and injustice. In this first volume, a new taxi service has moved into Benny’s town threatening to put Benny’s friend, taxi driver Mr. Dussiflard, out of business. The more Benny learns about the Red Taxi Company, the more he realizes something isn’t right. Who’s behind this mysterious enterprise, and just what are they up to? Benny aims to find out and put a stop to it once and for all, and hopefully keep the property damage to a minimum!
6 1/2 x 9, 64pp., full-color hardcover: $11.99
ISBN: 9781597074094
Also new this month:
Upcoming NBM Graphic Novel PERSIA BLUES Debuts Digitally on comiXology
March 13, 2013 by Stefan Blitz
NBM Publishing Teams With comiXology to serialize upcoming graphic novel
PERSIA BLUES
Issue #1 debuts digitally today for 99 cents
Persia Blues, the upcoming graphic novel from NBM publishing and creators New York Times best-selling writer Dara Naraghi and artist Brent Bowman will debut as a four part series of single issues with issue #1 premiering today for just 99 cents, exclusively on comiXology, —the world’s largest digital comics platform with over 100 million downloads to date. Subsequent issues will be released every two weeks and will retail for $1.99.
The first volume in a three volume series coming from NBM, Persia Blues was both the first title from the publisher that utilized a Kickstarter campaign and the first time they’ve serialized a pending title digitally before it reaches print. The e-comic books will be taken down upon publication of the book when a simultaneous e-book version of the GN will appear.
It tells of Minoo Shirazi, a rebellious young Iranian woman, struggling to define herself amidst the strict social conventions of an oppressive regime, and the differing wishes of an overbearing father, in betrween life in Iran and life in midwestern America. Minoo Shirazi is also a free-spirited adventurer in a fantasy world, a place where aspects of modern America and ancient Persia meld into a unique landscape. And yet, neither of these women are the true Minoo Shirazi.
At the intersection of guilt and freedom, family and self, ancient myths and modern enigmas, lies…Persia Blues.
“Persia Blues is a character-driven slice of life tale, combining fantastical elements with contemporary politics, while exploring the universal themes of tradition, family, guilt, and freedom,” explains Naraghi, “As an Iranian-American writer, I’ve always been interested in exploring multicultural themes in my stories, and this series is my most ambitious and personal work to date. I believe strongly in the sequential art medium, and feel that diversity and fresh perspectives can only strengthen and expand the already amazing world of comics and graphic novels.”
NBM Publisher Terry Nantier further explained the methodology to this release, “In today’s book market we’re really appealing to a broader potential reader base than ever before. By offering our books serialized through comiXology there’s an opportunity for a reader to try the first chapter for an extremely low price and then decide if they want to continue to follow the series digitally or purchase the physical book. Digital is unquestionably the future, but physical books offer a richer opportunity for design and presentation which allows us to indulge and release a book worth owning physically.” The book is being solicited for in Diamond’s Previews this month.
Available across iPhone, iPad, Android, Kindle Fire, the Web and the comiXology retailer digital storefronts, Persia Blues #1 (of 4) is out today.
About the Author & Artist:
Dara Naraghi was born in Iran and educated in the United States. An Ohio State University alum, he works in the information technology field, but his passion is for the comics medium. His debut graphic novel, Lifelike, has garnered many positive reviews, from the likes of award-winning novelist Cory Doctorow, and cartoonist Sam Kieth. His other notable graphic novels include the Terminator Salvation official movie prequel, and Witch & Wizard: Battle for Shadowland (both New York Times Bestsellers), as well as works for Image Comics, IDW Publishing, Dark Horse, and DC Comics. Dara is also a founding member of the comic book writers/artists collective known as PANEL, with whom he has produced 20 volumes of their comics anthology. Dara lives in Columbus, Ohio with his wife, daughter, and the world’s sweetest hound dog. Visit him online at www.DaraNaraghi.com
Brent Bowman is a graduate of the Columbus College of Art And Design with a degree in Illustration. A lifelong comics fan, Brent has been drawing since he was old enough to pick up a pencil. His work has appeared in publications by Image Comics and Caliber Press, as well as the collectible card game Age of Empires. He’s a contributing member of PANEL, a local comics collective that publishes two anthologies a year. Brent has been nominated for the small press SPACE prize in 2008, 2010 and 2011 for both his PANEL work and his own original self published comics. He lives in Columbus Ohio with his wife and two boys. Visit him online at https://sites.google.com/site/thebrentbowmanproject
SALE books: check out our new crop
March 8, 2013 by NBM
See all the new books added to our sale list at only $3 each! There are quite a few notable ones:
* The Art of Bryan Talbot as well as his Metronome
* Our jolly collection of the classic Happy Hooligan
* The set of remaining volumes in our adaptation of Marcel Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past
* Lewis Trondheim’s Mister I
* The remarkable Moresukine about a dare to ask the artist to try anything while he was in Japan.
* Lea Hernandez’ Rumble Girls
And these join other books on sale by Peter Kuper, Lance Tooks, Prado and more!
EXCLUSIVE PRINTS when you order from us.
March 7, 2013 by NBM
Get very low print run (less than 100) exclusive prints from Rick Geary or Stan Mack when you order our books from our website. No where else can you find these special prints with art made specially for this offer, printed on very high quality artpaper.
If you order $30 worth of books you can choose from 4 different prints with art also by Eurotica artists Cornnell Clarke (Peanut Butter) and Kevin Taylor (Girl), besides Rick Geary (Treasury of Murder) and Stan Mack (Taxes, The Tea Party, and Those Revolting Rebels).
If you order $50 or more, you can get signed ones!
We accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Paypal! Order
This changes our long-standing offer of ‘buy 4 get 1 free’ with something that can only be found right here. We won’t pretend to be competitive with Amazon or such that discount books and provide free shipping. What we can give you is personal service with an extra collectible, indeed framable, item you can only find here.
What you also get here is complete discretion. No cookies, no creepy record of what you purchased to then sell you on something else, not even a record of your credit card is kept past a few months! Complete security, complete discretion.
And you know what? By ordering from us you will show support for our books, enable us to survive and even thrive!
Doodles for Two
March 4, 2013 by Margreet de Heer
Is there anything better than doodling? Yes: doodling for two! This is a fun drawing “game” I love doing with other artists – each one draws a first panel in a six-panel grid, then passes the paper to the next person, who continues the story in his/her own style. Usually, this results in fascinating wacky comics.
Lately, my husband Yiri and I had a lot of fun creating these:
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(Translation by me, colors by Yiri)
Our publishing program is up for the rest of the year!
February 27, 2013 by NBM
Our Coming Up section is now replete with our entire program through December!
Highlights include:
Zombiellenium, our new Boneyard! A wry spoof of horror, beautifully painted. Leading retailers at the ComicsPro event all saw it as a winner. Coming in June.
Margreet de Heer’s next book in the Discovery in Comics series, after Philosophy it’s Science.
Renaud Dillies of Bubbles & Gondola, is back with Betty Blues.
Rick Geary serves up his next Treasury of Murder book: Madison Square Tragedy.
And our imprint EUROTICA also shows off its rest of the year line up in its Coming Up section including two major finales:
The last long awaited volume of Omaha the Cat Dancer.
and same for Kevin Taylor’s Girl, Second Coming.
The Comeback of Stella
February 26, 2013 by Margreet de Heer
If you’re lucky as a comic artist, you get to make a comic for a magazine that appears with some frequency. This allows you to build a world, to flesh out characters, to introduce backgrounds and depths.
If you’re really lucky, your comic runs for a few years and builds a readership. A run of two, three, four years is a really good one in this time when magazines seem to re-style at a disturbing rate. (Unfortunately, the comic is usually the first thing to get changed under a new editor.)
And if you’re really really lucky, you get a chance to revive such a comic, even after years and years, in another magazine.
This is what happened to me with my comic Stella.
Stella appeared in girls’ magazine Flo’ from 2005 to 2008, when the magazine folded. Stella was an eleven-year old, as were the readers, and she was well loved.
Last Summer, I was asked to make a comic for magazine Hoe Overleef Ik, aimed at girls around 15 years old. I asked if I could draw Stella again, this time a little older. The editor was OK, and the readers liked it, and by now I have already made six new adventures for her.
Here’s the comic at the very start, in 2005:
And this is the new Stella, that appeared last Summer:
