Happy Halloween, everyone!

You already know our big Halloweenie news if you've been following my sad little Twitters and if you, oh, I don't know, read Variety. Agnes Quill, created and edited by Dave Roman, has been optioned by Paramount! The writer will be Evan Spiliotopoulos and the director will be Thor Freudenthal.

Agnes Quill originally appeared as a web comic and was collected into a printed anthology by SLG in 2006. It features stories by Dave Roman and art by Jason Ho, Jen Wang, Jeff Zornow, and Eisner nominee, Raina Telgemeier.

Congratulations to Dave!

Booklist, a magazine published by the American Library Association, reviewed Agnes Quill: An Anthology of Mystery a few months back, calling it "well developed, atmospheric, and rich in plot" (you can read the whole review at the book's Amazon.com listing).

The folks at Booklist were impressed enough with this collection of short stories about the teen detective who investigates paranormal mysteries to name it one of their Top Ten Mystery/Suspense Books for Youth. Agnes Quill was written by Dave Roman and illustrated by Jason Ho, Raina Telgemeier, Jeff Zornow,  and Jen Wang. (And by Dave himself.)

Dave Roman will be at Comic-Con, signing at the SLG Booth -- see the complete schedule for times.

Click on the image to see a larger version.

Temperatures in San Jose right now are hovering at about 39 degrees F, which, in case you're wondering, is pretty damned cold for people from the Bay Area. In weather like this, I like to put on a scarf and sweater, fingerless gloves, a warm coat, boots and cropped woolen pants and pretend to be a Victorian orphan. Or perhaps an orphan in the Victorian-esque city of Legerdemain. An orphan who can talk to the dead.

Alas, I am not that. Like Rich Chappell at Pop Thought, I have to "live vicariously through Agnes Quill." The stories of the teenage supernatural detective, collected in Agnes Quill: An Anthology of Mystery, gets reviewed there, as well as at The Comics Review. Please do not be put off by Tim Janson's comparison of Agnes Quill to The Ghost Whisperer. (I have never seen The Ghost Whisperer, but I have an irrational antipathy toward Jennifer Love Hewitt.) Janson notes, "This is one of those books perfectly suited for black & white. The art is great throughout and it’s a great diversion to everyday graphic novels. A fun read from SLG Publishing."

Rich Chappell at Pop Thought also reviews Emo Boy Volume One: Nobody Cares About Anything Anyway, So Why Don't We All Just Die? The review has some of that "Back when I was young, we had to choose between being hardcore and having feelings! Kids these days with their emo music!" vibe, but he "was sufficiently entertained by this book to recommend it."

The Library Journal (scroll down a bit) gives the collection a starred review, commenting, "Emo Boy deals with big issues such as teen love, sexuality, friendship, and peer pressure in a way to which many teens will relate. Although this is a collection of comic book episodes, it reads like a good novel, allowing the reader to identify with Emo Boy. The black-and-white artwork emphasizes the bleakness of Emo Boy's life."

Emo Boy is definitely cold-weather reading. Steve Emond's milieu of cold, starry nights is perfectly suited to... well, cold, starry, wintry nights such as we are having now.

Broken Frontier has a new review of Agnes Quill: An Anthology of Mystery up. Tonya Crowford sums up the moods of of the stories well: "In this book are stories creepy, funny, sweet, sad, and gross." And about the anthology's intrepid heroine, she writes, "Quill is a smart, sharp, and practical heroine and the comics aficionado can consider reading about her exploits time well spent."

Agnes Quill, written by Dave Roman, illustrated by Raina Telgemeier, Jeff Zornow, Jason Ho  and Jen Wang, is available for purchase at the SLG webstore, your local comic book store if they stock it or are willing to order it for you, or at Amazon.com.

Agnes Quill, an Anthology of Mystery by Dave Roman, Raina Telgemeier, Jason Ho, Jeff Zornow, and Jen Wang is on its way to stores even as you read this. Pulse interviews Dave Roman about the anthology of stories about Agnes Quill, a girl detective who can see ghosts.

Agnes Quill has received an advance review from Publishers Weekly: "In this first anthology of Roman's Web comic, Agnes faces grave robbers, zombies, mad scientists and a few even more bizarre denizens of the underworld. Each story is illustrated by a different artist, giving the anthology a disjointed feel. Ho's craggy lines make the first story undeniably horror; Telgemeier's round and cartoony drawings are more YA. Each artist brings something different to Agnes, but through all of them she is an undeniably charming heroine." You can read the rest at the Amazon listing.

There is an interview with Dave Roman, creator of Agnes Quill, at PopImage in which he talks a bit about the Agnes Quill collection. Dave does a great job setting things straight when the interviewer, Jonathan Ellis, asks, "How do you find working on Agnes compared to other projects? When people think of SLG, Dave Roman isn’t the first name that springs to mind when you consider the tone of other projects you’ve done."

Dave tells Ellis, "I think SLG puts out the most diverse line of comics of any publisher, ever," and I just think it's awesome of him. Anges Quill is a perfect fit at SLG, but not because it's about a teenaged girl solving ghostly mysteries... nope, because it's well-written, well-drawn and has a great, wry perspective, a sort of dry sense of the absurd that we enjoy.

A treat for those of you who have expressed admiration for the cover of the Agnes Quill anthology -- Dave has posted a large image of it here.

A City of Mystery in Agnes Quill
SLG publishes mystery anthology
For Agnes Quill, talking to the dead is the easiest part of her life. As the heir to her great-grandfather's detective business, the sixteen-year-old Agnes must solve mysteries in the haunted, cobble-stoned and foggy city Legerdemain. It's a lot of responsibility for a teenaged girl, but Agnes is devoted to continuing her family's legacy. As she solves the strange cases her clients bring to her, Legerdemain's dearly departed citizens help, hinder, or just plain annoy her. Working with, against or in spite of these ghosts, Agnes frees trapped spirits, cursed souls and possessed relatives, finds disappearing pets, and confronts decapitated scientists, ambitious zombies, and other supernatural menaces, in Agnes Quill: An Anthology of Mystery.

Dave Roman's creation Agnes Quill first appeared in a series of web comics, now being collected in print form by SLG Publishing. The 136-page, black-and white trade paperback will collect all of the Agnes Quill stories, which are illustrated by Jason Ho, Jen Wang, Jeff Zornow, and Eisner-nominee Raina Telgemeier. The stories in Agnes Quill are stand-alone but develop a larger mythology within Legerdemain. Like Agnes and the city in which she lives, the stories are sometimes dark and grim, sometimes blackly humorous, sometimes playful--and are often all of these.

Each artist is essential to depicting the different facets of Agnes and her world, says creator Dave Roman (Jax Epoch, Teen Boat, Flight 3). "All of the artists who worked on the book brought their own sensibilities to the character and setting," he said. "Jason's art style is very dark and elegant, Raina's art is really animated and fluid, Jeff's is dynamic and insanely detailed, Jen's is full of raw emotion, while my own is probably more quirky and cute. They all compliment the character and help to make Agnes Quill feel like she exists beyond any one person's interpretation."

Agnes Quill: An Anthology of Mystery will be published in October 2006 and retail for $10.95. It can be ordered now from Diamond Comics under the item code AUG06 2936. A preview is available for viewing at SLG Publishing's website, www.slgpublishing.com.