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.