ARCHAIA AND JEFFCORWINCONNECT ANNOUNCE ‘I’M NOT A PLASTIC BAG,’ A GREEN GRAPHIC NOVEL

Told Entirely Without Words, Environmentally Conscious Story Raises Awareness of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Los Angeles, CA (February 21, 2012) – Spearheading a new green initiative in the graphic novel industry, Archaia Entertainment announced the upcoming release of Rachel Hope Allison’s I’M NOT A PLASTIC BAG, an original graphic novel published in association with JeffCorwinConnect Inc., a transmedia company co-founded by biologist and philanthropist Jeff Corwin, well-known as the Emmy Award-winning host and executive producer of ABC’s Ocean Mysteries.

The spellbinding story, told entirely without words, follows the journey of a few pieces of discarded trash—a supermarket plastic bag, an old umbrella—all the way out to the middle of the Pacific Ocean, where they join together into a tragic and destructive island of trash that searches for its place amidst the fragile beauty of nature. The tale is an artistic imagining of a very real phenomenon known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an accumulation of human consumer waste that floats in an area between Hawaii and the California coastline.

“I found out about the Pacific Garbage Patch kind of randomly, just stumbling on an article about it,” said Allison, who, in her day job, works as a strategist for Big Duck, a firm that helps non-profit organizations raise funds and awareness through smart communications. “Like a lot of people, just learning that something so big and dangerous existed out in the ocean was kind of a shock, and the image of all that debris, trapped in such a remote part of the ocean, really stuck with me. That said, even some of the most disturbing pictures of the Garbage Patch also had a kind of beauty to them, and it got me thinking that the island itself might be a sympathetic character, that this might even be a love story of sorts.”

To emphasize the real-life environmental issues of marine debris and ocean pollution that the Garbage Patch embodies, I’m Not a Plastic Bag also includes eight pages of educational material on topics such as threatened wildlife and things readers can do to decrease their footprint on the environment.

“If this story can inspire anyone else to put the power of their own imagination toward tackling the environmental challenges we face today, then I can’t imagine any higher honor,” said Allison.

Joining Allison in the quest to get people involved in the fight to save our ocean and waterways is Jeff Corwin, who, in addition to hosting Ocean Mysteries, is a regular science and environmental correspondent for MSNBC and NBC News and has had his wildlife and conservation work featured on The Today Show, The Rachel Maddow Show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and The Oprah Winfrey Show, among many others.

“Despite the fact that U.S. citizens take up only 5% of the world population, we generate 40% of our planet’s trash!” wrote Corwin in the Foreword to the book. “The good news is that each one of us, no matter where you are from, or how old you are, has the power and the responsibility to keep our Earth clean. Rachel Allison’s incredible and almost ethereal story of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch will not only engage and awaken your spirit, but will empower all of us to save our precious planet from falling prey to garbage and waste.” The partnership between Archaia and JeffCorwinConnect plans for I’m Not a Plastic Bag to be the first of many books to come. The two companies plan to collaborate on additional titles, across various environmental themes, to help raise education and awareness of the conservation challenges and wins of our planet while building a new generation of environment stewards amongst the youth

“Just as Archaia Entertainment endeavors to bring people together through books, JeffCorwinConnect seeks to connect people to the planet, its species and the ecosystems they live in, creating education and awareness about key issues facing our environment. Our companies’ mutual interest in education and enriching the social consciousness makes our relationship with JeffCorwinConnect an extremely exciting one,” said Archaia CEO PJ Bickett. “In joining forces with JCC, we look to create a line of books that raises awareness about many incredibly important issues concerning our environment and wildlife. We couldn’t ask for a better first step in this new initiative than Rachel’s beautiful story in I’m Not a Plastic Bag.”

Anurag Agarwal, co-founder and CEO of JeffCorwinConnect Inc. added, “Partnering on a venture like this gives us the tremendous opportunity to connect and grow our community of global citizens. With the growing acceptance and use of graphic novels in the education and the retail markets, we believe that we can highlight critical environmental issues through this exciting format.”

The book will also debut Archaia’s new printing initiative in conjunction with Global PSD. Through the efforts of American Forests^® and the Global ReLeaf^® Program, for each tree that is cut down for the printing of I’m Not a Plastic Bag, two trees will be planted.

I’m Not a Plastic Bag (8” x 10”, full color, hardcover, 88 pages, $19.95, ISBN 978-1-936393-54-1, Diamond Order Code JAN12 0824) will release in late March at bookstores and comic book stores…just in time for Earth Day on April 22nd!

About Archaia

Archaia is a multi-award-winning graphic novel publisher with more than 50 renowned publishing brands, including such domestic and international hits as Mouse Guard, Return of the Dapper Men, Gunnerkrigg Court, Awakening, The Killer, Days Missing, Tumor, Syndrome, Artesia, The Engineer, and an entire line of The Jim Henson Company graphic novels. Archaia has built an unparalleled reputation for producing meaningful content that perpetually transforms minds, building one of the industry’s most visually stunning and eclectic slates of graphic novels. Archaia was named Graphic Novel Publisher of the Year according to Ain’t it Cool News, Graphic Policy and Comic Related, and was honored with nine 2011 Eisner Awards nominations. Archaia has also successfully emerged as a prolific storyteller in all facets of the entertainment industry, extending their popular brands into film, television, gaming, and branded digital media.

About JeffCorwinConnect

JeffCorwinConnect Inc. (“JCC”) is a global eco-edutainment multimedia corporation that goes beyond geographical boundaries and as the voice of conservation connects the entire planet, its people, ecosystems and wildlife to one another. Jeff Corwin, chief visionary and co-founder says, “The fuel behind the mission of JeffCorwinConnect is to build a global community of people who care about the future of our planet and seek to better the world for themselves and their children. Anurag Agarwal, co-founder and CEO of JeffCorwinConnect Inc. adds, “Our mission is to provide a social experience around wildlife and conservation and build a global community through our programs, products and publications.”  Connect with JCC at www.facebook.com/jeffcorwinconnect and become a global citizen.

Thank you for allowing Archaia to participate in this year’s Annual Membership meeting. The ability to have a face-to-face open dialogue with 100+ retailers in one place allows us to receive critically important feedback on all aspects of our business: from how to improve product salability, to innovative marketing efforts, to how to best approach direct market consumers.

At last year’s event, Retailers asked us to shed the dust jackets on our product, provide preview pages on our website, and have consistent age ratings across all of our books, among many other great ideas. As you can see by our product over the past 12 months, we listened and shared this critically important data with our Creators. And, we are listening again to the great ideas and feedback we received this past week with many being implemented over the next 30 days.

I believe Mike Richardson of Dark Horse said it best in his keynote speech when he said, “There’s an old curse that says, ‘May you live in interesting times.’ Well, as everyone in the book business knows, we certainly live in ‘interesting’ times.”

We at Archaia truly believe, as does Mike and many of our publishing peers, that our ongoing partnership with ComicsPRO and the many forward-thinking Retailers within your organization will only continue to allow us all to grow and prosper together through these “interesting times.”

Thank you!

Sincerely,

PJ Bickett
CEO & President
Archaia Entertainment, LLC

Moon Lake is a collection of short stories centered around, well, Moon Lake! It isn’t just any normal body of water—it’s a mysterious portal into the weird, drawing all manner of macabre mysteries to its shores. In the spirit of classic horror tales from EC Comics, Moon Lake combines comedy, horror and adventure into a fantastic anthology, where each story is centered on the strange happenings of Moon Lake. Created by Dan Fogler, contributing writers include Brian Holguin (Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal: Creation Myths Vol. 1), Stefan Hutchinson (Halloween: The First Death of Laurie Strode), Blake Leibel (Syndrome), Tim Seeley (Hack/Slash), R.H. Stavis (Something Monstrous) and Nick Tapalansky (Awakening). Contributing artists include Brooke Allen (A Home for Mr. Easter), Tommy Castillo (Grimm Fairy Tales), Jim Daly (Halloween: 30 Years of Terror), Alex Eckman-Lawn (Awakening), Scott Newman, Robbi Rodriguez (Uncanny X-Force) and Jeff Zornow (Jurassic Park: Dangerous Games). Moon Lake is rated MATURE for nudity, graphic violence and adult content.

Brian Holguin (writer, The Dark Crystal: Creation Myths Vol. 1)
Heather Nuhfer (writer, Fraggle Rock Vol. 1)
Janet K. Lee (artist, Return of the Dapper Men)
Jim McCann (writer, Return of the Dapper Men)
John Chandler (writer/artist, The Skrumps)
Mike Kennedy (writer, Bleedout)
Paul Morrissey (writer, Fraggle Rock Vol. 2)
Tim Beedle (writer/editor, Fraggle Rock Vol. 2)
Tom Pinchuk (writer, Hybrid Bastards!)

Hope to see you there!

Dear Retailers,

As you know, last Thursday, January 26th, was the last day to place initial orders for Diamond Comics’ 2012 Free Comic Book Day and we wanted to thank you for your extremely generous orders supporting the first-ever FCBD graphic novella, Mouse Guard, Labyrinth and Other Stories! Due to the long lead time required to hit the delivery date, we have officially placed our print run to cover all of the initial orders received by Diamond, plus an extra 15% buffer to cover any late orders.

Since becoming a Gold Sponsor in 2009, this has been the greatest order size to date. This would not have been possible without the support of Joe Field and the FCBD Committee, Bill Schanes and Diamond Comics, all the amazing Retailers who believe in supporting independent publishers, the wonderful Fans who buy independent comics, and, of course, the incredible Creators who have contributed to this book.

I look forward to seeing those retailers that will be in attendance at ComicsPro next week. And, most importantly, we look forward to this being the best FCBD yet and hope our little book brings you many new lifetime customers!

Sincerely,
PJ Bickett
CEO & President
Archaia Entertainment, LLC

For 2012, we are very proud that YALSA has recognized the Archaia graphic novel The Many Adventures of Miranda Mercury: Time Runs Out as one of this year’s selections! Congratulations to Brandon Thomas and Lee Ferguson on their achievement!

In total, 56 graphic novels were selected. You can go the announcement on the YALSA website to see the other winners.

JUSTICE AIN’T GOT NO AGE: ARCHAIA PROCLAIMS ‘COW BOY’ IS ON THE HORIZON

All-Ages Western Tale Concernin’ a 10-Year-Old Bounty Hunter Will Tickle Yer Liver

Los Angeles, CA (January 20, 2012) – NOTICE! Archaia Entertainment announces COW BOY: A BOY AND HIS HORSE, a dandy new graphic novel comin’ in March by NATE COSBY (Jim Henson’s The Storyteller, Pigs) and CHRIS ELIOPOULOS (Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius, Misery Loves Sherman). Them good-for-nothin’s wrote’n drew the main tale, and there’s short stories by the likes’a ROGER LANGRIDGE (The Muppet Show Comic), COLLEEN COOVER (Spider-Man), BRIAN CLEVINGER & SCOTT WEGENER (Atomic Robo) an’ MIKE MAIHACK (Cleopatra in Space).

COW BOY’s the tale of Boyd Linney, a 10-year-old bounty hunter determined t’round up his entire outlaw family. He scours the Old West on a horse that ain’t his, armed with a stick-horse what packs a loud holler.

“This is my favorite thing I’ve ever written,” said varmint author Nate Cosby. “And it’s the best thing Chris has ever drawn. It’s an all-ages tale of justice, redemption and growing up with the knowledge that you can love your family…but that doesn’t mean you can let them get away with everything. I’m so excited Archaia is giving Chris and I the chance to bring our story to a big audience.”

“Creating a book that can be read by anyone and everyone gives me a great feeling,” spouted yella-bellied Chris Eliopoulos. “Knowing I can hand COW BOY to my parents or my children and know they will both enjoy it is something very rare these days in comics. And for me personally, I enjoyed the chance to push my art in new ways. From the coloring, the action to evoking a feeling with a few simple lines, this has been one of the best things I’ve ever done and I know that when people read it, they’ll love it, too.”

Archaia’s ne-er-do-well Editor-in-Chief Stephen Christy done said, “I ain’t had this much fun reading a kids comic since Calvin and Hobbes, an’ that’s the truth. Readers should buy this book now before Nate an’ Chris get locked up for that trouble they caused over the border last year.”

Here’s some mighty fine words said ’bout COW BOY (hardcover, full color, 96 pages, 6” x 9”, $19.95, ISBN 978-1-936393-67-1, Diamond Order Code JAN120822) from reputable folks…

“There are a lot of things to love about Cow Boy. [It] is a book full of heart and soul.” – Ali Colluccio, iFanboy

“Cow Boy is ‘Unforgiven’ meets Looney Tunes in comic book form.” – Alex Zalben, MTV Geek

“Cow Boy takes me to a happy place. I see it having that effect on about everyone who reads it.” – Amy Ratcliffe, Geek with Curves

“…an engaging comic truly for all ages.” – Aaron Long, Comicosity

This here book’s shippin’ in March, and is available for pre-order now through them comic shops.

Startin’ January 23, you can mosey over to cowboycomic.net and follow the adventures of the Cow Boy. There’ll be free weekly updates with never-before-seen parts of this tale for all ages to gander at.