Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Agent, graphic novel, my first monster

Cecil Castellucci & Saazleen Khan's YA Graphic Novel My First Monster

Published Sun, 15 May 2022 04:57:09 -0500

Last updated Sun, 09 Jul 2023 07:39:23 -0500

Cecil Castellucci and Shazleen Khan are creating a new YA graphic novel My First Monster, which follows Amelia LaCouer, a new girl who gets swept into an emotionally abusive relationship with the most popular guy in school, who is, quite literally, a monster.

Cecil C. Castellucci is a Canadian young adult novelist, indie rocker, and director living in LA. Previous comics have included graphic novel Soupy Leaves Home, about a train-hopping runaway in 1932, The P.L.A.I.N. Janes, the first graphic novel from DC Comics' Minx imprint, followed by a sequel Janes in Love. She also wrote Shade, The Changing Girl for Gerard Way's DC imprint, Young Animal, then relaunched as Shade, the Changing Woman.

Shazleen Khan is a London-based zine creator and comic book artist who inked Warren Pleece on the graphic novel, Freedom Bound. She also creates the Webtoon strip BUUZA! about a misdialed number leads to an unexpected, long-distance romance.

My First Monster will be published by Andrea Colvin at Little, Brown in 2025. Cecil Castellucci's agent Kirby Kim at Janklow & Nesbit and Shazleen Khan's agent Kurestin Armada at Root Literary negotiated the deal for the YS graphic novel.

In 2019, Little, Brown was directed to expand their graphic novel list for years going ahead, and appointed Andrea Colvin, formerly of Lion Forge as editorial director, Graphic Publishing to do just that. Publishing new fiction and nonfiction graphic novels for a range of ages, from early readers to young adults. Little, Brown has been doubling-to-tripling their comic book publishing line each scheduled year since then, with Cecil Castellucci and Shazleen Khan two of a number of beneficiaries of this publishing plan. It's another sign of major growth in the graphic novel market in bookstores, libraries and book fairs, as well as the greater range in content and comic book styles being published.

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