Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Agent, auction, Crystal Frasier, graphic novel, Val Wise, Whippoorwills

Crystal Frasier & Val Wise Auction Their Graphic Novel Whippoorwills

Whippoorwills by Crystal Frasier and Val Wise, a Southern Gothic YA trans graphic novel, auctioned to First Second for publication in 2028.

Published Sun, 11 Feb 2024 06:57:08 -0600

by Rich Johnston

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Article Summary

Crystal Frasier & Val Wise’s ‘Whippoorwills’ sold to First Second Books.
A Southern Gothic YA graphic novel featuring three trans women.
Set for a 2028 release, with world English rights acquired at auction.
The creators' previous success includes ‘Cheer Up!: Love and Pompoms’.

Whippoorwills by Crystal Frasier and Val Wise, the creators of the graphic novel Cheer Up!: Love and Pompoms published by Oni/Lion Forge. is a Southern Gothic YA graphic novel that follows three young trans women who must "band together to survive at a mysterious and magical all-girls boarding school".

Crystal Frasier & Val Wise Auctioned Their Graphic Novel Whippoorwills — Cheer Up!: Love and Pompoms by Crystal Frasier and Val Wise

Robyn Chapman at First Second has bought world English rights to Whippoorwills at auction, and publication is planned for 2028.

Crystal Frasier graduated from the Art Institute of Seattle and the New College of Florida and is best known for her her work on the Pathfinder roleplaying game, as well as the webcomic Venus Envy, and the graphic novel Cheer Up!: Love and Pompoms. She worked in the art and layout department of Paizo Inc. and became a game developer for Paizo. She also worked on comic books based on Pathfinder, like the Spiral of Bones and Dynamite series, was Line Developer for Mutants & Masterminds, at Green Ronin Publishing. She also wrote for Love Is a Battlefield at DC Comics, and worked on Immortal Hulk and co-wrote Gamma Flight with Al Ewing at Marvel Comics.

Val Wise has worked on comics such as Werewoofs, Summit, Rolled & Told, Bear Company, Wayward Kindred, and Cheer Up!: Love and Pompoms.

Crystal Frasier and Val Wise's agent Desiree Wilson at Looking Glass Literary and Media negotiated the sale. First Second Books is a prominent and ground-breaking American graphic novels publisher based in New York City, and an imprint of Roaring Brook Press, part of Holtzbrinck Publishers, distributed by Macmillan, with Editorial & Creative Director Mark Siegel and Editorial Director Calista Brill. Who is as brill as her surname sounds.

The expansion of children's graphic novels is fuelling all manner of publishers extending into the comics medium. Right now, it seems like an infinite market that is being tapped into, and creating longstanding comic book readers for decades to come. It is not for nothing that kids' graphic novels in bookstores are being referred to as the newsstand of the twenty-first century.

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