Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Agent, Comics, Enlighten Me, graphic novel, minh le, The New Immortals
Minh Lê's New Graphic Novels, Enlighten Me & The New Immortals, Sold
Minh Lê, creator of the picture books Lift and Drawn Together, and writer of the Green Lantern: Legacy graphic novel drawn by Andie Tong is now creating two new middle-grade graphic novels. The first, Enlighten Me is being drawn by Baby-Sitter's Club artist Chan Chau and tells a fantastical account of Minh's childhood experience attending a silent meditation retreat and immersing himself in the Buddhist Jataka Tales. While Jade Feng Lee is drawing The New Immortals, which draws inspiration from Asian mythologies, tells the tale of a grandmother's half-forgotten stories which turn out to have particular relevance in the present. Enlighten Me will be published in 2023 and The New Immortals will be published in 2024. Rotem Moscovich acquired the books while at Disney, and Andrea Colvin at Little, Brown will edit the series.
Minh Lê's agent was Stephen Barbara at Inkwell Management. Chan Chau's agent Molly O'Neill at Root Literary, and Jade Feng Lee's agent Kurestin Armada, also at Root Literary, negotiated the deal.
In 2019, Little, Brown had the directive 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 Suggs one 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. It's a long way until the USA gets to the kind of breadth and depth enjoyed by Japan, Korea or France but it is one of a number of major moves in that direction. And another to add to Bleeding Cool's list of graphic novel agent sales.