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Steve Burns Auction Rights To Graphic Novel, Vile, Wrecked, & Rotten

Steve Burns, Gabe Soria and Jim Campbell auction world rights to their new musical graphic novel, Vile, Wrecked, & Rotten

Published Sat, 10 Jan 2026 07:57:07 -0600

by Rich Johnston

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Article Summary

Steve Burns, Gabe Soria, and Jim Campbell auction world rights to their new graphic novel, Vile, Wrecked, & Rotten
The middle-grade musical graphic novel follows Joanie Rotten in the city of San Orchestropolis
Penguin Workshop will publish Vile, Wrecked, & Rotten in summer 2027, with a two-book deal already signed
Steve Burns, famed for Blue's Clues, brings musical flair and podcasting to this unique creative comic project

Vile, Wrecked, & Rotten is a new musical middle-grade graphic novel about the misadventures of Joanie Rotten, the 11-year-old protégé of two kid-phobic composers who ply their trade in the music-loving metropolis of San Orchestropolis, by Gabe Soria of The Midnight Arcade, Steve Burns, host of Alive with Steve Burns and star of Blue's Clues; and Jim Campbell. artist of Over The Garden Wall. Rob Valois at Penguin Workshop has acquired the world rights to Vile, Wrecked, & Rotten at auction, with publication scheduled for summer 2027. Gabe Soria and Jim Campbell's agent, Charlie Olsen at InkWell Management, and Steve Burns' agent, Chad Kojouri at Range Media Partners, negotiated the deal.

Steve Burns Auction Rights To Graphic Novel, Vile, Wrecked, & Rotten — By Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America – Steve Burns, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link

Gabe says, "Vile, Wrecked & Rotten is a musical graphic novel that I wrote with my main man @steveburnsalive! And my dude @jim_campbell_art (whose work you know from the Over the Garden Wall show and comic book) is at the drawing board! And we MEAN musical, because characters break into song and there's gonna be an accompanying soundtrack! No foolin'. Yo — this thing is gonna be ENTERTAINING. Razzle dazzle and all that. Big ups to @comicsispeople, who's a great literary agent and even better friend. Also: this is a two-book deal, and we're already working on the sequel."

Steve Burns was the original host of the beloved Nickelodeon children's show Blue's Clues, where he played a fictionalised version of himself from 1996 to 2002. Burns (wearing his signature striped rugby shirts) helped preschool viewers solve puzzles by finding clues left by the animated dog Blue. He spoke directly to the camera, encouraging kids to "help" him think, and earned a Daytime Emmy nomination in 2001 for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series. After Blue's Clues, Burns pursued music, releasing indie rock albums and a children's album with Gabe Soria, titled Foreverywhere. One of his songs, Mighty Little Man, became the theme of Young Sheldon before appearing in the 2019 revival of Blue's Clues & You! In 2025, he launched the podcast Alive with Steve Burns, a weekly series for adults that explores big topics like identity, mortality, masculinity, and loneliness, in the style of his kids' shows.

Gabe Soria is the writer of books, albums and comics, such as Midnight Arcade, MegaGhost, Foreverywhere, Batman '66, Murder Ballads, Who Is the Man in the Air? and the Bright Family series. Jim Campbell is a musician, member of the Meathaus comics art collective and storyboarder for shows including Adventure Time, Over The Garden Wall, Summer Camp Island, and the Drinky Crow Show, along with illustrating comics for Over The Garden Wall from Boom Studios as well as his own comic At The Shore.