Little Lit
Encyclopedia
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
anthology series published by New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
art editor, Françoise Mouly
Françoise Mouly
Françoise Mouly is a Paris-born French artist and designer best known for her work with RAW, a showcase publication for cutting edge comic art, and as art editor of The New Yorker, a position she has held since 1993...
, and Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning cartoonist, Art Spiegelman
Art Spiegelman
Art Spiegelman is an American comics artist, editor, and advocate for the medium of comics, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning comic book memoir, Maus. His works are published with his name in lowercase: art spiegelman.-Biography:Spiegelman was born in Stockholm, Sweden, to Polish Jews...
. The couple had collaborated previously on RAW
RAW (magazine)
RAW was a comics anthology edited by Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly and published by Mouly from 1980 to 1991. It was a flagship publication of the 1980s alternative comics movement, serving as a more intellectual counterpoint to Robert Crumb's visceral Weirdo, which followed squarely in the...
in the 1980s.
3 volumes and 1 selected compilation have been published; the last volume was published in 2003, but now stand-alone books are being published in Toon Books
Toon Books
Toon Books is a collection of hardcover graphic early readers launched in 2008 by New Yorker art editor Françoise Mouly. With titles by Mouly's advisor/husband Art Spiegelman , Geoffrey Hayes, Jay Lynch, Dean Haspiel and Eleanor Davis...
, "from the Little Lit Library".
Description
Each volume of Little Lit is a collection of original comicsComics
Comics denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual and verbal side in...
created expressly for children, authored by major cartoonists and literary figures. Contributors include writers such as Paul Auster
Paul Auster
Paul Benjamin Auster is an American author known for works blending absurdism, existentialism, crime fiction and the search for identity and personal meaning in works such as The New York Trilogy , Moon Palace , The Music of Chance , The Book of Illusions and The Brooklyn Follies...
, Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman
Neil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...
, and David Sedaris
David Sedaris
David Sedaris is a Grammy Award-nominated American humorist, writer, comedian, bestselling author, and radio contributor....
; cartoonists such as Daniel Clowes
Daniel Clowes
Daniel Gillespie Clowes is an American author, screenwriter and cartoonist of alternative comic books....
, Tony Millionaire
Tony Millionaire
Tony Millionaire is an American cartoonist, illustrator and author known for his syndicated comic strip Maakies and the Sock Monkey series of comics and picture books.-Early life:...
, and Chris Ware
Chris Ware
Franklin Christenson Ware , is an American comic book artist and cartoonist, widely known for his Acme Novelty Library series and the graphic novel Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, he resides in the Chicago area, Illinois...
; and children's writers such as William Joyce
William Joyce (writer)
William Joyce is an American author, illustrator, and filmmaker. Newsweek has called him one of the top 100 people to watch in the new millennium. His illustrations have appeared on numerous New Yorker covers and his paintings are displayed at national museums and art galleries. He lives with his...
, Barbara McClintock
Barbara McClintock (illustrator)
Barbara McClintock is an American illustrator and author of children's books.- Background :McClintock was born in Flemington, New Jersey, on May 6, 1955, and spent her early childhood in Clinton, New Jersey...
and Lemony Snicket
Lemony Snicket
Lemony Snicket is the pen name of American novelist Daniel Handler . Snicket is the author of several children's books, serving as the narrator of A Series of Unfortunate Events and appearing as a character within the series. Because of this, the name Lemony Snicket may refer to both a fictional...
(Daniel Handler
Daniel Handler
Daniel Handler is an American author, screenwriter and accordionist. He is best known for his work under the pen name Lemony Snicket.-Personal life:...
). Volume one includes a vintage cartoon by Walt Kelly
Walt Kelly
Walter Crawford Kelly, Jr. , or Walt Kelly, was an American animator and cartoonist, best known for the comic strip, Pogo. He began his animation career in 1936 at Walt Disney Studios, contributing to Pinocchio and Fantasia. Kelly resigned in 1941 at the age of 28 to work at Post-Hall Syndicate,...
.
The series began publication in 2000 with a 64-page hardcover book, Little Lit: Folklore & Fairy Tale Funnies. This was followed by two subsequent volumes, Strange Stories for Strange Kids, and It Was a Dark and Silly Night... The third volume deviated slightly from previous versions, reducing the page count to 48 pages.
A smaller-sized paperback book called Big Fat Little Lit was published in 2006 by Puffin Books
Puffin Books
Puffin Books is the children's imprint of British publishers Penguin Books. Since the 1960s it has been the largest publisher of children's books in the UK and much of the English-speaking world.-Early history:...
. This volume is a 144-page collection of selected comics from the first three HarperCollins
HarperCollins
HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
books.
Toon Books
As of 2008, stand-alone comic books for children are being published by Toon BooksToon Books
Toon Books is a collection of hardcover graphic early readers launched in 2008 by New Yorker art editor Françoise Mouly. With titles by Mouly's advisor/husband Art Spiegelman , Geoffrey Hayes, Jay Lynch, Dean Haspiel and Eleanor Davis...
, described as "from the Little Lit Library".