And Thanks for All the Monsters!

Author Martin Powell reminds me that this week is the anniversary of Ray Harryhausen’s birthday (June 29, 1920). Harryhausen was the creator of some of Hollywood’s first, best, and oddest special effects. He made all those creepy, Claymation creatures in such Grade-B classics as Jason and the Argonauts, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, and The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. Martin grew up on these movies, like I did, which partly explains his love of the horror genre, as well as his talent for fast-paced thrills and adventure. Martin was nominated for an Eisner Award for his Sherlock Holmes/Dracula page-turner, Scarlet in Gaslight. We were lucky enough to have him pen several graphic retellings for Stone Arch Books, including The Hound of the Baskervilles, Rumpelstiltskin, and Red Riding Hood. He knows scary! Thanks, Martin, for telling me about Harryhausen’s birthday. I remember watching his The 7th Voyage of Sinbad on TV as a kid. I always screamed for my mom to come and stand in front of the screen whenever the giant Cyclops came on. That monster scared the pudding out of me, but I couldn’t bring myself to turn off the TV. Boy, I haven’t thought about that movie for years. . .

Maybe I should call Mom.

Stone Arch Books's Fall '08 Catalog

Our new catalog is here! The marketing team finished working on it just two weeks ago, so it was a great surprise when finished copies showed up on our desks on Thursday afternoon.

This season, our catalog is full of tons of new books we’re really proud of. Our new series, Graphic Spin, does for fairy tales what Graphic Revolve did for classic stories—in each Graphic Spin book, a fairy tale is lavishly told in graphic-novel format. You’ve never seen fairy tales like this before!

In Graphic Sparks, we have new books in our Eek and Ack, School Zombies, Time Blasters, and Buzz Beaker series. We also have the first two books in a brand-new series, Zinc Alloy, written by our own Donald Lemke. Kids will love the escapades of Zack Allen, the world’s newest superhero.

Our Graphic Flash set has grown by four new books—all stories of war that will fit in wonderfully to American history classes. And Graphic Revolve contains four new classic stories.

Jake Maddox is back with twelve new books—four boy stories, four girl stories, and four new extreme outdoor adventure books. Our bestselling and well-reviewed Claudia Cristina Cortez set is back, too—with four more stories from Claudia’s point of view. We also have four new Vortex mysteries (including Curtains!: A High School Musical Mystery by our own Michael Dahl) and six new Shade Books, perfect for the kid who’s looking for a little bit of creepy suspense (that’s still safe!)

And we’ve mentioned the We Are Heroes series before on this blog. This new series contains six high-low books about ordinary kids making extraordinary changes in their communities. Whether it’s planting trees at school or painting a room in a house built by Habitat for Humanity, these books show real ways kids can make differences. (And, of course, proceeds from the book Kids Against Hunger will go to the nonprofit organization Kids Against Hunger™.)

These books aren’t available yet, but they will be on July 15. Keep your eye on this blog for more information about all of our new products over the next couple of months! Take a look at all of our books, or request a catalog of your own, at www.stonearchbooks.com.