First Look At Top Shelf Productions July And August Titles And The Return Of Eddie CampbelL

A two-for-one flip book of Eddie Campbell brilliance and a cute-looking debut from Colleen Madden – it’s a little look forward to Top Shelf Productions releases in July and August…

Just the two books from Top Shelf Productions across July and August. But then again, you know the old adage don’t you? The one about quality not quantity? Well exactly.

To start with, ANYTHING by Eddie Campbell is worth reading. Absolutely anything. This is a comic artist whose shopping lists are probably turned into fascinating meta things about the journey and travails of picking up bread and the chats he had with folks along the way.

But in June, Top Shelf are offering you not one but two cuts of Campbell, all cleverly packaged as a flip-book.

The first book is The Second Fake Death of Eddie Campbell, a completely new work done during the plague years, something of a spiritual successor to Campbell’s deliciously devious and autobiographical-ish The Fate Of The Artist, which you’ll find on the flip-side here.

In the latter, the author was missing from his own autobiography. In the former, the author’s wife is convinced the author has been replaced during the lockdown and hires a PI to investigate. It just sounds every bit as Eddie Campbell-y as you want it to be, full of quirks, annoyances, anecdotes, and meanderings. Personally I can’t wait to have a read.

Second, in August, we have (in pure Pythonesque fashion) something completely different, a new graphic novel series for youngsters – Shelley Frankenstein.

Children’s book illustrator Colleen Madden makes her comics debut her with something that looks and sounds perfectly cute and due to be adored by youngsters, with lil’ Shelly living up to the old family name and creating monsters… albeit monsters that always seem to turn out anything but monstrous. But when Shelly and her assistant brother, Iggy, come up with the notion of the CowPiggy, they might have finally created something terrifying… or maybe not.

Anyway, two to add to your pull lists, two to tell your local comic shop to order in for you. We’ll have more on both nearer the time, but for now, here are the covers and PR flim-flam…

The Second Fake Death of Eddie Campbell / The Fate of the Artist [FLIP HARDCOVER]
by Eddie Campbell

On sale July 11th 2023

Eddie Campbell is not himself. But these days, who is? It’s meta-fictional mystery and mischief as the award-winning artist of From Hell sets out to find his own imposter. Plus, on the flipside: a deluxe new presentation of The Fate of the Artist, Eddie Campbell’s classic work of graphic meta-memoir! It’s two astonishing books in one.

SIDE A: The Second Fake Death of Eddie Campbell, by Eddie Campbell, is a spiritual sequel to his acclaimed graphic novel The Fate of the Artist, in which the author was missing from his own autobiography. Many years later, during an endless Covid lockdown in which everybody wears a mask and needs a haircut, Eddie’s wife is certain that he has been supplanted by an imposter. She hires a detective, the square-jawed Royler Boom, to solve the mystery. What follows — interspersed with Campbell’s trademark wry anecdotes, dreams, parodic pastiches, and pandemic peccadilloes — is a thrilling investigation that builds to a car chase and a violent conclusion. The author cunningly passes this off as another piece of autobiography.

— SIDE B: The Fate of the Artist: In an autobiography, the author and the subject are the same person… but now they’ve both gone missing. The Fate of the Artist is a complex weaving of different strains of invention including a mock prose detective story, an imaginary Sunday comic strip, a mock fumetti-style interview with the author’s daughter, intertwined with Campbell’s beloved brand of autobiographical comic storytelling. In this deluxe reissue of a groundbreaking book, the award-winning cartoonist of From Hell and Alec presents a complex, caustic, and fiendishly clever meditation on the lonely life of the artist and the busy life that swirls around him.

192-page, full-color, flip hardcover graphic novel

Shelley Frankenstein! (Book One): CowPiggy by Colleen Madden

On sale August 29th 2023.

Launching a new graphic novel series for young middle-grade readers! Shelley Frankenstein loves to create scary monsters, but for some reason they always turn out cute… until this time. Best-selling children’s book illustrator Colleen Madden makes her comics debut with a delightfully upside-down tale of terror and togetherness.

Shelley Frankenstein is a little girl with a rather infamous family heritage! She loves to be scared and assumes all other kids feel the same. To prove her theory, Shelley and her assistant brother, Iggy, set about creating new toys to horrify their playground peers…but all of their experiments backfire in a completely unexpected way. What a disappointment! Then one day, they stumble upon a pretty spooky place—the Frankenstein family graveyard—which gives Shelley an idea for the ULTIMATE monster… CowPiggy! Will this new creation send everyone running in terror, like a proper monster should? Or will love and silliness triumph?

168-page, full-color softcover graphic novel