Animation history
I’m Going To Be On A Panel At SDCC!
San Diego Comic Con is happening next week, and I’ll be appearing on a SDCC panel called “Writing Nonfiction About Fiction: Coffee Table Book Writers Roundtable.” It’s happening on Saturday July 26th, 2025 from 4:30-5:30pm, in Room 29CD.
The panel will be moderated by Andrew Farago, and aside from yours truly, the other panelists will be Jerry Beck, Matt Murray, and Russ Burlingame. All of us are pop culture historians, and all of us have a lot to say. During the panel, we’ll discuss what it’s like writing nonfiction books about movies, TV shows, comic books, video games, toys, and animation.
Here’s the official description of the event:
Reading comic books and watching cartoons all day is hard work! Honest! Animation legend Jerry Beck, official Smurfologist Matt Murray, pop culture writer Russ Burlingame (Best Movie Ever), writer/comedian Arie Kaplan (From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books), and A Minecraft Movie chronicler Andrew Farago discuss the perils and pitfalls of writing nonfiction books about movies, comics, video games, toys, and cartoons.
For more info, click HERE.
The X-Men Little Golden Book Is Out NOW!
As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I wrote a children’s book called The X-Men Little Golden Book, which came out TODAY from Penguin Random House. It’s an adaptation of X-Men: The Animated Series, the iconic TV series from the 1990s. I think the book really turned out well and I’m very proud of it. The X-Men LGB was illustrated by Shane Clester, who did an X-cellent job. (See what I did there?)
And as I type this, The X-Men Little Golden Book is already the #1 New Release in Children’s Superhero Fiction on Amazon!
Here’s the official publisher description of the book:
Inspired by the 1990’s animated series , Marvel’s mightiest mutants—the X-Men—arrive to save the day in their first ever Little Golden Book! Perfect for kids 2 to 5 as well as collectors and fans of all ages.
Born with amazing mutant abilities and trained by Dr. Charles Xavier, the X-men stand ready to defend the world even though that world doesn’t always trust them. These action-packed full-color pages will introduce Wolverine, Rogue, Storm, Cyclops and the other mutants on their team as well as their friends and foes. Kids 2 to 5—along with Marvel fan and collectors—will love this Little Golden Book based on X-Men: The Animated Series.
You can order the book HERE and HERE.
And to see all of the other books I’ve written for Penguin Random House, click HERE.
Back to School, Spidey-Style!
As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I wrote a Lilo & Stitch activity book called The Adventures of YOU & Stitch!
It will be available from Scholastic starting tomorrow, September 1st, 2023, just in time for the 2023-2024 school year.
But I also wrote two other Scholastic books that will be available starting tomorrow.
One is a Spidey and His Amazing Friends board book titled The Great Food Truck Caper, which was illustrated by Shane Clester. *
And the other one is The Spider-Man Comictivity Book, which I co-wrote. That book is a sort of a hybrid. It’s part comic book and part activity book. Steve Foxe wrote the “comic book” sections, and I wrote the “activity book” sections. And the “comic book” sections were illustrated by Claudio Sciarrone (pencils) and Valentina Taddeo (colors).
All three of these books will only be available for distribution through the school market. In other words, they’ll be exclusively available through Scholastic Reading Events, so you won’t be able to find them on Amazon.
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* NOTE: Previously, Shane and I collaborated on an Avengers Little Golden Book called The Threat of Thanos (which I wrote and Shane illustrated). That book was published by Penguin Random House in 2018.