NBM has announced its spring catalog, which includes new graphic novels about punk rock, pioneering environmentalist John Muir, and a historic civil rights case, as well as a paperback edition of Willie Nelson: A Graphic History and a new collection of Rick Geary’s true-crime stories.
John Muir: To the Heart of Solitude, by the self-taught French artist Lomig, is a graphic biography that starts in 1867, when the then-29-year-old Muir is nearly blinded in a sawmill accident; after recovering his sight, he decides to explore the wilderness and travels on foot from Indiana to Florida before making his way along the Sierra Nevada Trail. A writer and activist, Muir recorded his experiences in books and essays, co-founded the Sierra Club, and advocated for the preservation of the natural landscape of the West. The book, first released in French, won the Belgian Atomium Cognito Prize for historical comics. NBM will publish it as an 8.5” x 11”, black and white hardcover on April 15, 2025, with an MSRP of $19.99.
Punk Rock in Comics, by writers Thierry Lamy and Nicolas Finet and various artists, is a history of punk rock that starts in the 1970s and covers the evolution of the genre, including major bands such as the Ramones and the Sex Pistols and the integral part that women played in the movement. The book follows the style of previous NBM music anthologies, with different artists illustrating the chapters in a variety of styles; Lamy and Finet are two of the writers of NBM’s Pink Floyd graphic novel (see “ICv2 Gifts Week: Food, Music, Podcasts, Cats”). The 7.5” x 10” hardcover will be released on March 18, 2025, with an MSRP of $27.99.
Surrounded: America’s First School for Black Girls, 1832, by writer Wilfrid Lupano and artist Stéphane Fert, is the story of a girls’ school in Canterbury, CT, that began accepting black students in 1832. The surrounding community, already unconvinced that educating girls was worthwhile to begin with, reacted with overt hostility to the school’s decision. What followed was the first full-blown civil rights lawsuit in U.S. history, Crandall vs. State, which influenced later cases such as Dred Scott and Brown vs. Board of Education. Lupano is a two-time Eisner nominee and the writer of the Wolf in Underpants children’s series and numerous adult graphic novels (see “Wilfrid Lupano’s ‘A Sea of Love’ and ‘Curtain Call’”). The 8.5” x 11” hardcover will be released on February 11, 2025, with an MSRP of $24.99.
A Treasury of XXth Century Murder Compendium II, by Rick Geary, collects four of Geary’s carefully researched and thoughtfully illustrated true-crime stories: Sacco & Vanzetti, the Black Dahlia, the murder of early Hollywood director Desmond Taylor, and the case of a preacher and his paramour who were found murdered in a park. The compendium will be published on January 14, 2025, as a 400-page, 6” x 9”, black and white paperback with an MSRP of $24.99.
Willie Nelson: A Graphic History, by writer T.J. Kirsch and various artists, is a paperback edition of the original Willie Nelson anthology released in 2021 (see “Graphic Novel Bios”). The 88-page, 7” x 10” paperback will have a new cover and will be released on January 14, 2025, with an MSRP of $14.99.
Source: ICV2
