CUNNINGHAM, Darryl. How to Fake a Moon Landing: Exposing the Myths of Science Denial. Abrams ComicArts. April 2013. Tr $16.95. ISBN 9781419706899.

Gr 7 Up—A great choice for skeptics and the science-minded, this book examines the myths behind seven different cases of bad science, from chiropractic to global warming denial, and ties it all up with a thoughtful essay on the scientific method.

LARSON, Hope. Who Is AC? illus. by Tintin Pantoja. S & S/Atheneum. April 2013. pap. $14.99. ISBN 9781442426504.

Gr 7 Up—An ordinary girl in a small town suddenly becomes a Sailor Moon-style superhero—but her new role has plenty of complications. This graphic novel feels like the beginning of a series: the characters are solid, and the book has an intriguing premise, with the characters’ online lives taking on physical form, but many plot points, including the shadowy deus ex machina, are left unexplained.

JOHNSON, Mike. Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness. illus. by David Messina. IDW Publishing. April 2013. pap. $17.99. ISBN 9781613776230.

Gr 7 Up—Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the Enterprise crew face off against a former Enterprise captain who is involved in a civil war in this prequel to the recently released movie Star Trek: Into Darkness. Like the movie, this graphic novel (which was originally released as a four-comic miniseries) features the young versions of the original cast. The plot is classic Star Trek, mixing moral dilemmas with clever twists, and the clear-lined, colorful art is easy to follow.

OTTAVIANI, Jim. Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Biruté Galdikas. illus. by Maris Wicks. First Second. June 2013. Tr $19.99. ISBN 9781596438651.

Gr 7 Up—Ottaviani, who is well known for his non-fiction graphic novels about the history of science, tells the story of the three well-known women, all students of Louis Leakey, who went into the wild to study primates in their natural habitat. The story focuses on the women and their lives as scientists, living in their subjects’ natural habitat but also dealing with human obstacles, such as poachers and, occasionally, the unwanted attentions of Leakey himself.

SHEN, Prudence. Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong. illus. by Faith Erin Hicks. First Second. May 2013. pap. $16.99. ISBN 9781596436596.

Gr 7 Up—It’s the robotics team versus the cheerleaders in a battle for funding—until they team up against the grownups and set out to win the money they need in a battle-robot contest. Like the TV show Glee, this book explores the different tribes in a high school and the ways they interact, with plenty of comedy and a few poignant moments as well.

AMANO, Shiro. Kingdom Hearts, Final Mix, Vols. 1 and 2. Yen Press. May 2013. pap. $12.00 each. ISBN 9780316254205 (vol. 1), 9780316254212 (vol. 2).

Gr 8 Up—This manga is one of several series set in the world of the Square Enix/Disney game Kingdom Hearts; it was originally released (in a different format) by TokyoPop. The story, which is complete in these two volumes, revolves around a young boy, Sora, who is searching for his missing friends. In a parallel story, Goofy and Donald Duck search for their king, Mickey Mouse, who has disappeared from the Disney Castle.

NISHIDA, Masafumi. Tiger & Bunny. illus. by Mizuki Sakakibara. Viz. April 2013. pap. $9.99. ISBN 9781421555614.

Gr 8 Up—Superheroes compete against one another not only to fight the bad guy, but also to score points in a reality show in this manga, which is based on the anime of the same name. The title characters are an aging superhero and a newcomer who are tossed together as a team by their bosses, despite the fact that they can’t stand each other.

MEYER, Stephenie. New Moon, Vol. 1. illus. by Young Kim. Yen Press. April 2013. Tr $19.99. ISBN 9780316217187.

Gr 11 Up—The Twilight saga continues as Bella and Edward face new obstacles in this graphic adaptation of the second novel in the series. This is the first of a two-volume set, with the second volume due out in July 2014.

SOULE, Charles. Strange Attractors. illus.by Greg Scott. Archaia. Tr $19.95. May 2013. ISBN 9781936393626.

Gr 11 Up—A graduate student becomes the disciple of an aging mathematician who is convinced he is keeping New York City from descending into chaos by making small changes, basically manipulating the Butterfly Effect. The authors come up with some imaginative scenarios that will ring true to any New Yorker, and it all comes together in an exciting climax. It’s a good choice for readers who appreciate the “aw, cool!” aspects of science, and the real-world setting makes it accessible to those who might otherwise shy away from science fiction.

GIALLONGO, Zack. Broxo. First Second. October 2012. pap. $16.99. ISBN 9781596435513.

Gr 5 Up—Tough-talking Princess Zora arrives in a strange land hoping to negotiate with the local tribe and unite them with her kingdom. But the tribe has been reduced to man-eating zombies, and Zora must team up with the sole survivor, a boy named Broxo, to fight them—and assorted other monsters.

ROSCA, Madeleine. The Clockwork Sky, vol. 1. Tor. September 2012. pap. $10.99. ISBN 9780765329165.

Gr 6 Up—A feisty girl teams up with a robot policeman to solve the mystery of a spate of missing children in a steampunk version of 1890s London. Rosca, the creator of Hollow Fields, has a knack for creating convincing characters—and machines.

YOLEN, Jane. Curses! Foiled Again. Illustrated by Mike Cavallaro. First Second. January 2013. pap. $15.99. ISBN 9781596436190.

Gr 8 Up—In Foiled, fencing student Aliera Carstairs was swept away into a fantasy world when she put on her mask in Grand Central Station. In this sequel, she’s off on more adventures, this time with her wheelchair-using cousin Caroline by her side.

NORDLING, Lee, et al. Once Upon a Time Machine. Dark Horse. October 2012. pap. $24.99. ISBN 9781616550400.

Gr 7 Up—An anthology of traditional stories such as John Henry, Snow White, and The Last Leaf, retold in a sci-fi setting by an array of up-and-coming creators.

MACK, Stan. Taxes, the Tea Party, and Those Revolting Rebels. NBM. September 2012. Hardcover. $14.99. ISBN 9781561636976.

Gr 7 Up—An accurate but irreverent retelling of the American Revolution and the events that led up to it. Mack’s colonists talk like real people—with attitude—which helps bring the facts of history down to earth in a way modern readers can relate to.

POMPLUN, Tom, ed. Halloween Classics. Eureka Productions. October 2012. pap. $17.95. ISBN 9780982563052.

Gr 7 Up—Scary stories from Washington Irving, Mark Twain, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and H. P. Lovecraft, plus a comics adaptation of the silent film The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, adapted by a variety of creators and tied together by a narrator who’s straight out of EC Comics. This is volume 23 of the Graphic Classics series of anthologies.

RUSSELL, Gary, et al. Doctor Who Omnibus, vol. 1. IDW. January 2013. pap. $29.99. ISBN 9781613773482.

Gr 7 Up—This 420-page omnibus collects several story arcs that have appeared as individual comics and in trades, all featuring the Tenth Doctor: “Agent Provocateur,” “Through Time and Space,” and “The Forgotten.”

SUENOBU, Keiko. The Limit, vol. 1. Vertical. October 2012. pap. $10.95. ISBN 9781935654568.

Gr 8 Up—The Limit has the look of traditional shoujo manga, but the story is closer to Lord of the Flies: A busload of high school children goes over a cliff, killing most of them and upending the social order. It’s a dark book with quite a bit of violence, but it’s also an unsparing look at bullying and cliques. Suenobu is the author of Life, a manga that dealt with cutting and was published by Tokyopop.

YAZAWA, Ai. Paradise Kiss, vol. 1. Vertical. September 2012. pap. $19.95. ISBN 9781935654711.

Gr 11 Up—A group of fashion students recruit a dutiful, overworked high school student to be their model, and she begins to question her choices in life. Tokyopop released this as a five-volume series in the mid-2000s; Vertical’s three-volume edition has a larger format and a new translation. Sexual situations and innuendo make this a better choice for older teens.

RICE, Anne. Interview with the Vampire: Claudia’s Story. Ill. by Ashley Witter. Yen Press. November 2012. $19.99. pap. ISBN 9780316176361.

Gr 11 Up—A retelling of Rice’s classic vampire novel Interview with the Vampire through the eyes of Claudia, one of the characters in the original, who has an adult personality but is trapped in a child’s body.

One big announcement came just before the con: Marvel is shaking up its line (much as DC did last year with its New 52), with new titles debuting in October and a series of relaunches that will run through February 2013.

Dark Horse announced a new Star Wars monthly comic that’ll be written by Brian Wood (The New York Four, Conan the Barbarian) and will be set between two Star Wars films, Star Wars: A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back.

Bloody Chester

Graphic novel publisher First Second books debuted Bloody Chester, a horror story set in the Old West, and hosted signings by Nate Powell, Faith Erin Hicks, and others. Hicks is illustrating a new book for First Second, Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong, about a high school robotics team.

The Bolt City booth was home base for a number of YA graphic novel creators, including Raina Telgemeier (Smile), who had advance copies of her latest book, Drama, and Dave Roman and John Green (Teen Boat).

The Deep

Creator Tom Taylor came all the way from Australia to promote The Deep, an adventure story about a family of underwater explorers who live in a submarine. The first volume won an Aurealis Award, Australia’s literary award for speculative fiction, for Best Illustrated Book.

And standing a little aloof from the Babymouse and Lunch Lady graphic novels at the Random House booth was one lone copy of the graphic adaptation of Jeanne DuPrau’s City of Ember, due out in September.

Namco Bandai turned a nearby hotel pavilion into an arcade featuring classic video games to promote its new webcomics site, ShiftyLook, which publishes game-based webcomics by a number of creators, including Jimmy Palmiotti, Ben McCool, Dean Haspiel, and Jim Zubkavich.

In the manga department, Kodansha was promoting the sixth volume of its best-seller Sailor Moon with giveaway posters; the other featured book was its new series, Attack on Titan.

Interview with a Vampire

Yen Press announced several new titles, including graphic-novel adaptations of James Patterson’s Zoo, Ransom Riggs’s Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, and Brent Weeks’s The Way of Shadows. At its booth, Yen was promoting its adaptation of Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire as well as the Japanese title Alice in the Country of Hearts, a series that was left unfinished by the demise of Tokyopop. Yen has published the complete series in three omnibus volumes. Seven Seas featured several related Alice in the Country of Clover manga at its booth alongside its homegrown graphic novels, Amazing Agent Luna and Vampire Cheerleaders.

Viz Media announced two additions to Shonen Jump Alpha, its digital magazine: Blue Exorcist, which Viz is already publishing in print, and a new series, Takama-ga-hara, which only recently launched in Japan. And the digital manga site JManga revealed plans for an unlimited-access manga site featuring single manga chapters that can be read for free.

Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand

Comic-Con is the setting for the Eisner Awards, and this year’s award in the young adult category went to Vera Brosgol’s Anya, published by First Second. The graphic novel adaptation of Jim Henson’s screenplay Tale of Sand won three awards, as did the Marvel series Daredevil.

Oh, and budding comics creator Shia LaBeouf, whose day job has something to do with movies, made a surprise appearance at the con, sharing a booth with Keith Knight. This is the second time LaBeouf has done that; he had a table in Artists Alley at C2E2 last April as well.