Perhaps the biggest surprise of this weekend’s C2E2 comic convention in Chicago was critically acclaimed indie publisher Oni Press announcing Yo Gabba Gabba! Story Comic Book Time Vol. 1 (really, nobody cares about vampire X-Men). A full-color 128-page hardcover comics anthology starring Muno, Foofa, Toodee, Brobee, Plex and DJ Lance Rock from the wildly-popular Nickelodeon children’s show, this book is sure to absolutely rock both the all-ages comics and children’s picture book scenes later this year.
Oni’s announcement included original artwork by Parker Jacobs, Julia Vickerman, Matthew Loux, Dave McCaig, Vicente Navarrete and Shawn Crystal. No formal announcements yet about who else will be involved in the anthology, but I think one safe bet would be Chris Eliopoulos, the adorable illustrator with all-ages books coming out soon from both Simon & Schuster and Top Shelf who also directed some animated segments for YGG! last season. Check out his Brobee at right. Cute as a button!
Another easy bet would be the team of Evan Dorkin and Sarah Dyer, who designed the Super Martian Robot Girl animated segments for the Yo Gabba Gabba! tv show and are frequent contributors to alternative comic anthologies like DC’s Bizzaro and Marvel’s Strange Tales. While we’re at it, it’s hard to imagine an all-ages comic anthology coming out right now without the work of Dave Roman and Raina Telgemeier, the power-couple of all-ages comics. Roman himself was comics editor at Nickelodeon for a decade, so his knowledge of Gabbaland is likely intimate*.
Oni’s Director of Sales and Marketing and all-around Hip Dude Cory Casoni said “The first anthology is absolutely something you can read to your kids… You should watch the show even if you don’t have kids, this show is fantastic.” Yo Gabba Gabba! Story Comic Book Time Vol. 1, the first of what Oni promises to be many volumes**, is expected in bookstores this Fall.
* – In truth, it was Dave & Raina who first informed me about Yo Gabba Gabba! long before it was picked up by Nickelodeon. They are both huge fans of the band The Aquabats, whose lead singer Christian Jacobs is one of the show’s co-creators and also voices Plex, the show’s yellow magic robot character.
** – I already have more Oni-published books on my bookshelf than any other publisher, including non-comics, so this could start to cause a problem for me. Or not, you know, whatever.
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