Great news for my 5E colleague Marjorie Braman, as the cream o’ the crop in traditional and digital publishing continue to forge collaborations. What’s 5E, you ask? Search us under Media/News/Publishing on Facebook, like us, and find out.

Well-known: my pal Adam Johnson’s new novel The Orphan Master’s Son is getting big props. Less-known: Adam’s the mastermind of the Stanford Graphic Novel Project, which has produced both a fantastic academic context for GNs and three student-created original graphic novels based on real events — Shake Girl, Virunga and Pika-Don — that are setting new standards for the format.

Panel 3 of “Dread Ringer” was supposed to display the floating text “Message Delivery Failed.” I admit this selflessly, hoping to steer all you young innocents away from the flaming hell of forgetful execution.

Nice hat tip to 5E in Publishing Trendsetter.

More on The Zen of Steve Jobs from psfk.com, via the article “Why The Graphic Novel Will Save Business Journalism”. Browsers of my links will know I consider this an understatement; graphic journalism is on a major upswing, as evidenced by Cartoon Movement, Graphic Journos and the accumulating accolades — most recently from the MEOC Book Awards — to GJ’s Sarah Glidden.

My pal Alison Bechdel’s followup to Fun Home gets a 100K print run. Note it’s also getting day-and-date e-book release, another previously unheard-of publisher move on behalf of a graphic novel. Way to go, Houghton!

I have the honor of being an inaugural guest at this conference, which includes Caldecott Award winner and National Book Award finalist David Small, New York Times bestselling author Josh Neufeld, and many others. It’s especially cool to see Penn State’s tech campus specifically supporting a program that makes equal room for fans, publishers, transmedia developers, and academics. Come on down in April!