Grampa and Julie: Shark Hunters
by Jef Czekaj
$14.95 (US), 128 pages, full color - ISBN 1-891830-52-X
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Here's everything you need promo-wise about the book.
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Contact:
Jef Czekaj. Box 440422. Somerville, MA 02144
p: 617.501.2505. e: jef@czekaj.com
w: http//www.czekaj.com
Quotes and Summary/ Press
Release/ Jef's Bio/ Hi-res promo
images and author photo
Info about the release party/ Czekaj's
web page
Quotes and Summary
"If you're looking for fresh, imaginative storytelling along with delightfully offbeat humor, just set sail with Jef Czekaj's Grampa and Julie: Shark Hunters. The stylish art is a perfect vehicle for this freewheeling tale, which never met an outrageously improbable plot turn it didn't like. The jokes fly fast and furious, and the adventures never fail to defy any and all predictions. A joy from first page to last." -- Mark Crilley, Akiko
"Remember Moby Dick? I never read it, but it can't possibly be as funny as this Shark Hunters book. This should teach this in school. Maybe not in High School, but definitely in Funny School." -- James Kochalka, Monkey vs. Robot and countless other books
Equal parts Tin Tin and The Simpsons, this full-color graphic novel -- suitable for children and adults of all ages -- collects Jef Czekaj's endearing and delightful tale from the pages of Nickelodeon Magazine (which reaches over one million kids and parents each month). Join Julie and her world-famous Grampa in endless zany adventures as they search the high seas for Stephen, the largest shark in the world. Along the way they meet rapping squirrels, nerdy pirates, and entrepreneurial penguins as they travel from the bottom of the ocean to the furthest reaches of outer space. Will they find Stephen? Will pirates make them walk the plank? And will Julie ever get her Grampa to stop goofing around? Published in association with Nickelodeon, funded in part by a grant from the Xeric Foundation, and distibuted by Top Shelf Productions.
Press Release for Release of Book
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
SOMERVILLE ARTIST JEF CZEKAJ PUBLISHES NEW ALL-AGES GRAPHIC NOVEL.
Somerville, MA, August 5, 2004 -- Cartoonist Jef Czekaj is pleased to announce the publication of his first graphic novel, Grampa and Julie: Shark Hunters.
Grampa and Julie: Shark Hunters is a winner of a 2003 Xeric Foundation self-publishing grant, a grant awarded by the organization founded by Kevin Eastman, best known as the creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It collects, with significant amounts of new and redrawn material, Czekaj's hilarious adventure comic strips that originally appeared in the award-winning children's magazine, Nickelodeon. It is distributed exclusively by Georgia-based publisher, Top Shelf Productions.
The book, a full-color, 128 page graphic novel suitable for children and adults of all ages, follows the exploits of Julie, a 10-year-old girl, and her grandfather (or, as he is known to us, "Grampa"), a wacky ichthyologist with a penchant for wearing an upside-down map on his head and getting into trouble, on a quest to find Stephen, the largest shark in the world. Along the way they meet talking cats, a rapping squirrel, nerdy pirates, and entrepreneurial penguins as they travel from the bottom of the ocean to the furthest reaches of outer space.
"As I was writing the strips over the past 4 years, I've always had the overarching storyline in the back of my mind, so it would read as one continuous, albeit crazy, adventure. I'm excited to be able to collect them all in one loopy epic adventure yarn," says Czekaj.
Chris Staros, publisher of Top Shelf Productions is equally excited: "It's been clear to Top Shelf for some time that we've needed a few fantastic all-ages books in our line. After all, comics will never become the "thing to do" unless kids discover great comics at an early age. Jef Czekaj's Grampa and Julie: Shark Hunters is a real coup for us."
Jef Czekaj, a Somerville-based artist and musician, allows his underground sensibilities to run wild (he was first known for his copyright-busting self-published comic about R2-D2 playing in a punk rock band) to create a whimsical yet not cloying or condescending world that both children and adults will love, somehow reminiscent of both The Simpsons and Tin Tin. Czekaj has strong Boston ties in both the local rock community (he is a founding member of the Handstand Command music collective) and art community (he has participated in Somerville's Art Beat festival for the past 4 years, designed the Art Beat logo in 2002, and founded the Somerville Comics Collaborative).
Local release plans for the book include a book release party/rock show (September 18 at the Milky Way Lounge) and a book signing (at Million Year Picnic).
For more information, interviews, or review copies contact: Jef Czekaj,
617.501.2505, jef@czekaj.com
Czekaj's web page: http://www.czekaj.com
Specific press information about the book, including photos and hi-res
images from the book: http://www.czekaj.com/gjpromo/promo.html
Jef Czekaj is an illustrator, cartoonist, musician, and poster artist who lives and works in Somerville, Massachusetts.
His critically-acclaimed comic, "Grampa and Julie: Shark Hunters" is read by over a million children monthly in Spanish and English in Nickelodeon Magazine (a collection of the first 3 years of this strip has just been collected in a book of the same name (Top Shelf)). His self-published comic Hypertruck has been called "the funniest indie-obsessed subcultural screed ever photocopied" by the Seattle Stranger. His logo for the City of Somerville's Art Beat Festival appeared on t-shirts, posters, banners, and aprons in the summer of 2002. He has been awarded several Massachusetts Cultural Council grants. In 1999, he and Alex Pirie formed The Somerville Comics Collaborative. The organization uses the medium of comics as a means of bringing different community groups, businesses, artists, and people of all ages and backgrounds together around the common ground of storytelling using words and pictures. They have published several short collaborative comics and one 96-page graphic novel drawn by Somerville youth, Fire on the Nunnery Grounds, and organized a city-wide celebration of comics. He is currently at work illustrating a book for Charlesbridge Publishing, and, of course, creating new "Grampa and Julie" strips.
He is also a founding member of the Handstand Command music collective, a small group of like-minded musicians based in Somerville. He performs in smoky bars in bands with tragically-doomed names like The Tardy, The Anchormen, Sinkcharmer, and Plunge Into Death.
Last year Boston Magazine included Jef on their list of "hot" visual artists. He's not sure what that means, but appreciates the compliment.
