Tag Archives: lucky penny

DFTBA Adds Ngozi Ukazu, Yuko Ota and Ananth Hirsh, Tess Stone, Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener, to its Storefront

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Beloved online merchandiser and storefront for top internet creators Don’t Forget To Be Awesome (DFTBA) has added a diverse array of award-winning and nominated comic creators to its roster.The newest additions include Ngozi Ukazu (Check, Please!), Yuko Ota and Ananth Hirsh (Johnny Wander, Lucky Penny), Tess Stone (Not Drunk Enough, Buzz), Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener (Atomic Robo, Real Science Adventures). 

Fans of the creators will be able to purchase various merchandise including books, stickers, shirts, totes, and more directly!

Ngozi Ukazu’s Check, Please! is an internet phenomenon, having several top performing crowdfunding campaigns for her self-published editions of the series, which is also published by First Second, and was the first graphic novel to ever be nominated for a YALSA Morris Award.

Store

Yuko Ota and Ananth Hirsh have run their comics on JohnnyWander.com for the past 10 years, initially focusing on autobio comics, collected in the Ignatz award winning omnibus Our Cats Are More Famous Than Us, they’ve also put out fiction works including the critically acclaimed Lucky Penny, and currently focus on the Reuben Award winning Barbarous.

Store

Tess Stone’s Not Drunk Enough is the Harvey Award Nominated horror comedy series that is currently wrapping up its second volume of content. He has also collaborated with Ananth Hirsh on the shonen spelling bee graphic novel BUZZ!

Store

Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener started working on Eisner-Nominated Atomic Robo and Real Science Adventures over 10 years ago. Going from print to online, a familiar home for Clevinger who previously was known for 8-Bit Theater, they now have over a dozen self-published volumes of work with more to come.

Store

Around the Tubes

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scalped_1It’s new comic book day tomorrow! What’s everyone excited for? We’ll have our picks in a few hours, but until then, here’s some comic news and reviews from around the web in our morning roundup.

Around the Tubes

ICv2 – Vertigo Series ‘Scalped’ Gets Pilot Order – Hope this gets picked up.

The Comichron – February 2016 comics sales estimates online: Dark Knight III #3 tops 146k copies – For those that enjoy what sales numbers there are.

The Outhousers – Zendaya Cast as Michelle in Upcoming Spider-Man Reboot – Well ok then.

The Consumerist – Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal In Batmobile Copyright Case – Not surprising.

 

Around the Tubes Reviews

Talking Comics – Lucky Penny Vol. 1

Review: Lucky Penny

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Lucky Penny, a new graphic novel from Oni Press, is the ironically-titled tale of Penny Brighton, who is a complete and utter human disaster. The story spins out of Johnny Wander, an ongoing webcomic by writer Ananth Hirsh and artist Yuko Ota.

Lucky Penny began as a webcomic in 2012. The print edition collects all of Penny’s misadventures as Penny tries to figure out where to go and what to do after losing her job and her apartment in the same day. The story bears some resemblance to Brian Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim series in terms of bumbling, young main characters, but that’s about where the comparison ends. All of the characters are charmingly dorky and relatable, and Penny is unflaggingly optimistic despite her poor luck. Her narrative is chuckling-under-your-breath-in-public funny. We’ve all been Penny at some point or another, where nothing is going right and you get kicked out of your apartment and are forced to live in a storage unit. You know. The usual.

The characters in Lucky Penny work so well because they’re quirky, but the narrative highlights these quirks rather than putting characters down for them. One of her definitive traits is her penchant for reading romance novels, and instead of looking down the nose at her for reading steamy romance, Penny herself celebrates the romance novels (one of two things she inherited from her grandmother, she says) and the other characters do (or learn to) as well.

This novel is appropriate for young adults and up, and readers of all ages will likely find it humorous. It’s a fun, lighthearted read. Readers will be rooting for Penny within the first few pages, because we all know someone with her abysmal luck. This is partly what makes the book so enjoyable–the desire to see Penny succeed, but it’s also in large part due to the visual humor and the art.

Yuko Ota’s art is consistently good throughout the whole book. All of the art is black and white, but the shading gives the characters dimension and the style is very clean. Ota and Hirsh work incredibly well together in terms of storytelling, and it shows in the finished product. All of the characters are wonderfully expressive, giving them another element of relatability.

Lucky Penny is a fast but uplifting read, and readers of all ages will be able to relate to the characters and their respective quirks.

Story: Ananth Hirsh Art: Yuko Ota
Story: 7.5, Art: 9.5 Overall: 8.5 Recommendation: Buy

Oni Press provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

Preview: Lucky Penny

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LUCKY PENNY

(W) Ananth Hirsh
(A/CA) Yuko Ota
Price: $19.99
Age Range: 13 and up
Genre: Comedy, Romance

If Penny Brighton didn’t have bad luck, she’d have no luck at all. She lost her job. And her apartment. In the same day. But it’s okay, her friend has a cozy storage unit she can crash in. And there’s bound to be career opportunities at the neighborhood laundromat—just look how fast that 12-year-old who runs the place made it to management! Plus, there’s this sweet guy at the community center, and maybe Penny can even have a conversation with him without being a total dork. Surely Penny is a capable of becoming an actual responsible adult, and if she can do that her luck’s bound to change! Right?

LUCKYPENNY-MARKETING_press-preview-1

Oni Press announces two new YA titles: Lucky Penny and Graveyard Quest

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Oni Press has announced two books with almost nothing in common: Lucky Penny by writer Ananth Hirsh and artist Yuko Ota, and Graveyard Quest by KC Green. Originally serialized online, these tales are about as different as day and night, although in the end they’re both the tale of a sad sack down on their luck.

In Lucky Penny, if Penny Brighton didn’t have bad luck, she’d have no luck at all. She lost her job. And her apartment. In the same day. But it’s okay, her friend has a cozy storage unit she can crash in. And there’s bound to be career opportunities at the neighborhood laundromat—just look how fast that 12-year-old who runs the place made it to management! Plus, there’s this sweet guy at the community center, and maybe Penny can even have a conversation with him without being a total dork. Surely Penny is a capable of becoming an actual responsible adult, and if she can do that her luck’s bound to change! Right?

Well, at least this print edition is fully toned and includes extra goodies like excerpts from Penny’s collection of HOT FANTASY ROMANCE BOOKS, OH MY! (Did you hear George Takei when you read that? I hope you did.) Lucky Penny is perfect for fans of Scott Pilgrim, another slice-of-life comic about a kinda-sorta lovable loser!

Lucky Penny arrives in stores on March 9, 2016.

Lucky Penny

Running the family business in the shadow of your father can be a drag, especially when you’re a gravedigger and that shadow is actually your dad’s overly critical ghost. From creator KC Green’s hugely popular webcomic Gunshow, Graveyard Quest follows a blue-collar skeleton and his mole buddy on their journey to Hell and back to retrieve his most prized possession. It’s a story about the things we do for love, and the many mistakes we make along the way.

Including a never-before-seen epilogue, Graveyard Quest is Dante’s Inferno for the Internet generation, and fans of Perry Bible Fellowship will love to laugh at the gravedigger’s pain like the terrible people they are (just kidding, you’re all wonderful, go be you).

Graveyard Quest arrives in stores on March 23, 2016.

Graveyard Quest