RANDOM HOUSE CHILDREN’S BOOKS ACQUIRES GRAPHIC NOVEL SERIES HILO BY JUDD WINICK, AWARD-WINNING CARTOONIST

AND FORMER CAST MEMBER OF MTV’S THE REAL WORLD

 

First Book in the Series to be Published in Spring 2015

 

“Winick has a sense of timing and adventure that is rare in children’s literature,

and a knack for thinking like a kid that’s even rarer. I think it’s because he still is one at heart.

HILO is delightful, silly, tender, and most importantly: funny.”

—Jeff Smith, Bone

 

“A perfect book for any kid who ever needed a friend and then had one with superpowers fall from space.”

—Seth Meyers, actor, comedian, head writer and performer Saturday Night Live

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New York, NY, April 18, 2013—Random House Children’s Books has acquired world rights for Judd Winick’s graphic novel series, HILO, it was announced today by Mallory Loehr, Vice President, Publishing Director of the Random House/Golden Books Young Readers Group. Executive Editor Shana Corey acquired for Random House from Jodi Reamer of Writers House, and will edit the series.

 

Random House will publish the first book in the series in North America in spring 2015, with simultaneous publication as an ebook.

 

HILO is an action-packed, full-color, middle-grade graphic novel series bursting with robots, aliens, humor, and adventure. It introduces the loveable D.J. and Gina, whose uninteresting lives get a lot more interesting when a mysterious boy, Hilo, falls from the sky and lands outside their small town.  Together, their raucous adventures take them to the ends of the universe to save the world from Robot Destroyers and discover the secret of Hilo’s past. HILO is Judd’s children’s book debut.

 

“We are absolutely delighted to welcome Judd Winick to Random House Children’s Books and bring his genius to a new genre—children’s,” says Loehr. “Judd’s comic book background will lend itself brilliantly to this new age group and we know kids will love the characters and enjoy the adventure that HILO offers.”

 

JUDD WINICK is a former cast member of MTV’s The Real World: San Francisco in 1994.  In the wake of the death of his Real World roommate and friend, AIDS activist Pedro Zamora, Winick embarked on a national AIDS education lecture tour. Later, that lecture and his friendship with Zamora were documented in his award-winning graphic novel Pedro and Me.

 

Judd is also an award-winning cartoonist.  He followed up Pedro and Me with his original comic book series Adventures of Barry Ween, Boy Genius and a long-running stint as one of the top writers on mainstream superhero comics. He has also scripted such bestselling titles as Batman, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Catwoman, Batwing, Superman, Shazam, Outsiders, Titans, Justice League for DC Comics, Exiles for Marvel, and Star Wars for Dark Horse. Judd was the creator and executive producer of Cartoon Network’s series The Life and Times of Juniper Lee, and was the screenwriter for Batman: Under the Red Hood, the animated feature adaptation of one of his Batman stories. He is currently head writer on the HULU network’s brand-new animated series, The Awesomes.

 

Random House Books for Young Readers is an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, the world’s largest English-language children’s trade book publisher. Random House Children’s Books is a division of Random House, Inc., whose parent company is Bertelsmann, a leading international media company.