''Little Lit'' is a

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

anthology series published by ''

New Yorker New Yorker or ''variant'' primarily refers to: * A resident of the State of New York ** Demographics of New York (state) * A resident of New York City ** List of people from New York City * ''The New Yorker'', a magazine founded in 1925 * '' The ...

'' art editor,

Françoise Mouly Françoise Mouly (; born 24 October 1955) is a Paris-born New York-based designer, editor, and publisher. She is best known as co-founder, co-editor, and publisher of the comics and graphics magazine '' Raw'' (1980–1991), as the publisher of ...

, and Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist,

Art Spiegelman Art Spiegelman (; born Itzhak Avraham ben Zeev Spiegelman on February 15, 1948) is an American cartoonist, editor, and comics advocate best known for his graphic novel '' Maus''. His work as co-editor on the comics magazines ''Arcade'' and '' Ra ...

. The couple had collaborated previously on ''

RAW Raw is an adjective usually describing: * Raw materials, basic materials from which products are manufactured or made * Raw food, uncooked food Raw or RAW may also refer to: Computing and electronics * .RAW, a proprietary mass spectrometry dat ...

'' in the 1980s. ''Little Lit'' featured work by some of ''RAWs most famous contributors as well as established

children's book Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

artists such as Maurice Sendak and Ian Falconer. Three volumes and one selected compilation have been published; the last volume was published in 2003, but now stand-alone books are being published in

Toon Books Toon Books is a publisher of hardcover comic book early readers founded by Françoise Mouly. With titles by such creators as Geoffrey Hayes, Jay Lynch, Dean Haspiel, Eleanor Davis, and Mouly's collaborator and husband, Art Spiegelman, Toon Books pr ...

, "from the Little Lit Library".

Description

Each volume of ''Little Lit'' is a collection of original comics created expressly for children, authored by major cartoonists and literary figures. Contributors include writers such as

Paul Auster Paul Benjamin Auster (born February 3, 1947) is an American writer and film director. His notable works include '' The New York Trilogy'' (1987), '' Moon Palace'' (1989), '' The Music of Chance'' (1990), '' The Book of Illusions'' (2002), ''The ...

, Neil Gaiman, and

David Sedaris David Raymond Sedaris (; born December 26, 1956) is an American humorist, comedian, author, and radio contributor. He was publicly recognized in 1992 when National Public Radio broadcast his essay " Santaland Diaries.” He published his first c ...

; cartoonists such as

Daniel Clowes Daniel Gillespie Clowes (; born April 14, 1961) is an American cartoonist, graphic novelist, illustrator, and screenwriter. Most of Clowes's work first appeared in '' Eightball'', a solo anthology comic book series. An ''Eightball'' issue typi ...

Tony Millionaire Tony Millionaire (born Scott Richardson in 1956) is an American cartoonist, illustrator and author known for his syndicated comic strip '' Maakies'' and the '' Sock Monkey'' series of comics and picture books. He lives in Yarmouth, Maine at ...

, and

Chris Ware Franklin Christenson "Chris" Ware (born December 28, 1967) is an American cartoonist known for his '' Acme Novelty Library'' series (begun 1994) and the graphic novels ''Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth'' (2000), ''Building Stories'' (201 ...

; and children's writers such as

William Joyce William Brooke Joyce (24 April 1906 – 3 January 1946), nicknamed Lord Haw-Haw, was an American-born fascist and Nazi propaganda broadcaster during the Second World War. After moving from New York to Ireland and subsequently to England, ...

, Barbara McClintock and

Lemony Snicket Lemony Snicket is the pen name of American author Daniel Handler (born February 28, 1970). Handler has published several children's books under the name, most notably ''A Series of Unfortunate Events'', which has sold over 60 million copies and s ...

(

Daniel Handler Daniel Handler (born February 28, 1970) is an American author, musician, screenwriter, television writer, and television producer. He is best known for his children's book series ''A Series of Unfortunate Events'' and ''All the Wrong Questions ...

). Volume one includes a vintage cartoon by

Walt Kelly Walter Crawford Kelly Jr. (August 25, 1913 – October 18, 1973), commonly known as Walt Kelly, was an American animator and cartoonist, best known for the comic strip '' Pogo''. He began his animation career in 1936 at Walt Disney Studios, contr ...

. The series began publication in 2000 with a 64-page hardcover book, ''Little Lit: Folklore & Fairy Tale Funnies''. This was followed by two subsequent volumes, ''Strange Stories for Strange Kids'', and ''It Was a Dark and Silly Night...'' The third volume deviated slightly from previous versions, reducing the page count to 48 pages. A smaller-sized paperback book called ''Big Fat Little Lit'' was published in 2006 by

Puffin Books Puffin Books is a longstanding children's imprint of the British publishers Penguin Books. Since the 1960s, it has been among the largest publishers of children's books in the UK and much of the English-speaking world. The imprint now belongs t ...

. This volume is a 144-page collection of selected comics from the first three

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News ...

books.

Toon Books

As of 2008, stand-alone comic books for children are being published by

, described as "from the Little Lit Library".

References

External links

*
''TOON Books''website
2000 comics debuts 2003 comics endings Comics anthologies Series of children's books HarperCollins books Puffin Books books {{comic-stub