''Little Lit'' is a

comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

anthology series published by ''

New Yorker New Yorker may refer to: * A resident of New York: ** A resident of New York City and its suburbs *** List of people from New York City ** A resident of the New York (state), State of New York *** Demographics of New York (state) * ''The New Yor ...

'' art editor,

Françoise Mouly Françoise Mouly (; born 24 October 1955) is a French-born American designer, editor and publisher. She is best known as co-founder, co-editor, and publisher of the comics and graphics magazine ''Raw (comics magazine), Raw'' (1980–1991), as t ...

, and

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

-winning cartoonist,

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

. The couple had collaborated previously on '' RAW'' in the 1980s. ''Little Lit'' featured work by some of ''RAW''s 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. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

artists such as

Maurice Sendak Maurice Bernard Sendak (; June 10, 1928 – May 8, 2012) was an American author and illustrator of children's books. Born to Polish-Jewish parents, his childhood was impacted by the death of many of his family members during the Holocaust. Send ...

and

Ian Falconer Ian Woodward Falconer (August 25, 1959 – March 7, 2023) was an American author and illustrator of children's books as well as a designer of sets and costumes for the theater. He created 30 covers for ''The New Yorker'' and also for other publ ...

. 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 ...

, "from the Little Lit Library". The second volume, ''Strange Stories for Strange Kids'', was given a 2002 Firecracker Alternative Book Award.

Description

Each volume of ''Little Lit'' is a collection of original

comics a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...

created expressly for children, authored by major cartoonists and literary figures. Contributors include writers such as

Paul Auster Paul Benjamin Auster (February 3, 1947 – April 30, 2024) was an American writer, novelist, memoirist, poet, and filmmaker. His notable works include '' The New York Trilogy'' (1987), '' Moon Palace'' (1989), '' The Music of Chance'' (1990), ' ...

Neil Gaiman Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman (; born Neil Richard Gaiman; 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, audio theatre, and screenplays. His works include the comic series ''The Sandman (comic book), The Sandma ...

, 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 col ...

; 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 (comic book), Eightball'', a solo anthology comic book series. An ''E ...

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. Personal life Born Scott Richards ...

, 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'' (2012 ...

; 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 Fascism, fascist and Propaganda of Nazi Germany, Nazi propaganda broadcaster during the World War II, Second World War. After moving from ...

Barbara McClintock Barbara McClintock (June 16, 1902 – September 2, 1992) was an American scientist and cytogenetics, cytogeneticist who was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. McClintock received her PhD in botany from Cornell University ...

and

Lemony Snicket Lemony Snicket is the pen name of American author Daniel Handler and a fictional character of his creation. Handler has published various children's books under the name, including ''A Series of Unfortunate Events'', which has sold over 60 millio ...

(

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 Question ...

). Volume one includes a vintage cartoon by

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

. 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 to ...

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

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...

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 Art Spiegelman {{comic-stub