Oni Press will publish the first solo graphic novel by animator and artist Zachary Sterling, and Graphix has a second middle-grade in the works as well.
Punch Up! is the first volume of a planned trilogy about Pitch, an orphaned boy who wants to be a martial arts fighter. Pitch sets his sights on competing in the Wide Plains Fighting Tournament, but there’s more to his dreams than proving his prowess as a fighter: He hopes to meet Sonny Chan, an aging fighter whom Pitch believes is really his father. Both the subject matter and the style are strongly influenced by shonen manga, and Sterling plans on surrounding Pitch with a diverse cast of friends and foes. Oni will release Punch Up! as a 146-page paperback on June 6, 2023, with an MSRP of $15.99; the book is rated for ages 12 and up.
Sterling is also the creator of Mabuhay!, a middle-grade graphic novel about two Filipino American siblings who don’t take their parents’ folk tales from the old country seriously – until the witches and monsters they’ve been told about actually show up and threaten their family and their town. The 240-page paperback is rated for readers 8 to 12, and Graphix will publish it on October 17, 2023, as both a hardcover with an MSRP of $24.99 and a paperback with an MSRP of $17.99.
Sterling is a Filipino American artist and animator who was a penciller and inker on BOOM! Studios’ Adventure Time and Bee and Puppycat comics (see “Character Candidacies Seek Geek Support”), and he was also a prop designer for the Bee and Puppycat animated series.
Source: ICv2
