Tales of The Beanworld by Larry Marder
Tales of the Beanworld (a.k.a. Beanworld 3.5) is going on sale this week. Once again, Dark Horse spun their editorial and art magic producing another handsome hardcover volume. This one is in full color! We fondly call it Beanworld 3.5 because it’s a standalone book that takes place in between the events in Beanworld Books 3 and 4. It presents three and a half interwoven stories that I trust will delight new and longtime readers alike.
I'm writing this from the floor of the American Library Association Annual Conference. Earlier today, Scott McCloud, author of Understanding Comics, and I were on a panel about Beanworld in front of a crowd of library professionals interested in learning more about graphic novels.
Scott and I have been friends a long time. (The very first fan letter Scott received about Zot! #1 was written by me. We’ve been fast friends ever since.) Decades ago we passed many a day talking about dreams of a time when the rest of the world would appreciate comics, and their power as an expressive medium, as much as we did.
When Scott and I began making comics, a lot of the world looked down their noses at the medium, if they thought about it at all. So, it was amazing to me to be on a stage at the nation's most important gathering of library professionals, where there was a whole programming track and exhibit area dedicated to comics, and where I was invited to talk about my comic book. It was even more amazing to me that there were attendees in the audience who grew up on Beanworld, and are now using it to inspire a new generation of their patrons to discover their own creativity by interacting with the Beanworld. Many librarians told me that the powerful word-of-mouth recommendations for Beanworld sweeping from kid to kid are a phenomenon that takes off on its own as soon as the books arrive and are placed on their shelves.
I realize as an artist I couldn't be luckier than to be in the position I’m in today, and I couldn't be more excited to be making new explorations into my personal myth, and to be telling new Beanworld stories in an amazing deluxe format barely dreamt of for the comic book medium when I first started making my own comics. But most of all, thanks to Dark Horse, I couldn't be more fortunate than to be sharing Beanworld stories with whole new audiences from grade school to grad school, and far beyond.
Larry Marder