"MOPED ARMY" MAKES 2007 A.L.A. "GREAT GRAPHIC NOVELS
FOR TEENS" LIST

PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE POSTING AND RELEASE:
January 25, 2007

Paul Sizer's "MOPED ARMY" graphic novel has been awarded a place on the American Library Association's "Great Graphic Novels for Teens" list for 2007. The awards list was finalized and announced at the ALA's annual Midwinter Conference being held this week in Seattle, Washington.

This is the first year for the "Great Graphic Novels for Teens" awards list, due to the increased presence and popularity of graphic novels in library systems across the country. The awards drew nominations from all genres of graphic novels, and the "Great Graphic Novels for Teens" committee members had 143 nominations to debate, discuss and choose from. The committee had their final meeting at the ALA Midwinter Conference to edit down the nominations down to a final list of winners. When the dust settled, 57 graphic novels made the final list of the best for 2007. Also of note, MOPED ARMY was one of the only winners from a self publisher. This news follows MOPED ARMY being named by Voice of Youth Advocates reviewer Kat Kan as one of the top 24 graphic novels reviewed in the last 12 years for VOYA Magazine. For a PDF link to Kat Kan's "The Double Dozen" article in this month's VOYA magazine, click here.

"I'm ecstatic that "MOPED ARMY" made it to the final list!" said writer/artist Paul Sizer. "This list is so important for books that want to find a place in libraries. Graphic novels have become more and more a mainstay in popular culture; TIME Magazine's "Book of the Year" was the graphic novel "Fun Home" by Alison Bechdel, and Gene Luan Yang's graphic novel "American Born Chinese" just got the ALA's Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature (the first time a graphic novel has won this award). This is the year of the graphic novel breaking into mainstream "best of" lists that award traditional books. I've gotten such amazing support from librarians from all over the country for "MOPED ARMY", and making this list is the cherry on top of everything!"

Sizer is also announcing that he will be exhibiting at this year's ALA Conference in Washington D.C. in June. He, along with wife and fellow comic creator Jane Irwin (VOGELEIN) and comic author Jim Ottaviani (DIGNIFYING SCIENCE, FALLOUT), will be exhibiting in the graphic novel pavilion of the massive yearly convention. With Sizer's "Great Graphic Novels for Teens" award for MOPED ARMY, and Irwin's second VOGELEIN book being released, the comic creators decided it was time to take the plunge and meet over 25,000 librarians at this convention. "We've all done years of comic conventions; now we want to show our books to a new and very receptive audience on the national level. We're very excited at the potential exposure this conference will give us, and we want to show with our newest and strongest material."

Additional information about the 2007 "Great Graphic Novels for Teens" awards