Today what will probably be the biggest selling graphic novel—or hybrid graphic novels, or picto-fic or whatever you want to call it—of the year goes on sale. Wimpy Kid #9, The Long Haul is the latest installment of Jeff Kinney’s best selling series, and it finds the Heffleys going on a sumer road trip. Anyone who grew up with a family and car will immediately need no further hype as to the horrors and comedy plot potential inherent in the family road trip, but just in case you need more of a pitch:
That’s from a preview up at Publishers Weekly. There’s also an activity guide, embedded below.
In it’s first week, Wimpy Kid #8 Hard Luck sold 1.3 million copies in all formats. The series as a whole had 115 million copies in print as of a year ago. It may not really be a comic, but it is a verbal/visual blend, and it is probably the biggest book series currently going.
Wimpy Kid #9 is on sales today —but if you have a child under the age of 12 you probably already knew that.
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The brilliant bit of marketing:
Scholastic Book Club is shipping preorders to kids so they get the book at school today.