about the book
In a medieval kingdom that blends magic, fantastical creatures, and high tech wizardry lives a knight who loses his arm while training. In this kingdom, heroes can’t fight with mechanical limbs, so Lord Ballister Blackheart has no choice but become a villain and a by-the-book sort of mad scientist.
Of course, every true villain needs a sidekick, so it isn’t surprising when a rambunctious young shape shifter starts to dog his every step. Tough smart-alecky Nimona is not applying for the job; she’s just taking it. Their relationship is going to be prickly from the very start!
Lord Ballister has a vendetta. He wants to prove to the entire kingdom that their champion, his one-time friend and now hated nemesis, Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin, isn’t the good guy everyone thinks he is! And don’t even get started on his scumbag pals or the Director at the Institution of Law Enforcement and Heroics, which is really a secret front for their nefarious schemes. Brash and impulsive, Nimona is more than happy to help him take down Goldenloin.
Though they intend to wreak some serious mayhem, their mischievous plans quickly go awry as Nimona’s actions get out of control. She shifts from character to character and finally ends up as a ferocious Hulk-like creature and a destructive fire-breathing dragon! It becomes quite apparent to Lord Ballister that the blood-thirsty Nimona is appallingly conniving and has some major anger management issues!
This super good bad guy needs to learn to trust his new self-imposed sidekick. They make a great family, especially on game night…that is, if Nimona’s mysterious past and dark secrets don’t destroy all they have worked so hard to achieve!
about the author/illustrator
Noelle Stevenson was born in Columbia, South Carolina. Who knew that by the age of 23, this southern girl would be making major waves in the comic book industry?
Even before she graduated from the Maryland Institute of Art, Noelle drew attention to her cartoon creations. Back in 2012, she and a friend began exchanging sketches of the male superhero Hawkeye in the same sexy poses that are traditionally used for female characters, taking a snide shot at the notoriously sexist comic book world. When she posted the drawings online, this joke became the massively successful Haweye Initiative. Later she gained a following under the name “gingerhaze” with her hipster fan art of the Lord of the Rings characters.
This female-centric cartoonist has had a year that would make most traditional male cartoon creators Hulk green with envy. Right out of college, she got jobs with Frederator, Pumpkin Studios, Boom!, Random House, and MacMillan Press! Her serialized web comic Nimona was adapted into a young adult graphic novel and made the New York Times best-sellers list. She co-launched the wildly successful all-girl comic series, Lumberjanes, which has also been published in graphic novel format. Big name movie companies bought the film rights to both Nimona and Lumberjanes. She was awarded the Slate Cartoonist Studio Prize for Best Web Comic for Nimona. And to top it all off, she and the rest of the Lumberjanes team walked away with the 2015 Eisners for Best New Series award and the Best Publication for Teens award!
The Lumberjane’s first graphic novel collects issues one through four. The idea for the series came from Boom! editor Shannon Watters, and after Ross Richie, company CEO, helped her flesh out the idea, they approached Grace Ellis to write the project. She brought in Noelle as a co-writer and Brooke A. Allen for character design. Shannon and Brooke did the illustrations.
Noelle’s one big disappointment is that all-male teams are screenwriting both the Nimona and the Lumberjanes movies. Though she has never written for screen, she would have liked to have a chance to prove that girls are just as good as the good-old-boys in the film industry.
Lately she has been working as a writer for Marvel on the comics Thor Annual and Runaways. She is also part of the writing team for Disney’s animated TV series Wander Over Yonder. She makes her home in Los Angeles, California. In her spare time, she still enjoys drawing superheroes and talking about bad TV on Tumblr and Twitter.
Sources:
Author website
Author biography: Goodreads
“How Noelle Stevenson Broke All the Rules to Conquer the Comic Book World”: Vanity Fair
Author biography: Wikipedia
Author & Illustrator interview: Comics Alliance
Also by Noelle Stevenson:
Nimona. Harperteen. 2015.
Lumberjanes (Books 10-17) with Grace Ellis. Boom! Box. 2015.
Lumberjanes (Books 2-9) with Grace Ellis. Boom! Box. 2015.
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