Harper Perennial Releases Animated Trailer For THE ART OF WAR: A GRAPHIC NOVEL

NEW YORK, May 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Harper Perennial, the literary fiction imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, today announced the release of an animated trailer to promote THE ART OF WAR: A GRAPHIC NOVEL by Kelly Roman and Michael DeWeese.  The book, edited by Will Hinton, is scheduled for release on July 31, 2012.

Adapting the iconic text by Sun Tzu, THE ART OF WAR: A GRAPHIC NOVEL explores a violent near-future when financial markets are militarized and China is the dominant economy. The book took six years to write and illustrate, with most of the pages hand-painted on watercolor paper. 

"THE ART OF WAR: A GRAPHIC NOVEL should be required reading for those concerned with the future of America and its place in the world," states Minxin Pei, professor of government at Claremont McKenna College and a former senior associate in the Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment.

Illustrator Michael DeWeese used animation software to bring the book's artwork to life in the two-minute trailer.  In addition to illustrating THE ART OF WAR, DeWeese has worked as the lead storyboard artist for Lady Gaga's music videos.

"We wanted to raise the bar for book trailers and produce something that does the graphic novel justice," states author Kelly Roman. "Hopefully it will intrigue and inspire people to read the 50-page sample and pre-order the book, because pre-ordering assures that you receive the limited first edition on the same day it hits stores." 

The trailer has been released on YouTube: http://youtu.be/9OUHsNZgjnM

The 50-page sample may be read on the book's website: http://www.theartofwargraphicnovel.com/

About Kelly Roman and Michael DeWeese
Kelly Roman learned woodblock printmaking at Deerfield Academy and graduated from Harvard University where he studied creative writing with Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Richard Ford. Kelly is a co-owner of Fisher Wallace Laboratories, a progressive medical device manufacturer. THE ART OF WAR is his debut graphic novel.

Michael DeWeese graduated from the North Carolina School of the Arts in 2006 and has worked as a storyboard artist for music video and commercial directors. In 2010 he executed the storyboards for Lady Gaga's "Alejandro" video, directed by Steven Klein.

About HarperCollins Publishers
HarperCollins, one of the largest English-language publishers in the world, is a subsidiary of News Corporation (NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV). Headquartered in New York, HarperCollins has publishing groups around the world including the HarperCollins General Books Group, HarperCollins Children's Books Group, Zondervan, HarperCollins UK, HarperCollins Canada, HarperCollins Australia/New Zealand and HarperCollins India. HarperCollins is a broad-based publisher with strengths in literary and commercial fiction, business books, children's books, cookbooks, mystery, romance, reference, religious and spiritual books. With nearly 200 years of history HarperCollins has published some of the world's foremost authors and has won numerous awards including the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, the Newbery Medal and the Caldecott. Consistently at the forefront of innovation and technological advancement HarperCollins is the first publisher to digitize its content and create a global digital warehouse to protect the rights of its authors, meet consumer demand and generate additional business opportunities. You can visit HarperCollins Publishers on the Internet at http://www.harpercollins.com.

SOURCE Kelly Roman