Owly to be published in color by Simon & Schuster

It’s been a little bit since we saw an indie comic get picked up by a mainstream publisher, but after many months of rumors, it is true: Andy Runton’s popular Owly character is a getting a full color book, to be published in March by Simon & Schuster. The book is licensed from Top Shelf, which has been Owly’s home for five books and six years.

Top Shelf is proud to announce that the all-new OWLY picture book by Andy Runton is in the current Diamond Previews catalog and available for pre-ordering! This 40-page full-color hardcover picture book (with a dust jacket) is published by Simon & Schuster under license from Top Shelf, and we’re all very excited to add this new dimension to the Owly Universe!

You can pre-order the book now at your local comic shop, or directly from us below. Owly & Wormy: Friends All Aflutter! is scheduled for a March 2011 release.

Owly and Wormy want butterflies! But when they come home from Mrs. Raccoon’s nursery with a milkweed plant that’s supposed to attract some fluttering friends, what they get instead are chubby, green bugs! But green bugs are not butterflies! Will butterflies ever come to the forest? Only time will tell… Bold, graphic, and full of fun, this wordless storybook gives all-ages readers the wings they need to start reading on their own, and a firm footing on the idea of metamorphosis as they watch old friends become new friends.