Platinum's rich and successful history
of turning international properties into popular film and television programs
will help brand our characters all over the world. It was
announced today by Angela Burt-Murray, editor-in-chief of the preeminent
magazine for more than seven million African Americans.
Patrik Henry Bass, books editor for ESSENCE magazine, has been an integral
part of this evolution and thus has become the voice of African American
literature.

greatest bibliography

com
Hexagon Comics is a syndicate of comic book creators that controls a rich
library of comic book properties created over the past 50 years for seminal
comics publisher Editions Lug, previously France's largest comic book house. The far-reaching
campaign is designed to inspire adults, teens and children to read more,
underscore the importance of parents reading to their children, and to
stimulate public support for libraries that are sorely lacking resources in
urban areas. Since its
inception, ESSENCE has been the leading portal of introduction for emerging
African American literary talent, celebrating established authors and
reflecting publishing trends within the African American community. The winner , The Cats in
Krasinski Square by Karen Hesse, illustrated by Wendy Watson
(Scholastic Books) is a quietly compelling, poetic rendering of a
young girl's resistance to the horror of life in the Warsaw Ghetto,
illuminating the darkness of the time in terms that are gentle and
accessible enough for young readers.

patricia authors

Platinum is also acquiring a
percentage of the company."
The Hexagon Universe was born in 1950 when two formers heroes of the
French Resistance teamed up to create Editions Lug , and then further teamed up
with creators from around the world.
Tim Bradford won Koret's Young Writer on Jewish Themes award. This year, nearly 500 publisher submissions were juried by
panels of prominent academics, novelists, and distinguished writers.

genres spotlight

essence.W.
The Koret Jewish Book Awards will be presented on Monday, April
11, at an invitation-only ceremony at the Jewish Community Center of
San Francisco.

plot magician

"Our partnership with Platinum Studios provides a tremendous opportunity
for us and our creators," said Jean-Marc Lofficier, Hexagon Comics' managing
editor.com
Platinum Studios is an entertainment company that controls the world's
largest independent library of comic book characters, which it adapts and
produces for film, television and all other media.

Book Club members will
receive a monthly e-mail containing details of the most recent book selection ,
links to exclusive author forums, interactive internet chats, chapter
previews, upcoming book news and prizes.
Tony Eprile produced the fiction category winner with his debut
novel, The Persistence of Memory (W.

genres literature

In the 1970s, Lug later acquired the
rights to publish Marvel Comics in France.

com. He is also the author of Like A Mighty Stream, The
March on Washington, August 28, 1963 (Running Press, 2002).

spotlight analysis

Individuals can sign-up by logging on to http://www. Published by Essence Communications Inc. A
Ph.

fiction characters

Platinum Studios Partners With Europe's Largest Creator-Owned Comic Book Syndicate Hexagon Comics for Worldwide Film and Television Properties

Other properties in development include:

* "Cowboys + Aliens" -- Sony
* "Unique" -- Disney
* "Mal Chance" -- Miramax
* "Dylan Dog" + "Storm" -- The Shop
* 10 Picture $200 Million slate with Gold Circle

As creator and head of Malibu Comics Entertainment, which Rosenberg sold
to Marvel Comics in 1994, he developed the "Men In Black" comic which he
brought to Sony Pictures to become a billion -dollar entertainment franchise. "The
translation is outstanding, and the culmination of a lifetime of the
highest level of scholarly achievement," said Steven J.) won the award for biography. Koret judges cited Bradford's achievement in blending
fiction, poetry, photographs, and historical documents into a graceful
and significant story.

ward authors

The acquisition will add
thousands of stories and an additional 500 characters, such as the
"Strangers", a superhero comic that has recently been reproduced in the United
States by Image Comics; "Wampus", a shape-shifting alien (banned in the 60's
by the French government for being too scary); and "Kabur", a sword-wielding
barbarian in a land of magic.
"This is the first time, literally, that the rights have become available,
and I've been following this library of characters for years because of its
incredibly rich content," said Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, chairman of Platinum
Studios.
The first selection is New York Times best-selling author Pearl Cleage's
newest book, Baby Brother's Blues (One World/Ballantine Books, $24.

fiction novelists

,
it is the leading source of cutting-edge information relating to every area of
African American women 's lives. The
book is a learned, accessible, and unflinchingly honest theological
work that resulted from the author's decade-long struggle to reconcile
his religious beliefs and his sexual orientation , and conveys his
evolution to resolution.

theme magician

In
addition, each selected title will feature The ESSENCE Book Club Recommended
Read logo on the book's cover, which will be sold in bookstores throughout the
country.
In addition to children's literature and biography, Koret Jewish
Book Awards are conferred in the categories of history, fiction, and
philosophy and thought. Set in the
dizzying final days of the apartheid regime in his native South
Africa, Eprile's novel, written from his adopted home in Vermont,
explores the curse of a perfect memory in a nation plagued with
rose-colored recall.

wizards setting

The company brought
Belgium graphic novel series "Jeremiah" to TV screens with a 35-hour
maxi-series starring Luke Perry and Sean Astin and is currently working on a
feature film prequel . He is an award-winning writer and editor, with an extensive
background in publishing covering books , lifestyle and popular culture.

novelists patricia

"Reading strengthens education," said Angela Burt-Murray, editor -in-chief
of ESSENCE magazine, the preeminent lifestyle magazine for more than seven
million African -Americans. Throughout the year,
ESSENCE will select a recently released, classic fiction or non-fiction title
by an African-American author to be highlighted. Terry McMillan, Gloria Naylor and Edward P .
"We are thrilled that Pearl Cleage's newest book is the first selection of
The ESSENCE Book Club Recommended Read program," said Bass.
Alter, the Class of 1937 Professor of Hebrew and Comparative
Literature and Director of Jewish Studies at the University of
California, Berkeley, won a special award for translation and
commentary for The Five Books of Moses (W.jccsf.

bibliography plot

"
Platinum Studios has a successful record of acquiring valuable comic
properties and developing them for television and film.platinumstudios.org
Since their inception in 1998, the Koret Jewish Book Awards have
become the most prestigious awards in Jewish writing, giving
heightened attention to the best Jewish books in the categories of
biography, fiction, history, and philosophy, and now, children's
literature .

literature bibliography

com.

Zipperstein,
chairman of the Koret Jewish Book Awards advisory board and director
of the Taube Center for Jewish Studies at Stanford University.
For the first time in the program 's seven-year history, a prize
was awarded for children's literature. W. Norton + Company).
In celebration of the 2005 Koret Jewish Book Awards, the Jewish
Community Center of San Francisco will present a "Literary Arts
Mosaic" on Saturday, April 9 and Sunday, April 10, with a series of
free events showcasing the Award winners as well as other celebrated
local authors, including Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) and
Shalom Auslander in Conversation. A detailed schedule of events is
available at www.

short patricia

, Platinum Studios, an
entertainment company that controls the world's largest independent library of
comic book characters, announced today the acquisition of exclusive rights to
develop worldwide film and television properties based on Hexagon Comics'
famous universe of comic book characters . Jean-Marc Lofficier, who was then the line's main writer-editor,
managed to enlist the support of his fellow creators to organize the "Hexagon
Universe" syndicate.
Hexagon's 5000 comic book library consists of over 500 characters that have
sold over 400 million units, mostly in France, Italy and Spain. Cleage
is also the lead author profile in ESSENCE's upcoming March 2006 issue, which
goes on sale February 7.

wrede structure

The monthly comic books displayed
in France for 53 years sold more than 400 million units in France, Spain and
Italy.hexagoncomics.

ESSENCE Announces ESSENCE Book Club Recommended Read Program and Launches National Reading Campaign

NEW YORK, ESSENCE magazine will launch The ESSENCE
Book Club Recommended Read program and a national reading campaign.org

allscifi authors

wizards fiction

Hexagon Comics is France's largest independent library of creator-owned
properties. This important campaign is an opportunity to affect large-scale
progress.essence. Jones are among the
dozens of authors who launched their writing careers in the pages of the
magazine."
Details about other components of the yearlong campaign, including a
parent's challenge to read to their children and ways to support public
libraries, will be announced in the coming weeks. For more information about
The ESSENCE Book Club Recommended Read program, see the upcoming March 2006
issue of ESSENCE magazine or visit http://www. Norton + Company).
The award for philosophy and thought was granted to a courageous
work of self-exploration, Wrestling with God and Men: Homosexuality in
the Jewish Tradition (University of Wisconsin Press) by Rabbi Steven
Greenberg, an Orthodox, homosexual rabbi and one of the leading
educators at CLAL -- The National Jewish Center for Learning and
Leadership , founded by the renowned Yitz Greenberg (no relation). Previous years' awards ceremonies have been held in New
York.

patricia fiction

The Hexagon Universe Adds 500 Adventure, Horror, Science Fiction, and
Superhero Characters to Platinum's World-Renowned Library of 2,000 Properties

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif . The 50 year history of this comic universe adds additional depth
to the already extensive library of Platinum comics.

About Platinum Studios http://www. Hexagon was
formed in 2004, when these creators regained the rights to their own
creations.95). For more than 35 years, ESSENCE has celebrated
personal achievement, chronicled social movement, documented struggles,
showcased beauty , defined and set trends.
Each book award carries a $10,000 prize.

analysis authors

Platinum Studios' library
contains more than 2,000 characters and a full range of genres and styles that
have appeared in hundreds of millions of comics worldwide.
ESSENCE is the authority on African American literature. He has
also written and edited for a number of publications including The New York
Times, O: The Oprah Magazine, Publisher's Weekly, The Washington Post, Time
Out New York, Brooklyn Bridge, Entertainment Weekly and BET Weekend, where he
was a founding editor. This marks the first year that the Koret Jewish Book
Awards ceremony will be held in San Francisco, home of the Koret
Foundation.
For an invitation to the April 11 ceremony, please contact the
Koret Foundation at kjba@koretfoundation .

fiction spotlight

"We are very excited about the potential of these characters, and
are pleased to provide the original creators with their first opportunity to
receive both credits and royalties for their creations.

Bass and photographer and artist Karen Pugh coauthored
In Our Own Image: Treasured African-American Traditions, Journeys and Icons
(Running Press, 2001).
Oz's A Tale of Love and Darkness, translated from the Hebrew by
Nicolas de Lange (Harcourt, Inc.

authors bibliography

"
The main element of the campaign is The ESSENCE Book Club Recommended Read
program, one of the largest book clubs of its kind. "The Book Club
provides a key place for the African American community to share its thoughts
about the books that inspire them the most.

News Editors/Book Editors

SAN FRANCISCO----Robert Alter's
path-breaking translation and commentary on The Five Books of Moses
and Amos Oz's celebrated memoir of growing up in the fledgling State
of Israel have been selected as 2004-2005 Koret Jewish Book Award
winners, it was announced today.D.

analysis allscifi

About Hexagon Comics http://www. The
Essence Best-Sellers List, which appears each month in the magazine and
on-line, is the foremost measure of book sales within the African American
community. Also, the recently announced ESSENCE Short Fiction Contest received
more than 2,000 entries from regions as far as Africa and Japan.

ABOUT ESSENCE:
With more than seven million readers, ESSENCE is the preeminent lifestyle
magazine for African American women. A work
of uncommon insight, passion, and deep, searching intelligence , the
memoir is a story -- as seen through the uncannily persuasive eyes of
a child -- of Oz's parents, of Jerusalem in the late 1940s and early
'50s, and of a young, haunted Israeli state. candidate at Oklahoma State University, Bradford is currently
conducting research for a novella on the history of the Velodrome
d'Hiver, the 1942 roundup of French and stateless Jews who were held
in the winter cycling stadium in Paris before being shipped off to
Auschwitz. The winning Young Writer
(under 40) on Jewish Themes receives a $25,000 award and the
opportunity to spend a quarter in residence at Stanford University,
teaching, researching, and writing.

similar detailed

"This is our second rebirth. "Education increases achievement and impacts social
change. ESSENCE editors will also provide
online discussion questions and reader guidelines about the featured book.

UC Berkeley Prof's New Torah Translation Tops Koret Jewish Book Award Winners

In the history category, Elisheva Baumgarten's Mothers and
Children: Jewish Family Life in Medieval Europe (Princeton University
Press) is an original and fascinating portrait of the intimacy of
Jewish family, motherhood, and childhood in the context of life in
medieval Christian Europe.