Courtney Crumrin Vol. 1: The Night Things Square One Edition

"Courtney Crumrin is a fun series, cover to cover." — School Library Journal

Courtney Crumrin grumbles about everything, but now she's really got something to grumble over. Having run out of credit cards, her parents are moving to the wealthy suburb of Hillsborough, to live rent-free with their creepy old uncle Aloysius. Courtney is now an outcast among her rich, snobby classmates.

And if that weren't bad enough, the musty, decrepit old mansion that she now calls home is occupied by stranger creatures than just her parents or Uncle Aloysius. They crawl about the house, just out of sight. They crunch bones in the corner. They climb up on the bed and watch Courtney while she sleeps. Mom and Dad don't notice them, but Uncle Aloysius calls them the Night Things.

Ted Naifeh first caught the attention of the independent comics scene in 1999 as the artist for Gloomcookie, the goth romance comic he co-created with beloved author Serena Valentino. After a successful run, Ted struck out on his own, writing and drawing Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things, a spooky children’s fantasy series about a grumpy little girl and her adventures with her Warlock uncle. Nominated for an Eisner Award for Best Limited Series, Courtney Crumrin's success paved the way for Polly and the Pirates, another tween adventure series, this time about a prim and proper girl who’s secretly the daughter of a long-lost queen. Over the next few years, Ted wrote four volumes of Courtney Crumrin, plus a spin-off book about her uncle Aloysius. Since then, Ted has worked with many great co-creators. He illustrated Death Junior with famed screenwriter Gary Whitta. For world-renowned fantasy author Holly Black, he illustrated TheGood Neighbors, a three volume graphic novel series, published by Scholastic. And he teamed with Spider-Gwen co-creator Robbi Rodriguez for a sequel to Polly and the Pirates. In 2012, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Courtney Crumrin, Ted wrote and illustrated the final two volumes of the series. He’s since authored Princess Ugg, the tale of a barbarian princess going to princess finishing school. And in a radical departure from his previous work, he created Night’s Dominion, an experimental project blending high fantasy with superheroes. But unable to stay away, Ted returned to Courtney’s world with The Crumrin Chronicles, a new three-volume series in the eponymous heroine’s magical world. Ted lives in San Francisco, where he enjoys the dreary weather.