Houghton Mifflin Invites Booksellers to Draw Up a Winner

Houghton Mifflin is calling on booksellers "of all stripes" -- including managers, owners, and frontline staff -- to participate in its "Best American Comic Drawing Contest."

Contest invites booksellers to draw Harvey Pekar.

The prize contest, which is outlined in a flier in the October Red Box mailing to stores with Book Sense, invites booksellers to draw comics legend Harvey Pekar for a brand-new annual collection, The Best American Comics 2006. Prospective participants should take note that "artistic skills count, but they count less than good comedy." Five winners will be chosen on January 5, 2007.

Harvey Pekar, author of the award-winning American Splendor series, and series editor Anne Elizabeth Moore, will judge all entries. Winning comics will be exhibited online at Houghton Mifflin and BookSense.com, and will be displayed at ABA's Second Annual Winter Institute.

One grand prize-winner will receive:

• a 11" x 14" poster of The Best American Comics 2006 jacket signed by Harvey Pekar;
• a signed copy of The Best American Comics 2006; and
• a complete set of The Best American Series titles, including The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2006 (edited by Dave Eggers with an Introduction by Matt Groening), and Short Stories, Essays, Travel, Sports, Mysteries, and more.

Four additional winners will receive a copy of The Best American Comics 2006.

The contest is only open to booksellers. Entries may be sent via e-mail to [email protected] or to Christina Smith, Houghton Mifflin Company, 222 Berkeley St., Boston, MA 02116. Black-and-white and color comics will be accepted. The deadline is December 31, 2006. Participants must be at least 18 years old and live in the U.S. No submissions of a previously published comic will be accepted. One entry per person allowed.