Exclusive: Hope Larson Teams with Rebecca Mock for High Seas Adventure in ‘Compass South’

Hope Larson, the award-winning cartoonist behind A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel, has teamed up with illustrator Rebecca Mock for Compass South, the first book in the planned middle-grade graphic novel series telling the story of a pair of young twins in 19th century New York who tumble into a world of piracy, adventure, and hidden treasure. ComicsAlliance has an exclusive first look at Rebecca Mock's wonderful cover, which introduces the characters Cleopatra and Alexander.

Due for release next summer, with the second book in the series, Knife's Edge, to follow in 2017, Compass South promises to be a thrilling tale for young readers in the tradition of Robert Louis Stevenson. Rebecca Mock is new to comics, but we're already fans of her illustration style, packed as it is with style, charm and personality, while Hope Larson is an exceptional storyteller who knows how to keep young readers engaged. Compass South should be a great journey.

Publisher FSG describes the story as follows:

It's 1860 in New York City. When 12-year-old twins Alexander and Cleopatra's father disappears, they join the Black Hook Gang and are caught by the police pulling off a heist. They agree to reveal the identity of the gang in exchange for tickets to New Orleans. But once there, Alex is shanghaied to work on a ship that is heading for San Francisco via Cape Horn. Cleo stows away on a steamer to New Granada where she hopes to catch a train to San Francisco to find her brother. Neither Alexander nor Cleo realizes the real danger they are in --- they are being followed by pirates who think they hold the key to treasure. How they outwit the pirates and find each other makes for a fast-paced, breathtaking adventure.

The book comes out June 2016 from FSG, a division of Macmillan.