‘Sesame Street’ Comics Coming by Year’s End From Ape Entertainment

Sunny days sweeping the clouds away are bringing some sweet air to comic stores and mobile devices later this year with the news that classic children's television show Sesame Street will come to comics for the first time in its 43 year history via Ape Entertainment.USA Today broke the news that the indie publisher is planning a four issue mini-series based on the PBS show that'll be released in two formats: a traditional comic for the direct market, and a hardcover book with additional material for parents that'll be released in mainstream book outlets like Barnes & Noble and Amazon that Ape CEO David Hedgecock describes as "a sturdier format so [that] when you pick it up and want to read it to your 3-year-old, they're going to finger it and play with it and it's not going to fall apart in your hands."

The partnership is the result of more than eighteen months' worth of negotiation between the publisher and the Sesame Workshop, which Hedgecock called "a tough row to hoe," as well as a particular kind of "research" - Namely, Hedgecock and his 2-year old son watching the show and, in the former's case - having to deal with the new format and characters that have appeared in recent years. "When I first started to watch it with my son, I was like 'These new characters, they don't know what they're doing! This isn't right!'," he admitted, adding "But as I've watched the show and started to really enjoy it, they have really grown on me. Now Murray is probably one of my absolute favorites and I can't get enough of Elmo."

Ape's Sesame Street is expected to launch before the end of the year.