Summers Goes High School Noir and more.

Cartoonist Jimmy Gownley started with a doodle of a little girl and ended up with Amelia Rules, a popular kids’ comic that eventually became a self-published graphic novel and then an eight-volume series, now published by Simon & Schuster.

In what looks to be the graphic publishing literary event of the year, Seven Stories Press will publish the first volume of the Graphic Canon: Gilgamesh to Shakespeare to Dangerous Liaisons in April, the first of a three-volume anthology of graphic interpretations of the world’s literary classics created by 130 comics artists and illustrators. The next two volumes, Volume 2: Kubla Khan to the Brontë Sisters to the Picture of Dorian Gray and Volume 3: From Heart of Darkness to Hemingway to Infinite Jest, will be published in July and October of 2012, respectively.

Barnes & Noble has just announced that it won’t be carrying Amazon-published titles. Independent booksellers are balking too. Why does this all sound so familiar?

In a major deal, Riverhead’s Sarah McGrath bought the buzzed-about Depression-era debut novel by Anton DiSclafani, The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls.

This week, picks take us to thrilling territory, onto alternate worlds, back to the Renaissance, and into the Mumbai slums. Plus: a comedic memoir, a “magically delicious” YA series kickoff, and more.

Your not-quite-comprehensive guide to what’s dropping the week of February 6.

In The Conundrum, David Owen sounds a wake-up call for those who think they’re helping by eating local, buying more fuel-efficient cars, and fitting their house with compact fluorescents.

More than a book, Book of Sith is a collectable souvenir and a multimedia experience, with a mechanized case that automatically opens, disgorging the blood-red hardcover with flashing lights and Star Wars sound effects.

Comedian and TV writer Sarah Colonna is following her boss Chelsea Handler into the world of wittily self-deprecating/self-aggrandizing memoir with Life As I Blow It, out Feb. 7 from Villard.