Larry Doyle is the writer of one of my favorite “novels about high school” in recent years, “I Love You, Beth Cooper.” It’s about to be a big deal of a movie starring everyone’s favorite super-hero cheerleader, Hayden Panettiere, from Heroes. You can catch the trailer at the “I Love You Beth Cooper” website. The movie opens July 10. Chris Columbus, that Harry Potter guy, directed from Doyle’s screenplay and the movie also stars Samm Levine (from Freaks and Geeks), and Alan Ruck (from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Captain John Harriman from Star Trek: Generations), so already it has geek cred with me.

But comic fans might know Doyle because he’s also written for The Simpsons TV show (and all comic book fans must be fans of The Simpsons; I think it’s a law). He also was the writer hired to revive Walt Kelly’s classic comic strip Pogo in the late 1980s with artist Neal Sternecky.

Doyle’s newest book has recently been announced, timed to coincide with the release of the movie of his last book, so well-played publicist, well-played. It looks like another one to pre-order from the Amazon when the time is right: Go Mutants! It’s another high school-based story, only this time it’s about the offspring of classic movie monsters trying to assimilate. Brian Grazer, whose hair could make a cameo appearance, will produce for Universal Studios (the studio that also has the rights to the classic Frankenstein, Dracula, Mummy, Wolfman, Creature From The Black Lagoon characters, so maybe “boom goes the synergy…”). Unfortunately for my reading eyes, the book won’t be out until next year. But that’s okay, I can always spend my time rewatching “Beth Cooper” when it’s out on DVD.

Over at the HarperCollins website, Doyle talks about how he got his gig writing for The Simpsons. It’s also a fascinating peek at how to survive as a working writer and how connections are everything.

The Olive Reader, which is the blog of Harper Perennial (who can keep these Harper-based things straight without the proverbial database), has an interview with Doyle. Part one is here. Part two is here.

[Photo: A publicity shot from “I Love You, Beth Cooper” because well, why the heck not?]