Manga Worth Reading

Putting out a Twilight manga is a perfect combination for the teen girl target audience. No specific release date has been announced, but publisher Yen Press should have a huge hit, especially if they can get it out around the July 2010 date of the third movie. (I’m guessing November of this year, when the second film, New Moon, is due, is too soon.)

Art is by Korean artist Young Kim, which makes me think it will be left-to-right, which will make it an easier read for much of the American audience. This guess is backed up by the original news post referring to the project using the term “graphic novel”.

Many comic/manga fans are dismayed, since they hate the novels, but they also acknowledge this is a great business decision for the company. The big question is, as always, will this translate into additional comic or manga readers? Other popular franchises (Buffy, for example, or some of the science fiction titles) have found that while fans will buy more adventures of their favorites in illustrated format, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re willing to buy other comics. Also, this Twilight project sounds like an adaptation, so fans may feel that they already know the story. (That didn’t harm the movie, but there’s an additional thrill from *seeing* the characters you’ve envisioned.)

Many purchases of this will likely happen in bookstores, so they don’t necessarily have a reason to encourage the customers to try other graphic novels or manga. Melinda Beasi is more optimistic.

If by some reason you’re not already familiar with Twilight, Lucy Knisley has a wonderful comic strip about her experience becoming addicted to the series. Then she drew very funny short summaries of each book.

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