Twilight Graphic Novel Details, Preview Available

Twilight: The Graphic Novel cover

Yen Press announced that they would be publishing a Twilight manga adaptation last July. Now, more details on Twilight: The Graphic Novel are available.

Of note: the title clearly labels it a graphic novel, which is probably better than calling it manga (which comes with all kinds of assumptions attached). The book will be hardcover, list price $19.99, although Amazon already has it at 45% off, for a price of $11. The release date is March 16, 2010. At the time of this writing, it is the fourth best-selling book at the online retailer.

Amazon bestsellers

The hope is that this will expose more readers to the comic format, and this is certainly a great deal for Yen, but I suspect that these customers would buy anything with the Twilight logo on it. Whether they continue reading graphic novels would depend on whether there’s more easy-to-find material that they will enjoy. (Yen is also publishing a Gossip Girl spinoff, so there’s one possibility.)

Twilight: The Graphic Novel cover

The first printing will be 350,000 copies, a large number, especially for comics, but, given customer demand, a reasonable one. (The Twilight books are reported to have sold 85 million copies across four volumes.) This volume only adapts the first half of the prose novel, with a Volume 2 coming at a date to be announced. The artist, Young Kim, is Korean, and this is her first major sequential work. She is adapting with feedback from author Stephenie Meyer. From Yen’s press release,

A rare fusion of Asian and Western comic techniques is reflected in this black-and-white graphic novel with color interspersed throughout. Meyer consulted throughout the artistic process and had input on every panel.

That should reassure readers concerned about authenticity. Since Korean comics are printed left-to-right, there should be no issues with panel flow (as there would be with a manga). Based on this EW preview, the characters are appropriately moody, but the dialogue fonts are horrible. They need to use hand lettering (or a facsimile) instead of typeset lettering. For more information, buy Entertainment Weekly on Friday; they’re promising a 10-page preview and interview with Meyer.



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