Twilight
Twilight: The Graphic Novel to bow with 350,000-copy first printing [Updated]
Twilight: The Graphic Novel, Vol. 1
Yen Press will debut its graphic-novel adaptation of Twilight on March 16 with a staggering first printing of 350,000 copies.
That figure comes from Entertainment Weekly‘s Shelf Life blog, which offers a look at the cover and interior art, plus an excerpt from an interview with Twilight author Stephenie Meyer. (A 10 -page preview plus the full Q&A will run in the new edition of the magazine, which hits stands on Friday.)
Announced in July, Twilight: The Graphic Novel is adapted and illustrated by Korean artist Young Kim, with input from Meyer, whose series of young-adult novels has sold 53 million copies worldwide.
Yen Press, a subsidiary of Hachette Book Group USA, recently published adaptations of James Patterson’s Maximum Ride and Darren Shan’s Cirque du Freak, and in December announced plans to “re-imagine” Cecily von Ziegesar’s Gossip Girl novels.
Update: Brigid Alverson posts the official press release, which indicates Twilight: The Graphic Novel will be a $19.99 hardcover.
- January 20, 2010 @ 06:18 AM by Kevin Melrose
Batman and Spider-Man have a new nemesis: Twilight
New Moon
Move over, Joker and Green Goblin: Edward Cullen’s here to give you a real run for your money.
New Moon, the second in a series of adaptations of author Stephenie Meyer’s teen-vampire Twilight saga, stunned Hollywood and shattered box-office records this past weekend by taking in $140.7 million over its opening weekend. As best I can tell, the film is now the box-office record-holder for Biggest Advance Ticket Sales, Biggest Midnight Screening, Biggest Opening Day, Biggest Friday, Biggest Two-Day, Biggest November Opening, and Biggest Non-Summer 3-Day Weekend. The movie currently ranks third on the list of all-time opening-weekend box-office champs, behind only the summer superhero blockbusters The Dark Knight ($158.4mil, 2008) and Spider-Man 3 ($151mil, 2007).
In shattering all those other records, the movie leapfrogged claims previously staked by such fanboy-beloved franchises as Batman, Spider-Man, Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter, Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings. In particular, New Moon‘s dethroning of The Dark Knight as the reigning opening-day record-holder caused much agita among nerds of my acquaintance. Fortunately for them, the movie ultimately came up short for the weekend title — proving that when push comes to shove, audiences prefer serious stuff like billionaires who dress up as bats to fight evil clowns or young men whose spider-like superhuman abilities interfere with their love lives to all this emo-vampire-werewolf silliness.
Then again, when No. 3 in the series, Eclipse, hits this summer on June 30th, who knows what’ll happen?
- November 23, 2009 @ 08:04 AM by Sean T. Collins
Marvel vs. Twilight — fight!
Okay, not really — I live with a Twilight fan, and as a co-writer of the latest episode of Marvel.com’s Marvel Super Heroes: What The–?! video series, I can assure you it’s all good-natured ribbing. Still, I think veterans of this summer’s bloody Twilight-at-Comic-Con culture war will get a kick out of this Marvel-fied parody of Stephenie Meyer’s teen-vampire saga, whose latest movie adaptation, New Moon, hits screens at midnight tonight. (Did anyone else know Dr. Michael Morbius was European?)
- November 19, 2009 @ 08:57 AM by Sean T. Collins
After Meyer biography, Bluewater will conjure Rowling (and her unicorn)
Female Force: J.K. Rowling
Bluewater Productions isn’t all about biographies of politicians, dead celebrities, dead politicians and presidential pets.
Just two months ago the publisher announced a comic detailing the life of Twilight author Stephenie Meyer. And now comes news the Vancouver, Washington-based company is setting its sights on one of the biggest names in modern fiction: Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling.
Like the Meyer comic, the Rowling one-shot will be released under the “Female Force” banner, which has been home to biographies of such public figures as Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, Sarah Palin and Princess Diana.
It’s unclear, though, whether, like Meyer’s title, Rowling’s will be narrated by a fictional character. (In Meyer’s case, it’s “the most famous vampire of them all.” For Rowling, I vote for a house-elf.)
“She is a remarkable and multi-dimensional woman,” writer Adam Gragg said in a press release. “Learning about who she is and how she struggled to become a success was a truly enlightening experience. Twelve publishers turned her down. If it weren’t for the daughter of a British publisher who liked Rowling’s first chapter of Philosopher’s Stone, we might never have met Harry Potter.”
The comic’s cover, as Rowling devotees are well aware, depicts a pivotal moment from the author’s life previously only seen air-brushed on the side of a van: When an aged unicorn-physician tended to Rowling’s dislocated shoulder.
Female Force: J.K. Rowling is set for release in December.
- September 9, 2009 @ 11:34 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Girl Genius
Awards | Girl Genius, Vol. 8, by Kaja and Phil Foglio, and The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman, received the 2009 Hugo Awards last night for Best Graphic Story and Best Novel, respectively. The awards, presented each year at Worldcon, recognize the best in science fiction and fantasy. [The Hugo Awards]
Events | An art auction held Saturday at Chicago Comic-Con raised more than $13,250 for veteran writer John Ostrander, who’s been battling glaucoma. An additional $15,000 has been donated through the Comix 4 Sight website. [Comic Book Resources]
Publishing | Tom Spurgeon previews some of the fall’s more notable releases. [The Comics Reporter]
Twilight: The Graphic Novel
Retailing | Boston comic store Comicopia has launched a blog to update Twilight fans on the franchise’s moves into comics, and to recommend other titles (such as Vampire Knight). [Twilight@Comicopia]
Creators | Playing off of a recent article at The A.V. Club, Justin Zyduck considers 21 writers who changed mainstream comics, for better or worse. Among them: Brian Michael Bendis, Chris Claremont, Gardner Fox, Geoff Johns, Stan Lee and Harvey Pekar. [MightyGodKing]
Creators | Neil Gaiman discusses storytelling, the mainstreaming of comics, and working with Marvel and DC: “They’re sweet people and I love working with them but dealing with them is often a lot like being nibbled to death by ducks.” [io9.com]
- August 10, 2009 @ 06:50 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Twilight
Conventions | Retailer Christopher Butcher, organizer of the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, surveys the comics-convention landscape and wonders where the comics are. He also comments on the Twilight “controversy” at Comic-Con International: “… The 10,000 Twilight fans at the con really were a problem for the show, but a lot of the reasons that got floated came from a sexist, xenophobic, bullshit fanboy place. I actually feel bad even writing this, but truly, legitimately, 6,000 people at the show just for Twilight means 6,000 people that weren’t spending money at the show means 6,000 people that might’ve wanted to go that had an interest in dropping a few bucks at the various vendors? Shut out.” [Comics212]
Publishing | Where have all the great comic-book hucksters gone? [Comiks Debris]
- July 31, 2009 @ 07:49 AM by Kevin Melrose
SDCC ’09 | There’s trouble in Camp Twilight
Camp Twilight (photo by Andy Khouri)
There’s turmoil brewing in Camp Twilight, the name given to the tent-and-sleeping bag city that sprang up outside of the San Diego Convention Center as fans began lining up two days ago for this afternoon’s New Moon panel.
Jevon Phillips reports that some people — adult TwiMoms are singled out — have been cutting in line and saving spaces. Needless to say, that doesn’t sit well with some of the fans, whose numbers last night were placed anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000. A few teen girls, outraged that convention security is allowing places to be saved, speak out on video.
“They asked a 17-year-old [actor Taylor Lautner, presumably] to sign their thong,” on girl says. “That’s disgusting. If a guy was asking a 17-year-old girl that, he could get arrested.”
By 1:45 this afternoon, things could get really ugly.
And if fans spot the glaring discrepancies between the anemic, fully clothed Edward doll and the buff, shirtless Jacob doll, convention organizers may have to call in the National Guard.
- July 23, 2009 @ 07:42 AM by Kevin Melrose
SDCC ’09 | Behold the power of Twilight
"Twilight" fans camp out at Comic-Con
More than 100 Twilight fans already are lined up outside the San Diego Convention Center for Summit Entertainment’s New Moon panel … which doesn’t actually begin until 1:45 p.m. tomorrow. By then, of course, there will be enough members of Team Edward and Team Jacob to fill Hall H to overflowing.
(via Sean Collins)
- July 22, 2009 @ 04:42 PM by Kevin Melrose
Roundtable | Girls and fandom
This week’s controversy over the scheduling of a Twilight movie at San Diego Comic-Con raised an issue that we at Good Comics for Kids have been thinking about for a while: Why don’t girls’ comics (and their other enthusiasms, for that matter) get any respect? Even the comics bloggers who leaped to defend the Twilight fans often speak with contempt of genres aimed at tween and teen girls, an attitude that was on full display later this week when Yen Press announced it would be publishing a Twilight manga.
So I sent out the Bat-Signal to my fellow Good Comics for Kids bloggers and asked what they thought.
Robin Brenner: I find it especially distressing that the SDCC crowd, made up of fans who have been typically dismissed and marginalized by the larger culture including comics fans, fantasy fans, and sci-fi fans, seem to think it’s perfectly warranted to dump on fans who you would think they have a lot more in common with than traits to divide them.
- July 20, 2009 @ 01:55 PM by Brigid Alverson
Bluewater stakes a claim to biography of Twilight author
Female Force: Stephenie Meyer
Yen Press isn’t the only publisher getting in on the Twilight phenomenon.
Bluewater Productions, which has been churning out one political biography after another, is now turning its attention to Twilight author Stephenie Meyer.
The comic will be released in October under the company’s “Female Force” banner, which has been home to biographies on such public figures as Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, Sarah Palin and Princess Diana.
“We chose Stephenie Meyer to be one of the subjects for Female Force because her voice is one for a new generation,” Bluewater Publisher Darren G. Davis tells Diamond’s PreviewsWorld. “Now people will find out the history of how she created this series, as well as her life story.”
Billed as “the first-ever illustrated biography of the world-renowned author,” the Meyer comic doesn’t appear to be authorized by the 35-year-old novelist.
Also, I’m not sure what to make of the phrase, “witness her story being told by the most famous vampire of them all.” Is the comic being narrated by Dracula? Edward Cullen?
Meyer released the first novel in her vampire-romance series in 2003. To date, the four-volume Twilight Saga has sold 53 million copies worldwide. A 2008 film adaptation grossed nearly $400 million worldwide. A sequel, New Moon, will open in theaters in November.
It was announced yesterday that Yen Press will adapt Twilight as a series of graphic novels, under the supervision of Meyer.
- July 16, 2009 @ 01:00 PM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Twilight art
Publishing | ICv2.com calls the just-announced graphic-novel adaptation of Twilight from Yen Press “the closest thing to printing money that we’ve heard about this year.” That sounds about right. The retailer-oriented website goes on to characterize the move as “the kind of deal that could be a transformational event for Yen,” the three-year-old imprint of Hachette Book Group. Brigid Alverson rounds up some online reaction. [ICv2.com]
Publishing | Viz Media rolls out its complete SIGIKKI online manga magazine, and reveals the titles that will join Children of the Sea on the free website. [press release]
Johnny's Resin figures
Legal | Here’s a little more on DC Comics’ multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Bradenton, Florida, resident John Stacks, who’s accused of selling unauthorized resin kit figurines based on the 1960s Batman TV series. “This was not a profit thing,” Stacks says. “This was a hobby that I enjoy. … It’s not that I’m making a fortune. I’m making nothing. It’s ridiculous.” [Bradenton Herald]
Crime | If you’ve been wondering what became of the young man who, dressed as Superman, got into a highly publicized scuffle with police last week in Times Square, wonder no more: Twenty-three-year-old Bronx resident Maksim Katsnelson has withstood the mockery, and even gained a fan following. Kevin Deutsch gets Our Hero’s backstory. [The Riverdale Press]
Publishing | Sean Kleefeld points out that Marvel stock is at its highest point ever. [Kleefeld on Comics]
- July 16, 2009 @ 07:07 AM by Kevin Melrose