A World of Words Reinvented in Pictures

By George Gene Gustines
Published New York Times: February 8, 2010

Look! Up in the sky! It’s a prose author moving a ton of graphic novels!

Left - Stephenie Meyer has adapted “Twilight” as a graphic novel.
From “Twilight” by Stephenie Meyer; artwork by Young Kim

Right - Beans in a scene from “Troublemaker!: A Barnaby Adventure” by Janet Evanovich.

Last month Yen Press announced that it would print 350,000 copies of a graphic-novel adaptation of “Twilight,” the first part of the immensely popular vampire saga created by Stephenie Meyer. Now comes word from Dark Horse Comics that it will print 100,000 copies of a graphic novel by Janet Evanovich, the best-selling mystery writer, which will continue her “Motor Mouth” series of novels.

These are staggering initial print runs for graphic novels. More typical is a run of 20,000 to 25,000, which is usually enough for both the comic-book market and general bookstores, according to Milton Griepp, the publisher and founder of ICv2, an online trade publication that covers pop culture for retailers.

“Three hundred and fifty thousand is way higher than anything anybody’s done that I’m aware of for a new graphic novel,” Mr. Griepp wrote in an e-mail message.

In August 2008, expecting a major sales bump from the film version of “Watchmen,” DC Comics printed more than 900,000 copies of the softcover collected edition of the comic. According to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks bookstore sales, 733,000 copies of that edition were sold in 2008 and 2009 combined. More than 170,000 copies were sold in comic stores in those two years, according to estimates at ICv2.

“Watchmen,” a dark tale by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, has been a perennial top seller since the limited series was first collected in 1987. In 2001 it sold around 22,000 copies; in 2007 it sold nearly 100,000.

“We were really pushing the boundaries for the history of the category, and with a property like ‘Twilight,’ it seemed justified,” said Kurt Hassler, the publishing director for Yen Press.

When “Breaking Dawn,” the fourth and final installment of the vampire saga went on sale in 2008, Little, Brown & Company Books for Young Readers, Ms. Meyer’s publisher, printed 3.2 million copies; 45 million copies of the four “Twilight” books have been sold in the United States. If even a small percentage of this audience tries the graphic novel, the ambitious printing will seem like a safe bet. (Little, Brown and Yen Press are divisions of the Hachette Book Group.)

“Twilight” will be split into two graphic novels. Mr. Hassler said that Ms. Meyer was involved in “every panel of every page” of the adaptation, down to the dialogue balloons.
“The characters and settings are very close to what I was imagining while writing the series,” Ms. Meyer said in a statement.

The first graphic novel, illustrated by Young Kim, a Korean artist, will be released on March 16 as a $19.99 hardcover in the same trim size as the original novels. “This will fit very nicely on fans’ bookshelves,” Mr. Hassler said.

In Ms. Evanovich’s case, rather than an adaptation, “Troublemaker!: A Barnaby Adventure” will be the third installment of a series, after her best-selling “Metro Girl” and “Motor Mouth” novels. These revolve around a Nascar driver named Sam Hooker and Alexandra Barnaby, a mechanic.

This two-part graphic novel is being written with Ms. Evanovich’s daughter, Alexandra, a fellow comic-book fan. The first part will be released on July 20 as a $17.99 hardcover. The second is due in the fall.
Ms. Evanovich said she was fascinated by how different the experience was from the usual solitary life of a writer. “This is such a team effort,” she said. “Not only working with Alex, but the whole Dark Horse team.”

The authors collaborated closely with the book’s artist, Joelle Jones, to convey their vision of the characters. “She finally just nailed it,” Ms. Evanovich said.
But that was only Step 1. “Now we’re seeing how complicated and intricate this process is,” she added, as each page moves from penciller to inker to colorist and to letterer.

“We’re still learning,” she said. “We’re seeing where our mistakes are.”

An important goal for “Troublemaker!” was to attract Ms. Evanovich’s fan base to a new format. “We thought it was a great opportunity to expand the readership of graphic novels,” said Michael Martens, the vice president for business development at Dark Horse Comics, an independent publisher.

As a result, the graphic novel is written as much for Ms. Evanovich’s core readers as it is for comic-book fans. “This really is the third book in the series,” she said.
Ms. Evanovich said she would love to see all her books turned into graphic novels: “We signed a two-book contract with Dark Horse and we’re hoping it’ll turn into a 100-book contract.”
More at NYT.