MARVEL, DEL REY JOIN TO PRODUCE OEL MANGA WITH X-MEN & WOLVERINE

[MattBrady]

Today at the New York Anime Festival, Marvel and Del Rey announced a joint project which will see their most popular properties produced as Original English Language manga: X-Men and Wolverine - the manga.

The deal, which will see two volumes of each produced in a traditional manga digest size, began when Marvel and Del Rey were in negotiations to publish the Iron Man movie adaptation, and grew to the final product. The black and white digests will be printed left-to-right, in a Western style format, and publication will begin in spring of 2009.

Creators named for the titles are:

X-Men - Written by Raina Telgemeier and Dave Roman with art by the Indonesian artist, Anzu.
Wolverine - Antony Johnston was named as writer, with the artist to be named later.

Del Rey’s Dallas Middaugh stressed that the titles will be looking to reach out to manga readers – clearly a different readership than the traditional X-Men fan, as such, the styles of the two series will be shojo (aimed at girls) and shonen (aimed at boys), respectively. That is:

X-Men will be a shojo style manga, where the Xavier School is still a mutant academy, but it's a all-boys school – with Kitty Pryde, the heroine of the story is the only girl in the school. Kitty is torn between the popular Hellfire Club, led by Pyro, and the school misfits who she eventually bands together as the X-Men.

Wolverine will be produced in the shonen style. From a press release circulated by Del Rey, Wolverine is described as a breakout member of the X-men team both for his attitude ad unbreakable adamantium claws.

The two titles will not exist within the same universe as each other or the regular (“616”) Marvel Universe. They will have elements that will be familiar to regular Marvel readers, but with very different takes on them - the phrase "radical new direction" was used to describe the manga takes.

CB Cebulski and Mark Paniccia will edit on the Marvel side of the project, while Trisha Narwani will edit for Del Rey.

Speaking to Newsarama, Cebulski told Newsarama that this is Marvel's move to jump "whole heartedly" into manga, whereas past attempts have been more experiments in manga - such as Kia Asamiya on X-Men, etc. Continuing to differentiate, Cebulksi cited the Marvel Mangaverse, which he spearheaded, which was originally supposed to be written and illustrated by Japanese creators, but wound up using more Western creators writing and drawing in a manga or "mangafied" style. These two projects won't be like that, Cebulski explained.

Cebulski noted that Tsutomu Nihei's Wolverine: Snikt however, was a series that stood out to Marvel at the time as the way to do it, as it was written and drawn by an acclaimed Japanese creator, and Marvel was impressed by the reader response to it as well as from a creative standpoint.

As to why these properties were chosen, instead of say, Spider-Man, Cebsulski told Newsarama that both Del Rey and Marvel thought that X-Men already had more of the audience they're really aiming for, that is, female readers. All that said, Cebulski again stressed that these books are aimed squarely at the manga reader.

Cebulski acknowledged that he has thought about how the projects will appeal to hardcore X-Men fans, but he said that with Messiah Complex and all the other projects that is coming for X-Men fans in 2008, they'll have plenty of new stuff to look forward to and that he, of course, hopes they'll be some crossover and that fans will check these books out when they're published.

Update: 4:43pm: Del Rey has released a press release about the relationship, which reads:

Marvel Entertainment and Del Rey Manga, an imprint of Ballantine Books at the Random House Publishing Group, announced today plans to publish two new manga series based on Marvel Entertainment's highly popular X-Men series.

The manga, created with the cooperation and consultation of Marvel editors, will take the classic characters from the X-Men series and re-imagine them in a manga style. The first project, scripted by the husband-and-wife team of Raina Telgemeier (writer and illustrator of The Babysitter's Club graphic novels) and Dave Roman (creator of the comic Agnes Quill), will focus specifically on the X-Men team. Indonesian artist Anzu will illustrate the two-volume series, which will go on sale in Spring 2009.

It's the X-Men as you've never seen them before, with the storyline fashioned as a private school shôjo comedy. (Shôjo manga is aimed at girls and often covers popular subjects such as comedy, romance, and drama.) As the only girl in the all-boys School for Gifted Youngsters, Kitty Pryde, a mutant with phasing abilities, is torn between the popular Hellfire Club, led by flame-throwing mutant Pyro--and the school misfits, whom she eventually bands together as the X-Men.

A second manga series, to be published in Spring 2009, follows the adventures of Wolverine, a breakout member of the X-Men team known for his attitude and unbreakable adamantium claws.

Dallas Middaugh, associate publisher of Del Rey Manga, says, "The X-Men are some of the most well-known characters in the world, and it's the strength of those characters-along with strong and unique storylines-that make the X-Men a perfect match for the manga form. It's an amazing opportunity, and we're eager to bring new interpretations to the fans through the prism of manga."

The X-Men made their comics debut in The X-Men #1 in 1963 and have since become a mainstream pop culture phenomenon with the development of an animated television series, several video games and a blockbuster live-action film trilogy.

Ruwan Jayatilleke, Vice President of development of Marvel Entertainment, Inc., said "Del Rey Manga has been an innovative force in the manga landscape---consistently growing the medium and breaking the boundaries of print. We have found a partner who will bring the X-Men and Wolverine into the fastest growing segment of graphic fiction, with superior storytelling and visual fireworks. Comic book fans and manga readers have much to look forward to."

Manga, the Japanese term for comics, is a Japanese cultural phenomenon that accounts for nearly half of all the books and magazines sold in Japan. Read by men and women of all ages, manga covers a wide variety of themes including adventure, romance, fantasy, and more. Manga has experienced incredible growth in the US and Canadian graphic novel market in the past few years. According to industry source ICv2 manga sales reached between $170 million and $200 million in 2006.


About the Creators
Raina Telgemeier is best known for her work as the writer and illustrator of The Babysitter's Club graphic novels. She received her BFA from the School of Visual Arts and has been nominated for numerous awards, including the Eisner, Ignatz, Cybil, and Web Cartoonists' Choice awards.

Dave Roman currently works for Nickelodeon Magazine as an associate editor. The co-creator of the Harvey Award-nominated series Jax Epoch and the Quicken Forbidden and the Ignatz award-winning Teen Boat, he also pens his own webcomic, Astronaut Elementary. He is also the creator of the comic Agnes Quill.

Anzu, a manga artist based in Indonesia, will make her US manga art debut in April 2008 with the first volume of The Reformed, written by Chris Hart. She has contributed to Hart's bestselling How to Draw Manga series.

About Del Rey Manga
Del Rey Books (http://www.delreybooks.com ) was founded in 1977 as an imprint of Ballantine Books, a division of the Random House Publishing Group, under the guidance of the renowned Judy-Lynn del Rey and her husband, Lester del Rey. Del Rey publishes the best of modern fantasy, science fiction, and alternate history. Ballantine Books is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group, which is a publishing group of Random House, Inc, the U.S. publishing company of Random House, the trade book publishing division of Bertelsmann AG, one of the world's leading international media companies. In 2004 it expanded by launching Del Rey Manga (www.delreymanga.com), which has grown to be a major force in the U.S. graphic-novel field. Bestselling titles include Tsubasa, Negima, xxxHolic, and The Wallflower.

About Marvel Entertainment, Inc.
With a library of over 5,000 high-profile characters built over more than sixty years of comic book publishing, Marvel Entertainment, Inc. is one of the world's most prominent character-based entertainment companies. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in licensing, entertainment (via Marvel Studios), publishing (via Marvel Comics) and toys, with emphasis on feature films, home DVD, consumer products, video games, action figures and role-playing toys, television and promotions. Marvel's strategy is to leverage its franchises in a growing array of opportunities around the world. For more information visit www.marvel.com.

X-Men, Wolverine: TM & © 2007 Marvel Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[magik2381]

Huh, I hope its a success.

A female writer on the X-Men is pretty sweet, but those are some bizarre concepts for X-Men.

[Greg McElhatton]

Raina Telgemeier, Dave Roman, and Antony Johnston make both of these books instantly go to my "must try" list. Great, great line-up!

[adamcasey]

*battens down the hatches for the incoming fanboy "OH NOES!! MANGA!!!!~1one" firestorm*

I'm a little iffy on this. The hardcore American superhero comic buying populace has made it pretty obvious that manga versions of their favorite characters don't go over well.

Secondly, manga readers have made it pretty obvious that OEL manga can be DOA and non-existent on fans' radar.

This leads me to wonder who the demographic they're marketing to really is. It'll be interesting to see how this goes.

[SpaceButler]

Doesn't sound like me cup of tea, but I hope it does well. Sounds like a smart move.

[CaptainCanad]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

X-Men will be a shojo style manga, where the Xavier School is still a mutant academy, but it's a all-boys school – with Kitty Pryde, the heroine of the story is the only girl in the school. Kitty is torn between the popular Hellfire Club, led by Pyro, and the school misfits who she eventually bands together as the X-Men.

Oookay.

Then again, I'm not the target audience, being neither a girl nor in any way interested in manga, so more power to them.

[sweetmisery]

Not a fan of manga or anything anime anymore(I got sick of them from seeing them daily here in Asia), but good luck. The more people reading Marvel the better.

[GohanWinner]

whaaa? Is this what Marvel thinks all Manga are?

[Kahn]

.....Perhaps. I got into manga years before American comics. I broke away from all the formulaic titles, and I really hope Marvel isn't just feeding their characters (in name and basic appearance) to that general crap for the thousandth time since anime became popular here.

[astronato]

I'd give a Fantastic Four manga a try.

[WildcardZ]

Not my normal choice for comics, but I'll try something new at least once. I missed out on the previous wave of manga titles.

[EgoAlltrd]

Personally I hope all comics become "mang-ified". Forget about individual styles or personal story-lines. The only thing I don't understand is why even bother with the "OEM" stuff and just hand over the properties to the only people left in the world who apparently have the key to fresh thinking and creativity.I long for the day when all comic books look like they were drawn by the same three people.

Out of ideas? Just call it a MANGA. Well, it will still be made in America, but we'll just copy story elements from the Japanese. The kids will be so busy picking up Naruto and Blade of the Immortal, that when they see our MANGA title, they'll assume that it must be good. Because everyone knows ALL mangas are great. It's the perfect plan. What could possibly go wrong? I mean it worked so well the last time Marvel tried it..... oh wait.

AE.

[theodoros]

A couple of pics would be nice..

[CitC]

I didn't enjoy what I read of the earlier marvel manga stuff, bit this sounds a lot different.

Raina Telgemeier, Dave Roman, and Antony Johnston make both of these books instantly go to my "must try" list. Great, great line-up!

I don't think I know Johnston, but Telgemeier and Roman make good stuff - Worth checking out.

[Jed Saxon]

Handing this over to actual Japanese people would've been too easy I guess.
I guess the end product may still be good but very few Western artists (e.g. Fred Perry and Chuck Austen) understand that manga is more than big eyes/boobs/feet, a bunch of speedlines and wacky, decompressed action.
But at least they are not trying to sell "manga" in the overpriced floppy format (which is SO not good for nearly all manga).

Then again I don't understand why Marvel simply won't reprint "Wolverine: Snikt" in the manga format as well as completing/reprinting "Spider-Man: The Manga" and maybe that former X-Men manga that just adapted the old cartoon episodes. Would've been so easy to test the waters with these.

But teaming up with Del Rey is great - should open some doors to the book market. Good move on Marvel's side.

Originally Posted by CitC

I don't think I know Johnston,

Writes/wrote a lot of stuff for Oni Press (Closer, The Long Haul)

[Doom the 3rd]

Originally Posted by EgoAlltrd

Personally I hope all comics become "mang-ified". Forget about individual styles or personal story-lines. The only thing I don't understand is why even bother with the "OEM" stuff and just hand over the properties to the only people left in the world who apparently have the key to fresh thinking and creativity.I long for the day when all comic books look like they were drawn by the same three people.

Out of ideas? Just call it a MANGA. Well, it will still be made in America, but we'll just copy story elements from the Japanese. The kids will be so busy picking up Naruto and Blade of the Immortal, that when they see our MANGA title, they'll assume that it must be good. Because everyone knows ALL mangas are great. It's the perfect plan. What could possibly go wrong? I mean it worked so well the last time Marvel tried it..... oh wait.

AE.

This is in addition to what Marvel already publishes. What's wrong with a little variety and going after a different audience?

[Somebody]

Weren't there actual, for-the-Japanese-market-by-Japanese-creators, X-Men & Spider-Man manga before?

[Doom the 3rd]

Originally Posted by Somebody

Weren't there actual, for-the-Japanese-market-by-Japanese-creators, X-Men & Spider-Man manga before?

Yeah there was. I only got the Spider-Man one, and the art looks really dated. Like something from the 50's/60's.

[TF_Loki]

Originally Posted by CitC

I don't think I know Johnston, but Telgemeier and Roman make good stuff - Worth checking out.

Johnston did the Alex Rider 'manga' adaptions of Stormbreaker and Point Blanc. Both pretty good but a little short on page count for me. It felt a bit too compressed. On original stuff I'd imagine he's pretty good.

[IronWolf]

That is Awesome!!! For some reason X-men lends it self to that Manga style very well and i hope this leads to the release of that X-Men Anime i saw clips of.

[Akcoll99]

Originally Posted by Doom the 3rd

Yeah there was. I only got the Spider-Man one, and the art looks really dated. Like something from the 50's/60's.

Yeah, 1970's I think, and from Ryoichi Ikegami, the same artist who later did Crying Freeman and Mai The Psychic Girl.

[Batmite79]

2009?

Let's see if the creative teams can still manage to miss their deadlines, then!

[doubleare]

Originally Posted by Greg McElhatton

Raina Telgemeier, Dave Roman, and Antony Johnston make both of these books instantly go to my "must try" list. Great, great line-up!

My thoughts exactly. Besides being just plain excited for Dave and Raina to have this oppurtunity, I think they'll write one hell of a book. And Antony is sure to make one exciting Wolverine story. I hope the art lives up to the stories on these books.

[Zabardast]

Originally Posted by EgoAlltrd

Personally I hope all comics become "mang-ified". Forget about individual styles or personal story-lines. The only thing I don't understand is why even bother with the "OEM" stuff and just hand over the properties to the only people left in the world who apparently have the key to fresh thinking and creativity.I long for the day when all comic books look like they were drawn by the same three people.

Out of ideas? Just call it a MANGA. Well, it will still be made in America, but we'll just copy story elements from the Japanese. The kids will be so busy picking up Naruto and Blade of the Immortal, that when they see our MANGA title, they'll assume that it must be good. Because everyone knows ALL mangas are great. It's the perfect plan. What could possibly go wrong? I mean it worked so well the last time Marvel tried it..... oh wait.

AE.

I love how fanboys get upset whenever Marvel or DC try to reach a new market; it's almost as if they are juveniles envious of a younger sibling getting some attention from their parents. I mean seriously, if you don't care for it, don't buy it, but why the need for these sort of comments? What's your solution to getting manga readers and younger kids to read Marvel Comics?

[ChastMastr]

A quick note on the term "manga"...

I'm interested and will certainly buy both of these, though I'd rather see real X-Men/Wolverine manga, done by Japanese creators, and allowed to go in their own directions, with all the cool cultural sensibilities one sees in authentic manga.

I agree with Cebulski himself when he says:

...OEL is not manga. It is manga influenced. If we want to split hairs, in my opinion "OEL Manga" is actually an oxymoron. (Aside from the three or four original manga stories produced by Japanese artists for the non-Japanese market...)

I'm going to spoil one of my points in an upcoming interview here, but I think it's important I point out that, despite how much people like to say ""Manga" is Japanese for comics.", it's not! "Komikusu" (the transliteration of "comics") is Japanese for comics. There's a big difference. I've had this conversation a thousand times and argued both sides, from the American and Japanese POV, but the simple fact is, if you ask any Japanese manga reader, writer, artist, editor or publisher, the term "manga" is Japanese for "Japanese comic". Plain and simple.

Trust me, the Japanese are very specific in their comic terminology. Manga means Japanese comic. AmeComi is American Comic. BeDe or Bande Desinee is for anything produced in Europe. Manwha is Korean. Manhua is Chinese. And so on.... They're sticklers for their labels.

Now I've spoken with editors at many of the major Japanese publishers, and at lots of the smaller ones too. They all agree on one thing; this "OEL" boom they hear about coming from the States is a marketing ploy. They don't appreciate it being branded as "manga". So much so that (and I don't want to piss off other fellow comic creators here any more than I already have), the Japanese already have a term for it. What we call "OEL", they're calling "Nissei Comi", which can be translated to mean "second generation" or "fake" comics.

Look, agree or diasgree, I'm just stating facts here. Offering up a side of the discussion most people don't get to hear. Yes, this will rock the boat a bit and I know that, but I'm just trying to give another perspective on the discussion. Manga is purely Japanese and that's just how it is.

I genuinely don't understand why Marvel doesn't just find some big-name Japanese creators and ask them to create manga for them using Marvel characters.

(There was actually, if I am not mistaken, a Wolverine story in X-Men Unlimited done by the creator of Lone Wolf and Cub, wasn't there?)

Mind you, these might be unbelievably fantastic graphic novels in their own right -- just not manga in the actual sense. I still look forward to them very much, plan to buy them, expect to enjoy them, and they may even be a stepping stone to actual Marvel manga per se down the line. Can't imagine what, say, CLAMP would do with the X-Men... *boggle*

David