Yen to publish Twilight manga

It’s official: Yen Press will be publishing a Twilight manga. This isn’t entirely unexpected—the Twilight novels are published by Yen’s sister company Little Brown and Company (both are owned by Hachette), and the idea came up a lot at NYCC.

Will the blogosphere react with scorn or admiration? Comments are muted so far, but keep an eye on Heidi’s post at The Beat, as it is usually the bellwether for the comics blogosphere’s collective opinion.

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Comments

  1. This is pretty depressing.

  2. Anonymous says

    In b4 rampant elitism.

  3. 1- It’s going to sell, whatever anyone says.

    2- It’ll be no trashier than any other shojo manga, and the art should be good given Yen’s past choices.

    3- If it’s in Yen Plus, it’ll boost circulation, exposing more people to great stuff like Night School.

    Overall, it’s a good thing.

  4. Agree with Andre, I dont like the serious (well I’m not a vamp fan much) but when I heard of it and see thw people that bought it, it make senses that the same publishing company would make a manga of its own book.

    onling thing though, I wonder if yen just search the internets or ask others of artists cause both times I’ve never heard of theses artists (and I’d say that I’ve seen a lot of art from all parts of the world).

    though, is there a harry potter manga/comic some where?

  5. series… lol

  6. The problem is the series sucks. I’ve read the books and seen the movie, and it has nothing to say ‘this is good’ about it. It’s one of these series that people like for a little while till they grow up a bit.

    While i should have expected it sooner or later, given that the books are owned by Yen’s parent company, i still see it as a bad thing.

    And for gods sake donr add it to Yen Plus!! Don’t defile an excellent anthology with that trash.

    That said, it wont be manga styled art, rather manhwa. Since like the Max Ride adapation Yen seem to have gone to korea for an artist. I’m hoping that she’ll be as good as NaRae, at least then can say it has good art.

    Although, we have now taken the next step to their being a Harry Potter and Eragon OEL adaptation. I think i’ll die if those two are ever announced. There is a Harry Potter comic though, so i doubt we’ll get a manga one.

  7. Well from a business point of view it’s a decent idea considering the success of the franchise. From a personal point of view I wouldn’t touch anything to do with the Twilight series with a ten foot pole. But then I’m not the target audience anyway.

  8. Odd…Japan already has a manga version of Twilight (http://i40.tinypic.com/2vcauck.jpg). It would be cheaper and faster to license that. Yen wouldn’t be able to control the content, though…maybe they want a more “Western” feel to their version to hook in not-already-manga-readers. (I have trouble thinking not-already-manga-readers would pick up the serialization in the incredibly expensive and varied Yen magazine, tho. But maybe the graphic novel will get around.)

  9. I wonder why the publisher Little, Brown & Co licensed it to manga/manhwa and not the typical graphic novel? I know readers here are very familiar with manga/manhwa. However, the biggest complaint about manga I hear from people who only know of graphic novels is … where is the color. I’m glad for Yen Press in getting the license and I hope it brings more awareness to their catalog.

  10. doinkies says

    Lianne: There isn’t a manga adaptation of Twilight in Japan…when the novels were first translated into Japanese they were published in a light novel style with illustrations and manga-style artwork on the covers (each novel was split into 3 volumes).

  11. It’s one of these series that people like for a little while till they grow up a bit.

    Tiamat, I think this assumption is false. Plenty of adult women read and loved Twilight. As an example, when I was on a flight back from Salt Lake City last year, both of the (completely unrelated) adult women sitting next to me were happily reading Twilight—one in her mid-to-late twenties, and the other easily in her sixties. It may not be my thing (or yours) but the widespread appeal is undeniable.

  12. I agree with Melinda. I find it fascinating the degree to which people minimalise the popularity of the series and when the popularity can’t be disputed they try to minimalise the attributes of the readers – particularly by suggesting that only tween girls read it when I’ve seen women of every age group and a few guys following it – is ridiculous. Particularly when always seems to swiftly degenerate into some pretty negative assumptions about people who like the series in general.

    There are a lot of people who enjoy them, and all for different reasons. That’s exactly why they’re so prevalent at the moment.

    Sure it may not be everyone’s cup of tea (why does it have to be?) but they do have a wide – read: global – appeal that I think it would be myopic to minimalise that because the content is seen as less ‘serious’ than say a serial killer crime serial.

    Often I feel as if some of the quasi-response has been a little down to jealousy, i.e. how can she write the dismal stuff and make so much money? If that’s what people think then I marvel over why they don’t just write their own book then? Surely that would settle it, if the process is such a no brainer?

    Or maybe it’s not so simple to have a massive hit book – not just once but four times?

    I think if an author can have this long lasting and wide reaching appeal there’s a point at which it becomes more than just a fluke and that the attitude of ‘it’s just a bunch of silly people with nothing better to do reading it’ needs to be dismissed. Even if you hate her work there is obviously something to be learned from their success. Why hate when you might be able to learn something from it?

    About the manga, I’m really happy to hear one’s being done. The Twilight story itself is very much like a romantic manga so it fits in perfectly with the medium. In fact, it reminds me a lot of A Wolf’s Attraction – another manga based on a novel.

    People sulking because they think it throws the medium of manga into disrepute are probably – needlessly – worried about teenage girls invading their local graphic novel shop. To which I say: grow up, please – and get over yourselves. There’s nothing new about the tradition of romantic manga – aren’t there a lot of Japanese and Korean dramas and even films based on them? *eyeroll* Try not to be so ignorant.

  13. Very well said FF. I think one should never be embarrassed about reading books, no matter what genre. Telling some of my friends I read Twilight and enjoyed it, often gives me the same eyerolls as the eyerolls I got years ago when I told others I read manga.

    Looking forward to it!

  14. I adore Twilight! I can barely wait for Twilight Eclipse! I’m so infatuated with Taylor Lautner, lol.
    I still believe that the first movie was the best, but New Moon def. wins in eye candy lol

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