(cover to issue 1 of Innovation’s adaptation of Rice’s Interview with the Vampire from the early 90s)

This new adaptation by artist Ashley Marie Witter will take a slightly different tack though – rather than a straight, traditional comics adaptation of the existing text it will instead rework it somewhat, following the same events but this time from the perspective of the vampire child Claudia rather than original narrator Louis. I must confess I have mixed feelings about this – Interview has been one of the classic Gothic horror novels since it first appeared back in the mid 70s and is, along with Stoker’s Dracula in the 19th century, one of the few books to pretty much set the standard for a whole genre. While I was put off by her later Vampire Chronicles (to me they became too large, cumbersome and really self indulgent and I reluctantly stopped following them), the original novels in the series, especially Interview and The Vampire Lestat, remain wonderful, lush, romantic, Gothic vampire novels. And I can’t help but wonder, is this new adaptation just a chance to try and milk more money from manga readers following the runaway success of the Twilight graphic novel and the whole teen girl vampire fascination?

(a sketch for the vampire child Claudia from Interview with the Vampire  by Ashley Marie Witter)

Well, while I am sure Yen will have one eye on the hopefully large sales (it is a business, after all), I’m prepared to put away my cynical hat for the moment until I have a chance to judge it for myself (probably in 2012). And I think the fact that they are reworking the perspective in the book is actually a good sign, that they have thought about this and how they can make a 35 year old book fresh and relevant to today’s readers, especially the younger and often female audience this is most likely to attract, which may in turn lead them to the original novel. Given that Claudia is the most achingly tragic of Rice’s characters in the series, a child brought over into vampirism, growing older as the decades pass, into a bitter woman on the inside but eternally trapped in a child’s body  on the outside (and with the knowledge that can never change, she is locked into this state for eternity), and that her character has seeds in Rice’s own family tragedy, I imagine this may be rather more than a slap a cute manga girl in to lure in the readers approach, given the complex and tragic nature of the new narrator. Certainly gives me the impression they are seriously thinking about how to bring the tale to a new audience rather than a lazy, straight adaptation, which is a good sign. It’s going to be very interesting for those of us who love the original work to see how this manga adaptation works out. Meantime Yen Press has the eagerly anticipated second volume of Young Kim’s manga adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series coming this October.

(cover for Young Kim’s adaptation of the second volume of Twilight, coming from Yen Press this autumn)

Publisher’s Weekly has a short interview with Ashley about adapting the iconic novel for comics:

“PWCW: What was the most difficult part of working on an adaptation like this?

AMW: So far the hardest thing is getting over that apprehensive feeling of, “Can I do this book justice?” Years ago I had the opportunity of touring New Orleans during a choir solo and ensemble competition. We actually got to visit some of the places where Interview with the Vampire took place. Having actually been to several of those locations, you get a real sense of them in Anne’s work. So when I work on this adaptation I really hope to capture the essence and feeling of an 18th century New Orleans .”

by Stephanie Meyer. Art and Adaptation by Young Kim.

Yen Press

Yep, it’s a big seller with terrible lettering: That seems to be the story doing the rounds right now about the first volume of Twilight The Graphic Novel by Stephenie Meyer and Young Kim.

A print run of 350,000 copies, first week reported record sales of 66,000 copies and a lot (no, really, a lot) of very excited and enthusing fans writing reviews on Amazon. (Heidi at the Beat has more)

I picked up a copy, mostly through curiosity and the brownie points I knew it would get from Molly, who is off to show it to her Twilight loving friends first thing in the morning after devouring it this afternoon, in one sitting. But I did read it as well and, unsurprisingly, it’s not the best thing I’ve ever read. It’s not the best Manga I’ve ever read either and it’s certainly not going to make anyone’s best of year list who isn’t a huge Twilight fan already. BUT it’s definitely not as bad as most of the comic press seem to be making out.

I never read the Twilight books, so I can’t compare the comic to the books. But I have seen the first film. That was a turgid, desperately slow affair, albeit with a few moments of promise and interesting ideas that were never really realised. The graphic novel is at least way better than the film.

Where the film dragged and floundered the Twilight graphic novel moves along really smoothly, almost too fast at times for these old, unused to the speed of Manga eyes. The moments of the film where the cast just seemed rooted to the spot with implausible and badly acted longing are conveyed by Kim with a style that the film-makers could only imagine.

But generally, although Young Kim’s storytelling is good, the actual artwork is …. well, functional probably damns it with faint praise. It’s very good for doing what it sets out to do, which  is to transfer the Twilight story onto the comic page. There’s nothing wonderful about it, but neither is there much that’s glaringly bad either, it’s just a straightfoward transfer of the book to the comic page, with a slightly cold and unemotional feel to the artwork.

(A very familiar moment from the Twilight Graphic Novel Volume 1. Meaningful stares and microscopy. And, yes, bloody awful lettering.)

One of the things the comic press seem to be focusing on is the lettering, which, to be honest, is bloody horrible; huge word balloons seemingly randomly placed in panel with horrible Times New Roman font lost in the middle of the balloon. I’m not getting into it any more than to say that the comic press is absolutely right, and point you in the direction of first Heidi and then Chris Sims’ hugely entertaining take down of the graphic novel:

“Unfortunately, once you actually start reading the book, it all falls apart completely. And it’s all because of the lettering. That might seem like a small thing to pick on, but that’s because like coloring, when lettering is done well, it doesn’t draw a lot of attention to itself. As a result, a lot of people who are new to comics or who don’t spend a lot of time thinking about them don’t understand that lettering is an extremely complex art form unto itself that’s evolved over the past 70 years into something that integrates with the art and dialogue to tell a story in a very specific way… when it’s good. But like coloring, bad lettering is very, very easy to spot. And “Twilight” has the worst lettering I have ever seen.”

But, the other side of this is that Twilight: The Graphic Novel is talking to an entirely different demographic of readers. These are, in many cases, readers who may never have seen a comic for years, or at all. Certainly it’s a group of readers who really don’t know, or care, that the lettering is atrocious. All they want is the Twilight experience. And to be honest, they could have been given a much, much worse introduction to the world of graphic novels than this.

New graphic novel readers enticed into the field by their love of Twilight may not decide to venture further into quality Manga and graphic novels. But undoubtedly some of them will. Even if only one reader picks up anything else it’s a very good thing. We should never, ever snipe at someone new coming into comics with no idea of what is good or bad. We should be welcoming them, guiding them, nurturing their tastes and desperately attempting to keep them reading. It’s all very well being some form of intellectual comic snob over Twilight, but a new reader is priceless. In a few months time Twilight may have given us several hundred thousand new readers. It’s up to us to welcome them in with open arms.

I was never going to be a huge fan of the book. There are just too many barriers to my enjoyment of it. But even going into it with all of my preconceived ideas, I still made it to the end, still found myself enjoying it for what it was, which is no more and no less than a very teen based fantasy love story. Molly thoroughly enjoyed it and I’m sure her Twilight loving friends will be all over it. And in the end, that may just be the point. Twilight The Graphic Novel is not here to serve comics, it’s here to serve Twilight fans. Anything else is a bonus.

The first Twilight hardcover graphic novel, as covered by Joe here, was announced earlier this week to have a print run of 350,000 copies. Those might be big numbers, but they’re nothing to the truly staggering numbers of Meyer’s books sold worldwide thus far – 85 million plus.

This means that if just 0.04% (or there abouts) of the Twilight book buying public were to come out and buy the graphic novel that 350,000 print run sells out completely. So, is it just me, or does that huge first print run actually begin to look a little on the low side?

(cover to the first Twilight graphic novel, art by Young Kim, published Yen Press)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoXUY7XGVSU

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mz2YAFdAc6o

(via Reel Empire, via SciFiTweetn)

As you can see, yesterday evening’s signing with Peter Facinelli, known to legions of fans as the good hearted Doctor Carlisle Cullen in the film adaptation of the Twilight novels, in the Dublin FPI store drew a good crowd of adoring fans…

In fact the queue spilled out onto the street – I can’t help but wonder what other passing Dublin citizens thought was going on! They certainly seem like a cheerful crowd.

And here’s Peter signing for some happy fans; unlike Carlisle Cullen it looks like Peter has been enjoying some of the bursts of sunshine we’ve had.

And some even managed to get a quick hug from Peter, lucky souls! To see the bigger versions and the rest of the pictures, click on them or check out our Flickr stream.

Update: the New Moon website also has a set of great pics of Peter in Dublin.

Actor Peter Facinelli will be familiar to many of our readers, I suspect, not least for his recent role in the first Twilight film and the upcoming New Moon second Twilight movie where he plays Doctor Carlisle Cullen, head of the good vampire family in the world of Twilight, adoptive father to Edward. Well we’ve got great news for fans in Ireland – Peter is going to be in Dublin and he’s kindly agreed to appear in our store there (5-6 Crampton Quay, Dublin 2, phone 0035 3167 10688)  on Monday 20th July from 7 to 9pm. You may squee. You may swoon. Just get yourselves down there!