DVDizzy Forum

Looking to expand its efforts in a fast growing children’s graphic novel market, Yen Press LLC, a joint venture between Hachette and Japanese publisher Kadokawa, is launching JY, a new imprint focused on middle grade graphic novels. Named for JuYoun Lee, the deputy publisher of Yen Press, the new imprint will launch in fall 2017 with the first of three series. Lee will curate and edit the JY list which will publish about 12 books a year. [...]

Originally created at the Disney comics studio in Italy, JY will repackage the series with a new English translation and updated trim size. JY will publish 12 W.I.T.C.H. titles with plans to release the series’ first three-book story arc, The Twelve Portals, all at once, beginning in the fall. Going forward with the W.I.T.C.H. series, JY plans to release three volumes at a time, every four months.

The three-at-once release schedule will deliver a “satisfying chunk of content to a new audience,” according to Yen Press publisher Kurt Hassler. Hassler said most of the original W.I.T.C.H. series was never published in English. “There was no graphic novel market” in the U.S., he said, when the series was first published.