Yen Press prints money

I’m not exactly one who follows sales figures or finds them remotely interesting in any way, but I’m going to take a stab in the dark and guess that the comic-fied version of Maximum Ride has been financially successful for Yen Press. Reinforcing that perception is the announcement today that Yen Press will be releasing a comic version of the Twilight series of novels. It’s the same formula; take a book series which is popular among the “Young Adult” segment (and just happens to also be published by one of the arms of Yen Press’s parent company, Hachette Book Group), find a talented Korean comic artist to scribe it (one Young Kim, who may or may not also be a professional golfer), then lie back in a recliner with a splash of brandy while weekly allowances and baby-sitting income are delivered by the truckload to the dock out back.

Okay, that came off a bit cynical. I surely don’t begrudge Yen Press from making a profit, but not being a thirteen-year-old girl, I don’t see the appeal in a series of books about a pale dee-bag who comes to my high school and sweeps me off my feet by telling me he prefers to drink the blood of cattle rather than humans. But who knows - I didn’t think the comic version of Max Ride would appeal to me either, yet it has clearly become one of Yen Plus’s most attractive features. No word on if the Twilight comic will appear in Yen Plus too, but it can’t be ruled out at this point.

Thirteen-year-old girls, feel free to flame me in the comment thread - that’s what it’s there for.

More scatterbrained thoughts on the Twilight announcement can be found at Otaku Ohana.