News
Manga Firm Adapts James Patterson's Maximum Ride Novels
posted on by Egan Loo
The manga publisher Yen Press has announced that it will serialize a graphic-novel adaptation of James Patterson's #1 New York Times bestselling speculative fiction series Maximum Ride in a new monthly manga anthology, Yen Plus. The Maximum Ride graphic novel's first installment will appear in the first issue of Yen Plus in the summer of 2008. Yen Press has not announced the artist of the adaptation, although it said the work will be rendered in both black-and-white and color illustrations.
The Maximum Ride stories revolve around a "Flock" of teenagers and children, infused with traces of bird DNA, who escaped from a secret laboratory. Peterson has published three #1 bestselling volumes since 2005, and a fourth is scheduled for March 18. The Yen Plus adaptation will start with the first novel, Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment.
The Yen Plus anthology will include 12 works in each issue, including Nightschool from artist Svetlana Chmakova (Dramacon). Yen Press will offer the magazine by subscription and through bookstores and and comic book retailers. Each issue will have 460 pages and cost US$8.99.
James Patterson has had the most #1 New York Times bestselling novels of any author, and several of his works have been adapted into other media such as the Kiss the Girls film, the Along Came a Spider film, and the ongoing Women's Murder Club television series. A Maximum Ride film is under developement but not yet greenlit.