Artemis Fowl: The Graphic Novel, published this month by Hyperion Books for Children, presents the first visual representation of the title character from Eoin Colfer’s wildly popular prose novel series. Written by Colfer and Andrew Donkin, with art by Giovanni Rigano, the graphic novel is based on the first book in the five-book Artemis Fowl prose series and is being published simultaneously in hardcover and paperback editions, with an initial print run totaling 100,000 copies.
The hardcover edition, only a small percentage of the print run, will be marketed primarily to teachers and librarians. “We wanted to give them their edition, as thanks for their loyalty to the series,” explained Alessandra Balzer, executive editor of Hyperion Books for Children.
In an interview with PW ComicsWeek, Balzer explained that Colfer is a longtime comic fan who always dreamed of writing a graphic novel. She noted that the prose series’ existing association with Disney was a huge benefit when Colfer began exploring the idea. Balzer and Colfer visited Accademia Disney, the company’s Milan, Italy, comics school and studio, where they met Rigano. The artist, who also created the Daffodil series (Soliel) with Frédéric Brrémaud, immediately impressed them with his sketches of the major characters. The colorist, Paolo Lamanna, joined the team later.
The process of working on the book was “surprisingly smooth, given the number of people involved.” Colfer teamed with the experienced comic artist Andrew Donkin, whose works include Batman: Legends of the Dark Night (DC), to ensure the pacing was right. He also approved all character sketches before Rigano moved forward. With Colfer in Ireland, Donkin in London and Rigano and Lamanna in Italy, the entire process was conducted through e-mail.
Together, the far-flung team has created a dark, lush, eerie world, which, in 112 pages, brings Fowl, a ne’er-do-well boy genius, his allies and his enemies to life. Information sheets, mimicking government agency surveillance files, help introduce characters and allow novices to the Fowl world to keep up. While there is always concern that fans will criticize the visual representation of characters they themselves have been imagining for years, so far, according to Balzer, the main response from devoted readers has been “excitement.”
Promotional plans for the book include extensive consumer advertising, information distributed through online comic sites, a Book Sense light box mailing for independent booksellers, and ads in library and teaching journals as well as on teachingcomics.com. The Artemis Fowl Web site will continue to be updated. Hyperion featured Artemis Fowl at Book Expo America and the San Diego Comic-Con International, and Colfer will make appearances in the U.S. in January to promote the graphic novel as well as the new Artemis Fowl prose novel.
Hyperion hopes Artemis Fowl will attract the prose novels’ millions of fans as well as new readers from the graphic novel market. The 2006 hybrid comics and prose series Abadazad, an earlier push by the company into graphic novel world, was canceled after two books. But Hyperion’s commitment to the graphic novel category continues through its collaboration with the Center for Cartoon Studies, as well as another Disney comics and prose series such as W.I.T.C.H.
For now, Balzer notes cautiously that other successful series that seem to lend themselves to visual interpretation may come under consideration for comics adaptation. “We are picking and choosing our shots,” said Balzer.
