Following closely on the announcement of Dark Horse Comics' new prose imprint M Press, Marvel Comics has announced a prose division of its own, Marvel Press. The new imprint will be overseen by Ruwan Jayatilleke, formerly of Scholastic. Marvel Press prose titles, like its graphic novels, will be distributed to the book trade by CDS and to the comics market by Diamond Comics Distribution.
"We'll be leveraging all the great characters that Marvel has in its library," Jayatilleke told PW, "taking closer looks at those characters and putting them in formats that are accessible to the markets we're going for—female young-adult, science fiction and hardcover fiction for longtime fans."
The imprint launches with three books this year, beginning with Mary Jane II, a sequel to last year's YA novel Mary Jane, focusing on Spider-Man's girlfriend, Mary Jane Watson. October will see a Wolverine fantasy novel, Weapon X, by Marc Cerasini, and it will be followed in November by a Spider-Man title for middle-grade readers written by Louise Ann Gikow. At least 12 new titles are planned for next year. "Marvel's firmly committed to expanding its audience," said Jayatilleke, "and we're showing that by doing these books in-house."
Plans for 2005 are focused on female YA titles. "Obviously, we'll be extending the Mary Jane line in the future," Jayatilleke noted. "Next year, we'll definitely be focusing on Elektra, too, because [actress] Jennifer Garner's attached to the film, and the comic book character has so many facets—there are a lot of ways we can go with it." He also said that in 2005 the press will feature titles on the Fantastic Four, and middle-grade chapter books.
Marvel's publishing division continues to enjoy steady growth. Sales in the division rose 28.9%, to $19.6 million, in the first quarter ended March 31. The increase was due to gains in both the direct comics and mass market channels, an increase in the number of titles published plus higher advertising income.
