A press release out today revealed that Yen Press will be releasing a manhwa version of James Patterson’s Daniel X.
Readers will likely recognize the author as the creator of Maximum Ride, which Yen Press is currently releasing an adaptation of with artist NaRa Lee. The artist for Daniel X will be Seung-Hui Kye whose series Recast was published by Tokyopop. Hachette, Yen Press’s parent company, is releasing the original Daniel X novels, which are science fiction aimed at older teens.
“Fifteen-year-old alien hunter Daniel X is on a mission to finish the job that killed his parents to wipe out the world’s most bloodthirsty aliens on The List. At the number-one spot, The Prayer is Daniel’s ultimate target. With mind-blowing skills like telepathy and the ability to transform and create, Daniel’s got more than a few tricks up his sleeve. Along with his friends Willy, Joe-Joe, Emma and Dana, Daniel hunts down the aliens on The List one by one. But as he battles towards his top target he can’t forget one thing: he’s got a host of aliens to fight, but on their lists there’s only one name at the top… and that’s his.”
The Daniel X manhwa will originally be serialized in Yen Press’s Yen Plus anthology with the first volume to be released in summer 2010.
So what do you think? Personally I was more happy to hear in the press release that Maximum Ride has proven so successful for Yen Press – the excitement of another James Patterson series is lost on me since I’d never heard of the author before Yen Press announced Maximum Ride. Still, I’ve heard a lot of good things about Seung-Hui Kye’s Recast, and having never had the chance to read it, will be vaguely interested to see how Daniel X turns out, even if it is being built out of what sounds like a mountain of cheese (see plot synopsis above).
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I had heard of James Patterson before the Maximum Ride manhwa came out, but was never inclined to read any of his work. I did pick up Maximum Ride volume 1 and enjoyed it a lot. I decided to get the novels when I saw them in my local used bookstore and found it to be interesting but clearly written for a young adult audience (I'm not sure how it compares to his other books which are usually marketed as thrillers/mysteries). The ironic part is that I think the plot and story of Maximum Ride are far more suited to a graphic novel style. There's just something about teenage angst that can be communicated so much better with body language and facial expressions than words. Given their previous success, I hope this is another chance for Yen to get some crossover readers and new fans. I haven't read the Daniel X series novels, but I'll certainly give the manhwa a look in Yen Plus or in book form whichever I get to first.