VIZ MEDIA AND COMICSPRO TEAM UP FOR EXCLUSIVE HELLO KITTY® GRAPHIC NOVEL EDITION
Pop Culture Icon Hello Kitty® And Her Friends Debut In A New VIZ Media Offering Featuring A Special Variant Cover By Artist
Victoria Maderna
San Francisco, CA, August 28, 2013 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), the largest publisher, distributor and licensor of manga, graphic novels and anime in North America, and Sanrio®, Inc. announce a special single-volume edition of HELLO KITTY®:
FASHION MUSIC WONDERLAND, available exclusively through ComicsPRO
member stores and featuring an exclusive full color variant cover by
artist/illustrator Victoria Maderna.
The special edition of HELLO KITTY®: FASHION MUSIC WONDERLAND will be available to retailers that are ComicsPRO members exclusively through Diamond Comic Distributors. The volume will be released November 5th and will carry an MSRP of $6.99 U.S. / $7.99 CAN.
ComicsPRO
is the trade organization serving the needs of comic book specialty
retailers in North America. ComicsPRO provides a strong voice on
important industry issues, educational and mentoring opportunities to
current and future retailers, and works to improve business for all of
its members and the comics industry as a whole.
The HELLO KITTY®:
FASHION MUSIC WONDERLAND comic will feature art by Victoria Maderna,
Ian McGinty and Eisner-nominee Jacob Chabot. A separate Hello Kitty® original graphic novel series is also scheduled to launch October 1st.
HELLO KITTY: HERE WE GO!, a collection of comic stories about Hello
Kitty’s travels, will feature art by Chabot, Jorge Monlongo and Susie
Ghahremani. Both offerings will be rated ‘A’ for All Ages.
HELLO KITTY®:
FASHION MUSIC WONDERLAND cover artist Victoria Maderna is a full-time
illustrator. She was born and raised in Argentina where she studied
Graphic Design, and now lives in Madrid, Spain. She also worked on
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE™: HERE COMES THE SUN! (published by VIZ Media) and Adventure Time #10 (published by BOOM! Studios). Jacob Chabot is a New York City-based cartoonist, illustrator and writer. His comic The Mighty Skullboy Army is
published through Dark Horse, and in 2008 was nominated for an Eisner
Award for Best Book for Teens. He is also the artist on VOLTRON FORCE
Vols. 1 and 6 (published by VIZ Media). The work of Ian McGinty (MFA,
Savannah College of Art and Design) can be seen in the UGLYDOLL original
graphic novels (published by VIZ Media) and Adventure Time: Candy
Capers and Bravest Warriors comics (both published by BOOM! Studios).
HELLO KITTY® FASHION MUSIC WONDERLAND COMICSPRO EDITION EXCLUSIVE ·
MSRP: $6.99 US / $7.99 CAN · 48 pages · Available November 2013
It’s
Hello Kitty as you've never seen her, in stories filled with fashion,
music and adventure! Special edition features a variant cover by artist/illustrator Victoria Maderna.
HELLO KITTY®: Here We GO!
MSRP: $7.99 US / $9.99 CAN · 64 pages · Available October 2013
Hello
Kitty has places to be and friends to meet! Join her as she explores an
underground realm, chases an unsavory cake thief around the world,
climbs the Himalayas, travels back in time, and discovers that
sometimes, the best place to get away from it all is between the pages
of a good book.
Sanrio® is the global company behind classic iconic characters Hello Kitty®, Little Twin Stars®, My Melody®, and many more. Sanrio® was founded in the 1960's in Japan by Shintaro Tsuji,
whose simple dream of bringing smiles to people's faces grew into the
brand's "small gift, big smile" philosophy. This philosophy has served
as the inspiration for the broad spectrum of products bearing the
likeness of endearing characters that have helped to skyrocket the brand
into a $5 billion-a-year business. Sanrio® recently acquired the classic Mr. Men Little Miss™ brand which also has graphic novels published by VIZ Media.
“The HELLO
KITTY: FASHION MUSIC WONDERLAND ComicsPRO Edition is the first
exclusive product ever offered by VIZ Media to ComicsPRO members, and we
are very excited to partner with Sanrio to develop this new line of
original comics for the iconic Hello Kitty brand,” says Beth Kawasaki,
VIZ Media Senior Editorial Director. “We invite retailers that are
ComicsPRO members to stock this fun new title that is sure to delight
legions of Hello Kitty fans of all ages across North America.”
“ComicsPRO’s
Board of Directors is pleased to be working with VIZ Media on this
member-exclusive release of HELLO KITTY: FASHION MUSIC WONDERLAND. A
strong and marketable product like HELLO KITTY belongs in the industry’s
most progressive retail outlets,” said ComicsPRO President Thomas Gaul,
owner of CornerStoreComics LLC in Anaheim CA. “Our goal is that this
will encourage consumers to seek out ComicsPRO member stores for HELLO
KITTY graphic novels while also inspiring more direct market retailers
to join ComicsPRO.”
For more information on VIZ Kids graphic novels and manga, please visit VIZKids.com.
About ComicsPRO
ComicsPRO
is the only trade organization for comic book specialty retailers.
ComicsPRO's goals are to promote advocacy, education, and opportunity
for its members. Membership in ComicsPRO gives retailers benefits often
only available to much larger groups, including preferential credit
card rates and deals on health insurance. ComicsPRO is the Comics
Professional Retailer Organization for professional career-oriented
comic specialty store owners. More information is available at: http://www.comicspro.org.
About VIZ Media, LLC
Headquartered
in San Francisco, California, VIZ Media distributes, markets and
licenses the best anime and manga titles direct from Japan. Owned by
three of Japan's largest manga and animation companies, Shueisha Inc.,
Shogakukan Inc., and Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions, Co., Ltd., VIZ
Media has the most extensive library of anime and manga for English
speaking audiences in North America, the United Kingdom, Ireland and
South Africa. With its popular digital manga anthology WEEKLY SHONEN
JUMP and blockbuster properties like NARUTO, BLEACH and INUYASHA, VIZ
Media offers cutting-edge action, romance and family friendly properties
for anime, manga, science fiction and fantasy fans of all ages. VIZ
Media properties are available as graphic novels, DVDs, animated
television series, feature films, downloadable and streaming video and a
variety of consumer products. Learn more about VIZ Media, anime and
manga at www.VIZ.com.
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