TOKYOPOP & WILLIAM MORROW PRESENT: SHUTTER ISLAND Graphic Novel
Dennis Lehane's masterpiece of mystery and suspense is brought to life for the first time as a graphic novel
TOKYOPOP and William Morrow, an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, are thrilled to announce the release of the graphic novel adaptation of SHUTTER ISLAND, Dennis Lehane's bestselling novel. International comic book artist Christian de Metter's dramatic artwork, crafted in a noir, painterly style, compliments this edition of the dark, chilling story, which also marks the debut of Lehane in the graphic novel market.
SHUTTER ISLAND is set in 1954. U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels and his partner, Chuck Aule, are sent to Shutter Island to find a mass murderer who has escaped from Ashcliffe Hospital, a fortress-like federal institution for the criminally insane. As their investigation deepens, and an intense hurricane bears relentlessly down on the island, the marshals are forced to piece together clues to a shocking puzzle hidden within Shutter Island. And as hints of radical experimentation add more sinister undertones to an already bizarre case, the investigation takes the marshals on a twisted journey in which the line between sanity and madness disappears...
"SHUTTER ISLAND's paranoia and overall creepy vibe is tailor-made for a graphic novel, and Christian De Metter's art work is haunting, even unforgettable," observes Dennis Lehane.
"It's an honor to publish a graphic novel with an author of such stature as Dennis Lehane," says Marco Pavia, TOKYOPOP Associate Publisher. "In all candor, I'm a huge Lehane fan, and I was stunned at how De Metter's artwork enhanced the prose experience, adding a discernable layer of anxiety to this unnerving and, ultimately, profoundly moving story."
Originally published in France, the SHUTTER ISLAND graphic novel was listed as a 2009 Official Selection at the annual Angoulême BD Festival, the Cannes of the comic world. TOKYOPOP and William Morrow will promote the graphic novel with an extensive online marketing campaign that will include online comics previews, a book trailer, and a Dennis Lehane interview.
The TOKYOPOP/William Morrow co-publication will be on sale January 5, wherever books are sold, and timed to release before the feature film from Paramount Pictures, directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
About TOKYOPOP:
Founded by multi-cultural media visionary Stuart Levy, TOKYOPOP is hailed as a leading youth-oriented entertainment brand and an innovator of manga creation, with a revolutionary artistic vision that transcends countless platforms. From the introduction of the first-ever extensive manga publishing program in North America, to the development of its manga-originated intellectual properties into film, television and digital entertainment, TOKYOPOP has changed the way teens experience pop culture. The company's global reach has expanded to Europe and Asia, with offices in the UK and Germany, in addition to its Los Angeles and Tokyo operations. With millions of fans logging onto the new social networking site www.TOKYOPOP.com, reading its books, which are licensed in 41 countries in more than 20 languages, and watching its DVDs and television programs, TOKYOPOP's award-winning catalogue of licensed and original properties has made the company a visionary in an ever-growing teen entertainment marketplace. Visit www.TOKYOPOP.com for additional information.
About HarperCollins Publishers:
HarperCollins, one of the largest English-language publishers in the world, is a subsidiary of News Corporation (NYSE: NWS, NWS.A; ASX: NWS, NWSLV). Headquartered in New York, HarperCollins has publishing groups around the world including the HarperCollins General Books Group, HarperCollins Children's Books Group, Zondervan, HarperCollins UK, HarperCollins Canada, HarperCollins Australia/New Zealand and HarperCollins India. HarperCollins is a broad-based publisher with strengths in literary and commercial fiction, business books, children's books, cookbooks, mystery, romance, reference, religious and spiritual books. With nearly 200 years of history HarperCollins has published some of the world's foremost authors and has won numerous awards including the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, the Newbery Medal and the Caldecott. Consistently at the forefront of innovation and technological advancement HarperCollins is the first publisher to digitize its content and create a global digital warehouse to protect the rights of its authors, meet consumer demand and generate additional business opportunities. You can visit HarperCollins Publishers on the Internet at http://www.harpercollins.com.
