News: NBM = Nancy + Boys + Mysteries? posted July 23, 2004
July 23 -- Smugglers everywhere wiped their brows with worry as album-oriented comics publisher NBM announced its intention to launch a line of comics and graphic novels featuring teen detective properties The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. The New York-based NBM has made few forays into licensed properties, but has experienced a surge of interest in their standard format albums as bookstore and library interest in comics-related offering has grown in recent years. The bulk of NBM's catalog is translated European works and stand-alone graphic novellas from domestic talent, although the publisher has dabbled in several publishing categories, including strip reprints and erotica.
Like other utilizations of the classic children's mystery novels that have at times experienced little more than mixed success -- although more recent efforts have done better -- the characters in NBM's planned full-color comics will be updated for modern readers. The adventures of Frank and Joe Hardy, to be written by Scott Lobdell and drawn by Lea Hernandez, will appear in 32-page comic books and collected in 96-page "manga sized" trade paperbacks. The Nancy Drew effort will skip the initial serialization. Both will be published under NBM's 'tween-friendly "Papercuts" imprint and edited by longtime industry veteran Jim Salicrup.