I just got a press release from Del Rey that’s a few days old (from SDCC), but since The Last Airbender seems to be a topic of interest due to the forthcoming M. Night Shyamalan film, I thought I’d note it. They’ve announced 4 projects related to the anime and and forthcoming movies.
SAN DIEGO, CA – July 25, 2009 – Del Rey Manga, an imprint of Ballantine Books at the Random House Publishing Group and Nickelodeon/Viacom Consumer Products (NVCP) announced at Comic-Con International in San Diego, four new manga style releases – an artistic and storytelling stylized comic book set in black and white. Based on Nickelodeon’s international hit animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender and the upcoming feature film release “The Last Airbender,” directed by M. Night Shyamalan, this partnership marks the first manga tie-in for Nickelodeon.
The two original black-and-white manga will be written by Dave Roman (Jax Epoch and the Quicken Forbidden, Agnes Quill). The prequel manga, scheduled for publication in April 2009, will be illustrated by Nina Matsumoto (Yokaiden) and the movie adaptation, to be published in June 2010, will be illustrated by Joon Choi (This is Pop).
“We’re excited to partner with Del Rey on these upcoming manga releases,” said Paula Allen, SVP of Nickelodeon Global Publishing. “Recreating and adapting the layered storylines and incredible, animated martial arts of the Avatar series and upcoming feature film in the manga style will allow fans to experience their favorite moment from the show over and over again.”
The Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series and The Last Airbender live-action movie follow the epic journey of Aang, the Avatar. In an ancient world where armies of the four elements—fire, earth, water, and air—are constantly at war, the Avatar, a master of the elements, is meant to restore peace and order. Aang is the newest reincarnation of the Avatar, and is also the last airbender, harnessing the power of air and wind. Freed from a century-long sleep inside an iceberg, the 12-year-old is responsible for saving the world and finds both friends and hostile enemies on the path to his destiny.
“We’re excited to be working with Nickelodeon to bring these great stories to the manga audience,” says Dallas Middaugh, Associate Publisher of Del Rey Manga. “Avatar: The Last Airbender has shown incredible crossover appeal with manga fans. The release of The Last Airbender movie and original tie-in manga gives us the chance to share completely new stories with Avatar fans looking for more about Aang, Zuko, and their favorite characters.”
As somebody who is absolutely unfamiliar with the source material (and will most likely remain so) I was rather surprised at how impressive I thought the trailer for the upcoming film was.
Note that the film is called simply The Last Airbender, without “Avatar” attached. The reason for this is that 20th Century Fox already had rights to the name as they are releasing James Cameron’s Avatar.
Its a good thing to remain unfamiliar with the source material. There is…many viewpoints on the casting choices and the trailer itself as well as press releases and blunders by the marketing and casting staffs.
I have strong feelings towards it, but can admit certain pieces of the trailer were COOL (the fire nation ships look AWESOME). I still don’t think I’ll see it though, because honestly I can’t get past racial things, but at least the fire nation ships look cool.