Legendary Comics Forms New Young Adult Imprint

By Staff Reports

Launching with a slate of five original graphic novels created for the young adult space, Legendary Comics announced today a new imprint, Legendary Comics YA, dedicated to telling original and character-driven stories across a wide array of genres. With a commitment to amplify new voices, spotlight diverse perspectives, and seek out passionate talent telling authentic stories, the imprint gives emerging and veteran artists a platform to share stories never told before and retell classics from a new point of view, in hopes to transport readers to other worlds that span a range of genres, from fantasy to historical fiction, and beyond.

“We’ve identified the young adult genre as an opportunity to expand and invest in our audience growth. Legendary Comics YA is the beginning of our long term commitment to this category and the diverse stories we want to tell,” said Robert Napton, Senior Vice President of Legendary Comics.

“The YA genre is known for telling groundbreaking, innovative, and unique stories. By working with exciting new talent and comic book veterans in the YA space, we have been able to acquire books where emotional and personal journeys are at the forefront. Legendary Comics YA is our chance to focus on fresh character-driven stories that reflect the diverse voices of young adults all over the world,” said Nikita Kannekanti, Senior Editor at Legendary Comics.

The Legendary Comics YA slate includes:

• Championess (in stores now) – based on the true story of Elizabeth Wilkinson, a female bare-knuckle boxer in 18th century London. Elizabeth, reimagined as half-Indian, and her sister Tess struggle to make ends meet and cover Tess’s debts. While Elizabeth works odd jobs at the local newspaper, the only way she knows how to make enough money to help them survive is her true passion, bareknuckle boxing. With Tess’s support, Elizabeth trains at the boxing facility of one of the most famous retired boxers and the only real fight promoter of any notoriety, James Figg. As Elizabeth trains with Figg and James Stokes, she confronts her personal demons of what destroyed her family and comes to terms with being the first half-Indian female boxer in a white male world. Writers: Tarun Shanker and Kelly Zekas. Arist: Amanda Perez Puentes.

• The Heart Hunter (August 3, 2021) – set on the cursed island of Envecor, where everyone is doomed to wear their heart outside their body and are immortal—unable to die, to change, to have children — until they find their soul mate. Paired soul mates are then turned mortal, freed from the curse, and able to leave. But all fairy tales have a dark side: those who don’t want to lose their immortality pay “Heart Hunters” to find their soul mates and kill them so they may remain immortal. Psyche, a Heart Hunter, is hired by the king to kill his soulmate. As she sets out on her quest, she begins her own journey of mending her broken heart and learning to trust again. Writer: Mickey George. Artist: V. Gagnon.

• Lupina (September 9, 2021) – a six-part captivating saga about a young girl on a journey of revenge with her wolf companion. In the coastal town of Kote, recently brought under the yoke of the Addalian Empire, four-year-old Lupa spends her days getting bullied by her older sister and hiding behind her mother’s skirts. But when tragedy strikes, Lupa finds herself alone in a new world… alone until she’s found by the she-wolf, Coras, and sets off on a journey of discovery… and revenge. Writer: Eisner Award-nominated writer James F. Wright. Arist: Li Buszka.

• The Witches of Silverlake (October 1, 2022) – the story of Elliot Green, who moves across country to start high school in one of Los Angeles’ most prestigious private schools. He’s quickly taken in by the school’s outcasts: the scholarship kids; the queer kids; and the ones who just don’t really fit in with the glossy trust fund babies of SJTBA. They quickly let him in on their little secret…they are witches. Elliot joins them in their world among the crystal stores and occult shops of Silverlake and ends up joining his new friends’ coven. During one of their magical experiments, they accidentally release a bloodthirsty demon that starts murdering their classmates and teachers. Elliot and his coven realize that the fun and games of playing with crystals and candles is over, that magic is powerful, real, and that it might be more dangerous than they’d ever imagined. Writer: Simon Curtis. Arist: Stephanie Son.

• Tragic (April 18, 2022) – a retelling of Shakespeare’s Hamlet from a queer lens and told through the eyes of 17-year-old Harper Hayes. After her father Hamilton dies a mysterious and tragic death, Harper is convinced that he was murdered, and her first suspect is her uncle, who has been sleeping with her mother. With the help of her ex-girlfriend Talia and her best friend (sometimes with benefits) Holden, Harper is determined to find her father’s killer. But when Caius, Talia’s father and Hamilton’s business partner, is also found dead, Harper realizes the answer to Hamilton’s murder is more complicated than she had initially realized. As Harper begins to see her father’s ghost in the form of a teenage Hamlet everywhere and starts slipping into hallucinations of his murder that end with blood on her hands, one thing becomes clear—in order to uncover the truth about what happened to her father, Harper has to confront her own demons and ones that haunt the Hayes family. Writer: Dana Mele. Artist: Valentina Pinti. Colorist: Chiara Di Francia.

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