Amber Benson

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Newsarama: To begin Ruwan, can you tell us how this deal came together, and why it makes sense for Marvel?

Ruwan Jayatilleke: The real but somewhat “fake” origin: Much to Dallas’s (associate publisher of Del Rey, Middaugh) chagrin, I will tell this “story”: In my mind, the origin of this deal all started at San Diego Comic Con 2005, where I first met Dallas at a Random House dinner where people would rotate from table to table with some uber-author talents and other random folks like myself. At that dinner was the attractive Amber Benson (“Tara” from Buffy) whose table I rooted myself for nearly the entire dinner, thereby preventing Dallas or anyone else from rotating in to meet her…much to his rage/frustration. Haha. Yes, I am a bastard!

What does this have to do with the manga deal? Well, I felt I owed Dallas a gigantic reparation (which was this manga deal) since I essentially c-blocked (chair blocked) him from meeting Amber who is sweet, awesome, sharp, etc. I am sure steam is now geyser-ing from Dallas’s ears as he reads this. If it’s any consolation to him and other fanboys, she had/has a boyfriend who was at the dinner, so all my subtle stalking/lingering was all for naught. Though I didn’t get shot down because she’s kind and polite and not because I have “game.” Ack. Anyway, I definitely would place Amber Benson as the critical spark in making this deal happen even though she played no substantial part in it being brokered! However I am digressing…

The boring origin: the deal really came together when I started dealing with Jennifer Osborne who was the licensing point person for Del Rey at the time. We had been working on several different licensing deals which included a deal for the Iron Man movie (2008) amongst other things…and I kept telling Jennifer how Marvel and Del Rey should be collaborating on things outside of the movie publishing stuff. So she and I started batting around ideas…and out of nowhere manga came up both as a topic and then an opportunity…and from there…it was a creative fusion of frenzied action. So if you end up hating the books when they launch in spring 2009, don’t blame Dallas, C.B. etc. feel free to burn me in effigy….

Dallas and Scott Shannon, vice president/ deputy publisher of Del Rey came to Marvel and pitched manga based on the X-Men and Wolverine character families. Dan Buckley, el president/my boss, and I were pretty much floored by the presentation and the limitless possibilities and opportunities that could arise with a partnership like this. We, both, felt if anyone could do manga with Marvel characters “the right way” and with an impact…it was Del Rey! They were passionate about compelling visual storytelling, enamored by our characters, and weren’t afraid to break our eyes or minds in terms of what could be done within the confines of a printed page. The partnership just felt right.

From there Dan and I looped in Mark Paniccia and C.B. and they have been more involved on the creative end of things with Dallas and Tricia Narwani, the editor on the Wolverine and X-Men manga. Obviously there’s been a bit of back-n-forth on creators and storylines…but we are all really happy with the direction, so far. It’s been immensely creative, fun, and seamless. We intend on keeping it that way…so fans gets the best of the best in terms of entertainment and enjoyment!

One trend that hopefully has been evident over the past few years is Marvel Publishing has been growing its audience not only through our traditional offering of comic books and graphic novels featured our characters, but also through third-party licensed comic book publishing like Dark Tower, Halo, Anita Blake, Hedge Knight, etc. We aren’t just increasing our core demographic, but are looking to tap new wells of consumers and establish a variety of products that hardcore fans and the more casual fans can sink their eyes into...another facet of this our continual new reader growth initiative is establishing strategic partnerships with other leaders in print entertainment and elsewhere. And that is where Del Rey Manga comes in to leverage its collective strengths and incredible reach within the hobby market as well as Trade and Mass book retail. To me, it was a no-brainer and a chance to build more collective tissue between Marvel and “traditional” book publishers outside of the movie tie-in products.

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http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=139197