We’re finding that settling Nan is a challenge as publishers are reluctant to add a girl’s line in spite of the fact that girl’s lines are proven sellers in traditional bookstores. There’s also the very necessary requirement that the line be with a publisher with solid bookstore distro.
We are still working on it, though. It’ll happen. Both I and Lisa know have the kitten-herding experience to ensure that it does.

To be fair, DC/Vertigo did follow up Jill Thompson’s manga-influenced DEATH: AT DEATH’S DOOR graphic novel with Thompson’s THE DEAD BOY DETECTIVES.

So it’s not that DC/Vertigo did NOTHING after the Death book, but (if anything) that the thing they followed up with didn’t sustain the interest generated by the earlier book…

As I said on my blog, this is one time I think DC would be smart to copy Marvel’s moves. (Yeah, DC did the manga-inspired version of Death, which I recall did really, really well, but after that, NOTHING.)

“I wore a Wonder Woman costume for my sixth birthday. Heh. Then in the late 1990’s I picked up some back issues of the relaunch of Wonder Woman written and drawn by George Perez, and fell in love with his version of the character. I particularly loved his emphasis on the mythical elements of Wonder Woman’s story, his situating her in an ancient-Greece-based culture, and his characterization of her as basically a young, innocent and inexperienced outsider with much untapped strength.

Later while studying at SVA, DC comics, through its Vertigo imprint, released a manga-influenced graphic novel featuring Death. I’d been getting more into manga at this point, particularly manga written by and for young women, and thought Wonder Woman would provide the perfect bridge between the DC Universe and manga. After all, Wonder Woman has many of the same elements you find in girl’s manga: magic powers, gods and goddesses, mythic struggles, a young and malleable warrior princess protagonist, and a vast historical universe. How about further examining Wonder Woman’s hero’s-journey, using a younger version of the protagonist to reflect the younger manga audience, against this huge backdrop of magic and myth?- I really thought teenage readers might enjoy it.”

Asked about pitching the project to DC:
“I drew up the proposal with help from some friends- among them Eve Grandt, who provided the comic tones- and showed them to a DC editor who also taught at SVA. I think he might have showed them to an editor at Vertigo as well, but I believe that’s as far as it got. I don’t think I expected much of a reaction, since it’s pretty tough to attract work from Marvel or DC, but the idea was so compelling I thought, ‘might as well go for it and see where it leads.’ With no reaction from DC, I just filed the project away and put the pages online as part of my portfolio, then forgot about them.”

When asked what she thought of Wonder Woman in general:
“I see Wonder Woman as a great potential role model and powerful symbol. She’s iconic, and she has all this symbolism behind her: freedom from bondage and from hate, the breaking of chains, the forging of bridges, the crossing of cultures, etc. I’m also intrigued by the universe George Perez helped re-establish for her: how did this young girl from a totally isolated society become a powerful hero?”

Oh, hi, Marvel.