Everyone is rolling out some news this week for ComicsPRO, and Mad Cave has some notable announcements: picking up the rights to Winx Club, the popular animated fantasy, for YA and middle grade graphic novels; and the October arrival of Asterix #40 via Papercutz, the line they acquired last year. The Mad Cave line announced Monomyth, a new series from David Hazan (Tales from Nottingham); and Jennie Wood’s Paper Planes via young readers line Maverick.
On the retail front, Chris La Torre and Christina Harrington, Mad Cave Studios’ Regional Retail Relations Managers, are at ComicPRO talking about a variety of opportunities for shops, including ordering through Lunar Distribution, E-level Discounting with Diamond, Store Variant opportunities, Retailer Materials, and Direct Ordering through Mad Cave Studios.
You can read details on Winx and Asterix below, and also watch the Mad Cave presentation reel, which highlights Mad Cave titles: Tales from Nottingham, Don’t Spit in the Wind, Hunt. Kill. Repeat., The Karman Line, Exorcists Never Die, You’ve Been Cancelled, and Monomyth; young readers line Maverick books including Paper Planes, Confetti Realms, Voyage de Gourmet, and Papercutz titles The Asterix Omnibus, The Loud House, Geronimo Stilton Reporter, the Smurfs, and The Casagrandes.
Winx Club originated as an Italian cartoon but gained an audience in the US on Nickelodeon. It’s set in a magical universe that is inhabited by fairies, witches, and other mythical creatures. A live action version ran on Netflix for a few seasons.
Mad Cave’s agreement with production company Rainbow is for a series of young adult graphic novels under the Maverick imprint and middle grade adaptations via Papercutz. The titles are expected to debut in 2024.
“Winx Club is the perfect match for Maverick & Papercutz.” said Allison Pond, Mad Cave Chief Marketing Officer. “On the surface, Winx hosts a magical world to be discovered and explored, but at its core Winx reveals to young readers that even a regular ‘Earth Girl’ has access to magical abilities within herself. We hope that readers will find themselves within the pages of these stories, in the same way Bloom finds herself.”
“I grew up with Asterix. When I read my first one – it was Asterix and the Great Divide which my mum bought for me the day it was published – I fell head over heels. I went straight on to read Asterix and the Big Fight, Asterix and the Roman Agent . . . and I very soon found I was reading them all on a loop. I learned to read with René Goscinny and to draw with Albert Uderzo. I remember copying whole frames from the albums. I’ve reread those albums regularly all through my life, and I always enjoy them just as much.”
