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While Del Rey manga is popular with serious manga fans, their top three sellers in bookstores, according to the 2009 BookScan data, were two series that most manga fans probably never picked up—adaptations of Cartoon Network's Ben 10 and Bakugan animated cartoons. These three slim volumes (two of Bakugan and one of Ben 10) sold over 50,000 copies combined last year in bookstores alone.

Now Del Rey is reaching for a different audience with original graphic novels based on both properties but with original stories and a new look. The first volume of Ben 10: Doom Dimension, written by veteran comics writer Peter David and illustrated by Gyakushu! creator Dan Hipp, is due out on February 23, and Bakugan Battle Brawlers, written by Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir and illustrated by Kriss Sison, is due out in March. The second volume of the Ben 10 manga is scheduled for July release. Unlike the earlier books, these are black-and-white, manga-style graphic novels with original character designs and stories.

The first set of graphic novels were deliberately pitched at a younger audience, said editor Tricia Pasternak, and were stocked in the children's sections of bookstores and mass-market retailers such as Wal-Mart. The new books are aimed at slightly older readers and will be stocked in the manga sections of retail bookstores. The impetus for both came from Cartoon Network, Pasternak said, and in fact the original graphic novels were mentioned in their very first press release.

Both series start with a dedicated fan base. Ben 10, which features a young boy with a magic ring that can transform him into any one of ten aliens, is Cartoon Network's most popular show, Pasternak said. Bakugan, which is like an updated version of Pokemon, features kids who collect tiny alien robots and pit them against one another in battles; naturally, there is a strong line of tie-in toys.

In the case of Ben 10, writer Peter David had already written an episode of the television series, so he was a natural choice for the book. "Cartoon Network was really comfortable with him, and he knew the universe inside out, so they gave him a lot of freedom," Pasternak said.

"I'm a comic book guy, and the series has very much a comic book sensibility," said David, pointing out that the members of Man of Action, the production company that created Ben 10, have strong comics backgrounds. "I designed [the manga] to read like an episode of the series. I figured that was one of the advantages my being on the book brought to the party: Having actually written for the series, I could make the comic feel as much like an episode as possible."

Pasternak said Cartoon Network encouraged Del Rey to find an artist with a style that is different from the cartoon. "They wanted us to take it in a new visual direction," she said. She chose Hipp because she admired his original manga Gyakushu! and his work on The Amazing Joy Buzzards. "He has such an energetic and dynamic style, I thought he could pull off the action sequences in Ben 10, and fortunately the creators agreed as well," she said.

"After I had the initial character designs approved in my style, I was given a lot of freedom," Hipp said. "I basically just drew it the way I draw any story, attempting to inject as much energy as possible." The villain, a bounty-hunter named Aztak, was David's creation, and Hipp was given free rein with the character design. He also added his own take in the backgrounds. "Any time I have to draw a scene I'll try and put some fun bits in the background, or a random element of design, like some guy's T-shirt," Hipp said. "Dressing characters in the background can be the most fun!"

David said he had two audiences in mind: Fans of the television series and fans of his own work that would be drawn to the book because of his involvement. "I made sure to include enough information that someone who was new to the series would be able to follow everything that was happening, including taking a few pages to reference the actual origin sequence," David said. When the animated series first came out, Ben was 10 years old, but later the story was rebooted and he is now age 15, which allows for more possible stories, Pasternak said.

Going back to the origin worked fine, David said, because the first version of the series had a manga style. "And, with any luck, any newcomers who read the book will like enough of what they read to start getting into the TV series, where you'll find episodes written by various comic book vets such as Dwayne, Len Wein, and yours truly," he added.

"Ben 10 is a little more clever and a little more hip than a lot of children's TV shows, a little more interesting than the typical Saturday morning show," said Pasternak. "It has a child audience but can also work for teens, and we conceived the story to work for both those audiences."

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