Marvel Comics has brought Mark Paniccia on board as a senior editor to significantly bolster the publishers presence and success in the hot teen graphic novel category. He will also recruit a new generation of comicbook writers and artists.
Formerly senior editor of new development at leading U.S.-based manga publisher TOKYOPOP, Paniccia was a key player in the companys successful original graphic novel program, and served as a talent recruiter, searching at anime, manga and comicbook conventions, museums and art schools across the country and headed a major national manga competition. In addition to signing new creators, he also brought in established pros to create new manga series.
The manga category continues to be one of the most explosive growth segments of the comic industry, said Dan Buckley, publisher, Marvel Comics. Having a person the caliber of Mark join Marvel really gives us one of the leading visionaries in the genre. We feel teaming Mark with the renowned Marvel Universe gives us the opportunity to truly take charge and further innovate the comicbook market.
Paniccia has a long, successful track record in the comics industry, starting with Malibu Comics where he served as an editor for its manga imprint. He was also the licensing line editor at Malibu Comics, where he oversaw comic lines based on such popular brands as Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Terminator II, Bruce Lee and Mortal Combat. He originally worked for Marvel in 1995 as a line editor where he worked on comicbooks based on Paramount Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox licensed properties. In 2002, he served as a co-producer on the Chow Yun Fat movie, BULLETPROOF MONK.
With a library of more than 5,000 characters Marvel Enterprises Inc. (www.marvel.com) is one of the worlds most prominent character-based entertainment companies. Marvels operations are focused in four areas: entertainment (Marvel Studios), licensing, comicbook publishing and toys (Toy Biz). Marvel facilitates the creation of entertainment projects, including feature films, DVD/home video, videogames and television based on its characters and also licenses its characters for use in a wide range of consumer products and services including apparel, collectibles, snack foods and promotions.
