Papercutz has announced that it has ordered a mammoth 425,000-copy first printing for LEGO Ninjago Vol. #4: Tomb of the Fangpyre.  LEGO launched its multi-platform Ninjago property in 2011 and it quickly became a hit with sales of Ninjago toys and books taking off and solid ratings for a tie-in cartoon series on the Cartoon Network. 

 

Papercutz sold out of its 200,000-copy first printing of the first volume in its series of Ninjago graphic novels (after increasing the print run several times, see "'Ninjago' GN Hits 170,000"), and the property quickly became the bestselling title in Papercutz stable of potent kids GN properties that also includes LEGO’s Bionicles, The Smurfs, Geronimo Stilton, and Disney Fairies to name a few.

 

Greg Farshtey, who wrote Ninjago Vol. #4, is the "story architect" for LEGO Ninjago graphic novels, a task that he also performed for LEGO’s Bionicles graphic novels and which is roughly similar to the function of a "showrunner" on a major TV series.  Ninjago Vol. 4 also represents the debut of artist Jolyon Yates.  Papercutz is celebrating Yates’ new tenure on the title with a Ninjago poster (that pays homage to Enter the Dragon), which will be given away at Comic-Con.

 

The success of the Ninjago graphic novel series, which has been accomplished primarily in the bookstore market, certainly means that it makes sense for direct market retailers who do have customers under 14 shopping at their stores to consider carrying the reasonably-priced (cover price $6.99) Ninjago GNs.