Del Rey Manga: A Better Look at New Wolverine Manga

As promised, here are bigger and better versions of the Wolverine shonen manga sketches by Wilson Tortosa, plus additional sketches of other characters, Tamara and Vincent, courtesy of the folks at Del Rey Manga. So what's the diff between the usual Marvel comics version of Wolverine and this new shonen manga version? Logan (Wolverine) is a rough 'n tumble bad boy teen, and by the look of the sketches, Antony Johnston and Tortosa's story pre-dates his adamantium claws and cigar-chomping days as part of Professor Xavier's crew.

Also, check out a few more shojo manga X-Men sketches by Anzu, including a goth bishonen (beautiful boy) version of Nightcrawler, and the full pages drawings of Beast and Kitty Pryde. Kitty looks like a cutie-pie anime fan, complete with cat-eared hat, and the Beast? Well, he looks more cuddly than muscular and manly. Both very manga-fied graphic novels of the Marvel Comics mutants will make their debut in 2009.

The Del Rey New Manga Galleries also include a first look at Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei, a story about a depressed teacher and his quirky students that's scheduled to debut in Spring 2009.

Just added new cover art for Nina Matsumoto's Yokaiden, which got its release date moved from Summer to November 2008. Described as "a hilarious revenge saga" by Del Rey Associate Editor Dallas Middaugh, Yokaiden is about Hamachi, a Japanese boy who befriends yokai, or demon/spirits that other people consider to be frightening. When his grandmother is murdered, Hamachi travels to the land of the yokai to search for her killer.

See more of the manga and graphic novels announced for 2008 and 2009 at New York Comic-Con in the Del Rey Manga Preview Gallery for 2008 and 2009 New Manga Sneak Peek Gallery. Read more about these new releases, as announced at Del Rey Manga's Saturday afternoon panel at NYCC 2008.

Image credit: © Marvel Comics, Wilson Tortosa and Antony Johnston, © 2005 by Koji Kumeta / KODANSHA LTD. All rights reserved.