Twilight: The Graphic Novel

Twilight: The Graphic Novel is a graphic novel by Young Kim, an adaptation of the first thirteen chapters of Twilight by Stephenie Meyer.

Plot Summary
The plot describes Bella Swan's move from Phoenix, Arizona to Forks, Washington to live with her father, Charlie, while her mother, Renée, travels with her new husband, Phil Dwyer, a minor league baseball player. Bella attracts much attention at her new school and is quickly befriended by several students. Much to her dismay, several boys compete for shy Bella's attention. She is immediately struck by the extreme beauty of the Cullens, who appear pale and different.

When Bella is seated next to Edward Cullen in class on her first day of school, Edward seems utterly repulsed by her. He disappears for a few days, but warms up to Bella upon his return; their newfound relationship reaches a climax when Bella is nearly run over by a fellow classmate's van in the school parking lot. Seemingly defying the laws of physics, Edward saves her life when he instantaneously appears next to her and stops the van with his bare hands.

Bella becomes determined to find out how Edward saved her life, and constantly pesters him with questions. After a family friend, Jacob Black, tells her the local tribal legends, Bella concludes that Edward and his family are vampires who drink animal blood rather than human. Edward confesses that he initially avoided Bella because the scent of her blood was too desirable to him. However, he admits his true nature and when this doesn't scare away Bella, they begin a relationship.

They begin questioning each other about their lives, and Edward decides to show Bella why he and his family can't be in the sun. They go hiking for a day, where Edward tries once more to show just how dangerous he really is, but it turns out that neither can stay away, culminating in a kiss. The novelization ends with Edward taking Bella home.

Reception
The graphic novel's first printing was reported to be of 350,000 copies, which, according to USA Today, was believed to be the largest first printing for a graphic novel in the U.S. market. A typical first printing for a graphic novel is between 20,000 and 25,000 copies. Yen Press announced that the graphic novel sold 66,000 copies in its first week, which it claimed was a record for U.S. sales of a graphic novel in its first week.

As of June 10, 2010, the Twilight graphic novel was at #1 on the New York Times best-seller list for hardcover graphic books in its 12th week on the chart.

Nick Smith of ICv2 gave the graphic novel a rating of 5 out of 5 stars, writing, "The romantic nature of the story is emphasized, and the artistic style used will be very attractive to the same audience which devoured the novel." Ronald S. Lim of the Manila Bulletin wrote, "While the graphic novel isn't lacking any visual flair, it does struggle to tell a fascinating enough story when it comes to the plot. ... This isn't exactly Kim's fault, but more of Meyer's. Twilight, as a novel, is not replete with action." Chris Sims of Comics Alliance wrote that "Kim does a fantastic job" with the art, but the lettering "hits new lows. It is garbage. Even if you can get past the fact that they lettered an entire graphic novel in Times New Roman — which I assume was a choice meant to make it look more like a novel and less like a comic — they still managed to get everything wrong."