Fri Jul 25, 2008 — by Van Jensen

SDCC: Stephen King and Marvel Make Video Comics

King's unpublished story 'N' gets animated

Hot on the heels of announcements of the pseudo-animated versions of DC's Watchmen and Image's Invincible, the Wall Street Journal breaks early word that Marvel will join that game with an adaptation of an unpublished Stephen King short story.

Marvel's announcement probably will come today. The story, N, will be available in 25 installments starting next week, available for download on iTunes, Amazon and elsewhere.

It's sort of a tie-in promotion for King's new book of stories, including N, from publisher Scribner. And no one's sure what to expect:

For Scribner, the venture is a shot in the dark. There's no way of forecasting how well the videos will translate into book sales. While Scribner's corporate sibling, CBS Mobile, cites Nielsen data showing that roughly 14 million cellphone users in the U.S. pay for video services, it doesn't know how many of those people are regular book buyers. However, the links from the videos to the NisHere.com pre-ordering Web site will allow Scribner to get a sense of how many sales result from video viewings.

Mr. King is optimistic about the video's prospects. "I think they're readers," he says of likely video viewers. But he admits that the venture is "something of a test" whose outcome isn't certain.

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