Milo Manara on X-Men

Panini S.p.A., the company that publishes several Marvel titles in Europe and Latin America, announced today that they've expanded their agreement with Marvel to include original material:

Notable in the new agreement is an ambitious expansion of editorial projects where Panini will originate new content under the creative supervision of Marvel. Panini will continue to develop the top-selling Spectacular Spider-Man and Marvel Rampage children’s magazines and spin these out to the rest of the licensed territories in a variety of new formats including hardcover books and digests. Additionally, Panini will originate a third magazine aimed at younger readers and will develop new short Marvel comic strip stories for syndication in newspapers and periodicals throughout the license Territory.

The press release that came out today included a list of several projects Panini and Marvel will work on, including:

• An X-Men mini-series and a Young Dr Strange mini-series produced by Red Whale, artists of the top selling Disney W.I.T.C.H. title and acclaimed creators of the Monster Allergy comics

• A Women of The X-Men graphic novel written by X-Men icon Chris Claremont and illustrated by top-selling European artist Milo Manara

• A Wolverine graphic novel written by Jean-David Morvan with art by Philippe Buchet, two of the main stars of the French comic book industry and authors of the best-selling series Sillage.

• A Daredevil/Captain America graphic novel written by Tito Faraci and drawn by Claudio Villa, top artist of Italy’s iconic and top-selling comic book title, Tex.

• A complete collection of Stan Lee and John Romita’s Spider-Man daily strips and Sunday pages, originally published in 1977-1980 and never before reprinted in their totality in book format.

Yes, Milo Manara, known for drawing the female form, drawing the X-Women. And the fanboys cheered with glee and delight ...