Publishers' Weekly is reporting that the Hachette Book Group has asked Rich Johnson to head a new graphic novel imprint potentially under the Warner Books umbrella. Hachette purchased the Time/Warner Book Group earlier this year (see 'Time Warner Book Group Sold').  No name has been assigned to the imprint yet, but according to PW Hachette is interested in a wide variety of graphic novel categories including licensed manga, original manga, original American comics and graphic novels, graphic novels for children and Web comics.

Johnson was the former Vice President of Book Trade Sales at DC Comics and he played a major role in shepherding DC's graphic novel collections into the bookstore market (see 'Rich Johnson No Longer DC VP').