NBM Publishing is launching a new line of comics and graphic novels featuring the classic teen detectives, The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew.  The full color comic books will contain all new stories and will be fully updated -- the new Nancy Drew has a laptop and a cell phone, while the twenty-first century Hardy Boys are quite adept at computer hacking. 

The new Hardy Boys adventures, written by Scott Lobdell and illustrated by Lea Hernandez, will appear first in a 32-page color comic book series (with 28 pages of story) that will be a direct market exclusive with the first issue shipping in November ($2.95 cover price).  In February the Hardy Boys comics will be collected into a 96-page squarebound, manga size, full color trade paperback with a cover price of $7.95. The new Nancy Drew comic adaptations will only appear as trade paperbacks.

The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew comics, which will be published under NBM's new Papercuts imprint, are targeted at boys and girls in the 8-14 year-old demographic.

Jim Salicrup, who is editing The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew comics, has had considerable experience in fashioning comic books for young readers, and young readers have demonstrated a continuing interest in new versions of the 80-year old properties--Simon & Schuster recently published an updated Nancy Drew mystery, which made the New York Times Bestsellers List, demonstrating the viability of the property.