The Panini Group has announced a contract with Virgin Comics LLC to become its long term master licensee for comic books, comic magazines, trade paperbacks and graphic novels in Europe (UK and Ireland excluded) and in all of Latin America.  Under the agreement Panini will translate and market in a variety of periodical and book formats the new titles produced by Virgin Comics, the new (see 'Virgin Comics') entertainment company formed by Sir Richard Branston and the Virgin Group alongside world-renowned author Deepak Chopra, acclaimed filmmaker Shekhar Kapur (Four Feathers) and South Asia's leading publisher of comic magazines, Gotham Entertainment Group.

Panini, the foremost publisher of U.S. comics in Europe and Latin America (see 'Marvel Renews & Expands Its Panini Deal'), has also spearheaded the translation and adaptation of hundreds of Japanese manga titles in all the main European territories and Brazil in the last eleven years.