This just in from Little Brown:

“The full App for Twilight: The Graphic Novel, Volume 1 is now available at Apple’s iBookstore for 19.99. Lavishly illustrated by Young Kim and meticulously reviewed by Stephenie Meyer, Twilight: The Graphic Novel, Volume 1 provides rare insight into the author’s vision of the original work as it is brought to life in this compelling new medium.   Now iPad users can read the entire first volume on their device.”

It takes roughly two weeks from date of release for a book to be eligible for the New York Times Bestseller list. Less than ten years ago there were only 4 lists hardcover/softcover and  fiction/non-fiction.  They split the lists since then into many, many subcategories. The reason for the split was that the Harry Potter books took over the top three spots for a solid three years producing…shall we say…discontent, among other authors and publishers that “a mere children’s book” was robbing them of their rightful place.

The result was the splitting of the list.  A byproduct of this split, in our opinion, was why the Twilight Saga novels didn’t catch the media attention as quickly. They were relegated to a sub-category in the children’s books division. Had the list still been in the old style, starting with the release of New Moon, the Twilight novels would have clogged the list the way Harry Potter had.  We base this theory on the fact that the novels ruled the top positions on the USA Today and Wall Street Journal lists which rank the way the New York Times used to; that is to say lumping everyone in together.

So where is all this fascinating history of the bestseller lists going you may ask? The graphic novel will be on the New York Times best seller list next week. It’s sales are the highest ever recorded for a graphic novel. The book debuted in the number 6 position on the USA Today list the first week it was eligible (Quite an accomplishment since graphic novels are not really everybody’s thing.)

A fast look at Amazon.com and the Twilight Graphic novel is in (at the time of this post) the number 1 position in all three graphic novel tracking categories and is in the top 30 books being sold on Amazon overall. At our podcast in New York on Friday we did a little informal poll to see what the interest was. The audience was pretty even among those who were getting it no matter what, maybe getting it after looking at it, and not getting it because graphic novels aren’t their thing.

Many people after the podcast came up to look at our sample, and we saw it in quite a lot of people’s hands as they lined up for their DVD at midnight. Most were struck by the artwork’s depth. Manga in style, but not so far into the genre that the characters looked too cartoonish: no overly heavy eyebrows, neon primary colors, or eyes the size of dinner plates here.

It’s a sales first for a graphic novel on many levels according to The Advertiser

“The 350,000 first printing is believed to be the biggest for any graphic novel in the U.S. market.

Because of the original Twilight novel’s length, the graphic novel will be published in two volumes. No date has been announced for the second. Nor is there any word on whether the last three books in the series will be adapted to the format.

The hardcover book, illustrated and adapted by South Korean artist Young Kim, was created with author Meyer’s oversight.

“When it comes to really seeing Stephenie Meyer’s personal vision of the Twilight property, this is as close an opportunity there is to accomplishing that,” said Yen’s Kurt Hassler. “Stephenie was very specific and has very clear images of what the characters look like in her head.”

Read the rest here.

So, did you get the graphic novel, why or why not, and if so what do you think?

USA Today covers the release of the Twilight Graphic Novel Part One which goes on sale at midnight tonight.  They talked to artist Young Kim about illustrating the book.

Kim says: “It is always difficult to visualize text, since everyone has a different interpretation of it, but I tried to be as faithful as possible to the descriptions in the book, and Stephenie’s review and input were greatly helpful.”

The article also sites a poll that we ran about fans of the series interest in purchasing the book and spoke with Pel about the possible popularity the book would have.  Speaking for all fans out there, Pel said, “The movies are great, but I think we all want a new book by Stephenie Meyer.”

Read the full article on USA Today’s site.

There is additional information on the graphic novel that was first reported today by EW. Below is the official press release from Little Brown.

“Yen Press, the graphic novel imprint of Hachette Book Group, announced that it will publish the highly-anticipated first volume in the graphic novel adaptation of  Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight on March 16, 2010.  Twilight: The Graphic Novel, Volume 1 will be released in hardcover for $19.99 ($22.99 CAN) with a first printing of 350,000 copies.  As is typical in graphic novel publishing, due to the length of the prose novel, the book will be divided into two volumes and the release date for the second volume is forthcoming.

Twilight: The Graphic Novel contains selected text from Meyer’s original novel with illustrations by Korean artist Young Kim.  A rare fusion of Asian and Western comic techniques is reflected in this black-and-white graphic novel with color interspersed throughout.  Meyer consulted throughout the artistic process and had input on every panel.

“I’ve enjoyed working on this new interpretation of Twilight,” said Meyer.  “Young has done an incredible job transforming the words that I have written into beautiful images.  The characters and settings are very close to what I was imagining while writing the series.”

Kurt Hassler, Yen Press Publishing Director, said, “Few American publishing properties are better suited to introduce a vast readership to the medium of graphic novel than the phenomenon that is Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight.  Yen Press will certainly continue to expand this audience with the help of Bella and Edward.”

In four years, Stephenie Meyer has become a worldwide publishing phenomenon.  The Twilight Saga’s translation rights have been sold in nearly 50 countries and 85 million copies have been sold worldwide.

Yen Press is an imprint of Hachette Book Group dedicated to publishing graphic novels for adults and young readers.  Yen Press’ focus is primarily on licensed manga, but also publishes across the wide spectrum of the graphic novel market, including, but not limited to: original manga publications, original American comics/graphic novels, webcomics, licensed adaptations, and children’s graphic novels.”

EW has the scoop on this one:

“I’m delighted to announce, exclusively, that Yen Press will publish Twilight: The Graphic Novel, Vol. 1 on March 16, with a first printing of 350,000 copies.  Here’s a first glimpse at the book’s cover, as well as an exclusive peek at one of its panels (for a full ten-page excerpt, and the entire Q&A with Stephenie Meyer, see the issue of EW that goes on sale this Friday).

What strikes me, looking at the book, is how faithfully, and how beautifully, artist Young Kim has translated Meyer’s original vision. Kim, who has a fine arts background—in fact, this is her first foray into graphic novels—didn’t just read the book; she absorbed it. Her Bella is the Bella I had in my mind’s eye the first time I read Twilight; her Edward is the Edward I always imagined. It took me back to reading Twilight pre-movie: Kristen Stewart and Rob Pattinson faded into the background.

Meyer talked to us about all this, and more. Here are a few snippets from our conversation:

The text of your original novel is boiled down so carefully that it doesn’t feel like anything is missing. Were you the one who did that?

I was definitely involved.  I didn’t do the original “script” for the book, so to speak.  But when I got the dialogue with the images, I did a lot of tinkering. In a couple of places, I asked for missing scenes to be inserted.  For example, the conversation in the car that Bella and Edward have after she faints in Biology.”

Read more on EW.

You can pre-order it here.

Are you a long-time graphic novel devotee? Is this new to you? Are you going to run out and preorder? Let us know what you think.