A while back, when news broke that Karin Slaughter would be penning a graphic novel that her UK publisher Century would publish in 2009, I wondered if there was a US deal in the works. Requests to her agent, Victoria Sanders, went unanswered, but now the news is out, and it's not exactly what I expected.

Turns out that Slaughter, an international bestselling thriller writer especially popular in the UK, Holland and Germany, has teamed up with comics publisher Oni Press to launch Slaughterhouse Graphic Novels, a new line of original comic books and graphic novels will be devoted exclusively to creations written by established writers from the world of prose fiction. Its first publication will be THE RECIDIVISTS, slated for April 2009. "This really is an area that we were one of the first publishers to focus on," explained Oni Press publisher Joe Nozemack. "The last time we unleashed a novelist of this caliber on the comic book world, it was Greg Rucka (author of the Atticus Kodiak series and WHITEOUT, soon to be a movie with Kate Beckinsdale). We've long wanted to build on that fine pedigree." More details about the book and future releases from the imprint will be announced at the 2008 New York Comic Book Convention.