Beijing Enlight Media, the studio behind last year’s big animated hit Nezha, said it will invest about 1 billion yuan ($145 million) over the next five years to adapt comic content into animated productions. 

Company president Wang Changtian said the investment will aim to produce ten productions. The announcement was made on Tuesday at a media event to launch a comic art platform mobile app called “Yi Ben Man Hua”.

The app was launched by Beijing Enlight’s subsidiary, Caitiaowu, which was established in 2015 to focus on creating comic content and producing animated films. “Yi Ben Man Hua”’s focus will be on making comics that are suitable for adapting into animations focusing on themes such as mythology and fantasy, according to Jiang Zibin, the chief editor of the app.  

The app currently has 21 comic creators with a total of 47 comic titles available, most of which are free, according to Jiang.

The market leader in this area is Tencent-backed Kuaikan, which boast about 3,000 creators and more than 3,000 available titles.

Read the full story at Caixin Global later today

Related: Smash Hit ‘Nezha’ Poised to Break Record for Animated Films

Contact Reporter Mo Yelin (yelinmo@caixin.com)