Runaways is an American comic book series created by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona for Marvel Comics. The series debuted in April 2003. It has covered 13 story arcs, and is currently in its fourteenth. Runaways has frequently been collected in digest-sized books, which led to booming sales. Series creator Vaughan wrote the entire first volume and most of the second, which was continued and ended by Joss Whedon. Rainbow Rowell currently runs the series. Runaways is frequently praised for being a simple story while being set in the typically complex and twisting Marvel Universe. While it was initially intended to be a six-part miniseries, the popularity of "Pride & Joy" and new ideas from writer Vaughan allowed it to grow into a regular monthly Marvel title, Runaways. Runaways has subsequently won several comics awards, including the 2006 Harvey Award for Best Continuing or Limited Series. The Brian K. Vaughan era Series' creator Brian K. Vaughan's tenure on the series ran from April 2003 to 2007. "Pride & Joy" was launched in 2003 as a part of Marvel's Tsunami imprint, the goal of which was to attract new readers, particularly young readers and the manga audience. The imprint was unsuccessful, and "Pride & Joy" (and the series Runaways that continued it) was one of the very few series from that imprint to continue being published and to do well in sales. In Vaughan's original pitch for the series, Karolina Dean was originally called Leslie. This name would eventually be given to the character's mother. Her parents were originally real estate agents, as opposed to famous actors. Molly was one of the few Runaways to actually keep the name she had in Brian K. Vaughan's original proposal; she is named after Vaughan's younger sister, Molly Hayes Vaughan. However, in the original pitch for the series, Molly's parents were Hollywood actors. This would eventually become the cover story of Karolina's parents. Also, Molly's sibling-like relationship with Chase was originally supposed to be with Gert. Molly was supposed to be thirteen years old in the original pitch instead of eleven. Nico Minoru was called Rachel Messina. Her parents were still magicians, but posed as wealthy antique dealers; this cover story was ultimately used for Gert's time traveling parents. Nico's source of power was not originally going to be her mother's Staff, but Robert Minoru's spellbook. Chase was originally called John, and Gert