Song of Ice and Fire Comic?

[Ran]

Since I've gotten back to posting about comics, it reminded me that we haven't really spoken much of the possibility that a publisher may start adapting A Song of Ice and Fire in the near future. GRRM isn't sure about it yet, but apparently he had some meetings because people are sniffing around. He did say that if they adapt, it'll be an adaption of the novels, and not the TV series -- so I guess one wouldn't expect Ned to be drawn to look like Sean Bean, etc.

In any case, I was pondering what publishers might be interested, and then that led me to wonder a bit about who my "dream team" would be to adapt this.

You'd have to think companies with recent/current relationships with GRRM might be interested -- that's Marvel, Avatar, IDW. Now, Avatar, they really don't do regular series, do they? I guess if they could see adapting the series as a series of maxi-series ... IDW, OTOH, does. Marvel's the big behemoth, of course, and they have been doing those Dark Tower comics. But those are original stories, IIRC, not straight-up adaptions.

Looking further afield, Dynamite, of course, picked up DB Pro... and they're growing fast, and moving strong on acquiring a lot of literary properties. The Dabels are now working in association with them, helping to bring literary talent under their umbrella, and I'm reminded of the fact that DB Pro first came into contact with George when they asked him for the rights to ASoIaF. Then there's Dark Horse, who comes to mind because they've done great work with the Conan property...

Dynamite and IDW seem likeliest to me, anyways, but you can definitely make arguments for them and others.

Then, creative teams. Anyone have favorite picks? Obviously, Mike S. Miller and Ben Avery have done a terrific job on The Hedge Knight, and would not be bad picks for this. But different publishers may want different things.

Chuck Dixon was adapting RJ's New Spring for DB Pro/Red Eagle, and seemed to do a decent job of it. He wouldn't be a bad writer to tackle it. I'm sure someone like ... Daniel Abraham, say, could do it, if he wanted, especially as he's tackled the adaptions of Fevre Dream and "The Skin Trade". But it's probably a bigger task than he'd be interested in Who else? Hrm, I'm quite fond of Peter David -- he'd do a bang-up job adapting Tyrion, don't you think? -- but I'm pretty sure adaptions like that aren't something he'd be interested in, preferring original work. Mark Waid could do a fine job, too. Kurt Busiek did some great adaptation work in the course of the Conan comic from Dark Horse.

Maybe the more important one is art, though, especially in this day and age. Who'd be the perfect artist to capture the setting? Hrm, hrm...

I think he's still exclusive with Marvel, but I recall Jim Cheung pretty fondly from Crossgen's Scion, especially with issues like this Hal Foster tribute right near the end as Crossgen was collapsing. And Steve Epting, too. Look at this warm-up painting he did (not comic art, but hey, he likes knights!)

But I'm almost certain he's Marvel-exclusive right now (and deeply involved in The Marvels Project).

Some more obscure names, perhaps, would be some of the artists who've worked with Brian Woods on Northlanders, like Leandro Fernández or Davide Gianfelice. Massimo Carnevale would do terrific covers, too.

I'm a huge fan of Mark Smylie's Artesia series -- the best original epic fantasy comic that I've read, at least in the U.S. -- but I'm pretty sure that with Archaia Studio Press duties and Artesia: Besieged slowly crawling along, that that won't be happening. A shame -- he'd be perfect, with so much attention to the arms, armor, clothing, architecture, etc.

And speaking of more painted art, and having mentioned Conan, Cary Nord would be an interesting direction.

I'm sure there's dozens of others good ideas out there.

[palin99999]

It's probably unrealistic, but I'd love to see John Cassady do everything covers. As for interiors, I like what the team on House of Mystery is doing. See their work here. Or maybe Tony Harris, but his style might not fit.

What I'd really like is for a couple new stories to be included. Maybe like what DC did recently by having 5-10 page supplementals include with each issue. These could focus on small or underused characters.

[Ran]

Cassady would be terrific. But if we're shooting for the moon, J.H. Williams III would also be stunning as a cover artist (and Williams would be brilliant on interiors, it goes without saying).

Vignettes about various characters would be pretty interesting. That trip down from Winterfell took a couple of months, at the very least, and we only get a glimpse of about two days of it. Or Tyrion's and Jon's trip to the Wall, we just see one particular evening of it, basically, and the rest is glossed over. So there's certainly room to fill in the blanks. But would a publisher do that? I don't know... depends on how much room they have, I guess. I have to imagine that a comic book adaption will not be as unabridged as, say, the TV show. When "The Hedge Knight" can be fairly unabridged in 6 issues, it'd take ... what, 50 issues to give A Game of Thrones the same treatment? And that's without additional vignettes.

[Hot Pie for President]

ASOIAF has so many settings and atmospheres, and is terrible long. Arya's chapters have a dark Last Days feeling, all very grey and washed out. The court needs a artist that intents on the details. And chapters with battles need a more epic style. Why not a comic book adaption from different artists? Every chapter a new piece of art, that's what I hope for. A long time ago I had some X-Files comics. The stories were awful, but the scale of art was from stunning/experimental (in watercolor, that was quite new back then) over classic to mainstream. That was fun.

[Ran]

That's an interesting idea. Certainly, you know, it's very rare these days to have a single artist on a very long run of a comic series. Mark Bagley was pretty remarkable for his long Ultimate Spider-Man run. But having multiple artists within a comic ... that's usually because someone was behind a deadline, or some sort of special comic. Still, it's an idea. A different artist for each POV...

I will note, if J.H. Williams III did it, he could handle all sorts of variant illustration styles. He is a wonder.

[Sheep the Evicted]

Well i just got done reading the first chapter of the Fevre dream comics and they utterly butchered it; the pacing and character design where terrible imo and the art style just didn't fit. So no, i wouldn't be to eager to see a AGoT comic, we are already getting a HBO tv series, any more than that and we are just asking to get screwed.

[Ran]

I don't know, the Fevre Dream adaption isn't something I've read yet, but just because an adaption could go wrong once doesn't necessarily mean it'll happen again. THK and TSS adapted pretty well, IMO. The question is how many issues they'd devote to a book... If they said, you know, 24 issues for Game of Thrones, I think that'd be pretty interesting to see how it came out.

[Ran]

Hrm, and since I mentioned Nord and Busiek, how about Tim Truman? Who has, I should note, a history with ASoIaF -- he designed the awesome BwB dragon skull shirts, the first BwB shirts ever produced. He's currently writing Conan the Cimmerian (which, IIRC, is about to reboot with a new title -- and a new writer? Not sure), but he has done the art chores in the past. Part of the Conan run has been adapting some of REH's short stories, so he'd also be capable of adapting the text, I expect.

[Ran]

Garlan offered up this remark which I thought was interesting:

Personally, I would like to see it be done how Cooke is adapting the Parker series. Graphic novel form would cut any amount of delays out and would probably sell better considering the scope of the series. I could see a graphic novel the size of Dash Shaw's Bottomless Belly Button or Yoshihiro Tatsumi's A Drifting Life getting put out once every 2 years. I'd buy that.

You know what? Publishing it all in one go as a graphic novel rather than breaking it up into monthlies would be a very, very interesting approach. A challenging one, too, of course, but an interesting one. It would make it perfect for bookstores, where they could shelve it right along with the rest of GRRM's work.

I know Joey Q has argued against this model, saying that the monthly issues are a real necessity, but Cooke's Parker book may suggest it's not an impossible process. Especially in the case of an already-established property like ASoIaF.

Would you go with just one artist or multiple, as suggested up thread? I wonder which creators could really sustain just working on a large graphic novel -- omnibuses of 250-500 pages? -- like that? (Cooke would be another amazing choice, but definitely not something in his wheelhouse).

[Ran]

By sheer coincidence, someone posted a bunch of pages from one of Garth Ennis's Punisher MAX story arcs, featuring the work of Leandro Fernández. Terrific, gritty art, which I think would suit ASoIaF very well if a comic goes forward.

[Evrach]

By sheer coincidence, someone posted a bunch of pages from one of Garth Ennis's Punisher MAX story arcs, featuring the work of Leandro Fernández. Terrific, gritty art, which I think would suit ASoIaF very well if a comic goes forward.

Love that style !

[Ran]

Isn't that terrific? The bit where the Punisher is hunched on the bed next to the sleeping young woman kind of makes me think a little about how someone might depict Sandor and Sansa, at the end of ACoK. Fernández's Punisher is massive, just about Sandor-sized, IMO.

Highly recommend the whole of Garth Ennis's Punisher MAX run, too.

ETA: This reminds me that IDW has the rights to the True Blood comic. I've got to put them as one of the main publishers after ASoIaF, as per GRRM's report, because of this. Although in that case, they are licensing the HBO property, while any ASoIaF comic will be licensing the novels, no the TV series.

[Darth Vader's Bastard]

I'd rather see a brand new story told in the Song of Ice and Fire world than any sort of adaptation. I mean, we're already getting a television adaptation, do we really need a comic too? New stories, I say, new stories.

[Ran]

That's not going to be happening. GRRM's at present not intending to opening the setting to anyone else to write.

[Darth Vader's Bastard]

wasn't implying I'd want anyone else to write it either

[Ran]

Ah, well, realistically, someone else would have to, because GRRM's not going to be writing a monthly. ;)

Though in a year and change, "The Mystery Knight" may be adapted.

[me399]

Ah, well, realistically, someone else would have to, because GRRM's not going to be writing a

God I sure hope he wouldn't be. He's already doing everything in the world besides finishing this series. He does not need anything else to distract him.

[Wolfheart]

I want to put forth Justin Gerard's excellent talent as an illustrator and artist for any future ASOIAF comic.

www.justingerard.com

He recently did a beautiful illustrated adaption to Beowulf. And has done numerous beautiful images of LOTR.

I also suggest Mike S. Miller again. I enjoyed his style.

[Ran]

Almost a year later, and it looks like we've got an ASoIaF comic at last, with Daniel Abraham adapting the script and Tommy Patterson handling penciling. I've added some comments from the both of them to an additional post that I haven't quite finished up.

I am not very familiar with Patterson, but he feels his best work to date is for Zenoscope's Tales from Wonderland series, specifically "The White Knight" and "Red Rose" issues.

[Renasko]

Not at all surprised to find Abraham's name attached to this. Wise decision.