Plenty of details have surfaced regarding the forthcoming Redwall Graphic Novel that was reported in June, courtesy of the man doing the adaptation himself, writer Stuart Moore.
As the writer for DC Comics’ Firestorm, Moore frequents the Firestorm board at DC’s forums to answer fans’ questions and has responded to two Redwall queries (the second of which was from yours truly) with the following:
#1
It’s an adaptation of the first book, being published as a stand-alone graphic novel. I’ve only seen stills of the cartoon, but the gn’s art, by Bret Blevins, will be considerably more detailed. I’ve seen some initial work and it looks amazing. Brian Jacques, Redwall’s creator, is approving every stage.
[Source]#2
Thanks for asking — that’s a fun project. It’s to be published by Philomel/Penguin Books, who publish the novels in the U.S. (in hardcover). It looks to run about 140 pages. Bob Harras, who’s packaging the whole project, just sent me a new batch of Bret’s layouts yesterday and they’re gorgeous — he’s a big REDWALL fan. It’s going to be some time before the book comes out because, well, it takes a while to draw 140 pages! But I think it’ll be worth it.
[Source]
Running through each nugget quickly, I’m familiar with the art of Bret Blevins, having collected Batman: Shadow of the Bat in the early-’90′s, a time during which he was the artist for the book. While his work is somewhat stylized, he’s no slouch and I have no doubt he’ll do a great job with Redwall.
As for the man packaging the project, Bob Harras, he’s another comic industry vet who oversaw first the X-Men and then the Spider-Man lines of books during the 1990′s. While that doesn’t exactly tell us what we can expect, it does tell us the project is in good hands and we won’t get short-changed.
The final bits we’ve gleaned (for all you article-skimmers out there) is that Philomel/Penguin is publishing it themself, rather than an actual comic book company– it’s an adaptation of Redwall– and will be roughly 140 pages long. It’s unclear whether the “in hardcover” was simply a clarification about the novels Philomel publishes or the graphic novel itself, but we’ll try to have that point cleared up.
The project is slated to hit shelves sometime in 2006.
Stay tuned to The Redwall Newsline for more details.
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