So, we all know and love Joe Hill’s work, right? Like that amazing comic book series “Locke & Key,” featuring art by the incomparable Gabriel Rodriguez? And because you’ve read his comic work, you’ve gone ahead and read his novels too, right? Like the recently released NOS4A2?
Well, then we have some news for you.
Revealed in an interview at Scotsman, NOS4A2 is getting a comic book spin-off. The book was originally released with a regular bookstore edition as well as a limited edition version at Subterranean Press, which featured a prequel novella entitled “Wraith,” all about the book’s main antagonist Charlie Manx. According to the interview, Hill is writing a sequel to it set to be a five-issue mini-series, telling more stories of Manx and his wicked adventures in Christmasland.
NOS4A2 tells the story of Victoria McQueen, a young girl whose life we follow through a series of life-changing events, including her interaction with the mysterious Charlie Manx. Manx is the owner of a Rolls-Royce Wraith which allows him to travel to a place called Christmasland, but as you might be able to assume from the title of the book and the fact that Manx is the antagonist, it’s not so happy as all that. Of course, as Hill as stated before, Manx would see himself as the protagonist of the series; while we view him as a villain and a horrible nightmare, everything Manx does in the book he does from the perspective that he is somehow in the right.
Given the idea of a “Wraith” comic, whether it is an adaptation of the novella or a brand new Manx story, it’ll be interesting to see a comic story ostensibly from the position of a villain who truly believes he is a force of some kind of good.
I would assume this comic will be accessible for those of you who have not read the book yet, and if you haven’t then maybe you ought to. It’s quite delectable. No news on who the artist of the series is, but Rodriguez did spot illustrations in the novel so maybe we can presume he’s doing something for “Wraith” as well. Perhaps.
Or maybe they’re too busy on their one-shot for Marvel. (Assuming it’s Marvel.)
Update: As apparently revealed back in May, the artist of the book is Charles Paul Wilson III. Oops! Missed that one.
