During last week’s virtual WitcherCon, Dark Horse Comics announced “The Witcher: A Grain of Truth,” the first of several graphic novels based on Andrzej Sapkowski’s original Witcher short stories (collected in the books The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny).
The story will be adapted by writers Jacek Rembis (the video game Frostpunk) and Travis Currit (various previous “Witcher” comics), with artist Jonas Scharf (“Bone Parish”), colorist José Villarrubia, and letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. It is due for release in Spring 2022.
The original “Grain of Truth” was essentially Sapkowski’s spin on Beauty and the Beast, with Geralt of Rivia, the Witcher, discovering a rundown mansion inhabited by a large, bear-like man named Nivellen. Nivellen is a gracious host who relates to Geralt his life story, including how he became afflicted with his beastly appearance, and Geralt decides to help him lift the curse.
This isn’t the first comic based directly on Sapkowski’s source material, which was first adapted into a Polish series in 1993-1995, nor is it actually Dark Horse’s first, as the 2015 series “Fox Children” was based on several chapters from the novel Season of Storms. Regardless, it is a significant departure from Dark Horse’s previous series, which were mostly original stories tied into CD Projekt RED’s video game version of the franchise.
“A Grain of Truth” was skipped by the first season of The Witcher TV series (which concentrated on the stories that set up the novels), but it has been turned into the first episode of season two, with Kristofer Hivju (Game of Thrones‘ Tormund) reportedly playing Nivellen. Netflix announced during WitcherCon that season two will be released on December 17, 2021, and that it will be preceded by the animated film The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf (exploring the backstory of Geralt’s mentor Vesemir) on August 23; you can watch the first footage from both respectively here and here.
“Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Witcher: A Grain of Truth” will be released in comics shops on April 27, 2022, and in bookshops on May 10, 2022. It will retail for for $17.99.
