The books were initially published in 19, but achieved arguably the peak of their popularity almost half a century later when Peter Jackson adapted them for the big screen. The idea that adaptations can keep a property alive - or, better yet, make it thrive for a new audience - is unlikely to be lost on those familiar with Lord of the Rings. Consider, again, what happened to Star Wars as a result of Dark Horse’s publishing program in the 1990s when paired with Del Rey’s line of novels. comic companies - while characters and concepts created as part of this ancillary material can help a property grow in popularity even when it’s offscreen. In the years since, entire companies have been built on the success of adaptations and spin-off material created around existing movie and book properties - look at what Aliens, and to a lesser extent, Predator, did for Dark Horse in the late 1980s, bringing a new audience to what had been a mid-level black and white indie publisher and transforming it into one of the largest U.S. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series - better known to most as Game of Thrones - and Frank Herbert’s Dune have received multi-volume adaptations from mainstream book publishers in recent years, providing publishers with what would appear to be evidence that such an adaptation was possible, and likely had an in-built market, especially if the property had a movie or television show behind it.Ĭomic book adaptations of known properties can mean big business for publishers, something that’s been the case since Star Wars saved Marvel from financial disaster in the 1970s. It’s not just the Kurt Vonnegut classic that’s been pulled into comics lately titles like George R.R.

And though the trend for transforming words into words-and-pictures has waxed and waned throughout the years, the literary adaptation remains a potent idea for comics success, demonstrated by last year’s critically acclaimed Slaughterhouse Five from Boom! Studios.

Hyde and The War of the Worlds for decades.

There is a long history for comic book adaptations of classic genre literature, stretching all the way back to 1941’s Classics Illustrated - a series which added pictures and speech balloons to the likes of Dr. On paper, at least, the idea is a sound one. So each Wednesday throughout the year, we'll go there and back again, examining how and why the films have endured as modern classics. 2021 marks The Lord of the Rings movies' 20th anniversary, and we couldn't imagine exploring the trilogy in just one story.

Lord of the rings graphic