Dabel Brothers Publishing has announced the acquisition of the license to create a comic book series based on Walter Hill’s 1979 cult classic action film, The Warriors.  The first issue of The Warriors comic, which marks the first time the Dabels have ever adapted a movie, is slated for release in January of 2009 to mark the 30th anniversary of the film’s release.  The Dabels plan on starting with an adaptation of the film and then move on to create spin-off stories featuring the characters from the movie, which is based on the novel by Sol Yurick.

 

Like the novel it is based on, The Warriors movie is a re-telling (of sorts) of the Anabasis of Xenophon set among the gangs of New York.  When a charismatic gang leader is killed at a gang summit in Van Cortland Park, the Warriors are blamed for the murder and the unarmed Warriors delegation of nine have to make their way back across the city to their home turf in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn despite being hunted by the police and stalked by other gangs who mistakenly think the Warriors are responsible for the killing of the charismatic Cyrus.