Bantam Books and Dynamite Entertainment have announced the acquisition of comic book and graphic novel rights to George R.R. Martin’s bestselling epic fantasy series A Song of Fire and Ice.  Daniel Abraham, the author of The Long Price Quartet, is writing the adaptation and Tommy Patterson (Farscape, The Warriors) is providing the illustrations for the comic book adaptation, which Dynamite will launch this spring.  Bantam will then publish graphic novel compilations of the comic book series.  HBO is launching a television adaptation, entitled A Game of Thrones (the title of first book in the series), in April.

 

Martin’s series of fantasy novels consists of four published volumes with three additional books planned. So far the A Song of Fire and Ice novels have sold more than 3.5 million copies in the U.S. and 7 million worldwide, totals that are expected to get a major jolt when the TV series hits.  But even without TV exposure this is already an immensely popular fantasy property that has spawned a popular strategy board game from Fantasy Flight Games and a role-playing game from Green Ronin. The Dabel Brother produced graphic novel adaptations of The Hedge Knight and The Sworn Sword, two novellas written by Martin that take place in the same world of A Song of Fire and Ice but are set about 90 years before the events in the main cycle.