During a panel at the New York Comic Convention today, Marvel Comics announced that they will be working with Hugo and Nebula Award-winning science fiction writer Orson Scott Card to adapt two of his most acclaimed novels, Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow, into comic books later this year.
Ender's Game , a cult-favorite novel about a child prodigy named Ender recruited to help fight an alien army, and Ender's Shadow, a concurrent book focused on another young soldier, will launch as separate comics in late 2008, with the first Ender's Game collection due out in summer 2009.
Like Marvel's other literary crossovers, the Ender's Game comics aim not only to woo new readers into comic stores, but also to continue the push of graphic novels and trade paperback collections into traditional bookstores and libraries where they can reach a more mainstream audience.
Card, who also currently scripts the Ultimate Iron Man superhero comic with Marvel, says he was eager to pursue a comic book adaptation, but that the rights were previously bound up in film deal for the two novels, which were optioned by Warner Brothers, the parent company of DC Comics.
“The moment I got the comic book and game rights extracted from the movie option deal, I let Marvel and other [publishers] know about the availability,” says Card. “I truly was open-minded about who would end up doing the books, [but] Marvel got there first, with a terrific, ambitious plan for Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow.”
Under Card's oversight, the Ender's Game comic will be scripted by New X-Men and X-Force writer Chris Yost, with pencils by Ultimate Fantastic Four artPasqual Ferry.
This project marks yet another foray into the world of literature for Marvel, following its announcement at last year's New York Comic Convention that it would publish several comic book miniseries based on Stephen King's Dark Tower novels. The first miniseries, Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born, went on to become enormously successful, selling over 100,000 copies of each issue; the hardcover collected edition hit number one on Bookscan.
Over the last several years, Marvel has also been adapting Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake, George. R. R. Martin's Hedge Knight, and Orson Scott Card's novel Wyrms, into comics, and launched Marvel Illustrated, an imprint devoted to adapting classic literature like The Iliad and Treasure Island into comics and graphic novels.
“In terms of graphic fiction publishing... Marvel Publishing has created a tremendous amount of momentum and energy in the hobby shop market as well as in trade and mass book retail.” says Marvel v-p of development Ruwan Jayatilleke. “The connection between novels/literature and comic books has existed for quite some time, [and] Marvel is just continuing to actualize it as best and seamlessly as possible for comic book fans and the mainstream audience, alike.”
Although the Ender's Game universe (or Enderverse, as some fans call it) contains numerous other books and short stories, Card says that the emphasis for now is on the two primary novels. “Let's see if anybody buys those before we move on to sequels,” says Card. “It's always up to the readers.”
