Friday, April 1, 2011

Archaia to produce The Storyteller graphic novels!

This fall, Archaia Comics will release A Tale of Sand, a graphic novel based on a previously unproduced screenplay by Jim Henson and Jerry Juhl. The upcoming graphic novel was the subject of the latest episode of the Henson.com Podcast (you can listen to it right here).

However, in an extra bonus segment of the podcast, Archaia Comic's Editor In Chief, Stephen Christy, revealed another exciting and upcoming release from Archaia and the Jim Henson Company – Jim Henson's The Storyteller.

For those of you who many not be familiar, The Storyteller was a nine-episode anthology television series produced by Jim Henson and his Creature Shop featuring beautiful retellings of classic folk tales, fables, and legends. Narrated by the storyteller (John Hurt) and his dog (Brian Henson), the series was imaginative, innovative and visually inspiring. Academy Award-winning writer/director Anthony Minghella wrote the teleplays for all of the marvelous stories. It is a must-see for any Henson fan (FYI - you can pick up the complete series on DVD, or download episodes via iTunes, or watch instantly on Netflix.)

Archaia Comics is planning to produce an anthology graphic novel based on the series with "some of the best comics talent working in the industry today." As with A Tale of Sand, Archaia will be going into the vaults for this project. According to Christy, there are three unused teleplays written by Anthony Minghella for the original series. For the first title, Archaia will be taking one of these unproduced scripts and bringing it to life in comic book format.

Archaia will be making a more formal announcement about The Storyteller graphic novels at WonderCon in San Diego this weekend. As a huge fan of The Storyteller, I cannot wait to get my hands on this book!