Comics / Comics News

Red Prophet

By The Editor
January 14, 2006 - 19:42

Over the last several years, the Dabel Brothers have established themselves as the premier comic book company to handle the adaptation of major fantasy and science fiction stories into the visual medium. They’ve proven themselves with great titles like George R. R. Martin’s the Hedge Knight and Richard A. Knaak’s Dragonlance: the Legend of Huma, and they’re set to do it again in 2006 with their upcoming adaptation of Raymond E. Feist’s Magician: Apprenctice.

But the Brothers also know that the genre of fantasy includes more than swords and sorcery and that sci-fi can be about more than lightsabers and lasers. That’s why they’ve partnered with bestselling author and multiple Hugo and Nebula winner Orson Scott Card (Ender’s Game, Speaker for the Dead, Wyrms, Ultimate Iron Man) to adapt the novel Red Prophet from his epic series, the Tales of Alvin Maker.

Set in an alternate history of America where folk magic really works, Red Prophet is a story about a Shaw-Nee named Lolla-Wossiky who sets out to find a cure his unusual illness only to discover a strange young boy named Alvin who has the ability to change the world around him. As an encounter with Alvin changes Lolla-Wossiky into Tenskwa-Tawa, the Red Prophet, Alvin learns that he must use his powers to help other living beings, and not to harm them. But as luck would have it, this lesson comes as a war begins to brew between the Prophet’s brother, Ta-Kumsaw, and the frontiersmen led by Governor William Henry Harrison. Both Alvin and Tenskwa-Tawa are caught in the middle, forced to use their abilities and influence to stop both sides from destroying one another.

“Red Prophet is, without a doubt, one of my favorite novels,” said Sean J. Jordan, the adaptation’s editor. “Mr. Card took a very complicated conflict in history, changed some of the circumstances, and wove a tale that seemed so real and so important that I had to read it twice just to grasp the fullness of it all. By bringing it into the visual medium, we’re hoping not only to retell the story in classic comic book style, but also to portray the characters with the same amount of depth and gravity that emanates from the novel itself.”

One of the most difficult aspects of adapting this book into a comic, explained Jordan, is that it is not written in a traditional narrative style.

“Some of the chapters are told like they’re coming from an old frontier storyteller,” he said, “while others sound like they’re coming from a Native American who is having trouble understanding the frontiersmens’ way of doing things. We’re working hard to find a balance so that each issue feels like part of the same story, even if the narrative style changes from chapter to chapter. Fortunately, we’re working with a talented writer named Roland Bernard Brown (who was hand-picked by Mr. Card himself!), and he’s been supplying series artist Renato Arlem with some great ideas to make this book a fun read.”

“Renato’s got a great classic style,” said Ernst Dabel, President of Dabel Brothers Production, “and he’s bringing a lot of visual oomph to this title. We felt that a book set in history like RED PROPHET should have a ‘Great Illustrated Classics’ kind of feel to it, and the end result is fantastic. There’s a lot of grand imagery in the first issue that fits the style of the writing perfectly, and the second issue, which offers a neat visual interpretation of the “black noise” that clouds Lolla-Wossiky’s thoughts, is looking even better.”

The comic book adaptation of the Tales of Alvin Maker: Red Prophet will be available at comic book retailers everywhere in March, 2006. Dabel Brothers Production will also offer previews of each issue on their official website at http://www.dabelbrothers.com , as well as additional “behind-the-scenes” information about the book’s production.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12