;;Outlander GRAPHIC NOVEL;;

[``Gab Fraser]

That's right, OUTLANDER Graphic Novel. Diana Gabaldon posted this yesterday:

"Del Rey, an imprint of Ballantine Books at the Random House Publishing Group, announced today that it will publish an original story set in the world of Diana Gabaldon’s bestselling Outlander series, written by Gabaldon herself and illustrated in full color by award-winning artist Hoang Nguyen... The new story, starring Gabaldon’s beloved characters Claire Randall and Jamie Fraser, opens with Murtagh, Jamie’s godfather, awaiting the return of his godson to Scotland, and the fulfillment of a vow made years before. The graphic novel will be approximately 192 pages and will publish sometime in 2009. Gabaldon’s upcoming new Outlander novel, An Echo in the Bone, is expected to publish that year as well...
...Hoang Nguyen’s previous work includes the Robocop movie adaptation for Dark Horse, Alien Legion graphic novels for Marvel Epic, Punisher: War Zone for Marvel and Warstrike for Malibu Comics. His original project Metal Militia was optioned by Dino De Laurentiis for feature film development. More recently he has worked in the video game industry, having contributed to such well-known titles as the Elder Scrolls series for Bethesda Softworks and Xena for Universal Studios. He was the lead artist and character designer on Dead to Rights for Namco and is currently a consultant for Namco Bandai Games."

I am unbelievably excited about this project. I absolutely love the fact that we will get to know more about the story I have adored and memorized all these years. Gabaldon herself said this on her brand new blog Voyages of the Artemis:

"Well, now, mind--this isn't going to be a staight graphic-novel adaption _of_ OUTLANDER, itself. What the publisher asked for was a "new" Jamie and Claire story, set within the timeline/storyverse of the Outlander series.
So that's what you'll see. Now, if you're a fan of the series, you'll certainly see events that you recognize from OUTLANDER. But you'll see a lot of things that Claire _never_ saw, and had no idea were happening [g]--and even the things she did see may have had more or different meanings than she realized."

I checked out this artist character Hoang Nguyen's website and I was blown away. They are seriously going for it. His artwork is so detailed and luminous. I am literally nervous to see what their collaborative rendering of what Jamie will be. Don't RUIN it for me PLEASE! Here's a sample of his work.
.s.o.u.r.c.e.

[``Gab Fraser]

...Claire...

[``Gab Fraser]

"Below is one of the layout pages from an early point in the story (the editor suggested that I not tell you what’s happening here [g], so this layout page does NOT match the sample script page, as you can see). This is great stuff-Hoang’s done a terrific job of translating the script, and catching the sense of movement and excitement going on here. Only one small correction to be made: the script says that Dougal and Jamie are riding downhill, past “a weathered Pictish cross.” But I hadn’t sent Hoang either a picture or a description of what a Pictish cross is, so he’s very reasonably rendered it here as a weathered wooden cross, rather than a stone one. Frankly, I think it looks good as is—but I have to consider whether leaving it as a wooden cross might raise questions—i.e., it looks like a grave marker, but there’s nothing about a grave in the story—and confuse people. So I’ll send photocopies from my reference library of several Pictish crosses, and Hoang can choose and adapt from those."



"Now, please don’t get all excited and start peppering my blog with complaints about Jamie looking too young, not slant-eyed enough, having elf-ears, or whatever. This is a S-K-E-T-C-H, not a finished panel. Ergo, the characters shown are just rough approximations and will look quite different when painted in the final version. Oh—and speaking of rough, the gent in the fourth panel is not Dougal MacKenzie, it’s one of his clansmen (and not one you know, either, so don’t start panicking about it not looking like you think Rupert looks). --Diana"

[``Jennifer MacKenzie]

AHAHAHHAHAAA!!!

Claire: "Let me help him. I'm a nurse!"
Men: *nurse? OH! Wetnurse! Aha!*

XDDD