You may remember Richard K. Morgan as the author of a couple Black Widow mini-series a few years ago. (And they’re worth checking out if you haven’t.) Outside of comics, Morgan is much better known for a series of novels about Takeshi Kovacs. The most famous being the first one, Altered Carbon. It’s also about to be a series on Netflix.
Altered Carbon takes place four hundred years from now, when mankind is strung out across a region of interstellar space inherited from an ancient civilization discovered on Mars. The colonies are linked together by the occasional sublight colony ship voyages and hyperspatial data-casting. Human consciousness is digitally freighted between the stars and downloaded into bodies as a matter of course. But some things never change. So when ex-envoy, now-convict Takeshi Kovacs has his consciousness and skills downloaded into the body of a nicotine-addicted ex-cop and presented with a catch-22 offer, he really shouldn’t be surprised. Contracted by a billionaire to discover who murdered his last body, Kovacs is drawn into a terrifying conspiracy that stretches across known space and to the very top of society.
Morgan has reached an agreement to do some new in-continuity comic stories for Dynamite. The SF/F novel to graphic novel is already a thing with Dynamite, who get regular material from Jim Butcher (Dresden Files) and Brandon Sanderson (White Sands) among other. And Morgan definitely has his comics bonafides.
Official PR follows:
Author Richard K. Morgan will bring Altered Carbon, the Philip K. Dick Award-winning novel published by Gollancz in the UK and soon to be adapted as a Netflix television series, to Dynamite Entertainment with all-new, in-continuity stories, exclusively available in the comic book and graphic novel formats.
Altered Carbon takes place four hundred years from now, when mankind is strung out across a region of interstellar space inherited from an ancient civilization discovered on Mars. The colonies are linked together by the occasional sublight colony ship voyages and hyperspatial data-casting. Human consciousness is digitally freighted between the stars and downloaded into bodies as a matter of course. But some things never change. So when ex-envoy, now-convict Takeshi Kovacs has his consciousness and skills downloaded into the body of a nicotine-addicted ex-cop and presented with a catch-22 offer, he really shouldn’t be surprised. Contracted by a billionaire to discover who murdered his last body, Kovacs is drawn into a terrifying conspiracy that stretches across known space and to the very top of society.
Richard K. Morgan says, “Dynamite Comics are a great cutting edge outfit with zero interest in the legacy shackles that seem to inhibit so much of the rest of the industry (they deserve a gold Broken Chains award for publishing The Boys alone) and I cannot think of a more fitting home for the Kovacs IP. I’m really looking forward to re-visiting the Protectorate universe in collaboration with them, and seeing what fresh stories we can tell in this medium.”
Richard King, Rights Manager at Gollancz, says: “We’re delighted that Dynamite will expand upon and continue the exploits of Takeshi Kovacs within the Altered Carbon universe, conceived so ingeniously by Richard K. Morgan, in comic book and graphic novel formats. Richard’s incredibly dynamic writing style and vivid characterisation lend themselves perfectly to the visual story-telling style of comic books, and we are thrilled to be working with Richard and Dynamite on this exciting new adaptation.”
“I’m thrilled we’ve acquired the license for the Altered Carbon series,” says Matt Humphreys, Assistant Editor at Dynamite. “Richard Morgan’s series of novels have long been one of my favorite cyberpunk noirs, and they’ve got everything I want in a good read: a great (and complex) hero in Takeshi Kovacs, an amazing science-fiction universe to explore, and mind-bending mysteries complete with twists, turns, action and drama galore. I think the property’s found an excellent home here at Dynamite – and I’m looking forward to getting to tell some really exciting new stories in the Altered Carbon universe!”
“We’re honored and excited to welcome Richard K. Morgan’s mind-blowing sci-fi epic to our library of officially licensed literary graphic novels,” says Nick Barrucci, CEO and Publisher of Dynamite Entertainment. “Altered Carbon is a world just begging to be visualized in comics! Like our original Dresden Files, White Sand, James Bond, and Red Rising projects, the new Altered Carbon comics will provide Morgan’s legion of fans with official, never-before-seen stories that they’ll absolutely love.”
Richard K. Morgan is the acclaimed author of The Dark Defiles, The Cold Commands, The Steel Remains, Black Man (published in the US as Thirteen), Woken Furies, Market Forces, Broken Angels, and Altered Carbon, a New York Times Notable Book that won the Philip K. Dick Award in 2003. The movie rights to Altered Carbon were optioned by Joel Silver and Warner Bros. on publication, and the book remained in feature film development until 2015. It is now being turned into a 10 episode Netflix series by Skydance Media. Morgan is also the author of two volumes of Black Widow comics for Marvel, the Crysis 2 and Syndicate computer games, as well as a Crysis graphic novel.
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