Never underestimate the power of nostalgia. If you grew up in the ’90s, you probably recall author K.A. Applegate‘s delightful YA series Animorphs about a group of teenagers fighting off a secret alien invasion through the use powers gifted to them by a dying alien that allowed them to transform into any animal. Eat your heart out Beast Boy. Whether or not you read the books, you’ll likely remember the striking visual covers.
Spanning 54 books over the course of five years, the Animorphs franchise spawned a short-lived Nickelodeon television series and even a toy line. Sure, Animorphs may have gone the way of the dinosaur just as Harry Potter was making the scene, but millennials will always have a soft spot for this franchise.
It’s not an understatement to say that companies have been tapping into that sweet millennial market with ’90s nostalgia. Just look at some of the properties resurrected from that halcyon era in the past decade such as Power Rangers and Goosebumps. After relaunching the original books with new lenticular covers nearly ten years ago, today it was announced courtesy of AV Club that a graphic novel adaptation from the Scholastic Graphix imprint would be released this October. Titled Animorphs: The Invasion, the graphic novel is written by Applegate as well as her husband Michael Grant and drawn by Eisner Award-nominated cartoonist Chris Grine. “We are very excited by this opportunity to bring Animorphs to a new readership,” say K.A. Applegate and Michael Grant. “Morph to your favorite battling beast and join the resistance to Yeerk domination!”
“It’s a huge relief to finally be able to share what I’ve been working on over the last year,” Grines said. “I love this series and I can’t wait to share it with the fans who have been wanting this to happen for so long. Having never adapted a book into a graphic novel before, let alone a series so deeply ingrained in pop culture, it was both super exciting and panic-inducing at times.”
Animorphs: The Invasion arrives later this year on October 6. Check out preview pages below. It’s definitely channeling that ’90s vibe with kids in an arcade.
