Prose and comics: DiDio and Morrison write their first novels

Some well-known comics writers are debuting their first novels.

Just announced in Publishers Marketplace, former DC co-publisher Dan DiDio and artist Kenneth Rocafort are teaming for a YA novel, Hide and Seek. On his social media announcement of the deal, DiDio noted that the story was co-created by Rocafort, who did the cover art for the project – but it’s not a graphic novel. As for the storyline:

A teenage boy is taken into witness protection after his superhero father is murdered on national television, but things are not what they appear to be in the small town he’s relocated to – he soon discovers that not only is it populated with family members of super villains, but when he develops powers of his own, whe town becomes a prison and he’s considered one of its most dangerous inmates.

Hide and Seek is slated for publication from Permuted Press in April 2023.

Meanwhile, Grant Morrison is also penning their first novel, which is a bit hard to believe given everything else they’ve done, but there it is. Luda will be out on September 22 from Del Rey, and is described as a a phantasmagoric (what else!) fantasy about drag queens and magic.

Luci LaBang is a star: for decades this flamboyant drag artist has cast a spell over screen and stage. Now she’s the leading lady in a smash hit musical. But as time takes its toll, Luci fears her star is beginning to dim.

When Luci’s co-star meets with a mysterious accident, a new ingenue shimmers onto the scene: Luda, whose fantastical beauty and sinister charm infatuate Luci immediately… and who bears a striking resemblance to herself at a much younger age.

Luda begs Luci to share the secrets of her stardom, and reveal the hidden tricks of her trade. For Luci LaBang is a mistress of the The Glamour, a mysterious discipline that draws on sex, drugs, and the occult for its trancelike transformative effects.

But as Luci tutors her young protegee in the art, their fellow actors and crew members begin meeting with untimely ends. Now Luci wonders if Luda has mastered The Glamour all too well… and exploited it to achieve her dark ambitions.

What follows is an intoxicating descent into the demimonde of Gasglow, a fantastical city of dreams, and into the nightmarish heart of Luda herself: a femme fatale, a phenomenon, a monster, and perhaps, the brightest star of them all.