Ian Rankin Writes His First Graphic Novel

Dark Entries Will be Released for Sale August, 2009

Aug 3, 2009

The author of the popular John Rebus detective series has written his first graphic novel with artwork by Werther Dell'Edera.

Scottish author Ian Rankin was born April 28, 1960 in the Kingdom of Fife. While best known for his Inspector Rebus series he is a versatile author who has written several standalone books and short stories. He graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1982. His first novel was published in 1987. He has won many awards for his work, including the Gold Dagger and the Edgar. His Inspector Rebus novels have been on the Times bestseller list and televised on BBC. He currently lives in Edinburgh with his partner and two sons.

Graphic Novel a Change of Pace

Rankin was first contacted by Will Dennis at Vertigo Publishing about the project. Dennis was planning to put together a new series called Vertigo Crime using well-known mystery writers who had never written for comics. Knowing Rankin to be an avid comics fan, he invited him to contribute.

Rankin, who has a long-time interest in comics and graphic novels accepted the challenge. He had the choice of using an existing character or creating a new one. He chose to center his story around John Constantine, a detective well-known in the comic world from the Hellblazer series. Illustrator Werther Dell'Edera, popular for the artwork for Loveless, Punisher, War Journal, and X-Force, was asked to create the artwork for Dark Entries.

Dark Entries: The Storyline

The story begins when paranormal detective Constantine is called in to investigate the murder of a contestant on a reality game show called Haunted Palace. The contestants are all locked up together in the haunted house. When the spooky mansion starts attacking the contestants, Constantine’s life is at risk as he makes himself the next target.

Constantine soon finds the stakes are even higher than he imagined. The story takes on a supernatural twist as he realizes the true meaning of the game. He must not only figure out who is behind the murders, but find a way to save his soul from demons.

Future Projects

Though Ian Rankin has no current plans to write another graphic novel, he does not rule out future projects. A comic book fan since childhood, he grew up on Batman, Superman, Spiderman and other popular comics. In a current interview, he indicated that he prefers writing about human characters, and, should he take on another project in the comics field, would be particularly interested in writing something about the characters Batman or the Joker.

The copyright of the article Ian Rankin Writes His First Graphic Novel in Graphic Novels/Comics is owned by Vickie Britton. Permission to republish Ian Rankin Writes His First Graphic Novel in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.