The Galaxy’s Greatest Comic is branching out, with a new partnership intended to create the Galaxy’s Greatest Audiobooks. 2000 AD publisher Rebellion is partnering with Penguin Random House for a series of audiobook adaptations of classic British comic book strips.
As part of the deal, PRH will adapt five 2000 AD graphic novels into full-cast audiobooks, with original soundtracks and sound design, alongside audio versions of Rebellion’s prose fiction. The partnership launches with an audiobook edition of Chuck Wendig’s post-apocalyptic novel Wanderers, read by Dominic Hoffman and Xe Sands, released Thursday. (Wanderers is published in the U.S. by Del Rey.)
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“This is a really exciting new partnership which helps us reach even more listeners in this hugely popular and ever-growing section of the audiobook market,” said Richard Lennon, audio publisher at Penguin Random House. “We’re looking forward to helping tell some of Rebellion’s incredible stories and to creating some truly groundbreaking recordings, particularly as we explore turning some of British comic book history’s true greats — Judge Dredd, Slaine and Rogue Trooper, to name but a few - into audiobooks for the first time.”
Ben Smith, head of film, TV and publishing, added, “Rebellion is the UK’s leading comic book publisher and home to Hugo and Nebula award-winning fiction from our Solaris and Abaddon imprints, and as such we’re delighted to partner with Penguin’s forward-looking audio team. Their appetite to bring both our fiction and our landmark graphic novels to the audiobook market is tremendously exciting. We can’t wait for the public to listen to the incredible stories in the works.”
This won’t be the first time 2000 AD has branched into audio; both Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog were adapted into audio by Big Finish in the early 2000s, with a cast that included Simon Pegg as Johnny Alpha, the lead character in Strontium Dog.
