Margaret Atwood to Write Graphic Novel for Dark Horse

Canadian novelist and poet Margaret Atwood, who wrote The Handmaid’s Tale, will write the graphic novel trilogy Angel Catbird, in collaboration with Shelteredand Firebug artist Johnnie Christmas. Dark Horse Comics will publish the book in the fall of 2016.

Consulting editor Hope Nicholson, who worked on The Secret Loves of Geek Girls, brought Angel Catbirdto Dark Horse.

“I wanted to find an artist whose style Margaret liked, and who I felt comfortable working with and who shared the vision for the project,” Nicholson said in the statement. “Johnnie Christmas is, by all accounts, a perfect fit.”

“It’s tremendously exciting to work with one of the great contemporary novelists,” Johnnie Christmas said in a statemment. “I can’t wait for readers to experience the world of Angel Catbird that we’re building. It’s got warmth, heart, humor, and lots of action.”

The series is being co-produced by Nature Canada's Keep Cats Safe and Save Bird Lives initiative. Catbird is part-man, part-owl and part-cat as the result of "some spilled genetic Super-Splicer," Atwood said in a statement, "hence his fur and feathers, and his identity problems.”

The story will be "a humorous, action-driven, pulp-inspired story" that will pay homage to "classic pulp heroes and traditional comic book origin stories," Mike Richardson, the president of Angel Catbird publisher Dark Horse Comics, said in a statement.

"We’re proud to bring Margaret’s Angel Catbird here to Dark Horse, since it is exactly the kind of creator-owned graphic novel we are committed to publishing," editor Daniel Chabon as Richardson said in a statement.

Atwood previously wrote and drew the comic strip Kanadian Kultchur Komix for alternative magazine from 1975 through 1980 under the pseudonym "Bart Gerrard." Her first superhero was named Survivalwoman.

“Margaret Atwood has created a bold and unforgettable new character, paying homage to both classic pulp heroes and traditional comic book origin stories,” Mike Richardson, Dark Horse’s publisher and president, said in a statement.

“What should you expect from Angel Catbird? Imagine, if you will, a strange mix of Will Eisner’s The Spirit, Grant Morrison and Chas Truog’s Animal Man, and Ryan North and Erica Henderson’s Squirrel Girl,” acquiring editor Daniel Chabon said in a statement.