While it might not be the biggest news for tomorrow, Tor is releasing THE EYE OF THE WORLD as a digital eBook for the first time. It will be available in many formats, including the Amazon Kindle format. Accompanying this eBook release will be brand new cover art, as seen here (close-up image courtesy of Irene Gallo, the art director at Tor Books. (Click the image to be taken to the Amazon Kindle version of the book. This link helps support Dragonmount)

   
Artwork by David Grove, an artist specifically requested by Harriet for this project

The image above is taken from the scene in Eye of the World where Rand is sailing aboard Bayle Domon’s ship, the Spray. Here’s what Irene Gallo had to say about it:

It seemed a natural to start the series with a portrait of a young Rand beginning an epic journey, the scope of which he could perhaps sense but not truly grasp. David¹s luminescent paint lights Rand from within. In a way, it seems to be a portrait of Rand best seen at this time, when readers know so much about what lies ahead of him.

Tor plans to re-release each one of the Wheel of Time novels as ebooks according to the schedule below. Each will have new cover art, specially commissioned for the eBook format. Each will feature a different artist.

• The Eye of the World – 10/27/09
• The Great Hunt – 11/17/09
• The Dragon Reborn – 12/15/09
• The Shadow Rising – 01/ 19/10
• The Fires of Heaven – 02/16/10
• Lord of Chaos – 03/16/10
• A Crown of Swords – 04/20/10
• The Path of Daggers – 05/18/10
• Winter’s Heart – 06/22/10
• The Crossroads of Twilight – 07/20/10
• Knife of Dreams – 08/24/10
• New Spring – 09/28/10
• The Gathering Storm – 11/2/10
• From Two Rivers – 11/16/10
• To The Blight – 11/16/10
• The Hunt Begins – 11/16/10
• New Threads in the Pattern- 11/16/10

Dragonmount will post more information (and more book cover images) as they become available. We’ll also address questions such as “Why don’t they put these on the printed books?” and “Will they continue with Darryl K. Sweet”. Finally, we’ll provide links to other formats other than the Kindle. But right now, there’s that “other” big WoT event happening tomorrow that we’re focused on….

Tor Books has a promotion going where you can get free copies of THE EYE OF THE WORLD and MISTBORN. You can request one for yourself, or to send it to a friend.

The promotion ends tonight, so be sure to check it out. Here’s the specific info:

“Fantasy Firsts” Book Giveaway: Robert Jordan’s The Eye of the World and Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn
In honor of The Gathering Storm‘s release, Tor has been hosting a sweepstakes giveaway of 1000 sets of The Eye of the World and Mistborn—the first books of fantasy series by the two amazing authors who completed The Gathering Storm. Do you have a friend whom you’ve been telling for ages to read the Wheel of Time series? Well, now you can give that slow friend a book for free And have you been meaning to check out the Mistborn trilogy, but never got around to it? Well, now have a free book delivered to your house.

Today, Sept. 30th, at 11:59 pm is the last day to sign up for the giveaway!
http://us.macmillan.com/tor/promo/mistborneotw

All week we have been reporting tweeting that there would be a total of SIX major announcements related to The Wheel of Time this week.

The first of these news items was the article we posted about Brandon and Harriet’s U.S. book tour. Be sure to check that out if you would like to come meet them in person.

Now here are the remaining FIVE announcements as announced at DragonCon this evening. We will post more details about each over the next few days and/or weeks.

1. CHAPTER ONE of The Gathering Storm is NOW AVAILABLE for FREE on Tor.com. On September 4th at 9:30 PM (EST, GMT -5), you can go to Tor.com to get it. You will need to register with their site, but it is free to do so. Don’t miss this opportunity to start reading the book TONIGHT. (And you thought you had plans on Friday night, huh?) Chapter 1 will remain on Tor.com through the end of October. An audio version is also available via the same link.
2. The PROLOGUE to The Gathering Storm will be available as an eBook purchase beginning on September 17th. The price will be $2.99 and will be available from Amazon.com, BN.com, Tor.com, as well as other online vendors.
3. Tor will be releasing the ENTIRE Wheel of Time series in various eBook formats beginning with the release of The Eye of the World beginning on October 27th. Each book will be released in series order on a monthly basis after that. The text of the books has been optimized for the ebook reading experience, and retain all illustrations and maps from the physical books. Pricing is not yet available
4. And that’s not all — Each of the WoT eBooks mentioned above (not the TGS prologue) will include new “cover art” by different professional artists. Tor is commissioning a different artist for each book, so you’ll see brand new art for each one of the books in the series. Here are the details for the artists of the first four books:
   

   THE EYE OF THE WORLD
   David Grove
   http://www.stock-illustration-portfolios.com/artistPage/Grove_David.html
   Illustrators Hall of Fame.
   Known for work in National Geographic, advertising, and movie posters including Something Wicked This Way Comes and The Outsiders.

   THE GREAT HUNT
   Kekai Kotaki
   Spectrum award winner.
   Lead Concept Artist for ArenaNet on Guild Wars 2.
   http://www.kekaiart.com/
   http://kekai.blogspot.com/

   THE DRAGON REBORN
   Donato Giancola
   http://www.donatoart.com/
   bio: http://www.tor.com/bios/artists/donato
   Multiple Spectrum and Hugo Award Winner, and Hamilton King award winner.

   THE SHADOW RISING
   Sam Weber
   Society of Illustrators and Spectrum award winner.
   http://www.sampaints.com/

5. Dragonmount is proud to announce a very special opportunity for WoT fans. We are working closely with the gang at Tor to put together a team of Storm Leaders for each city that Brandon visits on The Gathering Storm tour. These Storm Leaders will be fans (like you!) who will get to meet Brandon and/or Harriet before the bookstore event begins (food and drinks to be provided). This will be a small, intimate gathering, only about 4-5 people per city, where you can also get your books signed. Because in return, during the actual event, you’ll help us photograph and blog about the event, so that other fans can read about it on DM and other sites. There will also be other responsibilities outside of that, details of which to come next week. Storm Leaders will also receive a limited edition TGS Storm Leader Tour t-shirt™ and bragging rights to all your friends.

   Dragonmount will be accepting applications for Storm Leaders beginning sometime next week. It’s free to participate and sign up. We’ll post a lot more information next week about how you sign up, what’s required,and what we’re looking for from candidates.

You may be wondering why Tor is releasing Chapter 1 before the prologue? Yes, technically that’s out of order. The prologue is about 20,000 words, while Chapter 1 is only a few thousand (ie, much shorter). Be forewarned: Although you will have no problems whatsoever following along, chapter 1 does begin after a short scene takes place in the prologue.

Regarding the book covers: this new art will be exclusive to the eBooks for now. There are no plans to print new editions of the books themselves with the new art. Darryl K Sweet (who has illustrated the other books in the series) will most likely be asked to paint the covers for books 13 and book 14. Tor remains committed to exploring the idea of doing all new art for the series after the final book is published.

Finally, Brandon reported on twitter today that the new title of book 13 has been approved by Harriet and is now going to Tor for approval as well. (Tor needs to make sure the title doesn’t conflict with other recently published books, and that it doesn’t bother the booksellers. Yes, book sellers have a lot of say on book titles believe it or not)

So… what do you think? Not too bad, eh?

The Gathering Storm will be released in hardcover in the U.S, Canada, U.K. and other locations on October 27th.

More Info

• Pre-Order The Gathering Storm from Amazon.com (and help support this site)
• Read our Review of the book
• The Gathering Storm Info Page
• Downloadable Recap of Books 1-11 (PDF)
• Discuss the book on our forums
• Listen to us talk about #WoT and #TGS all day on Twitter

Here are some preview images from the upcoming Eye of the World comic book, issue #1. (Issue #0, “Dragonmount” was previewed here)

In the very near future, we will have all of these issues available for online order directly from DM’s online store.

(BTW, these images were released yesterday and we linked to them on Twitter. Usually we’ll post stuff immediately on there, as well as little tidbits related to all the things happening in the WoT world. So if you want up-to-the-minute, breaking WoT news, check us out there. These news articles will usually go online shortly after).

We actually received this last month, but for various reasons, we just never got around to posting it before. (Sorry about that!)

The Dabel Brothers and Tor Books are due to release “Issue 0″ of their EYE OF THE WORLD graphic novel. Below is the press release, along with some sample artwork featuring work by popular fan artists Seamas Gallagher, and Jeremy Saliba.

Tor & Dabel Brothers Announce Wheel of Time® Comics Schedule
Robert Jordan’s beloved series of novels being adapted to comics, first books shipping April ‘09

ATLANTA, GA – February 7, 2009 – Dabel Brothers Publishing, in collaboration with Tor Books, is pleased to announce more details and the publishing schedule for Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time comic books and graphic novels. All the books will be produced by the Dabel Brothers, who will be working with Robert Jordan’s estate, and be published initially as comics, then collected and published as graphic novel collections by Tor Books.

In the last few years before his death, Robert Jordan worked closely with the Dabel Brothers on graphic adaptations of his bestselling Wheel of Time series. The first fruit of this collaboration was the comic book adaptation of New Spring, the New York Times bestselling prequel to the series.

The New Spring comic series, which is 8 issues long, was started in 2005 and was published up through issue #5. It tells the story of the search for the infant Dragon Reborn and of the adventures of Moiraine Damodred, a young Aes Sedai, and Lan Mandragoran, the uncrowned king of a long-dead nation. Dabel Brothers Publishing will be finishing the series in 2009, with issue #6 shipping in April, and issues 7 and 8 each shipping on a monthly basis thereafter.

Also in April ‘09, Dabel Brothers Publishing will be releasing Dragonmount #0, which is a prequel and lead-in to the graphical adaptation The Eye of the World, the best-selling first volume of Robert Jordan’s acclaimed fantasy series, The Wheel of Time. The Dabels will be launching The Eye of the World in May. The book will feature art by Chase Conley, with Chuck Dixon helming the script adaptation. Subsequent issues will ship on a regular monthly basis.

Tor Books is proud to publish the New Spring graphic novel in November 2009. The Dabel Bros. will be adding special bonus material to the book, including developmental art, pages from scripts, and correspondence between Robert Jordan and Chuck Dixon. New Spring the graphic novel will also have a stunning, brand new, fully painted cover by artist Michael Kormarck.

Tor will publish the first Eye of the World graphic novel in July 2010. This graphic novel will collect the first 6 issues of the Eye of the World comic book and will feature similar bonus material and added content from the Dabels, as well as striking new cover art. Future graphic novel collections will be released on a regular basis, approximately every nine months.

Universal Pictures acquired the movie rights to The Wheel of Time in August 2008, and currently plan to adapt The Eye of the World as the first movie. The last four volumes in the series have reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and the 11 Wheel of Time novels published so far have sold more than 44 million copies worldwide.

Robert Jordan is the multiple New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, Los Angeles Times, Entertainment Weekly, Washington Post, and Toronto Globe and Mail best-selling author of The Wheel of Time.

Tor Books, an imprint of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC, is a New York-based publisher of hardcover and softcover books, founded in 1980 and committed (although not limited) to SF and fantasy literature. Between an extensive hardcover and trade paperback line, the Orb backlist program, and a stronghold in mass-market paperback, Tor annually publishes what is arguably the largest and most diverse line of science fiction and fantasy ever produced by a single English-language publisher. Books from Tor have won every major award in the SF and fantasy fields and Tor has been named Best Publisher in the Locus Poll, the largest consumer poll in SF, for twenty consecutive years.

Dabel Brothers Publishing, LLC, is a comic book studio dedicated to bringing many of the best and most popular novels in the world of fantasy to the comic book medium. Since its inception in 2001 they have produced adaptations of novels by bestselling authors including George R.R. Martin, Orson Scott Card, Laurell K. Hamilton, Raymond E. Feist, Tad Williams, Richard A. Knaak, and Robert Silverberg. Currently on the schedule is a remarkable list of high-profile projects including adaptations of major novels by bestselling authors: Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein: Prodigal Son, an original story set in the world of Jim Butcher’s bestselling series The Dresden Files, a Wild Cards series edited and overseen by George R. R. Martin, and a brand-new Mercy Thompson adventure by Patricia Briggs titled Mercy Thompson: Homecoming. Additionally, the Dabels will be publishing their first movie-based comics with the release of The Warriors in 2009, working with Paramount Licensing.

More information about Dabel Brothers Publishing can be found at http://www.dabelbrothers.com. More information about Tor Books can be found at www.tor-forge.com

Shortly after that press release, we received the following:

Dabel Brothers Publishing is proud to provide a sneak peak of the first 10 inked pages to “The Wheel of Time: Eye of the World #0 – Dragonmount”, with art by Chase Conley. The series is being adapted to comics by Chuck Dixon.

The Wheel of Time saga begins here with the “Fall of the Dragon” and the “Breaking of the World” in this prelude issue to the ongoing series. Look for a full digitally painted and lettered preview of these pages in the coming weeks.

Universal Pictures acquired the movie rights to The Wheel of Time in August 2008, and currently have plans to adapt The Eye of the World as the first movie. The last four volumes in the series have reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and the 11 Wheel of Time novels published so far have sold more than 44 million copies worldwide, 15 million in North America alone, making Robert Jordan today’s pre-eminent fantasy storyteller and this comic series one of the most highly anticipated in recent years.

“The Wheel of Time: Eye of the World #0 – Dragonmount” hits stores everywhere April 29th.

Please check our website www.dabelbrothers.com for updates.

More Info
Interview with Chase Conley
Dragonmount Interview with Seamas Gallagher and Jeremy Saliba
Tor Books
Dabel Brothers

The Dabel Brothers will be attending NY Comic Con this weekend (Feb 7-8) where they will make at least one announcement related to their production of the WHEEL OF TIME graphic novels.

If you are going to be at NY Comic Con this weekend, be sure to stop by the Dabel Brothers’s booth. Their booth number is 1523.

In anticipation of the event, they sent us these sample covers which you can see below. (Click to enlarge)

  

The image of Rand is by Seamas Gallagher, and the Fade was done by Jeremy Saliba. Both artists are long-time fans of the series, and they often collaborate together on projects.

Last August, Variety reported that Universal Pictures and Red Eagle Entertainment had acquired the rights to THE EYE OF THE WORLD and intended to adapt it into a major motion picture. At the time, there was been a pretty intense fan reaction to this news: both excited and hesitant. In order to find out what was really going on, and in order to a clear idea of where things were going, we sat down with Rick Selvage from Red Eagle and asked him some questions that were on everyone’s mind.

Here’s the complete interview. We’ll also be publishing a similar Q&A with Harriet Rigney in the near future where she talks about her involvement and opinion of the situation, as well as what Robert Jordan himself had been hoping for.

——-

DM: First of all, thank you for agreeing to do this interview. So many fans are passionate about the possibility of a movie based on the WHEEL OF TIME that there’s a great many questions to be addressed. But first, please tell us about Red Eagle Entertainment and Rick Selvage and Larry Mondragon. Your names were mentioned recently in an article published in Variety, the film industry’s trade magazine.

REE: Larry and I founded Red Eagle Entertainment in 2003 to identify and develop projects for film, television and other media. We had set pretty tough criteria for our projects, and we only pursued properties that we were truly passionate about and that we believed held some special value that were differentiated from all other works in their genre. Just as important, it was imperative that any project we undertook (story, characters, world, etc) could be adapted creatively to film, television and video games. Of course, the WHEEL OF TIME far exceeds all the criteria we set, and as a bonus, is accompanied by a vast and loyal following of fans from around the world!

Between the two of us, we have a combined fifty years of executive experience in the licensing, marketing and distribution of consumer products and services such as electronics, video games, digital television and multimedia entertainment on-line services. We have executive experience that ranges from guiding small entrepreneurial startups to leading the digital efforts of Fortune 500 companies in the film, television, music, publishing, broadcasting, cable, sports and advertising industries. We have been on the boards of companies including a major Hollywood special effects company and have negotiated hundreds of licensing and distribution agreements. In other words, we have been around the block.

Regarding the movie– and we know this will be frustrating to WOT fans, so we apologize in advance– but it is too early for us to talk about the details of the movie Larry and I are producing. Those of you familiar with the film business will understand. Please rest assured that when we have something meaningful to share, we will do so as appropriate. We are sure it won’t be too much longer until we can share some specifics about the movie project.

DM: So regarding some aspects around the movie; we’ve heard about “options” and “purchases”. Can you explain the difference for those of us not familiar with how the movie industry works?

REE: Red Eagle Entertainment optioned the WHEEL OF TIME property through a subsidiary about five years ago. Simply put, an option is the right to acquire something at a later time and at terms and conditions that have been agreed upon in advance. In our case, the option gave us the ability to purchase rights to develop, produce and distribute films and television programming based upon the WHEEL OF TIME, and also to license the themes and characters of the story for various applications such as video games and consumer products. We exercised our option and purchased these WHEEL OF TIME rights in February of 2008. And as you know, we are beginning with the adaption of “The Eye of the World”, which we intend to develop as a big-budget, live-action film for a theatrical release to a global audience.

DM: How long have discussions with major studios been going on? It appears no studio signed an agreement with you during the first few years that you had the option.

REE: As you can imagine, with nearly 10,000 pages of very complex storytelling and with more than 1,700 named characters, THE WHEEL OF TIME is an extremely challenging story to adapt to a feature-length film. Quite frankly, the project was too challenging for some studios, because of the size of the literary work, its depth, the required budget, etc. The WHEEL OF TIME is an epic on the scale of STAR WARS! What other film project can you put in that category? The point is this is not a $30M romantic comedy. Remember, it took THE LORD OF THE RINGS 40 years to make it to the big screen.

This project is a HUGE challenge for even the biggest and best studios, directors and writers, but it also presents an extremely rare opportunity. In the last several years we considered and pursued many avenues for the development of this project. We have held discussions with many writers, directors and studios regarding how this project ought to be adapted, including such basic questions as: “should the adaptation be a live-action picture, an animated film or a television mini- series?” We have worked hard at identifying the elements needed for success, and we have given special focus to the selection of the most appropriate medium for telling the story and the creative talent needed to successfully adapt Jim’s novels into a compelling screenplay. In addition, it was very important to us to make sure we found a long-term home with a major studio that truly believes in our project.

Today, we think we are on the right trajectory with the project. The adaptation of THE WHEEL OF TIME novels to film is just something that we all need a lot of patience with. More than anything, we want it done right!

DM: A few years ago, fans of Jim’s work became familiar with you because you were involved in publishing the NEW SPRING comic series. Unfortunately, issues 6 through 8 which would have completed the series where never produced and published. Now, of course, there are fans that were not happy about this. What’s your reaction to this and what can you tell us about the chances of completing the series.

REE: We share in the disappointment of fans that the NEW SPRING comic was not completed. While the interruption in the publication of the NEW SPRING was beyond our control, we never gave up on trying finding a way to finish the comic series. After several attempts, we believe that we have finally succeeded. We cannot say more at the moment, but we nevertheless expect good news to be forthcoming in the near future regarding the completion of the NEW SPRING comic.

DM: In one of his last blog posts, Jim made a negative comment about Red Eagle Entertainment that fueled a lot of speculation about Red Eagle Entertainment and your intentions with respect to THE WHEEL OF TIME. How will you convince Jim’s fans to trust you and give their full support to Red Eagle Entertainment’s WHEEL OF TIME projects?

REE: Let us first say that nothing Jim ever said did anything to diminish our great respect for him, his creative energy, and his vision for THE WHEEL OF TIME. He has set the bar very high, and we intend to honor his memory by carefully undertaking our film and other projects so as to meet the same standards of quality that he brought to his authorship of THE WHEEL OF TIME epic.

Of even more importance, we will be working closely with Harriet as a trusted advisor on our movie and other projects. In addition, we are making great efforts to ensure that we incorporate a fan perspective into our thinking. Accordingly, we have established formal relationships with some of the most knowledgeable leaders within THE WHEEL OF TIME community to seek out their views on our film production efforts. We have called on them in the past, and expect to do so more frequently as our film and other projects get ramped up.

Although we are big fans of THE WHEEL OF TIME, we continue to augment our understanding of the series by immersing ourselves in the collective wisdom of THE WHEEL OF TIME fan community. We are thankful for the many top-quality WHEEL OF TIME reference websites, such as Encyclopedia WOT. We also spend much time regularly reading through all of the major fan message boards, including Dragonmount, Tar Valon, WOT Mania, and many others. We are continually impressed at the insights we gain from reading the many thoughtful postings made by the members of the online community. For the time being, WHEEL OF TIME fans should consider these web boards a good way to make their thoughts known to the producers of the motion picture.

Brandon Sanderson had it right when he observed that a book-based movie is much more than the literal filming of the pages from a novel. Not surprisingly, in order to make a compelling motion picture from a lengthy literary work, there are countless trade-offs and creative choices that have to be made, especially when the source material is as voluminous as THE WHEEL OF TIME. And we keenly know that no matter what choices are made, some within THE WHEEL OF TIME community will always take issue with whatever is decided. In fact, it is not lost on us that there are many fans of THE LORD OF THE RINGS that to this day still revile Peter Jackson’s adaptation of Tolkien’s story.

It is important for all WHEEL OF TIME fans to know that our goal is not to make a motion picture that replaces the experience of reading Jim’s novels. That, be assured, would be an impossible task. Instead, we are aiming to create an entirely new experience that complements, extends and enhances the reading experience. We will do this carefully and with the full benefit of the thinking of Harriet, our group of WHEEL OF TIME subject-matter experts, and the combined wisdom of the entire WHEEL OF TIME community, so fans can rest assured that we will have plenty of help in our task.
Got something to say? We’re listening!

DM: I am sure the fans appreciate your candor regarding issues that have been out there for a while. Are you planning to communicate in the future with the fan base, and if so, how?

REE: Jason, we will drop by on a regular basis when we have something of significance to share with THE WHEEL OF TIME community. We of course will have some restrictions on what we can say due to our third party obligations, but we intend share as much as we can. In the future, we are exploring several ways to increase our ability to share timely information about each of our projects. While there may be some periods of silence, this will either be because we have nothing new to share or because we can’t disclosure some aspects of our projects due to partner commitments. We should also say that we have seen a lot of misinformation on the message boards claiming to give insight into our film and other WHEEL OF TIME projects. For example, fans would do well to ignore postings allegedly containing second and third-hand “inside information” about our WHEEL OF TIME film project that is currently making the rounds on the message boards. This is going to be a long and crazy journey for all of us, but we welcome everyone along for the ride!

Jason, thanks for giving us an opportunity to answer your questions.

——-
Please feel free to comment or ask questions below! (Just remember, if you include a web URL in your comment, your response will be delayed subject to our automatic moderation filter.

Variety has published a report announcing that Universal Picures has acquired the rights to the Wheel of Time series and intends to create a big-budget live action film. Here are the details below:

Universal spinning “Wheel of Time”

Studio nabs film rights to Robert Jordan book
By SAM THIELMAN

Universal Pictures has acquired film rights to the late Robert Jordan’s bestselling “The Wheel of Time” novel series in a seven-figure deal.

Adaptations of the fantasy tomes will begin with the first book in the cycle, “The Eye of the World.” Rick Selvage and Larry Mondragon will produce for Red Eagle Entertainment, which published graphic novel adaptations of Jordan’s books.

“The Wheel of Time” follows, among its dozens of characters, Rand al’Thor, the latest incarnation of a force for good called “The Dragon.” Rand is born to fight an evil character called Shai’tan. “Wheel of Time” books have sold 44 million copies worldwide and spawned computer, trading-card and role-playing games; a soundtrack; comicbooks; and numerous fan sites. The four most recent installments have reached No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list.

The property has been optioned before, notably in 2000, when NBC held the rights to make a miniseries based on “The Eye of the World.”

Jordan died last year at 58, but the final book in the series is still set for publication in fall 2009, with fellow fantasy scribe Brandon Sanderson writing the novel’s conclusion from Jordan’s notes and tapes.

You can read the full text of the article here.

So what does this mean? It means that Red Eagle Entertainment is working closely with Universal to create a movie based off of THE EYE OF THE WORLD. No actors or director have been announced. It will be a while before any of that happens. Typically, an announcement like this is a good sign of a movie actually moving forward, but of course, there are no guarantees… yet.

We’ll have more details as they become available.

In order to facilitate better discussion of all topics related to Red Eagle and their various projects, the Dragonmount staff has setup a dedicated set of message boards on our forums for you to use. Comments for this topic have been locked, but you are still welcome to discuss this news, and other Red Eagle topics here.

The Dabel Brothers have released two teaser preview images for their upcoming EYE OF THE WORLD comic book. One image shows Lews Therin Telamon surrounded by the Forsaken as they appeared in the Age of Legends. The second image shows Rand surrounded by the same Forsaken as they appear in the modern (”Third”) Age.

Click each image to see it in full size.

  

The artwork was done by Mike S. Miller, and the coloring was done by Teodoro Gonzalez.

More Info
Dabel Brothers Website
Eye of the World info page

The Dabel Brothers are now in production on creating graphic novels for the entire Wheel of Time series. They will begin with The Eye of the World and go sequentially from there, all the way through A Memory of Light. Here is the press release:

DABEL BROTHERS TO ADAPT ROBERT JORDAN’S BESTSELLING
WHEEL OF TIME SERIES IN COMIC BOOK FORMAT

NEW YORK, NY – July 1, 2008 – Dabel Brothers Publishing announced today that they will adapt Robert Jordan’s bestselling Wheel of Time series, which has sold more than 14 million copies in North America alone, into comic book format. The first issue is scheduled to release in December 2008.

The Wheel of Time began in 1990 with the publication of The Eye of the World; ten more volumes have followed. The most recent four books of the series have reached #1 on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list. It is the story of a world – both our past, and our future – in which the battle between the Light and the Shadow must be fought every day; and of the people, both ordinary and extraordinary, who must fight that battle. Jordan wrote eleven volumes of the series and one prequel; he was unable to complete the twelfth and final volume before his death in 2007. That volume, A Memory of Light, will be completed by Brandon Sanderson, a writer chosen by Jordan’s widow and editor, Harriet McDougal, and published by Tor Books in 2009.

The Dabel Brothers published a comic adaptation of Jordan’s A New Spring in March 2005. In conjunction with that project, Robert Jordan provided them with extensive notes for use in further possible publications, including character descriptions and other visuals.

“I’m delighted to be working with the Dabel Brothers! Their work is splendid. Robert Jordan liked it enormously,” says Harriet McDougal.

Graphic-novel collected editions of the individual comics will be distributed by Del Rey, an imprint of Ballantine Books at the Random House Publishing Group. The deal was negotiated by Jordan’s agent, Nat Sobel.

Robert Jordan was born in 1948 in Charleston, South Carolina. He taught himself to read when he was four with the incidental aid of a twelve-years-older brother, and was tackling Mark Twain and Jules Verne by five. He was a graduate of The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, with a degree in physics. He served two tours in Vietnam with the U.S. Army; among his decorations are the Distinguished Flying Cross with bronze oak leaf cluster, the Bronze Star with “V” and bronze oak leaf cluster, and two Vietnamese Gallantry Crosses with Palm. A history buff, he also wrote dance and theater criticism. He enjoyed the outdoor sports of hunting, fishing and sailing, and the indoor sports of poker, chess, pool, and pipe collecting. He began writing in 1977 and continued until his death on September 16, 2007.

Dabel Brothers Publishing, LLC, is a comic book studio dedicated to bringing many of the best and most popular novels in the world of fantasy to the comic book medium. Since its inception in 2001 they have produced adaptations of novels by bestselling authors including George R.R. Martin, Orson Scott Card, Laurell K. Hamilton, Raymond E. Feist, Tad Williams, Richard A. Knaak, and Robert Silverberg. Currently on the schedule is a remarkable list of high-profile projects including adaptations of major novels by bestselling authors: Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein: Prodigal Son, an original story set in the world of Jim Butcher’s bestselling series The Dresden Files, a Wild Cards series edited and overseen by George R. R. Martin, and a brand-new Mercy Thompson adventure by Patricia Briggs titled Mercy Thompson: Homecoming.

For more information on Dabel Brothers Publishing: http://www.dabelbrothers.com.

There are no plans at this time for the Dabel Brothers to return to complete the New Spring graphic novel that they were working on with Red Eagle Entertainment.

As promotional art and other news arrives, we will post it here.