HarperCollins imprint Clarion Books is set to adapt Ursula Le Guin’s iconic fantasy novel A Wizard of Earthsea as its first-ever graphic novel. 

Fred Fordham will illustrate the comic, drawing on his experience adapting other classic works such as Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World for the format. Clarion plans to roll out A Wizard of Earthsea: A Graphic Novel to retailers across North America in March 2025, with an initial print run of 100,000 copies. 

First published in 1968, A Wizard of Earthsea is the lead book in Le Guin’s six-part Earthsea Cycle series. It tells the coming-of-age story of a young mage named Ged, who sets out on a quest to rid himself of a vile shadow creature he unleashed while training at magic school. Collectively, the novels have sold more than three million copies worldwide. 

The Earthsea series has already been adapted twice for entertainment to date: Hallmark Entertainment produced a two-part live-action miniseries in 2004, which was followed by a 2D-animated feature film from Japan’s Studio Ghibli in 2006. New York-based studio A24 and film director Jennifer Fox also optioned the rights to produce an Earthsea TV series from Le Guin’s estate in 2019, following the author’s death in 2018.