Epic Fantasy — Discussing ‘Robert Jordan’s The Wheel Of Time: The Great Hunt’ With Writer Rik Hoskin

The Wheel of Time is one of the most influential fantasy series of the last 30 years. The first novel, Eye of the World, was adapted into a comic book series that concluded in 2013. With the success of the Amazon Prime streaming series, Dynamite is now publishing the second book, The Great Hunt, as a comic. Rik Hoskin, the award-winning writer of Star Wars and Doctor Who comics as well as the White Sand graphic novel, is adapting the tale. In a Comicon exclusive, Hoskin describes his admiration for Wheel’s author Robert Jordan and why he tries to be faithful to the source material.

Tom Smithyman: You have to be a huge fan of Wheel of Time to spend all the time it takes to adapt it. What is it about the series that you like?

Rik Hoskin: Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series helped redefine the scope of epic fantasy. It blazed a trail for many of the huge blockbusters that we see in the genre today. It’s hard to underestimate its impact.

Coming to it with an adapter’s eye, I treat the volume of material a bit like a sandbox-style video game, where there’s a whole vast world, and I can keep peeking in different places to inform the adaptation and add depth to the story.

Smithyman: When adapting someone else’s writing into a comic book, how closely do you feel you have to adhere to the source material?

Hoskin: I always try to be as faithful as I can to the source material, while also bringing something new that works for the different medium. A good example is when a character is reciting a prophecy, and in the book that’s simply that person speaking. But of course, we as readers have images conjured in our heads of what the person is describing, and so I try to find ways to play off that expectation.

I also look at the level of action, because comics are visual and we need to find a good balance to keep things visually interesting. Thankfully, the Jordan estate have been very supportive of my approach – everyone’s working to make this the best it can be.

Smithyman: The series debuted in 1990 but has found new popularity today thanks to the Amazon Prime series. Has the streamer affected any of the choices you’ve made when writing this book?

Hoskin: Our adaptation is very much drawn from the books as source material. I don’t watch a lot of television and, while I’m aware of the Amazon Prime series, I’ve not seen it.

Smithyman: The comic book adaptation of the first book, The Eye of the World, came out over 10 years ago. Are you at all concerned about finding an audience for this second book, or do you think fans are chomping at the bit for new content?

Hoskin: Each volume of The Wheel of Time deftly tells its own story, building on what’s come before and opening more levels to the story.  So I think this stands up on its own merits, as well as continuing the saga in comic book form for people who’ve been waiting patiently since volume 1 was released. Volume 1 is still in print, there’s always time to catch up.

Smithyman: Marcio Abreu is illustrating the series. What is the creative process like between the two of you. Is there a lot of back and forth, or is the process more linear?

Hoskin: Marcio is doing incredible work with my scripts – and they can be very demanding scripts! We’ve not had much interaction so far. It’s all been through an editor. But that’s not unusual. Often it’s later in a project that the writer and artist connect once the initial pressure of deadlines has passed.

Smithyman: If this series is a success, would you be interested in adapting other books in the series for comics? What other projects are you working on now?

Hoskin: I’d be happy to stay aboard, the Robert Jordan estate has been really supportive, and the Dynamite editors are always fantastic to work with.

As for other projects, I have an indie graphic novel coming very soon from Viking Press Comics called The Vampire Invasion, that’ll be available through Amazon. I write a post-apocalyptic series of audio books under a pen name, and I’m doing some video game script work that I can’t say very much about.

I also do a lot of prose work, so you can find my short stories in various horror and SF venues, and I invariably have a novel lining up somewhere. My most recent novel was Bystander 27, which was a kind of Philip K. Dick-style take on superheroes.

Smithyman: The Wheel of Time series has sold over 90 million books. X-Men #1, the best-selling comic book of all time, sold more than 8 million copies. Do you think you have a chance of knocking Jim Lee off his perch???

Hoskin: When X-Men #1 came out in 1991, I was actually a teenager writing the X-Men for Marvel’s UK division! I don’t want to knock anyone off their perch, I know how hard they worked to get there. If anything, I think it’s time Jim Lee and I collaborated on something. Jim, are you reading this?

Smithyman: We’ll make sure that the two of you are connected! Best of luck with the new series and all of your other projects.

Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time: The Great Hunt will be available for purchase on November 15, 2023.