Lester del Rey’s Time Ring: a Sci-Fi Comic Miniseries Coming from StarWarp Concepts!

Do you like comic books? Do you like science fiction? You do? How about science fiction comic books—with dinosaurs? Even better! Then do we have a fantastic project in the works that you’re sure to enjoy!

In a departure from our normal horror and dark fantasy offerings, I’m proud to announce that, a few months back, StarWarp Concepts signed a deal with indie fiction house Wildside Press to license one of its classic science fiction novels for development as a comic book adaptation. It’s SWC’s first-ever licensed-property project!

Originally written by legendary Science Fiction Writers of America Grand Master Lester del Rey (1915–1993) and first published in 1966, Tunnel Through Time is a fondly remembered, fast-paced time-travel adventure. (LDR, in case you hadn’t figured it out already, was also the man behind Del Rey Books, the Ballantine Books sci-fi imprint that he launched in 1977 with his wife Judy-Lynn del Rey.) 

Planned as a Kickstarter campaign and now moderately retitled to avoid any confusion with the classic TV series The Time Tunnel (and other books with the same or similar Tunnel Through Time title that have been published in the decades since), Lester del Rey’s Time Ring is the story of Bobbi Miller, a seventeen-year-old cosplayer and comics fan whose scientist father, Sam, has created the Time Ring, an experimental time machine. When Dr. Tom Thornhill, the well-respected paleontologist father of her best friend, science nerd and fellow comic fan Pete, goes missing during a visit to the Cretaceous Period (80 million years ago), Pete and Bobbi step through the Time Ring to search for him. But the dangers they face—including some very hungry dinosaurs looking to eat them—threaten to make this the deadliest field trip the teens have ever gone on!

Lester del Rey’s Time Ring will be a four-issue comic book miniseries adaptation by writer Steven A. Roman (that’s me!) and artist/colorist Eliseu Gouveia; our previous collaborations include the SWC graphic novel Lorelei: Sects and the City, the SWC comic books The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0 and The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1, and Piko Interactive/Virtual Comics’ upcoming The Legend of Calamity Jane: The Devil Herself. 

Variant covers—all the rage these days for crowdfunded comics—are being considered. We’ll let you know who’s signed on to contribute when we have more details.

Acting as consulting editor on the adaptation is acclaimed science fiction and fantasy author—and Wildside Press president/publisher—John Gregory Betancourt (The Things from Another World, Roger Zelazny’s Dawn of Amber, Star Trek: The Next Generation: Double Helix, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Devil in the Sky, Star Trek: Voyager: Incident at Arbuk). 

And thanks go out to literary agent Vaughne Hansen of the Virginia Kidd Agency for working out the licensing deal, and for her enthusiastic participation in the approvals process.

Stay tuned for further developments!