For fans who were let down by the ending of HBO’s Game of Thrones, there is hope in the form of the comic adaptations of George R.R. Martin‘s A Song of Ice and Fire novels. For years, many avid ASOIAF readers have insisted that the books are better than the show, and their claims were vindicated when the last few seasons of the show were met with disappointment by critics and viewers alike. But the comics can provide an alternative for those who loved the early seasons of the show but are reluctant to dive into multiple 1,000-page books to get the same story.
The first issue of Dynamite Entertainment’s A Game of Thrones was published in September 2011, just a few months after the conclusion of the first season of the HBO show. Written by Daniel Abraham with art by Tommy Patterson, the series adapted the first novel of the series and ran for a total of 24 issues, wrapping up in July 2014. Much like Martin himself, the series took a break of a few years before returning in June 2017 for an adaptation of the second novel in Martin’s series, A Clash of Kings. The adaptation of A Clash of Kings is written by Landry Walker with art by Mel Rubi and has been split into two volumes. Volume One ran for 18 issues, concluding in February 2019. Volume Two started in 2020 and has released 15 issues so far.
While the first five seasons of Game of Thrones generally stayed true to the books overall, some things had to be cut out and streamlined. At first this only drew the ire of longtime book fans. But as the series went on, and especially after it surpassed the narrative of the books at the conclusion of season five, it became clear that the creators of the show really needed the roadmap that Martin’s books provided. Many felt that the last seasons were rushed and too focused on fan service, rather than the character work and plotting that made Martin’s writing so innovative in the first place. The comics are able to avoid this same fate by sticking much more closely to the books. With fewer time and budget constraints, the comic adaptations do not have to discard plots or scenes. The characters and settings look how they are described in the book. Dialogue and narration is often taken directly from Martin’s prose.
Some might view this as a poor substitute for reading the full ASOIAF novels. But it’s important to note Martin’s longtime affiliation with comics. An avid comic reader from a young age, Martin earliest writings appear in Letters to the Editor pages of Marvel and DC comics. He attended one of the first comic convention ever held, and wrote for fanzines, which started him on his path to becoming the bestselling author he is today.
In his introduction to the first collected volume of the A Game of Thrones adaptation, Martin writes about how he used to read Classics Illustrated, comic adaptations of classic works of literature like Moby Dick or A Tale of Two Cities. He discusses the controversy over these comics, with some critics saying that they cheapened the classic novels while others thinking that they served a purpose in introducing kids to great literature. Martin mostly falls into the latter camp, calling these Classics Illustrated comics the “gateway drug” that eventually led to the original novels on which they were based. He hopes that the Dynamite adaptations of his books might similarly lead readers to one day reading his novels in their entirety.
It has taken Martin more than a decade to finish the sixth book in his series, The Winds of Winter. Even still, the comics are only on the second book (which correlates to roughly the second season of the show). Therefore it is highly unlikely that they will surpass George R.R. Martin‘s A Song of Ice and Fire books and have to fly on their own, meaning they can avoid the same pitfalls of HBO’s Game of Thrones series.
