After reimagining classic titles like Power Rangers and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Boom! Studios will next be reviving Ichabod Crane and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow through a queer lens in the new graphic novel HOLLOW. The story arrives in more modern terms as teenage skeptic Isabel “Izzy” Crane moves with her family to Sleepy Hollow, where the townsfolk continue to be obsessed with stories of the Headless Horseman. Although Izzy is far more concerned with making new friends, like prankster Croc Byun and the royal Vicky Van Tassel, she suddenly gets wrapped up in the legend once the trio starts getting terrorized by a curse to destroy the Van Tassel bloodline.
Washington Irving originally published The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in 1820. The story has seen several updates and adaptations over the years through media like film, television, theatre, and now graphic novels. Some readers may recall Walt Disney offering a touch of whimsy through The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Tim Burton adding a gothic vibe through 1999’s Sleepy Hollow, or Fox pushing Ichabod Crane 250 years into the future for a weekly crime procedural show in the 2013 TV series Sleepy Hollow. However, one thing readers may notice is that most adaptations seldom deviate from the original material, save for a minor tweak here and there. HOLLOW promises to offer arguably the most drastic change in the material since it was first published 200 years ago.
Per Boom! Studios’ official website, HOLLOW is set to be co-written by Shannon Watters and Branden Boyer-White and will feature art from Wanderlicht’s Berenice Nelle and colors from Specter Inspectors’ Kaitlyn Musto. Boyer-White is an award-winning sci-fi writer from Arizona State University making her graphic novel authoring debut. Meanwhile, Watters’ name is more likely to ring a few bells for audiences, as she co-created Lumberjanes. Much like Lumberjanes, HOLLOW hopes to offer the kind of queer teen romance that wasn’t quite as prevalent in comics when Watters was younger.
“HOLLOW is the queer-teen-love-story meets spooky-goofball-supernatural-caper that my Scooby-Doo-ifed young self had wished existed,” Watters told Boom! Studios in a press release. “Writing HOLLOW with Branden was the best part of last year, and seeing it come to life at the extraordinary hands of Berenice and Kaitlyn has easily been the best part of 2021.”
The graphic novel will still have plenty of spookiness that readers have come to expect from Sleepy Hollow tales. “I’ve always been a collector of ghost stories, and the legend of the Headless Horseman is one of my favorites,” said Boyer-White. “It’s a dream come true to add our link in the chain of The Horseman’s spirited legacy, and we can’t wait for readers to take this fun, eerie ride through our twist on the tale.”
Shannon Watters has already proven through the wholly original Lumberjanes that she’s not only committed to telling diverse queer stories, but she can do so in an interesting, captivating way. Lumberjanes wound up being an Eisner Award-winning global phenomenon, and HOLLOW has the potential to achieve the same success. Perhaps there is more pressure and higher expectations on HOLLOW to succeed since it’s based on pre-established material, rather than an original work, but with a talented team behind her, audiences have plenty to be excited about for possibly another Boom! Studios classic. HOLLOW releases digitally and in comic book shops in September of 2022.
