Archaia announce new plans for Labyrinth

[rachael89]

While they had previously announced a Jareth-centric graphic novel prequel to Labyrinth, Archaia now appear to have changed their focus entirely - they are now planning to re-issue A.C.H.Smith’s Labyrinth novelisation with previously unseen Brian Froud artwork and pages from Jim Henson’s ideas notebook for the film.



The article is fascinating reading and I can strongly recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about how the property is being handled. While it now seems highly unlikely that the Labyrinth prequel graphic novel will be happening in the near-future, it looks like Archaia have bigger and more extensive plans.



So, what do you make of this news? Are you excited? How do you feel about the prequel graphic novel being dropped, or at least shunted aside? If nothing else, this news means the Labyrinth novelisation will be affordable for the first time in nearly 30 years.

This must be the news they hinted at on twitter - they really did have something up their sleeve besides the Free Comic Book Day story!

[Bezzo]

No prequel???   I've been waiting (im)patiently to read that prequel and now they've shelved the plans??!!! I really hope that they produce a prequel eventually as I'm sure everyone is just as keen as I am to read about Jareth's back story.

[rachael89]

I'm sure the graphic novel is still happening, though Archaia told me (on twitter) that it's 'in development' - that, to me, indicates they've gone back to the drawing board. I'm not even sure it will be a prequel anymore. My hope is that they give us what we really want, namely a continuation of Sarah's story (with Jareth playing a crucial role, of course). I'm firmly of the opinion that Labyrinth is important because it's a distinctly female story, about a young girl who learns about her own power. By constantly having tie-in books focus on male characters (Toby in RTL, and initially Jareth in the prequel) the Henson Company's affiliates have been taking away from that.