Earlier this week, Dark Horse Comics announced the next installment in the comic book adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s hit series, American Gods. The announcement comes just ahead of New York City’s Comic-Con, the same place they revealed the comic adaptation was going to be made last year.
The title, American Gods: My Ainsel, will be the second arc of the comic series, taking place right after the events of American Gods: Shadows, which launched in March 2017. The comic will continue to follow Shadow Moon and Mr. Wednesday, as they look to complete their odd trek across America to convince people to join their side for the imminent god war.
The creative team behind the first installment are set to return for the second arc as well. They are lead by writer P. Craig Russell (Coraline, The Graveyard Book) and artist Scott Hampton, with cover art by Glenn Fabry (Preacher) and Adam Brown (Predator vs. Judge Dredd vs. Aliens), and variant covers illustrated by David Mack (Kabuki, Fight Club 2).
The American Gods comic will consist of three nine-issue arks: Shadows, My Ainsel and The Moment of the Storm. In an interview with CBR earlier this year, Russel also talked a little more in-depth about the process of creating the series with Gaiman.
“The first story arc of nine issues comprises about 200 pages of Neil’s novel, which means there is approximately one page of prose to one page of graphic novel, and Neil can get a lot into one page,” Russell said. “So there is a lot of serious paring down, more than will be in the next two story arcs. There are times when whole scenes are pared down into two or three wordless panels. If done right the reader should have no sense that anything is missing.”
The first issue of American Gods: My Ainsel will be available March 14, 2018, with pre-orders already purchasable at your local comic shop.