Berk's Forumvine

Well that was unexpected...

So in this year's New-York Comic-Con, it was announced that Hiccup and Toothless will star in an all new graphic novel series co-written by Richard Hamilton(Who wrote "Race to the Edge") and Dean DeBlois(Like I really need to tell you who that is...)!

The first in the series, called "How to Train Your Dragon: The Serpent's Heir", will come out next year and will follow shortly after the ending of "How to Train Your Dragon 2"!

Quote:

 

Berk’s Dragon Riders must answer an earthquake-plagued island’s distress call. Along the way, they meet new dragons and a disturbing enemy, all while Hiccup and Toothless are growing into their roles of Chief and Alpha.

Link to full article: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-v ... ine-830934

Also, we have a cover art:


So I'm pretty excited about this! Also, I opened this here because it's not related to HTTYD 3 and the books section didn't seem like a match for this.

So better save money for some tons of comic books...


Oh and this eye under the village is really really creepy o_O. Some kind of giant dragon who is responsible for the earthquake or something?

Makes me think about the Foreverwing...

I think it will be really interesting that the first graphic novel will pick up the story line only a few hours after the end of HTTYD2, when Hiccup has just become chief, and Toothless alpha. There are many different things that they can include, and I personally hope that we see a lot of how Hiccup and Toothless try to cope with their new responsibilities.

All in all, it's an unexpected but exciting piece of news!

hictooth

Do you think they're trying to use these comic books in place of a TV/Netflix series that would bridge the second and third movies (like RTTE is doing for the first and second movies now)?

(Said this in the comments on the main site to but going to say it again here if anyone wants to discuss it.) If the main background figure is supposed to be our main villain then it looks like they to might have some control over dragons(possibly?).

SplashTheScauldron

 

So better save money for some tons of comic books...

I wouldn't expect to many actually. Since Graphic novels tend to be longer, and more contained stories within one book. I would expect around 4 books maybe, this is just my own guess though.

DragonbackVoyager

 

Do you think they're trying to use these comic books in place of a TV/Netflix series that would bridge the second and third movies (like RTTE is doing for the first and second movies now)?

I assume since Dean is co-writing on this it might have something to do with him wanting to have more control over what goes on in this particular time frame(meaning there are probably things he wants to cover in a specific way). Harder to do that when it's an animated show while you're working on the movie as well. This allows him to possibly stay more involved since the only thing he needs to worry about is his own writing. Does kind of explain why they brought on Richard Hamilton as the other co-writer. Since him and Dean can have some go between, and if Dean gets to busy with the movie then Hamilton can cover more easily.(possibly?)

Could also just be doing this because DW doesn't think it's worth the cost currently to use a show to cover the time in between the second and third movie.

Demonwolf002

11 Oct 2015, 05:57

SplashTheScauldron

 

So better save money for some tons of comic books...

I wouldn't expect to many actually. Since Graphic novels tend to be longer, and more contained stories within one book. I would expect around 4 books maybe, this is just my own guess though.

Oh... maybe you are right

Still gonnna buy thousands of them to paper my room

Demonwolf002

11 Oct 2015, 05:57

Could also just be doing this because DW doesn't think it's worth the cost currently to use a show to cover the time in between the second and third movie.

very good point. it would likely be more expensive to cancel RTTE than keep it going at this point

saying this the films leading up to HTTYD3's relice look promising hopefully they will make enough money on those films to get DW out of the problems its currently having

I really wanted another Snoggletog short (like Post-HTTYD2; Hiccup's first Snoggletog with his mom (in 20 years) but without his dad and Eret's possible first Snoggletog (cuz who knows what he and his family celebrated)) but this'll work too!

Toothless the nightfury

11 Oct 2015, 09:29

Demonwolf002

11 Oct 2015, 05:57

Could also just be doing this because DW doesn't think it's worth the cost currently to use a show to cover the time in between the second and third movie.

very good point. it would likely be more expensive to cancel RTTE than keep it going at this point

saying this the films leading up to HTTYD3's relice look promising hopefully they will make enough money on those films to get DW out of the problems its currently having

If I'm not mistaken RTTE shouldn't be all that expensive on DW's part anymore. Considering the show is aired only on netflix I would say it's pretty safe to assume that they probably paid for the majority or a large portion of it's funding so really it's netflix that needs to make back on that. And in netflix's case (If I'm not mistaken) the way they usually see if they want to renew a show for more seasons is by number of unique views that were full watches (correct me if I'm wrong). Since the current season is still going and covering the time between the first and second movies they probably don't want to look into acquiring another season just yet. So we may still get another show for the time frame between the second and third movies if a network thinks it's worth picking up after their deal with netflix ends if netflix doesn't renew it. But since DW has gone forward with doing this it may be indicative that netflix wasn't interested in renewing their deal, or there wasn't any network currently interested in picking up the show after RTTE either.

Or it's entirely possible this is what DW wanted to do instead of another show. Or maybe DeBlois convinced them to let him do this instead of another show, because he may have wanted more control of this particular time frame and what happens during.

It doesn't all have to be doom and gloom.

I'm of two minds about this (which is pretty much the story of my life).

On the one hand, more material is a good thing, and the story sounds fun enough.

On the other hand, getting DeBlois to write a graphic novel, even if he's just co-writing, just seems like a waste of his talents. If there's one thing I learned from HTTYD 2, it's that DeBlois is a fantastic visual director, but a mediocre writer at best. Seriously, most of the problems with the film land squarely in the writing department.

Ultimately, I think it will come down to how far DeBlois' involvement goes. If it doesn't go beyond a script-esque involvement, then Dark Horse probably have better writers (though admittedly, said writers could be on higher-priority projects). If it goes to the point of something similar to storyboards, then DeBlois could have the chance to add some of his visual flair, and his contribution would be worthwhile.

Disclaimer: My entire knowledge of graphic novel production methods comes from watching Atop the Fourth Wall.