Novelists shifting work to comic books

NEW YORK — Author Jonathan Lethem was a big fan of the comic "Omega the Unknown" when he was a boy growing up in Brooklyn, and he was pretty depressed when the superhero vanished from corner store shelves.

Never fear. He'll see Omega in print again soon, because Marvel Entertainment is reviving the comic after 30 years — with Lethem writing the story.

"I was very devoted as a teenager to comic books," said Lethem, who recently finished a tour for his new novel, "You Don't Love Me Yet."

"I drifted to other kinds of reading, but I never lost interest in the medium."

Lethem joins a growing list of novelists such as Stephen King and Michael Chabon, who have shifted to work on comic books as the medium gains critical and academic respect and becomes more mainstream.

Marvel contacted Lethem after his book "Fortress of Solitude," which had some comic-book reverence, and asked if he was interested in doing work in the medium, said Marvel publisher Dan Buckley.

"We wanted to see what he was interested in, and he brought it up immediately," Buckley said. "Bringing this kind of talent to the room is fantastic. He knows how to tell a story, and his perspective is different from traditional comic writers."

Omega's not your average swashbuckling superhero. He's mute, for starters, and has a sort of psychic connection with a 12-year-old boy named James-Michael Starling, who moved to New York City with his family from "the mountains" to improve socialization skills after years of home-schooling. Trouble ensues, of course, and he meets Omega, the last surviving member of an unnamed alien race.

"It was an interesting challenge," Lethem said. "One of the things I concluded very quickly was that it's not a written form. My primary task was to provide amazing things for artists to draw."

The first six issues are in the can, and the series will have a total of 10, like the original, which debuted in 1976. No official release date has been given.

Suspense writer Greg Rucka works on several series for DC Comics, including "Batman," "Superman" and "Gotham Central." He also did a limited series called "52," about a year when Wonder Woman, Superman and Batman temporarily suspended their crusades, and a new superhero called Supernova takes over to save the world. Best-selling author Brad Meltzer worked on the "Justice League of America," for DC, and excerpts of his 2006 novel, "The Book of Fate," were included in the first issue.