Worm is Getting a 2027 Comic Adaptation with IDW Publishing

I can finally speak about this- Worm is getting a comic.  As I was quoted saying for the press release, Worm is a story that was written to take the world of comics, which are very visual, into the written word, it’s bringing things full circle this way.

Gizmodo – Groundbreaking Web Serial ‘Worm’ Is Becoming a Comic Book

I was asked to keep this quiet until it could be announced with coordination of media outlets and other events (like the upcoming AMA).  I’m sorry to those one or two community members who seemed to think I was ignoring or snubbing them when certain topics came up around this.  It really was me having my lips sealed.

I’ll cover some nitty gritty details, and then I’ll ramble a little bit.  Because this wordpress site is set to require that all new commenters be approved first, because it’s flooded with enough spambots that that’s a huge task, and because I’m preoccupied with a lot going on over the next couple of days, I can’t promise that I’ll get to all the comments promptly.  That said, I’ll be doing an official AMA in coordination with IDW tomorrow (Wednesday) on the Parahumans subreddit at 2pm CT.  That’s central time, check against your own time zone if you want to be there on the day of.  That’s the best place to ask any questions you have that aren’t answered here, or questions you have that are raised by what I say here.

Nitty gritty essential details: The comic releases in on Comics Giveaway day on May 1st, 2027 with Issue 1 releasing promptly after that.  Comics Giveaway day is a promotional event where, as I understand it, each publisher decides on one series to showcase and give it out at participating comics stores.  The fact that they’re doing this with the upcoming Worm adaptation is a good thing and shows they’re intending to put something behind this.

General thoughts:  Not only is it good to see a comic adaptation made, but various people I’ve talked to about this (IDW, industry professionals, entertainment lawyer, fellow writers who are friends) generally see a comic as a clear gateway to other adaptations.  I know fans have had their heart set on a TV show, so support & sales of the comic would be a strong way for the community to get us there.  Preordering the comic in particular will show interest and passion for the comic and Worm in general.

The drafts and outlines of the comic are written by Meghan Fitzmartin, who has done a lot of angsty teenage stuff, especially in the Nightwing/Tim Drake space.  It’s drawn by Javier Ortiz Mateo, colored by David Vaquero and lettered by Andriy Lukin.  The editor who is essentially wrangling all of that (and me) is Cassandra Jones.

I have been part of the process, and the way things currently stand, each issue is handled in multiple stages starting with a rough 1-2 page outline of what the issue will cover, then a draft (or two, or three), then inks, a glimpse at the pages with colors, details, and finally a ‘final’ version.  At each of those stages, they ask for my input (particularly in draft stages), with video calls once a week where I see the ink/color pages and give feedback on them (and sometimes we touch base on other elements during those meetings).  There are other stages I’m not part of (various drafts, a few between color & final version) and one of those is a rough sketch of the panel layout with basically stick figures and essential environment details put down; I wasn’t a part of that in issue 1 and ended up asking to be a part of it going forward so there wouldn’t be as much redrawing/re-inking of panels to get position, posture, and other visual parts of characters right.  A lot of what I focus on is character voices and keeping the setting details straight.

As some of you may or may not know, I’ve had some health issues these past four years that came to a head this past year.  I’m still figuring out what’s going on (just got a new doctor earlier this month and I’m on new meds, we’ll see).  That said, I knew I wanted to stay productive and do something for my readers, even while my focus and energy levels were nowhere near what I needed them to be to keep a million+ word serial going.  I do intend to return to writing Seek and that should be soon, if things keep going as they are.

In a lot of ways, Worm itself came out of that mentality, where I was struggling with my writing and decided to at least struggle in a way that gave me a lot of material.  I could only do a few pages at a time before stalling out (I didn’t realize how much I was getting caught in a trap of endless editing- I’ve talked about this many times before), but a lot of Worm’s capes and powers and story elements were made piecemeal in those short snippets & aborted stories.  I think it’s fitting and cool that the comic could be that general sort of thing, too.

Process & Background:  IDW first reached out to me in December 2024 and we started corresponding then.  Lots of video calls, emails, back and forth to work out boundaries, expectations, and all of that.  One of the things that I found compelling was that editor Cassandra Jones was the person who reached out to me and knew Worm.  She’s a fan and knows who the characters are.

Years ago when I was writing the final arcs of Twig/start of Ward, I got a surprising burst of attention out of the blue for other adaptation talks.  One of those talks was with a major streaming service about a Twig TV show.  They asked me to come for an in-person meeting, at an awkward time (I was dogsitting for my aunt and had to find a dogsitter for my dogsitting, with my aunt’s permission), then traveled for 6 hours to chat with an exec while they were on a layover, on their way to E3.  Then they got the location wrong (I had to cab across Toronto for another hour in rush hour to meet them) and when I finally sat down, they didn’t know what Twig was.  I hear that’s pretty normal, but in follow-up discussion they sent me art of the Twig characters (done up even before the contract signing, very premature) and they’d aged the main cast up to adults.  Twig is, for the record, a Bildungsroman  story, a coming of age.  Not long after that, for other reasons, things fell apart.  Because of that & how some of the other discussions went, my enthusiasm for doing adaptations took a hit.  I still heard people out, but I was more aware of how it could go wrong or be frustrating as a process, and how much investment was often required before things moved forward, and how fast they could fall through.

As one agent I talked to put it, publishing books is doom, gloom, doom, gloom, you’re never going to make it, give up, doom, gloom, oh hey, success, you’re published!  Adaptations are so often hype, hype, excitement, we’re going to make this happen!  Look who’s on board!  We’re all going to be rich!  Hype!  Oh, it’s not going to happen, that sucks, see you later.

That’s where it was really nice to talk to IDW, have someone that knew Worm, and have them be straight with me instead of trying to hype me up.  Right off the bat, pretty much the first thing I brought up, was that Worm for me is… let’s call it mixed.  It’s the first thing I wrote and it has its awkward or problematic elements, and there are aspects of it I’m not proud of or that I’d do in a much different way today.  In talking to IDW, a huge reason I decided to move forward was that they came to the table and essentially had their own sheet with many of the same concerns.  They heard me out about concerns I had that they didn’t have, and vice-versa.

Just really straightforward, clear, on the same page, no disappointments, no weirdness.

I got the initial contract offer in June 2025 and negotiated until mid/late October, where I signed, with an entertainment lawyer advising me and reviewing everything throughout.  There were a few meetings about things that needed to be tackled right off the bat, and then things got moving fast after that.  A lot of content is worked on well in advance and so at the time I write this, we’re talking about issue 3 (and issue 0; Worm’s inclusion in comic book giveaway day means we’re having to squeeze into the process).

It’s been less work in some regards than I expected (as a hyper-introvert I tend to find corresponding & working with others draining, and in working with IDW it hasn’t been too bad) and much more in others.  This past month in particular has been pretty crazy, though with this announcement pending and the dual-press of Issue 0 being squeezed into the process.

Final notes: It’s been a very intentional part of the process that characters are designed from scratch and aren’t informed by the community headcanon/fanart.  Character design is done from scratch by Javier, with editor Cas’ direction, my input, and it’s my understanding that David Vaquero has done character design for games, and brings that to the table.  I say this so people aren’t surprised when their character has a different costume than what the fandom has essentially standardized.  My main goal in that was making sure it’s grounded in the logic and nature of the character that made the costume.  There are a few designs coming up that I really, really like (Regent’s and Panacea’s jump to mind).

I know people will have questions.  Again, if I don’t address them here, please do ask tomorrow on the subreddit, AMA is 12pm PT / 2pm CT / 3pm EST.  I’m also on the official parahumans discord.

I will try to answer some expected questions here, though, and to address one I know will be on some people’s minds: I want to preserve what we have, as much as anything.  With that in mind, when negotiating the contract, I wanted to make sure that fanfic, fanart and other community-made content are okay.  The stuff on the WordPress site here stays too, it’s separate, it is its own thing.

I don’t know how many people will filter through to the pre-existing Worm community from the comics one, if that’ll be two separate communities & readerships, or what else that might end up looking like.  I know there’s a culture among Wildbow readers that sort of expects everyone who shows up to be well grounded in Worm and I hope we can collectively pivot as new readers interact with the setting, and even find the original story and the sub-communities that have developed over the last 15 years.  I’ll be making slight adjustments on Reddit and we’ll be changing the rules on the official discord regarding spoilers to accommodate.  Let’s welcome any and all new readers and vicariously enjoy them learning what Worm is about.

There’s a lot to look forward to as part of this.  Whether Worm is a sleeper hit or a smash success, this opens a lot of doors and means cool things for the future, including more art by talented artists, comicon, possible merch, and possible adaptations.  I look forward to seeing where this goes with you all.