Gungnir Books has signed Die Hard screenwriter Steven E. de Souza to write three graphic novels, including a continuation of his reboot of Sheena: Queen of the Jungle. The new book, Sheena: Frostline, will take the long-lived jungle heroine into a new environment: the frozen north. The other two titles are Earth Patrol Tonight!, a sci-fi space farce, and Gulliver, a modern interpretation of the classic Jonathan Swift novel. No release dates have been announced.
Sheena was created by Will Eisner and Jerry Iger’s studio and made her first appearance in comics in 1938; she got her own title in 1942, predating Wonder Woman as the first female character to headline a solo series. De Souza first started writing Sheena in 2006, for Devil’s Due Publishing (see “Devil’s Due Has ‘Sheena’ Rights”), giving her a new setting and continuity. He continued both when the franchise moved to Moonstone (see “‘Sheena’ by De Souza”). Dynamite Entertainment announced at San Diego Comic-Con in 2015 that it had acquired the rights and planned a Sheena/Tarzan crossover. Several different writers worked on the comic for Dynamite, with de Souza returning as a co-writer in 2023 (see “Preview: ‘Sheena: Queen of the Jungle’ #1”). Dynamite kept de Souza’s setting but not his continuity. Galaxy Publishing holds the rights to the character.
“What Gungnir is building reminds me of the heyday of Hollywood’s Golden Age, when storytellers were encouraged to bring fresh ideas in every genre to the table,” de Souza said in a statement accompanying the announcement. “Matthew [Medney] and his team at Gungnir have created an environment that’s essentially an incubator where ideas are not just protected, but unleashed. They are giving us the freedom to experiment, collaborate, and execute stories with unlimited horizons — not to mention unlimited budgets: In the pages of a graphic novel, anything that can be imagined can be realized — a dream scenario for a writer!”
In addition to Die Hard and Die Hard 2, de Souza’s writing credits include a number of comics-related projects, including the Touchstone Pictures film Judge Dredd, the ABC series Will Eisner’s The Spirit, and HBO’s Tales from the Crypt.
Gungnir is distributed by Macmillan (see “Gungnir Signs Global Distribution Deal with Macmillan”).
Source: ICV2
