Where's The Next Alex Rider Graphic Novel?

Fans of Antony Johnston's comic book adaptations of Anthony Horowitz's bestselling Alex Rider series of young adult spy novels may be worried that the third book, Skeleton Key, didn't appear on shelves last month. (The previous volume, Point Blanc, came out right after Christmas last year.) And there's still no Amazon listing. So is the graphic novel series cancelled? Good news: no, it isn't! Johnston wrote me last fall to spread the word that Skeleton Key had been pushed back by the publisher, and wouldn't be out until September 2009... but somehow I never got around to posting that in the crush at the time. Now that fans might be wondering where the book was, I thought I better go ahead and do that. Rest assured: the series will continue. (I hear it's very popular.) Furthermore, Johnston reveals on his website that he finished the script for the fourth adaptation, Eagle Strike, in November, but doesn't expect it to come out until 2010. So more Alex Rider graphic novels will be forthcoming for some time to come. (As much as I enjoy the adaptations of Horowitz's novels, though, I do hope we get some original Alex Rider comics one day!)

The movies, on the other hand, are another story. I fear The Weinstein Company good and killed that series with their gross mishandling of the first film in this country. Sigh.

The novels, of course, continue. Horowitz, who must have replaced James Brown as the hardest working man in show business--what with his American TV deal, a few more episodes of Foyle's War and a new British show called Collision (whew!)--stated on his own website last month that he's recently begun work on the eighth book, Crocodile Tears. It will be partly set in Kenya. The series is currently projected to total ten volumes.