Tom Taylor & Jon Sommariva re-imagine Peter Pan & Neverland in two-book series for Penguin Random House & Glenat
Tom Taylor and Jon Sommariva on Neverlanders
Writer Tom Taylor and artist Jon Sommariva are working together on a new graphic novel series imagining a wartime Peter Pan called Neverlanders. The first of two planned volumes is scheduled to go on sale in summer 2022 through Penguin Random House's Razorbill imprint (for English audiences) and Glenat (for French audiences).
"A gritty modern fantasy tale set in the world of Peter Pan, this story follows a group of young runaways who have been spirited away by the last living Lost Boy. He's desperate for their help to save Neverland, which has become a warzone in Peter's absence," reads the synopsis of Neverlandders. "Along with General Tinkerbell and her fairy army, these lost teens will have to face-off against a merciless band of pirates until a new Pan has finally risen."
Taylor and Sommariva will be joined on Neverlanders by color artist Michele Assarasakorn and letterer Wolfgang Bylsma.
Here's concept art for the series by Sommariva:
Neverlanders concept art by Jon Sommariva
Although best known to comic audiences for his superhero work such as Injustice and DCeased, Taylor has a long history of all-ages work including the comic-turned-TV series The Deep.
"Neverlanders is a story for now," Taylor says. "It feels like the exact right time for an epic tale of young people fighting for their future and standing against short-sighted, greedy adults."
This will be Taylor and Sommariva's first time working together, but the two Australians tell Newsarama they've been talking about collaborating for the past 10 years.
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"I had been wanting to work with Tom for years. I witnessed this guy go from an unknown (to comics) playwright wanting to write comics to a guy who just wrote some local Indy comics to quickly becoming one of the top writers in our industry," Sommariva says. "All throughout our paths crossed and we flirted here and there with wanting to work together but the timing was just never right, until it was!"
Neverlanders Book One goes on sale in summer 2022.
Read our recent interview with Tom Taylor on the surprising success of his Injustice comic books for DC.
Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)