Call for Book Chapters

From Page to Screen: An Examination of Comic Book to Television Adaptation

Edited by Ryan Twomey and Sebastian Sparrevohn

This edited collection will (re)examine the process of adapting comic books to television. Focus will be given to the narratives being told, what they represent as social and cultural productions, alongside an investigation into the way they are told through the two forms. Focus will be given to the process of adaptation, rather than theoretical claims about adaptation theory. Additionally, comic books and television have often been at the forefront of progressive politics; key to the collection will be an investigation of the place of comics and television in promoting diversity and inclusion through an examination of three key areas: race and colonialism; gender, sexuality, and queerness; and representing the Anthropocene and climate catastrophe.

The editors invite 300 to 500-word abstracts (including short bio) exploring the approach comics creators take to telling their narrative, alongside how showrunners and producers of their adaptations recreate the narrative for a television audience. Our interest is in the formal affordances of these mediums as expressions of social and cultural production, so cultural, political, and social reception of the texts should also be examined.  

A selection of titles of interest to the collection is provided below; however, this is not an exhaustive list. While the focus of this list is on American adaptations, we also encourage contributions on European and Asian comic adaptations.

• Watchmen
• The Sandman
• Heartstopper
• Sweet Tooth
• Ms. Marvel
• Doom Patrol
• The Walking Dead
• Y: The Last Man
• The Boys
• Riverdale
• Invincible
• The Penguin
• Peacemaker
• Paper Girls 
• Gotham
• DC 'Arrowverse' 
• The Umbrella Academy
• Locke and Key
• Marvel's Disney shows: Loki, Wandavision, Falcon and the Winter Soldier
• Marvel's Netflix shows: Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, the Defenders

The completed book proposal will be sent to University of Texas Press for consideration. Chapter abstracts of 300 to 500 words (including short bio) must be submitted to adaptationcollection@gmail.com no later than March 31, 2026. Full chapter drafts will be 6,000 to 7,000 words (inclusive of all secondary material) and will be due October 31, 2026.