The End Begins in This Exclusive American Gods: The Moment of the Storm #1 Preview

For several years now, longtime Neil Gaiman collaborator P. Craig Russell and artist Scott Hampton have adapted Gaiman’s wildly popular Hugo, Bram Stoker, Locus, World Fantasy and Nebula Award-winning novel American Gods into comics, bringing Shadow’s story to life via sequential art. While the Starz TV adaptation still has a ways to go to complete its saga of gods new and old, Russell and Hampton are fast approaching the end of their version—American Gods: The Moment of the Storm #1, out April 17th, kicks off the final volume of Dark Horse Comics’ adaptation.

“P. Craig Russell is an astonishing talent,” Gaiman said in a statement. “He’s a visionary, and I’ve been in love with his visions since I was a schoolboy. His adaptations of operas, of stories, of novels, are the gold standard. Now we reach the last act of American Gods, and Craig’s adaptation, and Scott Hampton’s art, remains as powerful and as faithful as it was at the beginning. I am so lucky to have the text so well and so brilliantly served.”

“Neil’s epic trans-continental novel American Gods has been an epic three-year project for all involved in its transformation from a 500-plus-page book into a 600-page graphic novel,” Russell added. “Taking apart a novel line by line and finding a visual structure for its recreation is a uniquely intimate look into its workings and makes for a deeply satisfying feeling upon completion. I am sorry to see it end.”

Russell and Hampton, along with colorist Jennifer T. Lange and cover artist Glenn Fabry, have put their own spin on American Gods, while staying truthful to Gaiman’s original prose. The television adaptation may be Gaiman-approved, but the comic takes far fewer liberties with the source material. The Moment of the Storm launches into the novel’s god-war climax, paying off years of comics in one final volume.

“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with my fellow collaborators P. Craig Russell, Jennifer Lange and [letterer] Rick Parker to bring American Gods to the comics-reading public,” Hampton said. “Visualizing this brilliant story was both intimidating and exhilarating. I hope the readers, especially the diehard American Gods fans, enjoy it half as much as we did adapting it.”

“I jumped into the project midstream, so I was already excited by the work P. Craig Russell, Scott Hampton, Rick Parker and [Dark Horse Comics editor] Daniel Chabon were doing with the adaptation,” Lange added. “Creating the palate for a story that’s equal parts fantastical and American road trip was pure joy.”

Paste readers can take an exclusive extended first look at American Gods: The Moment of the Storm #1 below, and can grab the full issue on shelves and via digital retailers on April 17, 2019. For more on Gaiman and Dark Horse, continue reading Paste.

American Gods: The Moment of the Storm #1 Cover Art by Glenn Fabry

American Gods: The Moment of the Storm #1
Writers: Neil Gaiman & P. Craig Russell
Artists: P. Craig Russell & Scott Hampton
Colorist: Jennifer T. Lange
Letterer: Rick Parker
Cover Artist: Glenn Fabry
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: April 17, 2019
The new and old gods agree to meet in the center of America to exchange the body of the old gods’ fallen leader-heading toward the inevitable god war in this final arc of the bestselling comics series! The Hugo, Bram Stoker, Locus, World Fantasy, and Nebula Award-winning novel by Neil Gaiman is adapted as a graphic novel!