An announcement at TerryPratchett.com revealed today that the estate of the late fantasy author, one of the UK’s all-time bestselling writers, is opening up the “Discworld graphic novel universe,” a planned series of comics adaptations of Pratchett’s Discworld books that will come from different publishers, writers, and artists. Pratchett’s Discworld setting was the basis for more than 40 fantasy novels, ranging from light comedy and genre satire, to YA coming-of-age books, to deeply humanistic, dark horror stories. The first three books announced for graphic-novel adaptation cover a representative range of his work.
The initial titles being adapted are 2001’s Thief of Time and 2003’s Wee Free Men and Monstrous Regiment. Thief of Time will be adapted by Gary Chudleigh, illustrated by frequent Marvel Comics artist Rachael Stott. It will come out April 2, 2026, and is available for preorder now from Doubleday Books. Wee Free Men will be adapted by Pratchett’s daughter, author Rhianna Pratchett. No artist has been announced yet, but the book is set for a spring 2027 publication from Puffin Books. Monstrous Regiment does not yet have a creative team or publisher announced.
Each of these three books represents a different entry point for Pratchett’s work. Wee Free Men is a YA novel, the first in a series of books centering on a rural witch-in-training named Tiffany Aching. Tiffany grows up and grows into her power over the course of the series, in the process earning the loyalty of the Nac Mac Feegle, a species of tiny blue men with pronounced Scottish accents who serve as some of the latter-day Discworld’s most potent comic relief. Thief of Time is an adult novel concerned with Death (the character) and a universal force trying to eliminate human uncertainty (and therefore humans as a whole) from the world.
These aren’t the first of Pratchett’s works to be adapted as graphic novels: The Discworld series’ first books, The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic, were previously adapted together. 1987’s Mort, 1989’s Guards! Guards!, and 1992’s Small Gods have all gotten previous visual adaptations. But the new “graphic novel universe” initiative seems aimed at bringing more of Pratchett’s extensive body of work into comics form, through a variety of different authors and artists.
