I’ve gotta tell you, my friends, if you are a fantasy or sci-fi comic book fan today, this is a great time to be so. That is if the proposed ideas for some of the most popular properties actually are treated properly and are done right. What am I talking about, you may be asking yourself. Well, last week, with news that the yet-to-air, highly anticipated The Walking Dead television series has already been given the green light for a second season, two other comic book properties have been optioned to become television series.

On two consecutive days last week, two new projects were announced that I became extremely excited about. On September 1st, it was announced that Locke and Key, the horror/suspense comic book from IDW Publishing and being developed by FOX, was set to be picked up by ABC television as a summer series on their networks. The following day on September 2nd it was announced that Warner Bros television had optioned The Sandman from sister company DC Comics’ Vertigo line.

Written by Joe Hill and illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez, both of whom co-created the series, Locke and Key tells the continuing story of the Locke family and their involvement in the supernatural. Locke and Key debuted in 2008 and by 2009 had been nominated for an Eisner Award in the categories of Best Limited Series and Best Writer and won the 2009 British Fantasy Award for Best Comic or Graphic Novel.

Created by Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth, and Sam Dringenberg, and written by Gaiman, The Sandman series told the story of Morpheus, a member of the abstract entities who called themselves The Endless. Somewhat more morality tales then anything else, Dream would showcase the moral and immoral actions of the characters that would appear in his realm known as The Dreaming. The Sandman series would go on to receive high critical appraisal and won several awards like the 1991 World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction, the Bram Stoker Award for Best Illustrative Narrative in 2000 and 2004, and has won 18 total Eisner Awards during its seven year run.

As a big fan of both comic book series, I find this both exciting and scary as I have seen, as well so many of my fellow comic book fans, production companies somehow completely fuck up some of the best characters and stories once they get their hands on them (Generation X anyone?). From the early takes on The Walking Dead, it appears as they are doing that series justice enough that it is likely to be a hit with its comic fans. I only hope that they do justice to these two new series as well, but I am worried because of the networks they are being proposed for. 

ABC I am not so worried about; they have shown that they can handle suspense and sci-fi series fairly successfully. So I can see Locke and Key being treated fairly well. But the WB is damn near hit-or-miss. Yeah, they have some suspense series, but they are always aimed at teens and tweens and somehow have dumbed down these stories to relate to them. If they dumb down The Sandman stories in any way I can see fans of the series hating the series right away.

But it is still an exciting time for comic book fans. With more and more production companies looking towards comic books for new and more interesting television series. Sure, there is always the danger that you will get some bad and poorly made shows, but the possibility of having some good and even great series made from some of our favorite comic book properties is certainly a plus for many fans.