She kept opening new doors, and I’d look in and think ‘Oh, of course - that must have been there all along.’ I had never met Lilah before this, but her intuitive feel for this world and these characters was almost psychically perfect, both with the original elements and the many new things she came up with. I am not a natural collaborator I can be as fussy and possessive as any creative person. Grossman: Honestly, I expected a lot of wrangling and turbulence and epic struggles for control. Does this mean lots of secret meetings? Is there a secret history of Brakebills contained in email exchanges? What has the process been like? It’s one thing for books - or movies, or TV shows - to have comic book spinoffs that are in their own worlds, for want of a better way to put it - the Star Trek comics, the original Star Wars comics - but Alice’s Story is an addition to the actual canon of the novels. But after some time stars aligned, my schedule freed up and I received an offer to draw The Magicians. I could never do it because I would always be working on something else at those times. They, from time to time, would ask me about my availability and offer really cool projects to work on. Pius Bak: Before The Magicians, for quite a while I had been in touch with one of the editors at Boom! Studios. I’d actually sworn off doing adaptations forever, but this one was too good to pass up. Lilah Sturges: I received a call more or less out of the blue from Sierra Hahn asking if I’d be interested in the project and I leapt at the opportunity because I absolutely adored the novels. When it was finally free, I brought the idea to Boom! Studios, and it was clear right away that they knew what to do with it. I had actually been trying for years to make it happen, but I kept getting hung up on rights issues and things like that. Lev Grossman: Comics have always been a big part of my reading life - Watchmen in particular was a major major influence on The Magicians - so I’ve always hoped this story could play as a comic someday. Where did this start? Who approached who?

There’s something about expanding the Magicians canon with comic books that feels at once surprising and entirely natural. Cannes: Jason Isaacs Joins Vanessa Redgrave, Freida Pinto in 'The Boy at the Back of the Class'

The magicians 2 lev grossman