Sleeping Beauties, the novel by the father-son team of Stephen and Owen King, is getting the comic treatment at IDW and now the first volume is being collected in graphic novel format. The first of two full-color hardcover graphic novels was written by Rio Youers (The Forgotten Girl), with art by Alison Sampson (Winnebago Graveyard) and colorist Triona Tree Farrell. Sleeping Beauties Vol. 1 will be in comic shops on April 20, 2021.

Sleeping Beauties introduces a world swept by an epidemic that sees women falling into a deep, cocooned sleep. They only wake up if they are disturbed, but when they do, the women are violent. In the wake of this frightening situation the men left behind have become very confrontational, even barbaric.

“Writing Sleeping Beauties was a challenging and educational experience, but all the more rewarding for it,” Youers said. “I’m a novelist, so I had to approach, visualize, and execute this story in a way that was completely new to me. It helps, of course, to have such dependable source material, not to mention an amazing artistic team in Alison and Triona. Working with them was a genuine highlight, and they elevated every panel.”

“I’ve loved drawing Sleeping Beauties. There’s so much going on, and it all feels so real. To develop the art, I’ve drawn from real world people and places to help me, and perhaps the best thing about this is the friends we’ve made along the way,” Sampson said. “It’s also been a deeply challenging work to draw. It certainly contains the most genuine horror I’ve dealt with as an artist, but also it is extraordinarily diverse, in a positive way. Being an artist is having agency to do something with this. People need to be seen, and I hope to some extent I’ve been able to enable that, and hopefully the work is richer as a result.”

“I love the way that Rio, Alison, Triona, and the entire team at IDW have not only adapted our novel, but made it their own. We’ve been incredibly lucky to have such a talented, adventurous group sink their teeth into the story,” Owen King said.

“Stephen King and Owen King created a powerful and evocative tale that resonates so strongly with readers, and Rio, Alison, and Triona took that and turned it into a unique and powerful comic book,” IDW Editor-in-Chief John Barber said. “The graphic novel is as tough and uncompromising as the novel – and as rewarding to fans of the strange and macabre.”