Popverse's top stories

• John Cena says he’ll come out of retirement if Elon Musk gives up his trillion-dollar fortune
• More people watch Roku than cable - and now the parent company of Fox News is buying it: What the Fox/Roku deal actually means
• George Lucas is still making money from Star Wars 14 years after selling Lucasfilm - as Disney's landlord

This summer, you'll be able to wield the iconic Tolkien character Smaug in Magic: The Gathering, but once upon a time, it was an uphill battle for any Middle-earth characters to be adapted to other media. That's why the original trilogy of Peter Jackson-directed Lord of the Rings films felt like such a revelation. Sure, there had been the animated Lord of the Rings film by Ralph Bakshi from 1978, but each film in the Jackson trilogy was an instant classic when it hit theaters at the dawn of the millennium. 

Now, 25 years later, a former DC Comics editor Scott Dunbier has revealed details about a planned series of Lord of the Rings graphic novels that unfortunately never saw the light of day. According to Scott Dunbier's Facebook page, the Tolkien estate shut down DC's potential graphic novel adaptation of Middle-earth. "About 25 years ago, as the first Peter Jackson helmed Lord of the Rings was released, I was asked by someone at DC Comics to do a proposal for a series of Lord of the Rings graphic novels. No idea who asked me about it (Richard Bruning?). Warner Brothers had the rights to the property so it made sense for DC to do adaptations," the post began.

"I started mulling it over in my head, pondering what my 'dream team' would be. For the adaptation (both the layouts and the scripting) I reached out to Craig Russell. He seemed perfect to me. For the finished art it was a bit more tricky. It was a huge, multi-year project–having one person do it all felt impossible. I started to think of all the lush back rounds, all the trees and foliage. Which led me to Charles Vess. Then I thought of Charles' old flatmate and close friend Michael Wm Kaluta to do all the figures, horses, creatures. All was good until I got word that the [sic] Tolkein estate had slammed the door on it. God, it would have been magnificent. C'est la vie," Dunbier wrote. 

At this time of writing, there is no graphic novel adaptation of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. There is, however, a graphic novel adaptation of The Hobbit by Chuck Dixon (yes, the same Chuck Dixon you're thinking of) and illustrator David Wentzel that came out in 1989. 

Whether you're Shirefolk, Elven, Dwarven, or something else, there's a good reason to love Lord of the Rings. We do! With that in mind, we have a dragon's horde of goodies for you:

• Lord of the Rings reading guide 
• Lord of the Rings watch guide
• The Lord of the Rings reunion panel you can watch 
• The OG Hobbit actors stay in touch every day on a groupchat 
• The true message of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, according to Gimli himself - John Rhys-Davies.