Exclusive First Look: Chuck, the Comic Book

• May 19, 2008 01:56 PM ET
• by TV Guide News

Chuck is about to become a comic book - and it'll leave the NBC series shaken, not stirred. "Since we can do absolutely anything in a comic book, we're going to take Chuck Bartowski out of the confines of the Buy More store and put him on crazy, globe-trotting spy adventures a la James Bond," says co-writer writer Peter Johnson (who is also co-writing Supernatural: Rising Son, another TV-to-comic adaptation). The six-issue series, from DC Comics imprint WildStorm, kicks off June 11 with a plot that finds the computer-repair geek "at the big, bad high-tech Supermax prison in Tokyo where he'll confront all the villains he's helped put away in the series," says Johnson. "We'll also send him to Rio and Moscow. It's what would happen if Chuck was a $300 million Hollywood blockbuster."

The no-rules approach will also allow Johnson to mess around with time. "The comic will go back and explore Chuck and Morgan as kids," he says. "We'll see what Chuck and Bryce were like in college. We'll do Bryce and Sarah spy stories." The series will also flash-forward to "a speculative, alternate universe kind of future in which Chuck and Sarah are married." But it's also au courant. Adds Johnson: "The first comic in the series has a very timely tie-in to politics and, quite possibly, the next president of the United States."

Each issue will further expand on the Chuck mythos with a short backup story - one of which will be written by the series star Zachary Levi. "It's an actor's dream come true," Johnson says. "For once Zach will be able to write his own dialogue!" - Michael Logan

Read the first five pages of issue No. 1 here, here, here, here and here.

To find a comic-book store in your area call 1-888-COMIC BOOK.