Twilight Zone: Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up

On a cold, snowy evening state troopers track footprints from a mysterious crash site to a nearby diner. There, a group of bus passengers waits out the storm, but oddly, there is one more person in the eatery. Who is he, and what are his intentions for planet Earth?

One of most ground-breaking shows in the history of television, The Twilight Zone has become a permanent fixture in pop culture. This new graphic novel series re-imagines the show’s most enduring episodes, in all their original uncut glory, originally written by Rod Serling himself, and now adapted for a new generation—a generation that has ridden Disney’s Twilight Zone Tower of Terror ride, studied old episodes in school, watched the annual marathons, and paid homage to the show through the many random take-offs that show up in movies and TV shows everywhere.

On a cold, snowy evening state troopers track footprints from a mysterious crash site to a nearby diner. There, a group of bus passengers waits out the storm, but oddly, there is one more person in the eatery. Who is he, and what are his intentions for planet Earth?

One of most ground-breaking shows in the history of television, The Twilight Zone has become a permanent fixture in pop culture. This new graphic novel series re-imagines the show’s most enduring episodes, in all their original uncut glory, originally written by Rod Serling himself, and now adapted for a new generation—a generation that has ridden Disney’s Twilight Zone Tower of Terror ride, studied old episodes in school, watched the annual marathons, and paid homage to the show through the many random take-offs that show up in movies and TV shows everywhere.

Children's Literature

Part of the "Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone" series of graphic adaptations of classic Twilight Zone episodes, this novel relates the story of a mysterious UFO sighting in rural town during a snowstorm. State troopers investigate a crash site and find strange tracks leading from a frozen pond to a local diner. A bus driver and his passengers are in the diner after being stranded on the road when the local bridge was declared impassible due to the storm. When troopers question the bus driver and passengers, they learn that the bus driver had six people in his bus, but there are seven in the diner. The troopers explain that they think a UFO landed nearby, and that one of the inhabitants of the diner could be an alien. Paranoia ensues, with various people accusing each other of being an alien. Tempers flare, and the potential for violence escalates. The tension is broken, however, when the troopers receive a phone call from engineers who say the bridge is fine to travel on. The passengers leave the diner. All but one, that is. One of the passengers comes back into the restaurant and informs the man behind the counter that the bridge had not been cleared to drive on. He had created the phone call as an illusion, and both the state troopers and the bus and all its riders plunged into the river. The mysterious passenger then explains to the counterman that he is from Mars, and he is an advance scout sent to make Earth ready for a Martian colonization. The counterman receives this information awfully calmly and then reveals to the Martian that he is not really a diner counterman: he is really from Venus, and the Venusians have already colonized Earth. He then informs the Martian that the Martian colonization force has been intercepted by Venusians, and no Martians will be landing on earth. Then he puts the Martian scout into a jukebox-turned-spaceship, and sends him on his way back into outer space. This graphic adaptation is a great fit for reviving Serling's surprise-ending episodes, and the pacing of the action evokes the tension and paranoia of the television episode. Readers will really enjoy the unexpected ending. Also included is an essay about the challenges of adapting stories from the Twilight Zone series into graphic novels by Savannah College of Art and Design by author Kneece. It is recommended for ages 10 and up. Reviewer: Lauri Berkenkamp

ROD SERLING (creator) has won the most Emmy awards for dramatic writing in the history of television. He wrote over seventy-five episodes of the Twilight Zone series, for which he won three of his Emmys. He was also the show’s host and narrator.

MARK KNEECE (adaptor) has written stories for numerous comics, including Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight. He helped found the sequential art department at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) and teaches comics writing as a professor of sequential art. He lives in Savannah, Georgia.

RICH ELLIS (illustrator) received a B.F.A. in Sequential Art from the Savannah College of Art and Design. He also illustrated The Monsters are Due on Maple Street. He lives in Portland, Oregon.