Amanda Hocking, the popular YA author who has sold millions of digital copies of self-published paranormal, fantasy and zombie novels, will team up with comics publisher Dynamite Entertainment to release comics adaptations of her Hollowland prose novel series in 2012. Hollowland is a zombie adventure story focused on a young woman and her efforts to find her brother, who is lost somewhere in a zombie devastated countryside.

Hocking is best known for her enormous success self-publishing a series of novels as e-books through Amazon.com, priced from 99 cents to a $2.99. Hocking has self-published nine novels and sold more than a million copies across all the books. After breaking into book publishing by self-publishing, the 27-year-old author signed a traditional book deal, a reported $2 million four-book deal with St. Martin’s Press earlier this year. Hollowland was originally published in 2010 and the next book in the prose series, the Hollowmen will be published this fall.

Now Hocking is looking to get involved in the comics category and Nick Barrucci, publisher of Dynamite Entertainment, which publishes a mix of original and licensed comics properties, couldn’t be happier. In a phone interview, Barrucci said that the comics will begin appearing in 2012 but he said they are still working out the details of the project and have yet to pick an artist or a writer to adapt the Hollowland novels into comics.

Barrucci said he plans to begin meeting with artists and writers at the forthcoming New York Comic Con later this week. He also said it has not been decided whether the adaptation will be serialized in traditional comic book form and then collected into a book or released as a standalone graphic novel. He met Hocking at the San Diego Comic-con at a meeting set up by her agent Steve Axelrod. “We were able to discuss how the process can work, with the writers, artists and colorists, that we would suggest the creators that we felt would serve the graphic novels best, and that she make the final decision,” Barrucci said.

In a phone interview from her home in Austin, Minn., Hocking told PW that she has been, “reading comics since she was a kid.” She’s a big Batman fan—Batman is prominently mentioned on her blog—and she said she also loves Alan Moore’s epic superhero graphic novel, Watchmen. “I like mostly older superhero comics,” she said, “but I also like graphic novels. I get frustrated with [periodical] comic books because they are short and I want more story.” Hocking also said she has not decided if she will adapt the novel into comics or work with a writer. She said, “Nick said I can be as involved in the process as I want or he’ll get someone to help. I’d like to be as involved as I can be.”

Hocking said she looked over Dynamite’s line of comics and was impressed. “They do the kind of things and have the kind of image I like. I also like manga but that’s not how I envision the look of the Hollowland comics,” she said. Asked if she was worried that a new comics image of her characters may clash with the images her prose fans have already imagined, Hocking said she’ll work closely with Barrucci’s team on character designs. “I’ll work with Nick and provide notes on my vision of the characters, which I hope will be close to what my readers have in mind,” Hocking said.

Hocking visited the San Diego Comic-con for the first time this year after being invited to be part of a panel on Young Adult literature. Barrucci said while at the show, he spoke with Hocking's agent about the difference in business models in comics and prose publishing, “how the comics market works with creators and the differences between comics publishing and prose publishing. From a financial point of view we discussed important points to allow everyone to make money while having fun.”

Barrucci said he spoke with Hocking about the creative process; how to create the comics/graphic novels and not interfere with “Amanda’s day job writing novels. We understand that. Part of our job is to ensure that the authors we work with enjoy the process but minimizes the time it takes away from writing the novels.”