The Prisoner

: For the Australian television soap opera (1979), see Prisoner.

Comic books

In the early 1970s, Marvel Comics considered launching a comic book based on The Prisoner, with art by Jack Kirby. A test issue was put together but never published. Original artwork from this comic still exists and occasionally turns up for auction. Some of it has been published in the comic book fanzine Jack Kirby Collector. The surviving artwork suggests that the first issue, at least, would have been an adaptation of "Arrival."

Related Topics:
Marvel Comics - Jack Kirby - Jack Kirby Collector

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In the late 1980s, DC Comics published a four-issue comic book mini-series based on The Prisoner, written by Mark Askwith and drawn by Dean Motter. The comic story takes place 20 years after the events of the series, and involves a female former agent named Drake (no apparent relation to John Drake) washing ashore at The Village, where an elderly Number 6 now lives alone. The agent is dubbed the new Number 6 and finds herself in the midst of a power struggle between the original Number 6 and Number 2 (the Leo McKern/"Fall Out" version), who had been sent to prison for violating the Official Secrets Act after writing a tell-all book about The Village. Now insane but again a "free man", Number 2 returns to The Village to seek revenge on Number 6. Meanwhile, two of Drake's secret agent friends investigate her disappearance and discover clues that lead them to The Village as well. But what does Number 1 have to say about all this?

Related Topics:
DC Comics - Mark Askwith - Dean Motter - Official Secrets Act

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In a nod to both the idea of "I am not a number!" and the episode, "A, B and C", the four issues were not numbered, but were rather Issue A, B, C, and D. The mini-series was later reprinted as the graphic novel, Shattered Visage.

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