Margaret Atwood's making a comic about a cat-bird-man

Today, in literary news you didn't expect to hear, legendary science fiction author Margaret Atwood will be writing her first graphic novel, Angel Catbird.

Atwood will collaborate with artist Johnnie Christmas (co-creator of Image Comics' Sheltered) for three all-ages graphic novels about a strange superhero for Dark Horse Comics.

"I have concocted a superhero who is part cat, part bird. Due to some spilled genetic Super-Splicer, our hero got tangled up with both a cat and an owl; hence his fur and feathers, and his identity problems," Atwood said, in a press release. The books will be "published in tandem" with the Nature Canada charity's Keep Cats Safe and Save Bird Lives initiatives.

"What should you expect from Angel Catbird? Imagine, if you will, a strange mix of Will Eisner's The Spirit, Grant Morrison and Chas Truog's Animal Man, and Ryan North and Erica Henderson's Squirrel Girl," said acquiring editor Daniel Chabon. "Angel Catbird is a humorous, action-driven, pulp-inspired story. And the only other thing I can tell you at this early date is to expect a lot of cat puns."

It's certainly a bit of a turn for those who know Atwood best for her dystopian novels like The Handmaid's Tale or The Heart Goes Last, but that just might make things all the more interesting.