The latest television series to get its own comic book adaptation is HBO's 'True Blood,' according to IGN. The comic will be published by IDW Publishing and will involve input from show creator Alan Ball. The article does not indicate that Charlaine Harris, the creator of 'The Southern Vampire Mysteries' series from which 'True Blood' was created, would be involved.

'True Blood' is not the first television franchise to get a comic book adaptation. Far from it. The 'Buffy' Season 8 comic written by creator Joss Whedon is still one of the biggest sellers on the shelves.

IDW Publishing practically specializes in adapting television franchises with 'G.I.Joe,' 'Transformers,' 'Star Trek,' 'Doctor Who,' and 'Angel.' Some of those are movie adaptations of television shows that got expanded into comics, but you get the idea.

With its fantasy premise and gothic atmosphere, 'True Blood' should work well as a comic book. It's a good way to tell different and possibly bigger stories without worrying about such things as budget limitations.

[via Pop Candy]

What are you going to do? The Office, How I Met Your Mother, and even new shows like Pushing Daisies and Chuck are either out of fresh episodes or quickly running out. Well, you don't need to spend the "strike season" curled up in the corner of your bedroom crying through a pile of TV Guides, remembering the good old days when you didn't already know what was going to happen this week on House.

Television is alive and well, and even growing ... just somewhere else. Want to know what happened to Jack Bauer before Season One of 24? How about Buffy and the Scooby Gang after the series finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer? More and more shows are expanding their horizons by telling prequels, sequels and even in-between-quels in comic books, or graphic novels.