{"id":8714,"date":"2025-11-14T00:07:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T06:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/?p=8714"},"modified":"2025-08-31T20:40:01","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T01:40:01","slug":"first-anthem-then-red-pawn-top-secret-atlas-society-publishing-graphic-novels-of-rands-shorter-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/first-anthem-then-red-pawn-top-secret-atlas-society-publishing-graphic-novels-of-rands-shorter-fiction\/","title":{"rendered":"First Anthem, then Red Pawn and Top Secret: Atlas Society publishing graphic novels of Rand\u2019s shorter fiction"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael Grossberg<\/a><\/p>\n

Fans of Ayn Rand, a two-time Prometheus Award-winner, can now appreciate some of her earliest-published fiction through the visually striking and fresh perspective of graphic novels.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Atlas Society, a nonprofit organization promoting Ayn Rand\u2019s fiction and philosophy, has launched an ambitious long-range project: to commission and create graphic novels of Rand\u2019s stories, screenplays and other fictional works as they fall out of copyright and become available for fresh interpretations.<\/p>\n

First up was the Society\u2019s graphic novel of Rand\u2019s poetic dystopian novella Anthem, <\/i>followed by adaptations of Rand\u2019s early screenplays into Red Pawn <\/i>and Top Secret.<\/i><\/p>\n

TOP SECRET: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL
\n<\/b>
\nPublished most recently, Top Secret: The Graphic Novel<\/em> is based on Rand\u2019s screenplay for a movie about the making of the atomic bomb. The graphic novel adapts Rand\u2019s 16-page outline from Jan. 19, 1946.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nSet during Hitler\u2019s rise to power, the story focuses on a heroic lead character, John X, as he recruits scientists working on the physics of the bomb abroad, serves in the military and is assigned to guard American nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer at Los Alamos.<\/p>\n

Rand\u2019s individualist and libertarian themes are highlighted in the Atlas Society\u2019s description:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the characters and the plot in Rand’s notes were nascent, her theme was explicit: \u2018Man can harness the Universe-but nobody can harness Man!\u2019 She wanted to emphasize that the technological achievement represented by the Atomic Bomb was made possible by men of the mind working freely-not as servants of a totalitarian regime.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe stressed that the movie “must show clearly” that the Manhattan Project was the work of scientists supplied by Industrialists, “not the Government,” Rand wrote, “The general tone of our picture will be that of a Tribute to America-an Epic of the American Spirit.”<\/p>\n

RED PAWN: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL
\n<\/b>
\nSimilar in theme to Rand\u2019s first novel We the Living, <\/i>Red Pawn focuses on a love triangle set in Soviet Russia and dramatizing the evils of dictatorship, collectivism and statism.<\/p>\n

Joan Harding, an American citizen who becomes the first woman to set foot on a harsh Soviet island prison, initially strives to set free her husband while disguised as a former high-priced call girl requested by the prison commandant.<\/p>\n

Yet tragically, Harding becomes enmeshed romantically with the commandant, known as the \u201cBeast,\u201d who earns her grudging respect even while she\u2019s trying to compel her true husband to keep her secret and follow her plan.<\/p>\n

Beyond its similarities to Rand\u2019s first novel, Red Pawn<\/i> might also evoke a classic Beauty and the Beast\u201d tale. Also interesting to spot: surface similarities with Beethoven\u2019s great and only opera Fidelio,<\/i> a very modern work of liberal protofeminist individualism that centers on a woman protagonist bravely entering a prison to free her beloved husband.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Red Pawn<\/em> is another work of Rand\u2019s that embodies the classic Promethean themes of heroic individualism that energized her Prometheus Hall of Fame inductees Atlas Shrugged <\/i><\/a>and Anthem.<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

THE ATLAS SOCIETY MISSION<\/strong><\/p>\n

On its website, the Atlas Society explains its overall mission and why it has launched its exciting project to bring more of Rand\u2019s shorter fiction to renewed life as graphic novels:<\/p>\n

\u201cAyn Rand\u2019s fiction has been the most effective \u201cgateway drug\u201d to liberty, which is why CATO Institute founder Ed Crane deemed Rand the \u201call time greatest recruiter for the liberty movement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTHE CHALLENGE: How to preserve and grow that recruiting role when daily reading of books among young people has fallen from 70% in the late 1970\u2019s to 12% today?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Atlas Society is meeting this challenge: pioneering artistic, technologically savvy ways of marketing Rand\u2019s ideas to new audiences through a variety of vehicles. This includes animated videos, graphic novels, social media, and both virtual and live events.\u201d<\/p>\n

* Read the Prometheus blog about the two different graphic novels adapted from Rand’s Anthem.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE PROMETHEUS AWARDS:<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

* Prometheus winners:\u00a0<\/b>For the full list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees \u2013 including the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards \u2013 visit the enhanced\u00a0Prometheus Awards page<\/a>\u00a0on the LFS website, which now includes convenient links to all published essay-reviews in our Appreciation series explaining why each of more than 100 past winners since 1979 fits the awards\u2019 distinctive dual focus on both quality and liberty.<\/p>\n

* Read \u201cThe Libertarian History of Science Fiction,\u201d<\/a> an essay in the international magazine\u00a0Quillette<\/i>\u00a0that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant element of libertarian sf\/fantasy in the evolution of the modern genre.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Watch videos of past Prometheus Awards ceremonies (including the recent 2023 ceremony<\/a> with inspiring and amusing speeches by Prometheus-winning authors Dave Freer<\/a> and Sarah Hoyt)<\/a>, Libertarian Futurist Society panel discussions with noted sf authors and leading libertarian writers, and other LFS programs on the Prometheus Blog\u2019s\u00a0Video page.<\/a><\/p>\n

* Check out the Libertarian Futurist Society\u2019s Facebook page<\/a> for comments, updates and links to Prometheus Blog posts.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Join us!<\/b> To help sustain the Prometheus Awards and support a cultural and literary strategy to appreciate and honor freedom-loving fiction, \u00a0join<\/a> the Libertarian Futurist Society, a non-profit all-volunteer association of freedom-loving sf\/fantasy fans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michael Grossberg Fans of Ayn Rand, a two-time Prometheus Award-winner, can now appreciate some of her earliest-published fiction through the visually striking and fresh perspective of graphic novels. The Atlas Society, a nonprofit organization promoting Ayn Rand\u2019s fiction and philosophy, has launched an ambitious long-range project: to commission and create graphic novels of Rand\u2019s … Continue reading First Anthem, then Red Pawn and Top Secret: Atlas Society publishing graphic novels of Rand\u2019s shorter fiction<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[32,1854,1585],"tags":[167,1351,2565,2564],"class_list":["post-8714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-updates","category-ayn-rand","category-fiction-in-the-news","tag-ayn-rand","tag-graphic-novels","tag-red-pawn","tag-top-secret"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe8nGl-2gy","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8714"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8725,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8714\/revisions\/8725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}