Comics and graphic novel publisher Ablaze dives into the life of one of fantasy and literature’s most famous creators – J.R.R. Tolkien – in Tolkien: Lighting Up the Darkness, a new hardcover graphic novel release that debuts on January 23^rd. 

The biography vividly explores the youth of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, the author of The Lord of the Rings saga, and his traumatic experience of the battlefields of the First World War, which forged the imagination of his later literary works. Tolkien: Lighting Up the Darkness also serves as a useful visual aid for educators teaching the works of Tolkien.

JRR Tolkien was not always the old Oxford professor, pipe in the mouth, refining his extraordinary work.

In 1915, at age 23, he left for the front with his high school friends, whom he loved like brothers. They take part in the Battle of the Somme which will kill 450,000 people. The horror of war will brand his relationship to friendship, love, and creation.

Tolkien: Lighting Up the Darkness is written by Willy Duraffourg with art by Giancarlo Caracuzzo.