The world of Umora is making the leap from audio to comics, and Collider has an exclusive look at the journey. Alongside brand-new preview pages from Worlds Beyond Number Presents: The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One – Book One, Erika Ishii sat down with Collider’s Hannah Hunt to discuss adapting the beloved actual-play series into a graphic novel, why the comic isn’t simply recreating the podcast, and where they’d like to see the world go next.
For Ishii, revisiting Umora through the graphic novel had an unexpected effect. Rather than simply reliving a story they’d already told, seeing the world brought to life on the page made them want to spend even more time there. They told Collider:
“Just getting to see the world and live in the world was the real… I just fell in love with it in a different way. Seeing just the pastoral beauty and the way that magic is crafted and woven throughout it, it really made me fall in love with Umora in such a way that I want so much from it now.”
That “so much” extends well beyond another graphic novel. “I want more stories from Umora. I want the campaign book. I just want to live in that world.” An official campaign setting would give fans the opportunity to tell stories in Umora themselves, something Ishii admitted would be no small undertaking given how much of the world exists inside the mind of co-creator Brennan Lee Mulligan. “It’s like… you have to crack open that one guy’s head and somehow put it into a book.”
Collider Exclusive · Universe Personality Quiz Which Iconic Universe Do You Belong in the Most? Star Wars · Lord of the Rings · Harry Potter · Game of Thrones · Star Trek
Five legendary universes. Five completely different visions of what the world could be — or already was. One of them is the world your instincts, your values, and your particular way of existing were built for. Eight questions will tell you which one.
🚀Star Wars
💍Lord of the Rings
🧙Harry Potter
👑Game of Thrones
🖖Star Trek
01
What gives your life its deepest sense of meaning? Every universe is built around a different answer to this question.
02
Which kind of world do you most want to inhabit? The environment shapes who you become. Choose carefully.
03
How do you prefer your conflicts resolved? The shape of a world’s conflicts tells you everything about its soul.
04
Who do you want beside you when things get difficult? Your ideal companions reveal the world you were made for.
05
What is your relationship with power? How you seek, wield, or resist power is the map of who you are.
06
How does your universe treat good and evil? A world’s moral architecture tells you more about it than any map.
07
What role would you naturally fall into? Every universe has archetypes. Which one fits you without trying?
08
What do you ultimately believe about the future? The answer to this is the clearest window into which universe already lives inside you.
Your Universe Has Been Chosen You Belong In…
Your answers point to the iconic universe your values, your instincts, and your particular way of seeing the world were built for. This is where you would find your people — and your purpose.
A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Star Wars
You believe in the cause — in the idea that freedom is worth fighting for even when the odds are impossible and the empire is vast.
You are drawn to the moral clarity of a universe where hope itself is a form of resistance.
You’d find your people in the Rebellion — a ragtag coalition of true believers held together by conviction more than resources.
Star Wars is fundamentally a story about ordinary people choosing to matter in an extraordinary conflict — and that is exactly your kind of story.
The Force may or may not be with you. But the will to use it for something larger than yourself certainly is.
Middle-earth
Lord of the Rings
You understand, in the deepest part of yourself, that the journey matters as much as the destination — and that the world’s beauty is worth protecting even at great cost.
Middle-earth is a world of ancient wonder, deep friendship, and a darkness that only retreats when enough small acts of courage accumulate.
You would thrive here because you value the fellowship more than the glory — the road more than the arrival.
Tolkien’s universe rewards patience, loyalty, and the willingness to carry something heavy across a very long distance.
Those are not burdens to you. They are simply how you move through the world.
The Wizarding World
Harry Potter
You believe that love, loyalty, and doing what’s right are not naive sentiments — they are the most powerful forces in any world, magical or otherwise.
The Wizarding World is a place of wonder hidden in plain sight, where learning is transformative and the bonds you form at school follow you into every battle.
You would flourish here because you take both the magic and the friendships seriously — and you understand that one without the other is incomplete.
Harry Potter’s universe ultimately rewards those who choose to stand for something even when standing is terrifying.
That choice — made quietly, without guarantee — is something you understand completely.
Westeros · The Known World
Game of Thrones
You see the world clearly — its power structures, its hypocrisies, its brutal arithmetic — and you are not paralysed by that clarity. You use it.
Westeros is a world that rewards intelligence, adaptability, and the willingness to understand that every alliance is also a negotiation.
You would survive here — possibly thrive here — because you don’t confuse the world as it is with the world as you’d like it to be.
Game of Thrones is a story about what happens when the idealists and the realists collide. You are sharp enough to know which one lasts longer.
Winter always comes. You are already prepared.
The United Federation of Planets
Star Trek
You believe the future is worth building — that curiosity, cooperation, and the expansion of understanding are not just ideals but the most practical path forward for any civilisation.
Star Trek is a universe where the questions matter as much as the answers, and where encountering something utterly alien is cause for wonder rather than fear.
You would belong here because you are fundamentally optimistic about what intelligence and decency can achieve — while being honest about how hard that achievement is.
The Federation is the universe’s most ambitious thought experiment: what if we actually got better?
You don’t just hope that’s possible. You think it’s the only thing worth working toward.
The ‘Worlds Beyond Number’ Graphic Novel Expands the Story Rather Than Replacing It
Preview pages from Worlds Beyond Number Presents: The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One – Book OneImage via Skybound
Preview pages from Worlds Beyond Number Presents: The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One – Book OneImage via Skybound
Preview pages from Worlds Beyond Number Presents: The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One – Book OneImage via Skybound
Preview pages from Worlds Beyond Number Presents: The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One – Book OneImage via Skybound
Preview pages from Worlds Beyond Number Presents: The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One – Book OneImage via Skybound
Preview pages from Worlds Beyond Number Presents: The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One – Book OneImage via Skybound
Preview pages from Worlds Beyond Number Presents: The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One – Book OneImage via Skybound
Preview pages from Worlds Beyond Number Presents: The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One – Book OneImage via Skybound
Preview pages from Worlds Beyond Number Presents: The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One – Book OneImage via Skybound
Preview pages from Worlds Beyond Number Presents: The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One – Book OneImage via Skybound
While Ishii hopes Umora continues to grow into new formats, they were quick to stress that the graphic novel isn’t meant to replace the version longtime listeners have spent years imagining in their own heads. “I don’t think this is the canonical, perfect, correct version. In fact, there are alterations from the actual podcast.” Instead, Ishii sees every interpretation of the story as equally valid. “I like to imagine… each of them is true and valid and canon in their own way. Every version of The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One is canon.”
That philosophy shaped the adaptation from its earliest conversations. Rather than treating the graphic novel as a visual transcript of the podcast, the creative team wanted to embrace everything comics could uniquely bring to the story. “It’s the first conversation that we all had of, ‘Why do we want to adapt it to comics? What do comics offer that this already perfect and precious campaign doesn’t offer?’ … This was an opportunity to add and to alter, to take advantage of this medium.”
Those additions go beyond simply putting faces to familiar characters. The graphic novel expands on moments that the cast always felt existed beneath the surface of the story, even if they never made it into the original recording.
“Sometimes there were themes or moments that we looked at and thought, ‘Oh yeah, this absolutely happened, but we didn’t get to say it on mic.'”
The artwork itself also changed the way Ishii sees some of the story’s biggest moments. They pointed to an early scene featuring Ame discovering her broom’s magic, explaining that while it’s depicted differently than they originally imagined, it instantly became another authentic version of the character. “Seeing it and seeing it be real is… that’s it. That is another slightly different and perfectly true version of Ame. I love that.” That collaborative mindset extends to the fandom as well. Rather than viewing the graphic novel as the definitive version of Worlds Beyond Number, Ishii hopes it becomes another interpretation that exists alongside the countless versions fans have already imagined over years of listening. “I’ve seen some fan art where I see different versions of the same exact story and thought, ‘Oh yeah, that’s absolutely real as well.'”
Whether Umora’s future includes more graphic novels, an official campaign setting, or something else entirely, Ishii’s biggest hope is simply that fans continue finding new ways to experience the world. For now, readers can get another glimpse through Worlds Beyond Number Presents: The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One – Book One, which wraps up its campaign on Kickstarter today.
Image via Skybound
Image via Skybound
Image via Skybound
Image via Skybound
Image via Skybound
