IDW Publishing will be giving Anne Rice‘s 1996 novel Servant of the Bones a comic book adaptation with a new six-issue miniseries.

The Servant of the Bones miniseries, which will be written by Mariah McCourt, with art by Renae DeLiz and Ray Dillon, stretches from ancient Babylon to modern day New York City, telling the story of Azriel, the Servant of the Bones.

The 32-page full-color Servant of the Bones #1 will be available August 2011 and will sell for $3.99.

In a statement released by IDW, Rice, who’s best know for her Vampire Chronicles books series, beginning with Interview With The Vampire, expressed her approval of the project comic book series. “The script is marvelous. Renae De Liz’s penciling has captured my characters exquisitely. Ray Dillon’s colors are alive and gorgeous. This Servant of the Bones adaptation is perfect!”

From the publisher:

In Servant of the Bones, Azriel is an immortal spirit who is bound to the gold-encased bones of his mortal body. Throughout the story, he struggles to understand whether he is a ghost, genie, demon or angel. He shares his story with the reader as he travels from an ancient Babylon of royal plots and religious upheavals to Europe during the Black Death and on to the modern world in New York City. Amidst the towers of Manhattan, he finds himself in confrontation with his own human memories and the dark forces that have sought to condemn him to a life of evil and destruction.

Fans of Rice should be thrilled with this news, as Servant of the Bones is a great selection from her non-vampire/non-witch body of works. If the author has confidence in this project, I think it’s safe for the rest of us to have some in it, considering she’s quite protective over her literary properties and has been known in the past to criticize film adaptations of her novels if she disapproves how its being handled. I’m definitely looking forward to this miniseries and can’t wait to see some preview art from it.