Brennan Lee Mulligan’s Fantasy World Officially Expands With a Novel Graphic Novel [Exclusive]

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 tiny 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

FIND YOUR UNIVERSE →

01

What gives your life its deepest sense of meaning?
Every universe is built around a different answer to this question.

ABeing part of something larger than myself — a cause, a rebellion, a fight for freedom that outlasts me.
BThe journey itself — the places I’ll go, the companions beside me, the world I’ll discover on the way.
CLearning — unlocking what I’m capable of, understanding the world’s hidden mechanics, growing into something more.
DLegacy — the name I leave behind, the power I build, the mark I make before the world moves on without me.
EUnderstanding — exploring what exists beyond the horizon and asking what it means to be alive in a universe this enormous.

NEXT QUESTION →

02

Which kind of world do you most want to inhabit?
The environment shapes who you become. Choose carefully.

AA galaxy of planets, each with its own culture — connected by conflict, trade, and the Force.
BAncient lands of breathtaking beauty, deep history, and a creeping darkness at the edges.
CA world hidden inside our own — full of wonder, community, and magic waiting to be learned.
DA brutal, pretty continent where power is everything and every alliance is a calculation.
EA future where humanity has reached the stars — and must decide what kind of species it wants to be.

NEXT QUESTION →

03

How do you prefer your conflicts resolved?
The shape of a world’s conflicts tells you everything about its soul.

AThrough sacrifice and courage — someone has to make the impossible choice so others don’t have to.
BThrough fellowship — the impossible becomes possible when the right people walk the same road.
CThrough growth — confronting what you fear, understanding what you lack, and becoming equal to the challenge.
DThrough strategy — outthinking, outmaneuvering, positioning yourself so the outcome was never in doubt.
EThrough dialogue — finding the third option, the peaceful resolution, the answer that doesn’t require a body count.

NEXT QUESTION →

04

Who do you want beside you when things get tough?
Your ideal companions reveal the world you were made for.

AA tiny crew — a pilot, a rogue, a warrior — each broken in their own way, unbeatable together.
BA fellowship of different kinds of people, bound by purpose and deepened by the long road.
CFriends who grew up alongside me — who knew me before I knew myself, and stayed anyway.
DAllies whose loyalty I’ve earned — and tested — and whose ambitions align with mine, for now.
EA crew of brilliant, curious, principled people from every corner of known space.

NEXT QUESTION →

05

What is your relationship with power?
How you seek, wield, or resist power is the map of who you are.

AI want to exploit it to protect — and I’m terrified of what I might become if I’m not careful.
BI distrust it. The most significant power in this story is the courage to give it up.
CI want to earn it — through knowledge, through effort, through becoming someone worthy of it.
DI want to wield it. Preferably before someone else decides to wield it against me.
EI want to understand it — its structures, its limits, its ethical dimensions. Power without accountability is the real threat.

NEXT QUESTION →

06

How does your universe treat good and evil?
A world’s moral architecture tells you more about it than any map.

AThere is a gloomy side and a delicate side — and the choice between them is always present, always personal.
BEvil is real and old and patient — and goodness, however tiny, is the only thing that can undo it.
CGood and evil are real, but they live inside people — and people are complicated, always capable of both.
DGood and evil are mostly a matter of perspective and proximity. Power is the only forthright currency.
EEvil is usually the result of ignorance, fear, or broken systems — and understanding it is the first step to solving it.

NEXT QUESTION →

07

What role would you naturally fall into?
Every universe has archetypes. Which one fits you without trying?

AThe reluctant hero — ordinary origins, extraordinary moment, changed forever by the choice to act.
BThe unlikely carrier — the one nobody expected to matter most, quietly bearing the weight of everything.
CThe student — not yet who I’ll become, learning through every mistake, growing into something the world needs.
DThe player — edged enough to see the game for what it is, ambitious enough to try to win it.
EThe explorer — drawn to the unknown, driven by curiosity, most alive when standing somewhere no one has stood before.

NEXT QUESTION →

08

What do you ultimately believe about the future?
The answer to this is the clearest window into which universe already lives inside you.

AThat hope is real — that even in the darkest galaxy, a recent hope is always possible.
CThat even the smallest person can change the course of the future, if they have the courage to try.
CThat love and friendship and doing what’s right will matter in the end, even when everything says otherwise.
DThat the wheel keeps turning — that power shifts, winters end, and what endures is those willing to fight for it.
EThat humanity — or whatever we become — is capable of extraordinary things, if we choose to be.

REVEAL MY UNIVERSE →

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 enormous.

• 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 exploit 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 old wonder, deep friendship, and a darkness that only retreats when enough tiny 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 weighty 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 exploit 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 edged 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 bullish about what intelligence and decency can achieve — while being forthright about how challenging 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.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

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

Close

• 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 recent 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 inventive 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 original 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 recent 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.