If you read the comic book version of Guillermo del Toro's The Strain after you watched the TV series, which premieres this Sunday night, they look so similar you'd be forgiven for thinking the comics merely adapted the show. Except the comics came out in 2011, more than a year before the TV series was finally approved
See, del Toro wanted to make The Strain for television back in the '00s, but no network would take it. He then turned it into a novel with author Chuck Hixon in 2009, and gave writer David Lapham and artist Mike Huddleston free reign to adapt the story for Dark Horse 2011 comics. But in this gallery of TV stills and comic art, you can see the similarities between the two — the comic panels practically look like a storyboard for the TV show. Even the characters look alike, and the comic was done long before any casting was done. Check it out!
First, the characters: Corey Stoll is Dr. Ephraim Goodweather, the head of the CDC rapid-response team that investigates a plane which lands at JFK airport and then immediately goes silent, appearing to have no life on board.
David Bradley, who plays Walder Frey on Game of Thrones and Doctor Who actor William Hartnell in the drama An Adventure in Space and Time, is Professor Abraham Setrakian, who has previously encountered this illness.
Here's a close-up of Setrakian's beloved heart from the show.
Jonathan Hyde is billionaire Eldritch Palmer, who has no compunction about betraying all of humanity if it keeps him from dying.
Richard Sammel is Thomas Eichhorst, a former Nazi commandant who serves his supernatural master as a liaison of sorts to Palmer.
Here's a mix of panels from the comics and screencaps from the show; the comic is practically a storyboard for the TV series.
I'd say these similarities are the eeriest things about The Strain, but whether you read the books, the comic, or watch the first episode on Sunday, you'll know that's not close to true.