Spotted on the Dynamite forums: Amazon has New Spring: The Graphic Novel available for preorder, with a release date of January 18, 2011.

They’re using the cover from the prose novel in the listing, which I assume means Tor hasn’t submitted a cover yet. I’d say the cover from issue #1 of the comic book (shown here) would work just fine.

It’s taken a long time (and three publishers) to complete this adaptation of the Wheel of Time prequel, even though it only covered eight standard-sized comic books. (Check out the New Spring-tagged posts here for the whole story.) I’m sure Tor Publishing was frustrated, since they couldn’t actually release the collection until the individual chapters were complete, and Robert Jordan was extremely frustrated with the situation.

The same studio has also started adapting the main series. The third issue of Eye of the World arrived in stores earlier this week. According to this post, the original plan was for Eye of the World to cover roughly 36 issues, to be collected in six volumes. Just for book one.

Dynamite has been good at keeping the comics on schedule since they relaunched a few months ago, but at that pace, even if they never miss a month, it’ll take 42 years to adapt the whole series!

Okay, now I’m confused. A few weeks ago, I found indications that the final issue of Robert Jordan’s New Spring would be out at the end of June…but Diamond Comics’ shipping list shows New Spring #8 this week, along with Eye of the World #2.

Well, hey — I’m not going to complain about early comics!

I probably won’t have time to read it, though. We’ve got plans for Wednesday evening, and my free time will probably be spent writing up and promoting a review of the new Flash issue.

UPDATE May 12: Yes, indeed, New Spring #8 was waiting for me at the comic store today! After nearly five years, the miniseries is complete!

Finally! Dynamite Comics has scheduled the final issue of Robert Jordan’s New Spring for June, 2010.

ROBERT JORDAN’S NEW SPRING #8

32 pages FC • $3.99 • Teen +

Written by ROBERT JORDAN w/ CHUCK DIXON • Art & Cover by JOE COOPER

The long awaited conclusion is here!

The Historic binding of Al’Lan Mandragoran as Warder to Moiraine of the Aes Sedai is upon us and the search ensues for the Dragon Reborn, so that he may be saved to fulfill his destiny and oppose the Dark One in an ultimate Last Battle. However, followers of the Dark One also know the prophecy and a desperate race ensues with the fate of all mankind hanging in the balance. The Adventure has just begun!

It looks like they’ve changed artists. Also, I don’t recall Moiraine looking quite so much like Raven from The New Teen Titans. 🙂

The solicitations actually went out at the end of March, but I didn’t notice since I was busy getting ready for vacation at the time. I have a Google Alert set up to catch news, but it turns out I never switched out “Dabel Brothers” for “Dynamite” in the search terms. Oops.

According to Westfield Comics, the planned release date is June 30, 2010. If it ships on time, that’s seven months after Dynamite took over Dabels’ catalog, almost a year after the previous issue shipped, and almost five years since the first issue was published in August 2005.

It’s also the series’ third publisher. The first five issues were produced by Dabel Brothers and published by Red Eagle Entertainment before the series went on hiatus. Then issues #6 and #7 were published directly by Dabel Brothers. And now #8 is coming from Dynamite.

Update: Dynamite has a preview of the issue on their website.

Update 2: It looks like it may be out a lot sooner!.

Update 3: Yes, I picked it up on May 12, 2010!

Newsarama has posted Dynamite Entertaiment’s April 2010 solicitations, and Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time is on the list.

They’re launching with a new #1 which reprints the contents of the #0 and #1 issues that Dabel Brothers published last year.

No mention of New Spring, but at least there are signs of Eye of the World getting back on track.

Dragonmount has an update on the WOT comics. Basically, Dynamite’s acquisition of Dabel Brothers’ assets did not include Wheel of Time (which is odd, since Dynamite’s press releases said they’d picked up all of their current titles), and Dabel Brothers will continue publishing their adaptations of Eye of the World and New Spring. Or at least Eye of the World. It’s not clear whether they’ll ever release the final issue of New Spring on its own, but Tor will be publishing the complete New Spring graphic novel…sometime. Probably late 2010 or early 2011. To complete an eight-issue miniseries that started in 2005. Okay, it’s not Miracleman-level, but come on!

Eye of the World is supposed to start up again in spring. I’ll believe it when I see it.

It’s also supposed to pick up with a monthly schedule — which at this point would constitute a genuine miracle.

Update: Dragonmount has posted an update saying that Dynamite is involved, which makes more sense and actually gives me a little more confidence that we’ll actually see some of these books. Plus, “spring” fits with the April date that Dynamite gave when talking about when they expected to start releasing the titles they acquired from Dabel Brothers. With luck we’ll see something when April’s solicitations go up later this month.