Evangeline Lilly may be best known for her roles in geek culture classics, "Lost" and "The Hobbit 2," but now she's tapping into the world of fantasy in a brand new way with her upcoming children's book, "The Squickerwonkers."
Shira Lazar and Ethan Newberry had the chance to chat with Lilly on the Nerd HQ stage at Comic-Con 2013, where the actress answered audience questions and even started a story time circle to introduce some lucky fans to her newest project.
Through her experiences in film, Lilly was able to team up with the conceptional designers at Weta Workshop, a.k.a. the people who create Peter Jackson's films, to help create the art for her book. The forward of the book was also written by Peter Jackson and fellow creators of "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" trilogies.
"The book was conceived of when I was 14 years old," she reveals. "My mom has been saying it ever since: 'When are you going to publish "The Squickerwonkers"?' And I finally did it."
"This is the first book in a series of children's graphic story books," she adds. "I don't know if this has ever been done before, where it's actually a graphic series designed for children [...] It's dark and it's spooky and it's a morality tale. And it's about this family, the Squickerwonkers, and they're strange outcasts who all have very particular vices."
Regarding of the future of the series, she says, "In every one of the 'Squickerwonker' books we will explore a new Squickerwonker character and their vice and how their vice generally leads to their undoing."
Even though it's technically a children's book, Lilly says that the story includes themes and messages for readers of all ages. "I think one of them is to love yourself with your vices and to love other people not in spite of their vices, but because of them."
One fan asks about the possibility of the series being turned into animated movies, to which Lilly says, "I have it on good authority that, if the funding were available, the head of Weta Workshop, Richard Taylor, would love to turn this into an animated movie."
But first, fans need to buy the book! Snuggle up for Evangeline's reading circle and look out for an opportunity to purchase the first of the series for yourself!
For more exclusives from San Diego Comic-Con 2013, subscribe to What's Trending.