 Bungie Studios'and Microsoft's original concept of the graphic novel was to bring the Halo series into new media beyond that of video games, with sequential art being the main focus. The comic was originally pitched by the head of Microsoft's Franchise Development Eric Trautmann, who led the assembly of a draft comic written by John Ney Rieber and illustrated by Adi Granov. However, Lorraine McLees, the art director of Bungie, disliked the comic, calling it "a lump of coal". Bungie also disliked Trautmann's comic team and requested to be able to choose their own artists and writers instead. Pete Parsons, the studio director of Bungie, wanted to hire Alan Moore and Joe Kubert for the graphic novel, though Trautmann was highly skeptical that such high profile artists would deign to the project.
