No 22 - Graphic Novels Creating Excitement in the Literary World

There’s excitement in the literary world as publishers are churning out more literature greats in graphic novel format – Dracula, Great Expectations, Macbeth, Tom Sawyer, Treasure Island, Wind in the Willows and one of my favourite classic read – The Last of the Mohicans – to name a few.


Marvel

Marvel under its new imprint Marvel Illustrated recently released a few classic titles – The Last of the Mohicans, Treasure Island and The Three Musketeers as a miniseries. According to Marvel’s Senior VP of Sales, David Gabriel, The Last of the Mohicans was chosen to start the series because it was a boyhood favorite of Marvel’s CEO, Alan Fine.

The titles in the pipeline are The Picture of Dorian Gray, Moby Dick and get ready for this, The Iliad.* The Iliad, together with the Odyssey, are two ancient Greek epic poems traditionally attributed to Homer. The poem is commonly dated to the 8th or 7th century BC, and many scholars believe it is the oldest extant work of literature in the ancient Greek language, making it the first work of European literature.

* The word Iliad means "pertaining to Ilion" (in Latin, Ilium), the city proper, as opposed to Troy, the state centered around Ilium, over which Priam reigned. The names Ilium and Troy are often used interchangeably.



Penguin

Puffin

Penguin under its Puffin Graphics too have a string of classic titles transformed into graphic novels. Puffin had collaborated with Byron Preiss Visual Publications to produce the books. Byron Preiss is a longtime publisher of graphic novels both as a packager and through his iBooks imprint. The complete list is below:

• Black Beauty, adapted by June Brigman (Power Pack, Brenda Starr) and Roy Richardson
• The Call of the Wild, adapted by Neil Kleid and illustrated by Alex Niño
• Dracula, adapted by Gary Reed (formerly of Caliber) and illustrated by Becky Cloonan (Demo, East Coast Rising), a particularly good choice for this title, with her fluid line and strong blacks making the horror story creepier.
• Frankenstein, adapted by Gary Reed and illustrated by Frazer Irving
• Macbeth, adapted by Arthur Byron Cover and illustrated by Tony Leonard Tamai — the story’s been revamped as science fiction with shojo manga-style art that works surprisingly well.
• The Red Badge of Courage, adapted by Wayne Vansant (The ‘Nam) in an almost journalistic semi-realistic style, attractive and easy to read.
• Treasure Island, adapted by Tim Hamilton
• The Wizard of Oz, adapted by Michael Cavallero.

There is a sad twist to the series. Unfortunately the series was abandoned when Byron Preiss tragically died in a car accident.

Papercutz



Papercutz's best-selling series of comics adaptations of the world's greatest literature, Classics Illustrated now returns in two new formats: the original, featuring abridged versions of classic novels, and Classics Illustrated Deluxe, featuring longer, more expansive adaptations.

Great Expectations and Wind in the Willows were chosen to kick off the re-launch because, according to the publisher “ …both are gorgeous and intelligent well thought-out adaptations that set an excellent tone for our line…”

The volumes are perfectly designed for library shelves, with sturdy bindings and a large enough size for kids to get a good look at the contents. The artwork is beautifully reproduced—crisp and clear—and each book contains background about the series’ history and a brief bio of the artist/adaptor. In fact, The Wind in the Willows was recently cited in SLJ's March cover story, “Graphic Novels Rule!: The Latest and Greatest Comics for Young Kids,” by Michele Gorman, highlighting 25 outstanding graphic novels guaranteed “to attract a new generation of young readers.”

Incidentally Papercutz, is also the publisher of graphic-novel series such as The Hardy Boys,and Nancy Drew.

Graphic Classics



The approach by Graphic Classics is somewhat different. Instead of publishing individual titles based on the classics, they had based their classic-to-graphic novel series by featuring the world’s greatest authors - from Arthur Conan Doyle to Robert Louis Stevenson - and their works. Their impressive line of adaptations included some of the greatest stories ever written like Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer, Edgar Alan Poe’s The Fall of The House of Usher, Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes series, H G Wells’ War of the Worlds and The Invisible Man and my all-time favourite, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.