Review by Choice Review
This delightful trove of comics and graphics adapted from and inspired by classic works of literature brings together mostly new works by dozens of contributors, from the legendary (e.g., Will Eisner, Robert Crumb) to newer talents (e.g., Fred Van Lente, Matt Wiegle). The diverse voices include women, Native American, Asian, queer, Jewish, and other creators; the artistic styles run the gamut of experimental to cartoonish to photo-realistic; and the tones of the adaptations range from serious to irreverent. One can imagine many potential audiences for this unique volume, including practitioners in art and design, students of world literatures and/or religious traditions, and instructors who deal with issues of adaptation and translation. Readers will be fascinated to see on display in one volume so many varied approaches to visualizing classic texts, including wordless comics adapting Beowulf and The Tibetan Book of the Dead, a contemporary setting for Shakespeare's "Sonnet 18," a simultaneously textually faithful and visually stunning rendition of The Odyssey, and a lesbian reinterpretation of John Donne's "The Flea." Substantial notes on texts, translations, and contributors round out a bargain-priced, must-have title. Summing Up: Essential. All readers. D. Orcutt North Carolina State University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by New York Times Review
There is a synergistic relationship between language and art that is rooted deep within our nature. Great literature leaves us not just with extraordinary stories; the language also leaves an image - a rich and expansive painting of the world written on the page. In "The Graphic Canon," the world's literature is reimagined as comics and visual art, and with it the editor, Russ Kick, has struck a chord. We see not only with our eyes, but also, and often more powerfully, with our imaginations. How many of us have pictured Hester Prynne, the blazing scarlet letter A embroidered on her dress? In a portrait by Ali J in Volume 2 of "The Graphic Canon," Hester Prynne appears as we might imagine her - a simple unadorned woman, the sadness in her eyes tempered by a defiant glint of blue and a slight smile at the corner of her mouth. "We're living in a golden age of the graphic novel, of comic art and of illustration in general," Kick explains in his introduction. "Legions of talented artists - who employ every method, style and approach imaginable - are creating such a flood of amazing, gorgeous, entertaining and groundbreaking material that it's pretty much impossible to keep up with it all. What if a bunch of these artists used as their source material the greatest literature ever written?" Much of the literature Kick includes in these two volumes also appears in Harold Bloom's "Western Canon," but Kick expands the scope. "Coyote and the Pebbles," a Native American folk tale; "Popol Vuh," the creation story of the Maya; and "Apu Ollantay," apparently the only surviving Incan play, appear in Volume 1. Stories from Asia and the Middle East, science writing, erotica, spiritual and children's literature also get their due. Kick has assembled an impressive group of more than 100 artists to illustrate, adapt and visually interpret the text. The list of contributors includes the comic masters Robert Crumb, Will Eisner, Peter Kuper, Molly Crabapple and Roberta Gregory, as well as emerging artists like Yeji Yun, Tara Seibel, Edie Fake and Vicki Nerino. Each artist offers a unique graphic treatment. Some are rich with visual detail and text; others are more sparsely drawn. Many have little or no text at all. Roughly half are in black and white, while the other half are drawn with a wide ranging palette of color and tone. The adaptations vary in length, but none are more than 30 pages. Some artists adapt selected chapters or individual scenes; others condense their graphic treatment to illustrate the entire literary work. Weighing almost 10 pounds, together these two volumes span 1,000 pages. The amount and density of content at first seem overwhelming, but Kick thoughtfully lays the work out for you. Arranged chronologically, Volume 1 begins with "The Epic of Gilgamesh"; Volume 2 ends in the late 19th century with Oscar Wilde's only novel, "The Picture of Dorian Gray." ("Volume 3: From 'Heart of Darkness' to Hemingway to 'Infinite Jest'" will be published in the spring.) Kick's preface to each piece introduces us to the artist and coaxes us along with enticing tidbits of unusual information about the original text. Every page sends you further down the rabbit hole, and before you know it, hours have passed. Here you will discover that literature can be hilarious. A case in point is Lisa Brown's adaptation of "Little Women." In four deadpan comic drawings, she sums up Alcott's characters as follows: "Jo: Smart," "Meg: Sweet," "Amy: Spoiled," "Beth: Dead." Work that might normally put you to sleep will leave you awe-struck. Most powerful is the seven-page excerpt from William Blake's "Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion." With intricate hand lettering and elaborate gothic drawings, Blake illustrated this book-length poem himself. The rarely seen images included in "The Graphic Canon" are photographs from the only existing color copy of the book. Volume 1 contains mythological and biblical stories tailor-made for visual treatment. The Book of Revelation, with its array of otherworldly creatures, is adapted by Rick Geary (for years a contributor to National Lampoon) with drawings that explode across the page. In Gareth Hinds's rendering of the Polyphemus episode, excerpted from his 250-page adaptation of "The Odyssey," the textured line drawings are awash with vibrant color, each panel a cornucopia of rich detail on which to feast. Aristophanes' speech in Plato's "Symposium," in which he explains the mystery of sexual attraction, is illustrated by Yeji Yun. With feverishly etched drawings, she renders his theory that, in the beginning, each human being had four arms, four legs, and two sets of genitalia until Zeus punished everyone by splitting them in half. Peppered throughout these books is a fair amount of comic bawdiness. Noah Patrick Pfarr reimagines "The Flea" as pulp-fiction lesbian erotica with stylized black-and-white drawings, and Valerie Schrag draws the sex-starved men in "Lysistrata" with huge erections. Most fascinating are the adaptations of works that less obviously lend themselves to comic or visual treatment. The artist Ryan Dunlavey and the writer Fred Van Lente introduce us to the early feminist philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft with energetic oomph in a one-pager from their "Action Philosophers!" comic series. Volume 2 includes an excerpt from John Porcellino's graphic novel based on the writings of Henry David Thoreau. His Zenlike, understated renderings tread across the page as we might imagine Thoreau once did through Walden Woods. And Megan Kelso's adaptation of George Eliot's "Middlemarch" captures a breathtaking range of emotion with simple line drawings. Russ Kick is best known for his "disinformation" guides that expose myths and lies by unearthing subversive facts and countercultural knowledge. His books include "50 Things You're Not Supposed to Know" and "You Are Being Lied To" - volumes that challenge the reader to question assumptions. What he asks us to acknowledge with "The Graphic Canon" is this: "Gulliver's Travels," "Wuthering Heights," "Leaves of Grass" - these works of literature do not reside just on the shelves of academia; they flourish in the eye of our imagination. Much of the literature included in these two volumes also appears in Harold Bloom's 'Western Canon.' Annie Weatherwax is an artist and writer. For years, she sculptured superheroes and cartoon characters for Nickelodeon, DC Comics and others. She is currently writing a novel.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [December 2, 2012]
Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Does it seem that collecting thousands of years' worth of world literature in highly abridged form would be somewhat daft? Why, then, is Kick's gloriously ambitious attempt to collect sequential-art adaptations of those works into three massive volumes such a uniquely powerful piece of art? Because, while it can serve as a study of cultures and histories or as a pedagogical tool (as the source lists, further-reading section, and four indexes attest), what this first volume does best is showcase the extraordinary potential of the art form itself. From the literal adaptations of Gareth Hinds' three selections (The Odyssey, Beowulf, Gulliver's Travels) to Sanya Glisic's highly impressionistic take on The Tibetan Book of the Dead, from the classic style of Will Eisner's Don Quixote to experiments like Edie Fake's stained-glass interpretation of the The Visions of St. Teresa of Ávila and newcomer Isabel Greenberg's silent Hagoramo, there is a new visual idea on nearly every turn of the page. Through the reprinted and newly produced work of 59 (mainly American) adapters and 58 adapted titles, this is not only a survey of the world's diverse artistic past, but also a breathtaking glimpse of this young medium's incredible future.--Karp, Jesse Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
This lavish collection spanning four millennia includes 190 literary adaptations organized into three volumes. Besides the expected choices, this first volume's culturally diverse works include a pre-Columbian Incan play, Tang Dynasty verses, a Japanese Noh play, Rumi poetry, and an ingeniously rendered sliver of the Mahabharata. Most of the selections are modest-sized abridgements or excerpts, 80 percent new material and the rest reprints. Quality and artistry all convey the unique flavors of the originals, although not all will appeal to everyone. Perhaps Kick's visual banquet is best appreciated as a seductive howdy-do that could send readers to the originals, or to a longer graphic version. The set also makes an inspiring sampler of graphic innovation for art students and those interested in the comics format. VERDICT The trilogy should occupy a prominent place in all adult graphic novel collections. Note that a few selections (e.g., Lysistrata) are sexually explicit, and high school libraries should carefully evaluate suitability. Perhaps Kick's project will spur substantive quality adaptations of many more literary works, which would further benefit libraries and classrooms.-M.C. (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Classic literature gets desterilized with the help of the modern world's most daring graphic artists. In this first of three volumes, editor Kick (100 Things You're Not Supposed to Know, 2008, etc.), better known for rabble-rousing at Disinfo.com, collects an incredible variety of graphic adaptations of oral tales, plays, essays, sonnets and letters. Starting with The Epic of Gilgamesh and ending with Hamlet, this meaty slab is laced with more wit, beauty, social commentary and shock than one might expect from a book tailor-made for college classrooms. The expected suspects are all here in excerpted or abridged form, including The Odyssey, Beowulf and The Divine Comedy. But there are unexpected entries, too. Tania Schrag turns in a delightfully explicit depiction of the Greek play Lysistrata by Aristophanes, while Vicki Nerino delivers a raw take on an explicit yarn usually expunged from The Arabian Nights. Noah Patrick Pfarr turns John Donne's "The Flea" into an elaborate lesbian tryst. Robert Crumb does his characteristically bizarre take on James Boswell's London Journal, with high debauchery intact. More unpredictable entries are drawn from Native American folktales, a Japanese play, Chinese poetry and The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Serious treatments are given to King Lear and A Midsummer Night's Dream, not to mention a museum-worthy portrait by Eric Johnson of a minor character from Edmund Spenser's The Fairie Queen. Some of the artistic heavy hitters in this volume include a selection from Seymour Chwast's outstanding adaptation of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Rick Geary's take on the Book of Revelation, Peter Kuper's blistering take on Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" and the legendary Will Eisner's view of Don Quixote from his 2003 graphic novel The Last Knight. The infamous Molly Crabapple closes the book with rich portraits of The Marquise de Merteuil and Vicomte de Valmont from Dangerous Liaisons. If artists, as British sculptor Anish Kapoor famously said, make mythologies, then this volume is genuinely a marriage of equals.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
