A Graphic Makeover!

A dark blue night, a perfect moon, and a werewolf on the roof about to Howl--sharp-edged ghostly creatures in a gothic background-- if we are to go by the axiom, ‘always judge a book from its cover’, this certainly looks like an interesting ‘read’! And indeed! The first and the most interesting part was the name of the author...Allen Ginsberg...can this possibly be THE HOWL? Considered to be one of the defining works of the Beat Generation? Indeed it was! But why would anyone turn such an epic poem into a picture book? In Ginsberg’s words : “I thought that with today's lowered attention span TV consciousness, this would be a kind of updating of the presentation of my work.”
Hence, “Moloch whose love is endless oil and stone! Moloch whose soul is electricity and banks! Moloch whose fate is a cloud of sexless hydrogen! Moloch whose name is the Mind!” finds a new home on the dark, dimly-lit pages of Eric Drooker who takes small but complete units from the poem and places it alongside the illustrations which sometimes refer directly to the words and sometimes reflect a psychological or philosophic interpretation of them. The impact is powerful and an effective attempt to tempt a twittering generation to Howl!
But, while in Howl, Drooker stays true to the text, Nick Hayes in his recently released The Rime of the Modern Mariner -a graphic novel based on the Coleridge classic Rime of the Ancient Mariner – turns the 1798 poem into a modern day fable set in today’s world. Apart from being a visual treat, Modern Marine raises some serious contemporary concerns. However, this is not the Mariner’s first brush with the form. Way back in 1989, the same poem was done into a comic book by veteran British comics artist Hunt Emerson, whose Lady Chatterley’s Lover published in 1986, is another brilliant example of a classic novel being turned into a comic book.

Turning existing texts into comic books or graphic novels is not a new trend. It has its predecessor in the Classics Illustrated –a 1941 comic book series featuring adaptations of literary classics such as Moby Dick, Hamlet, and The Iliad created by Albert Kanter. In 2007, Marvel under the banner of ‘Illustrated Classics’, published its first comic book version of Last of the Mohicans and since then there has been no looking back. From Oscar Wilde to Charles Dickens, from Lewis Carol to Paulo Coelho, from Kafka to Dostoevsky, from Agatha Christie to Victor Hugo, almost everyone has been getting a visual makeover alibi making the classics more ’accessible ’ to the younger lot. And not only the classics, even best sellers like of Stephen King and Peter Straub's The Talisman: The Road of Trials, Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander, James Patterson's Maximum Ride, Janet Evanovich’s Troublemaker and teen sensations like Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Twilight series and Vampire Academy have made it to the of graphic novel sections of the bookstores.
Last year, The Anne Frank House Museum in Amsterdam, published a graphic novel version of the diary of a 13-year old Holocaust victim which till date remains one of the most widely read books across the globe. The year also saw a grotesquely gothic graphic novel version of very Victorian Austen in the form of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies-A Graphic Novel (imagine You’ve Got Mail’s Kathleen waiting for Joe Fox in the cafe holding the Zombies version...even Meg Ryan couldn’t have saved the shot!).
In the last few years this subgenre has become exceedingly adventurous and varied with its choice of subjects and visual styles. Some are more of picture books drenched in colour suited for the 4-year-olds, some use cubism to create mindboggling visuals, some dig deep and bring out the complex psychological interpretation, while some are just plain waste of money. The speech-bubbled soliloquies of a Manga Macbeth or the Classical Comics’s version of it may have become an instant hit with the young lot, but when Lady Macbeth places a tight slap on her husband’s face as she says: “Why did you bring these daggers from the place?” (replete with the action sound “slaaap!!!), the critics cringe at the fate of the bard.

But, what is the reason behind the soaring popularity of these as the great Art Spiegelman, creator of the special Pulitzer winning graphic novel Maus calls them: “strange doppelganger of the original book”s? Can the speech-bubbled Shakespeare possibly depict the complexities and various layers of the great masterpieces? The critics may opine that simplifying works like Hamlet and Macbeth for the sake of making them ‘accessible’ to the mass is the death of the tragedies, but it seems end justifies the means here-as long as the bubbles don’t burst!
Moving closer to home, following the footsteps of Amar Chitra Katha’s comic books based on Jatka, Ramayan, Mahabharata and other mythologies and folktales, emerging companies like Virgin Comics (now Liquid comics) Level 10, Vimanika, Campfire and old favorites like Raj Comics coming into the market with a new slew of exciting works.
According to Campfire, a Delhi based publishing house that focuses on turning existing classics into graphic novels, “With the rising popularity of digital media like iPads/iPhones, e-book readers, etc people are losing interest in physical format, so in order to turn their attention from ‘softcopies’ we aim at producing informative and interesting graphic novels. Also, as originals, these titles are of a few hundred pages and it is difficult to get children to read these books. Classics as graphic novels are a good way of introducing children or reluctant readers to the habit of reading and to Classic literature.”
And hence, bookstores are overflowing with such graphic novels. But the quality of the work remains an area of serious concern. As city-based author Rimi B Chatterjee, who apart from working on her mega project Kalpa: Shadowfalls, is also working on Abinindranath Tagore’s Buro Angla with Scholastic, points out: “Turning existing texts into graphic novels is a challenging job. In deft hand this can lead to beautiful art. However, one has to be sensitive to each medium and imaginative to ‘transcreate’ one into the other. It is like making a film, only more difficult.”

According to Amruta Patil, the 'writer and artist' of the much-appreciated graphic novel Kari, who is all set for her next release Parva (a multiple-viewpoint rendition of the Mahabharata), the problem lies with the publishers as well: “The most significant difference between India and the West is in the editorial process. Most publishers here are still gingerly about it. The text is scrutinized, but the visual style, treatment, use of space and tempo - these are seldom up for discussion, because editors don't feel qualified to comment. The medium is just too new here.” However, she is quick to add: “One of the positive aspects of the unfamiliarity is that we are delightfully free of template.”
But not all are enthused by the idea of turning existing texts into graphic novels. As Shamik Dasgupta, known for his work for Virgin Comics, specifically for his work in Deepak Chopra and Shekhar Kapur collaboration Ramayan 3392 AD, reasons, “I feel there is not much prospect in it, because the story is already known to people hence all they get to appreciate is the art, which is just half of the deal. Comics is just the launching pad, if a character gets popular then there can be a number of major off-shooting businesses like games, animation and even movies.
Unfortunately just turning novels into graphic novel will miss such opportunities and limit the scope of creativity. ” But when it comes to turning the epics and stories from Indian mythology into graphic novels, which is increasingly catching the fascination of the graphic novelists of India and is doing great business abroad, he reasons: “The familiarity of the core story always helps in garnering more interest. To us Ramayan and Mahabharat are like Star Wars and Indiana Jones-it is the basis of our popular culture.”

But, be it the epics, the classics or the best-sellers, the world of words seem to be facing a competition from the illustrated world. Even the highbrow city of Kolkata seems to be slowly opening its bookshelves to these ‘doppelgangers’ and even existing Bengali books have started making it to the ‘panels’.
The first to fall victim was one of the most loved characters of the city- Prodosh C Mitter, aka Feluda and next came the comic book version of Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay’s Gosain Baganer Bhoot. But, most publishers are still to loosen up to the idea. As Sayan Mukherjee, a visualiser with Ogilvy, who is currently working on a graphic novel based on one of the cult classics of Bengali literature, says: “English graphic novels priced as high as Rs 800-1000 sell off the racks here but when it comes to a Bengali book, people are reluctant to shell out more than 200 bucks. Hence the publishers are ok till it is a 120-page comic book. But, when it comes to a full-length coloured graphic novel in Bengali, they shrug away. Even if they agree to publish there are constraints laid down on the use of space-every page has to be a busy page and that kills the very essence of a graphic novel.” But why venture into this market with a translated work? “If it is a well-known book, it creates the initial interest in people.”
So, while publishers like Ananda and Starmark work on their new projects, and literary giant fall prey to graphic novelists mushrooming on every nook and corner, it is yet to be seen how Tagore’s city reacts to a speech-bubbled Shesher Kobita!
Some of the most critically acclaimed works (in random order):

1. City of Glass by Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli (Spiegelman calls the graphic novel "a breakthrough work.")
2. Crime and Punishment by David Zane Mairowitz and Alain Korkos
3. Fahrenheit 451 by Tim Hamilton
4. Macbeth by John McDonald’s Artists Jon Howard, Gary Erskine, and Nigel Dobbyn
5. The Trial by Chantal Montellier
6. On The Origin Of Species by Michael Keller
7. The Jungle by Peter Kuper
8. The Stories Of Oscar Wilde by Antonella Caputo and Rich Rainey
9. The Divine Comedy by Seymour Chwast
10. Gravity's Rainbow by Zak Smith