What do you guys think about novels that get adapted into graphic novels?

[spookymulder93]

I was previewing the graphic novel version of Stephen Kings The Stand and it's awesome. They stayed true to the original and it seems like all it does is cut out the descriptions of the scenery because you have the artwork.

I think Brave New World, 1984, and F451 would make great graphic novels.

[Zach J.]

I think that graphic novel and comic book adaptations of novels are a great way to get younger readers involved with great works of literature. I know that I'm itching to try Marvel's adaptation of the Iliad.

[spookymulder93]

I think that graphic novel and comic book adaptations of novels are a great way to get younger readers involved with great works of literature. I know that I'm itching to try Marvel's adaptation of the Iliad.

I forgot that The Illiad and The Odyssey would make some awesome graphic novels. Do you think any novel could be turned into a graphic novel, or would it be limited to sci-fi and adventure type novels?

[LMK]

I have no opinion at all of such adaptation.

[Alexander III]

Novels which are focused around dialogue and plot could make good graphic novels. But then again translating one work to another medium almost always detracts from the work. Why must we fit a circle into a cube ? Also the prose of a novel cannot be converted into a graphic novel, so with a novel like Dorian Gray, the greater part of the beauty of it would be lost.

Something I would like to see however is a well written epic novel about the marvel civil war, as a story that has so much potential.

[Rores28]

I was previewing the graphic novel version of Stephen Kings The Stand and it's awesome. They stayed true to the original and it seems like all it does is cut out the descriptions of the scenery because you have the artwork.

I think Brave New World, 1984, and F451 would make great graphic novels.

F451 has already been made to a graphic novel I believe.

[Zybahn]

Paul Auster's City of Glass was made into a faithful & excellent graphic novel in 2004, adapted by Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli. Any good novel, short story or other form of fiction can arguably be adapted into a good graphic novel. Literary novels are often overlooked for their potential since graphic novel audiences generally prefer genre fiction.

[OrphanPip]

I'm not too fond of them, and I'm fond of graphic novels. They tend to contain rather uninspired art, there's nothing really added to the work by putting it into comic form. They seem to just reduce these books merely to the content of their dialogue, and little attention is given to how framing and art can be used to add depth to the work.

One of the major problems I have with them is that what makes graphic novels interesting for me is the way the art is used to tell the story, apart from merely being pictures with dialogue bubbles. Much of Maus could never work as a traditional novel. Likewise, Bechdel's Fun Home, with drawings done over actual photos of her father, creates a certain effect that can't be done with a text autobiography.

If they're not going to use the medium of the graphic novel to its fullest, then they're just dumbing down novels.

[EJMathews]

I wrote and then erased what I wrote, because, well, I didn't like the idea until I started to really think about it. In the end I have the same opinion of this type of adaptation as I do about abridged editions, at least the reader is getting a taste, and hopefully they will hunger for more.

[kelby_lake]

I suppose it gets you into the main work. And a graphic novel inspired Disney's version of Hunchback so it can't all be bad.

[stlukesguild]

It depends upon the artist(s) involved and the end result. I see no inherent reason why any book should not or could not be successfully translated into the graphic novel format any more than they might be transformed successfully into a film or an opera. The end result, however, is something new... a unique art form in and of itself... and not a replacement for the original book any more than Kubrick's Lolita... good as it is... is a replacement for Nabokov's novel, or Verdi's Otello is a replacement for Shakspeare's Othello.

[Scheherazade]

The end result, however, is something new... a unique art form in and of itself... and not a replacement for the original book any more than Kubrick's Lolita... good as it is... is a replacement for Nabokov's novel, or Verdi's Otello is a replacement for Shakspeare's Othello.I think this is the point to keep in mind.

I have graphic version's of A Christmas Carol (unabridged), Jane Eyre and Frankenstein (abridged), among others (I name these because they are exceptional, in my opinion). The visuals accompanying the story makes it a different genre and, for that reason only, I think they cannot be compared in terms of "goodness". One can, of course, express a stronger liking and preference for one genre or the other.

Most of my students enjoy these books very much because it makes the reading experience more interesting and exciting. Considering that most of them had read little more than children's books till that moment, I think the books achieve a lot by simply engaging the kind of reader who would not otherwise pick anything by Dickens.

[OrphanPip]

Stlukes is right, I should amend my position to say that a graphic novel adaptation could be good, I just think that most of them are not. There are more original graphic novels that are worth reading.

[Mr.lucifer]

I think novels that were trying to create a great setting would have potential to make great graphic novels.

[spookymulder93]

Novels which are focused around dialogue and plot could make good graphic novels. But then again translating one work to another medium almost always detracts from the work. Why must we fit a circle into a cube ? Also the prose of a novel cannot be converted into a graphic novel, so with a novel like Dorian Gray, the greater part of the beauty of it would be lost.

Something I would like to see however is a well written epic novel about the marvel civil war, as a story that has so much potential.

http://www.amazon.com/Picture-Dorian-Gray-Marvel-Illustrated/dp/0785126546/ref=pd_sim_b_25

It got all 5 star reviews, but I'd still rather read the novel.

[Abras]

Oh yeah, graphic novel adaptations are definitely good way to make some cash. That's probably why so many of them are less than stellar. They have several things going for them from the POV of publishers:
1 ready-made story -- no need to pay for a writer
2 royalty free -- the overwhelming majority of these books made into graphic novels are "classics" and in the public domain now.
3 already recognizable -- there's really no need, nor point in advertising Austen or Dickens now is there?

That being said, I am a bit of a fan of these kinds of things and when done right they can really sparkle. Peter Kuper's adaptation of Kafka's The Metamorphosis is a perfect example of a graphic novel that compliments and even adds something to the original.

On a more mundane level, I find GN adaptations to be a great way to experience certain books -- especially some of those old, terribly long winded ones -- that I would probably never read others. The Mysteries of Udolpho, for example.

[Babak Movahed]

The only one that I looked into was an adaptation of "Picture of Dorian Grey" and I personally wasn't a fan but a graphic novel of 1984 sounds pretty cool.

[krishna_lit]

I was previewing the graphic novel version of Stephen Kings The Stand and it's awesome. They stayed true to the original and it seems like all it does is cut out the descriptions of the scenery because you have the artwork.

I think Brave New World, 1984, and F451 would make great graphic novels.


This is a good idea but there is one disadvantage: When we read a book, we imagine the setting and environment in our own way, but when graphic novels are adapted from that novel there will be drawings and sketches and appearences of people in the way the artist of the graphic novel imagined, so we'll be obliged to take them into our mind. This can sometimes be disapointing because we might not like the way the sketches were made when compared to the imagination we had in our minds when we read the novel. I experienced such a thing with 'The Alchemist' graphic novel.

[Eiseabhal]

Graphic novels are very good for the young inexperienced reader. I'm afraid though that nowadays there seems to be a decline in the artistic standards from the detailed realism that I remember in comic books as a child. I remember reading hardback versions with detailed drawings of Treasure Island, Robinson Crusoe and a fantastically gory version in colour of King Solomon's Mines. I also remember being introduced to some of the most famous texts via the World's Classics which were pretty good. Too much of the art now is from the extreme fantasy of the Marvel comics school. Perhaps it's just a phase. I sometimes see my grandchildren with them.

[ennison]

I wish these World's Classics would be reissued for the present generation of young readers. They were excellent.

[ralfyman]

Has been going on for many decades via Classics Illustrated, etc. Probably fine for young children and as part of learning English as a foreign language.

[MorpheusSandman]

I'm not too fond of them, and I'm fond of graphic novels. They tend to contain rather uninspired art, there's nothing really added to the work by putting it into comic form. They seem to just reduce these books merely to the content of their dialogue, and little attention is given to how framing and art can be used to add depth to the work.

One of the major problems I have with them is that what makes graphic novels interesting for me is the way the art is used to tell the story, apart from merely being pictures with dialogue bubbles. Much of Maus could never work as a traditional novel. Likewise, Bechdel's Fun Home, with drawings done over actual photos of her father, creates a certain effect that can't be done with a text autobiography.

If they're not going to use the medium of the graphic novel to its fullest, then they're just dumbing down novels.


It depends upon the artist(s) involved and the end result. I see no inherent reason why any book should not or could not be successfully translated into the graphic novel format any more than they might be transformed successfully into a film or an opera. The end result, however, is something new... a unique art form in and of itself... and not a replacement for the original book any more than Kubrick's Lolita... good as it is... is a replacement for Nabokov's novel, or Verdi's Otello is a replacement for Shakspeare's Othello.+1 to these posts.