| Title | : | The Graphic Canon, Vol. 1: From the Epic of Gilgamesh to Shakespeare to Dangerous Liaisons (The Graphic Canon, #1) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1609803760 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781609803766 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 512 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2012 |
The Graphic Canon, Vol. 1: From the Epic of Gilgamesh to Shakespeare to Dangerous Liaisons (The Graphic Canon, #1) Reviews
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The Graphic Canon is the entire world canon in comic form, containing abridgments or excerpts of tons of terrific stories, from Gilgamesh to Les Liaisons Dangereuses. But who cares about abridgments or excerpts? To whom are they useful?
I started by comparing Valerie Schrag's adaptation of Aristophanes' best-known and dirtiest play Lysistrata (411 BC) to
Douglass Parker's translation. I was...actually sortof into it. It's charming and effective. Certainly summarized: it cuts so many lines out that it can't really be called a translation. It loses, for example, the terrific oath sworn by the Greek women:
I will withhold all rights of access or entrance
From every husband, lover, or casual acquaintance
Who moves in my direction in erection...
until the Peloponnesian War is ended.
But it does get the basic points, and it gets the spirit of the thing better than Parker's does. Parker comes across like a teenager, eagerly and clumsily over-trying to match the original's tone; Schrag feels like your friend's cool older sister, breezing through. Parker seems terribly proud of himself when he gets through a dirty part; Schrag is more, y'know, "and here are some boners."
So okay, Shrag's Lysistrata is cool. I like it better than Parker's version. I don't think it's exactly the entire play, but it's the right idea.
The rest of the volume is mixed. Tori McKenna's Medea is wonderfully moody, but it misses all of the subtlety of
Euripides' original so it's not really viable.
Edmonds and Farritor's "Coyote and the Pebbles" is stunning; I haven't read that Native American folktale in any other version, so maybe that's why I'm so impressed. Anyway, it's great to me.
The Dixons' rendition of the Bull of Heaven bit from
Gilgamesh is fun, but who cares? It's a minor episode. Why didn't they do Humbaba, shit.
The extremely brief excerpt from
Lucretius is cool and all, but...again, what do we gain from two pages of a 200-page book? The selection makes it seem like it's like
Silent Spring or something, which is terribly misleading.
So: it's entertaining but hardly necessary. The main reason you might buy it is if your kid is into comics and you want to stealth-introduce him to literature. Hide it on a high shelf. Let him find it on its own and realize with a thrill that it's full of nudity. Let him feel like he's getting away with something. And then boom! Lysistrata, bitch, you're educated. High five yourself, parent of the year. -
This book has its ups and downs but all in all it's a nice reminder of the depth and breadth of our literary histories, and also a beautiful compendium of styles and approaches to adaptation. It's great to see the passion graphic artists have for their beloved prosy and/or poetical works.
Some perks: there are great prefaces to each adaptation contextualizing the text and its graphic adaptation. Also, a lot of artists are not published in a main-stream widely accessible format aside from these books, and so it's great to have an introduction to their work.
My main complaint is that a lot of the adaptations are short and come from the middle of books and they are confusing and unsatisfying and even if I wanted to read the rest, well, for most of the graphicized excerpts there is no rest. Also, a few of the adaptations are inscrutable.
I got the first two volumes of the Graphic Canon out of the library (most of the books I read are library books) and enjoyed them both. I am right now reading the childrens literature one. I imagine they are all prohibitively expensive to buy, thought I haven't checked to see, and I suppose prohibitively expensive to me might not be prohibitively expensive to others. In any case I highly recommend checking them out of the library at the very least. A lot of fun and a lot to think about. -
As with any compilation of stories, this is a mixed bag. Some of the adaptations are well done, but many are pretty bad.
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As in every compilation book with multiple contributors, it's hard to rate the book as a whole. There are some stories in here I'd give five stars, some I'd give one star. But the real question when discussing this book is, "Does this need to exist?" And the answer: "Kinda sorta." Most of the really great adaptations in here are excerpts from larger works, such as Gareth Hinds' adaptation of The Odyssey or Kevin Dixon's of The Epic of Gilgamesh, so in that sense The Graphic Canon is redundant. But there are a few original adaptations here that are pretty genius. I'll review my favorites below.
The other question that needs to be asked is, "Does this book teach?" And the answer: "Most definitely not." In all but perhaps one or two instances, if one does not know the works adapted in this volume already, she will not be any better off after having read the adaptations. So when reading this, it must be viewed as supplemental rather than substitutive.
The Epic of Gilgamesh, adapted by Kevin Dixon - 5 stars!
As I've recently reviewed, I really liked Gilgamesh. It's zany, it's bloody, it's funny, which all come together to make a great graphic novel. The excerpt relates the episode in which Gilgamesh and Enkidu slay the Bull of Heaven, which is a really messy affair, as you'll observe above. Dixon is in the midst of adapting the entire epic in graphic form, so I can't wait for when it's all finished and can be bought in paper form.
Lysistrata by Aristophanes, adapted by Valerie Schrag - 3 stars
This is a very straightforward interpretation of Lysistrata, the bawdy tale of a group of women who decide to stop the Peloponnesian War by withholding sex from their husbands. The thing I've never understood about this play, though... their husbands are hundreds of miles away, so they can't have sex anyway... how is withholding sex from an absent husband an effective means of persuasion?
The Book of Revelation, adapted by Rick Geary - 5 stars!
Revelation is such a visual, trippy book, I'm surprised I haven't seen a comic version of it before. The art beautifully and intricately displays the symbolism involved in the biblical apocalypse, and while it may not give an unfamiliar reader a good idea of the text itself, it is a truly enriching experience for someone familiar and interested in it. This is probably my favorite adaptation in The Graphic Canon.
Mahabharata by Vyasa, adapted by Matt Wiegle
I wasn't familiar with this classic work of ancient India, but it's the world's longest poem... so that's pretty cool. This short episode from it is barely a snippet, a vignette of a conspiracy to burn a temple, and it's a lot of fun. The Chris Ware-ish, OCD-type art is great.
The Inferno by Dante, adapted by Hunt Emerson - 5 stars!
This is such a hilarious take on the Inferno, and really I think it's the only good way to talk about hell - with levity. This is dark humor at its best. Emerson is at work on a full adaptation of the Inferno, and I'll definitely read it when it's published.
The moral of this review: The Graphic Canon is worth it if you don't mind sifting through the junk. There are some gems here. And may I say that I'm excited about the next two volumes, the third of which ends with Infinite Jest, a novel which could be great or awful in graphic form. -
"Efsanevi grafik sanatçıları ve illüstratörler ile Dünya edebiyatının öne çıkan eserleri bir arada!"
tanıtımıyla gördüğüm bu seri bir edebiyat ve çizgi roman sever olarak beni meraklandırdı.
3 kitaptan oluşan ve kronolojik bir seyri olan serinin
1 ncisi Gılgamış Destanı'ndan Shakespeare'e
2 ncisi "Kubilay Han"'dan Bronte Kardeşlere
3 ncüsü ise Karanlığın Yüreği'nden Tükenmeyen Nükte'ye kadar olan edebiyat eserlerine dair illustrasyonları, çizimleri, çizgi hikayeleri kapsıyor.
Her çizgiden önce de; ilgili eser ve eser sahibi ile, edebiyat tarihindeki yeri hakkında 1'er sayfalık bilgiler yer alıyor.
Şüphesiz çok büyük bir emek var bu seride ve bence muhteşem bir fikir. Ancak seri bazı nedenlerden beklentilerimin altında kaldı;
1. Bu tarz bir derlemede elbette edebiyat seçimleri üzerinde eleştiriler olacaktır. Benim de var; tek tek "şu yazar niye yoktu şu eser niye vardı" eleştirisinden öte, ciltlerin en arkasında yer alan "ülke/coğrafi bölge" dizininden de anlaşılacağı üzere fazla Amerika/İngiltere merkezli bir seri bu.
Özellikle 20 nci yüzyılı kapsayan 3 ncü ciltte, okurken sıkıldığım ve kendimi zorladığım bir dizi modern Amerikan saçmalığı bulunurken, -Doğu Dünyasını geçtim-, İngiltere dışı Batı'ya oldukça az yer verildiği düşüncesindeyim.
2. Mükemmel illustrasyonlar ve çizimler olduğu gibi, beş para etmez bir çoğu da seride yer almakta. Bunların kitapları ne kadar yansıttığı da ayrı bir tartışma konusu tabii ki. Editör, sanatçılardan bir tek olay örgüsü, karakterler ve metin açısından edebi eserlere sadık kalmalarını istediğini, bunun dışında tamamen serbest olduklarını belirtmiş. Ben kendi adıma, özellikle okumadığım kitaplar için soyut ve "tamamen serbest" çizimler yerine, kitapların en azından vurucu bölümlerini gösteren çizgi-hikayeleri görmeyi tercih ederdim. Seride böyle bir çok hikaye olduğu gibi, size edebi eser hakkında hiç bir bilgi vermeyecek üstelik çizgi yönünden de değersiz bulduğum bir çok bölüm var. Neyse ki, eserler ve sahipleri hakkında 1 sayfalık bilgilendirme bölümü bulunuyor.
Özetle, " düşünce iyi ama..." durumu söz konusu benim açımdan genel olarak.
Yine de; tekrar tekrar dönüp baktığım muhteşem bölümler var, okumak üzere not aldığım ve şimdiye kadar varlığından haberdar olmadığım yazarlar, eserler var. Bu bakımdan faydalıydı. -
This is such a fun book dip in and out of, and while I had heard of, if not read, most of these classics, there were some that were completely new to me. The thing to know before reading, is that this is a sampling of these classic stories - abridged, or a chapter of two of each. The graphics are simply wonderful, and while I did not love each and every one, there are many that are fantastic. I've added the next in the series to my TBR pile.
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This is my second anthology in this graphic series by Russ Kick. Volume 2, was the only on they had at the time, so I read them out of order, and I am just as impressed with this collection as I was the first. It covers such a broad range of world literature with as varied artists too. Each interpretation is left up to the individual artist, which sometimes makes it feel very disjointed and not all renderings were comfortable to look at. None the less, it is a treasure of new authors and works to read unabridged. My only disappointment, was that the lack of female writers! Only a couple - literally - out of dozens! Not cool Kick, not cool.
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Blerg. Despite all the accolades Russ Kick and the collected artists/adapters have apparently garnered, this isn't really that good of a collection. It is quite evident from the beginning most of the people involved have no real affinity for the subject matter, certainly not in any way remotely resembling respect. The biographies of the artists celebrate the fact most of them delight in creating underground and subversive material - which is certainly fine for them. Admittedly, a number of the "classics" were subversive in their own way, but to subvert the subversive does not really present the "canon" in the way it probably should be understood, even for a graphic version. I'm not facile enough to doubt that the ancient world had graphic content, but Kick seems to have committed his collection to presenting nothing but the most graphic, most crude, most sexual parts of world literature - and then either present them in an insincere way or exaggerate their content for no apparent reason other than to act like "see, the classical world was dirty minded just like us, so nothing matters" ... or something. I really don't understand what Kick and Co. were trying to do with this. It certainly wasn't an attempt to present the "canon," since the selections are either too superficial or too obscure to really do that. Likewise, the brief sketches in the index demonstrate the modern-is-where-it's-at attitude. With only a few essentially requisite exceptions, all the "for further reading and commentary check these volumes out" mentions are painfully slanted in favor of the last decade, as if the "research" done was found on someone's blog or Amazon's recommendation list. Not that I'm against contemporary scholarship, being a fledgling scholar in the 21st century myself, but to present a work supposedly about introducing the classical canon and ignore the older commentaries or editions (or mentioning them mostly with pejorative language!) in favor of "recent is better" was quite painful (like most of the book as a whole). It's definitely more "graphic" than "canon." If you are into that, go for it. If you really want to get to know the classics, read them in their entirety, crude parts and the not crude parts together. Not only will they make more sense to you the reader, but it will be more respectful (at the least) to the original authors and material.
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Well that was....a thing? I guess?
I have to concur with many other readers. There doesn't seem to be a point to this. The works collected here are extremely variable in quality (the art for the Rumi section was particularly disappointing, being mostly tacky Photoshopping), and the fragmentary nature of it was just not satisfying. If you want to present the graphic canon, do it! Don't present "half-assed fragments of graphic versions of the canon." There were a few standout works, but the majority either added nothing to the original text or subtracted from it. -
I knew this was going to be hit or miss, like any compellation of art styles, but this was just disappointing. There were a few adaptations that I liked (Inferno, Hagoromo, Popol Vuh, Faerie Queene, Gulliver's Travels, and Paradise Lost), but even then, these were all excerpts from a larger retelling of the entire story. While obviously entire epic poems can't be included in this, not even full chapters/cantos are included in many instances; rather they just cut off abruptly, or start in the middle of action so characters aren't introduced. This, combine with the off-putting styles of many artists (sorry, just not for me) just made this boring.
Many of the adaptions I did just completely skip over since the art style was horrendous (personal style preferences), which also meant I skipped some things that I was wanting to give a shot, but just couldn't because it was so awful for my eyes to look at (and many of the fonts are.... not readable).
Nothing amazing in here, still worth a flip through if you like classic lit, and would be a great way to introduce adaptions to lit or art students. But just as an overall collection of adaptations for the general classic lit nerd... meh. I'm not trying to diss the concept of comics and art bing used to adapt and retell classics, it's just that most of these did nothing for me, or made me re-fall in love with stories I already loved.
I'm going to read the other two volumes, but already flipping through Book 2, which has got much more stuff I'm familiar with at a glance, and I have very little hope for enjoying that one either.
(Also very disappointed because Faerie Queene is pimped as being available online, but it looks like that domain isn't valid any longer and GUYS, IT IS A WEIRD ARCTIC STEAMPUNK RETELLING, I NEED THIS.) -
I especially enjoyed tales from the Mayan and other cultures I would not have otherwise encountered.
The Rumi poetry was lovely, heart warming, comforting. I also delighted in an alternative perspective of Shakespeare’s “Shall I compare thee to a summer's day” (Sonnet XVIII).
Loved the mystical nun artwork, as well as The Book of Ester as a whole.
I would be intrigued to see what else was considered. The Book of Kells comes to mind, as does Utopia (or something by Thomas More), Machiavelli’s The Prince, Faust, an opera (although it might be that early opera (1600’s) seem to be heavy with Greek/Roman history/mythology), some Norse Mythology, some Egyptian literature, the tale of Anansi or African folk tale (understandable that much of it might be oral and thus difficult to put a date on it).
I appreciated that these volumes cover both the familiar and undiscovered for me, helping to reveal knowledge gaps or expose me to that which I might not have considered. It also makes classical literature feel more accessible.
I hope that I can seek out some of the artists’ work. -
Consider this to be a loose introduction to both a large number of famous works of world literature but also to almost as many illustrators and/or graphic artists. Each famous story excerpt starts with the basics of who, what, where, when, why, which is often pulled from a scholar's literature. The graphics range from monochromatic stick figures to lush and multi-colored.
Don't expect to get deeply into any of them. There is just enough information to whet your appetite to learn more. Each story runs anywhere from 2 pages to 10 pages on average, so you can see how many excerpts are in each volume -- a lot!
This is volume 1 of 3, and each volume is oversized, heavy, and has over 500 pages to it. My biggest complaint is that the volumes are unwieldy to hold onto while reading. I tried sitting it on my lap, on a footstool in front of me, and on the dining room table. A raised holder, like one uses to hold music while playing, would probably work well. -
Fabulous phone book sized collection of excerpts and selections of great writings from antiquity up to the renaissance. It is also pan cultural even touching on some famous native American bits. It’s virtually a textbook in topic and scope. Along with that are the wide range of fantastic art styles from coarse and direct to dazzling and sublime. This is my second read through after several yrs and I’m still enamored. It’s a brilliant merging of arts. I only wish it were longer! One of these just for the greeks or the native Americans would be better. On to the next volume!!
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A rich and fun collection of condensed or excerpted literary works from Gilgamesh (1000 BCE) to Dangerous Liaisons (1782). All kinds of artistic styles and media are on display, including some exceptionally clever adaptations. There were a handful of samples I found dull or impossible to follow, and a number of others whose original works I hadn't heard of, but it was overall an entertaining trip through the long history of world literature. Volumes two and three continue the chronological journey.
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The Graphic Canon is a wonderful and inspired idea; it collects the work of many graphic artists, much of it original, after asking them to reimagine a classic tale. In this particular volume, stories span the Bible to the eighteenth century. A plethora of art styles and interpretations are offered. Whilst I will not be seeking out many of the individual artists featured here, and whilst my favourite entry was unsurprisingly by Isobel Greenberg, it is a wonderful book to own, and I will undoubtedly read it again at some point.
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This was very good. Love the idea when they take a work of literature a turn it into a comic book. Most of the time they give you most of the work and you end-up not reading it because you felt like you read it before. With the Graphic Canon the thing I like most about this is that they only give you a sample of each work they have chosen. Thus, it forces you to read the actual work if you like what you have just read. If you read the introduction (which most people probably skipped) it tell you everything you need to know why this was made. I also loved the fact that it felt like my college text books. Now I have the chance again to reread what I have read before, but with a different feel to how I read them in the past.
Instead of me telling you about each part of the anthology, I'll just tell you some ones I ended up liking in this book. I liked how they drew the Homer tales. I've seen the Marvel illustrated ones, but like this art better. Forgot I wanted to read Medea. Lysistrata seems like a ply I might enjoy. Like the Book of Revelations in this volume. I want to read the Tale of Genji some time and loved the art for that one too. Still don't get Dante, but I did like that in this volume. Like the Wife of Bath again and read that one like 4 times now. Want to read Outlaws of the Marsh and Journey to the West. Should read Don Quixote some time. Also loved Paradise Lost was in this. Possibly my favorite in this volume, although didn't care for the art as much.
It should be noted before you decided weather to read this if you like samples or not. Like I said before these are only samples of the stories. Of course they're not going to give you the entire book. Treat these books as art boos and a text book for college...minus the questions and homework. Also there is quite a bit of sex and nudity in this. Some people I saw were surprised by all the "smut". How? Did they not actually read these stories before hand? It's funny how many people forget the greats works of literature (including the Bible) are full of things parents would have children avoid. I'm actually glad they inculcated that in this volume because I was taught that with these stories in both high school and college.
So if I loved this why only 4 stars? I'll probably be giving each one four starts. It's an anthology after all. I can't like everything in this. There are part I skimmed read because I got bored. Especially with the philosophy and politics parts. I was expecting this though, so I wasn't in the lest disappointed. I was also expecting not liking all the art. However, this is worth the buy if you are a fan of art and literature. But if your a comic book geek, you might not like it unless you are a fan of indie/underground comics.
There is so much to say about this 3 and almost 4 volume anthology. Really look at this in a book store or samples online before you decided to get this. It's not for everyone, but I really loved this and can't wait to read the next 3...especially the children's literature one coming out. -
Der Herausgeber Russ Kick legt den ersten von drei Bänden einer Anthologie vor, die die großen Werke der Literatur als Graphic Novel adoptiert. Es wurde mehrfach kritisiert und muß dem Käufer / Leser natürlich klar sein, dass er größtenteils nur (sehr) kleine Häppchen der Originaltexte serviert bekommen kann, denn der vorliegende Band hat "nur" 502 Seiten, was nicht einmal ansatzweise für die komplette Bearbeitung zum Beispiel der "Faerie Queene" reichen würde. Wer das Buch kauft, um sich in vergnüglicher Kurzform den Inhalt der Weltliteratur von den Anfängen bis zum späten 18. Jahrhunder einzuverleiben oder seinen Kindern die Literatur näher zu bringen, ist hier sicherlich nicht wirklich gut bedient. Was aber leistet "The Graphic Canon Vol. 1. From the Epic of Gilgamesh to Shakespeare to Dangerous Liaisons"?
Unterschiedlichste Künstler haben sich ohne Berührungsängste daran gemacht, Auszüge aus Werken der Literatur in die Form der Graphic Novel zu bringen, egal, ob es sich um Epen, Gedichte, Dramen, Märchen oder Romane handelt. Die Länge der einzelnen Bearbeitungen variiert stark zwischen 3 und 15 Seiten. Die Zeichnungen, teils farbig, teils schwarz/weiß, sind stilistisch sehr unterschiedlich und decken so ziemlich die gesamte Bandbreite der Comic-Art ab. Es dürfte also für jeden Geschmack etwas dabei sein. Entsprechend sollte der Leser offen für unterschiedliche Inhalte und Stile sein, um nicht enttäuscht zu werden.
Ganz grundsätzlich ist es immer ärgerlich, wenn die Verfilmung eines Romans mit dem Roman selbst verglichen wird, denn Buch und Film sind nun einmal zwei sehr unterschiedliche Medien. Und so muss auch bei diesem Graphic Canon von Anfang an klar sein, dass es sich um eine Anthologie handelt, die auf Position Eins die Arbeiten verschiedener graphischer Künstler vorstellt. Das verbindende Element ist dann, dass es sich um die Adaption literarischer Texte handelt. Ein Vergleich des Inhaltes der Adaption mit dem Originaltext läßt den graphischen (Haupt-)Anteil außer acht.
Das Buch stellt inhaltlich und stilistisch eine wahre Fundgrube dar und ich nehme es immer wieder in die Hand, blättere darin und lese mich dann fest. Auch das ist ein Vorzug einer Anthologie: man muß sie ja nicht von vorne nach hinten und in einem Zuge durchlesen, sondern kann gezielt oder auch zufällig auf einzelne Geschichten stoßen und sich überraschen lassen. So wird mich dieser Band noch lange begleiten; und danach? Nun, es gibt ja schon Vol.2 und der dritte Band wird in 2013 erscheinen. -
I was thrilled to have won this from Goodreads and waited impatiently for it to arrive. It was worth the wait. I haven't been reading graphic novels for very long but it took a very short amount of time to realize that the limited space afforded to the author and artist oftentimes makes for a more powerful story. It is distilled down to its essentials and is all the stronger for it.
A lot of these stories I was already familiar with and it was like seeing an old friend, there are changes but underneath they are still the same. There were also many that I had never even heard of before and it was fun to explore these new stories.
My only complaint was that these were mostly samplings of existing graphic novels because of the limited space. It does however serve as a wonderful reference volume to guide you to further reading.
The artwork was stunning and I was thrilled that a lot of it was in color. Each story had a wonderful introduction by the editor giving relevant background information on the original work and its author as well as on the artists that were doing the adaptations.
I know that it is a book I will keep going back to again and again to simply enjoy the artwork or re-read my favorite stories. I cannot wait for volumes 2 and 3 to come out this summer. -
So this was pretty cool. Given to me by a friend for xmas because I like graphic novels and such, I was particularly looking forward to the ancient Greek adapted sections.
The editor of the collection, Russ Kick, put little introductions to each work that not only gave you some background on the work that was being adapted, which was often insightful if brief, but also some background info on the adapter of the work (He also has sections in the back, which are also brief, and expand on such things).
The adaptations were as different as any adaptation can be varying from faithful attempts to portray whatever time period and setting of the work to humorous adaptations to shifting the story into a different period of time. Most retained the original text (or a common translation), but a few branched out even in this area.
Mostly very enjoyable. I'm a fan of the graphic novel as a medium. The Iliad adaptation was in particular very good. Overall, it read like a series of short stories. For many of the longer works only a piece was adapted and inserted into the collection.
Definitely worth checking out. -
I will just say that there are things unearthed in this volume that are gems and rare metals, and others, pure fool's gold.
Some of the art was excellent, some simply repulsive and truly an insult to the literature. I found the overview of literature throughout the ages itself and the breadth of selections within the anthology very enjoyable.
I also found this beautiful:
How prone we are to sin; how sweet were made
The pleasures our resistless hearts invade.
Of all my crimes, the breach of all thy laws,
Love, soft bewitching love, has been the cause.
Of all the paths that vanity has trod,
That sure will soonest be forgiven by God.
If things on earth may be to heaven resembled,
It must be love, pure, constant, undissembled.
But if to sin by chance the charmer press,
Forgive, O Lord, forgive our trespasses.
....."And Forgive Us Our Trespasses"
by Aphra Behn (1640-89) -
Evet gerçekten güzel bir çalışma ve evet çok büyük emek var ama beklediğim kadarını bulamadım. Belki diğer ciltlerde değişir fikrim. Belki de içine çok alamadı beni bilemiyorum. Böylesi bir eser için sanki biraz daha fazla özen ve dikkat olmalı. Herşeyi koymak ya da her telden olsun demek yerine az ama öz daha mı iyi olurdu acaba? Neyse sanırım erken karar bu benimkisi. Daha ilk cildi bitirdim. Sonra yazdığım yorumu değiştirmek zorunda kalmayayım :)
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WOW! I cannot wait for Volume 2 (October) and Volume 3 (March 2013). A marvelous array of lit and graphic styles, and just the thing to motivate you to read the whole canon before you die. It is graphic in more ways than one, but it still would be a great stimulant for young minds striving to become citizens of the world.
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ay! don't even ask why. just go read it.
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Simply the most consistently top-notch anthology I've ever read. Out of fifty stories, I only thought one was sub-par. If I could only hand someone one comic to read, this would be it.
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Okay, first of all, I am not a fan of graphic novels, so my rating is a bit biased (though to be fair, everyone's ratings are always biased). I didn't have high hopes going in, but was hoping for 1) a bit of a literary education, 2) something new, and 3) a quick read to do some catch-up on my 2021 reading goal.
I got the first two, but #3 was a dud. I think graphic novels would be quick to read for me if I was used to reading them, but there was SO MUCH going on in every page that I had a hard time focusing on where I was supposed to be looking. Then it was trying to absorb the words (which weren't written in any sort of skimmable pattern) and the art at the same time, and it just didn't work for me.
At any rate, I did enjoy a few of the pieces in this anthology, but not many. A couple were just stunning art, and I loved the aesthetics of the pages regardless of the actual story; others were modern retellings of classic stories and were at times amusing, so that was enjoyable. Much of the art, however, was absolutely not my style and I found myself bored nearly to tears for a majority of the book.
Again, I will admit I don't enjoy graphic novels on the whole, so take what I say with a grain of salt, but if you're looking to dabble in the graphic novel genre, take it from another noob: don't start here. -
This entire project should be lauded for its scale and the collaborative effort put into producing it, but it falls short in terms of variety (only a few non-European and non-American works are included) and quality at times. I understand the decision to limit most adaptations to excerpts from a logistic point of view, but experiencing these stories through bite-sized, incomplete chunks was unsatisfying and actually bewildering at times, especially if I was unfamiliar with the source material.
I also felt there was (mostly towards the end) an insistent emphasis on more scatological works and while I don't consider myself prudish in the content and media I consume by any means, it did make me wonder if these works were being featured for any reason beyond their shock value.
I did enjoy a number of the featured works, mostly the poems, which were largely kept intact. And there is a lot of beautiful, evocative artwork in this collection. I do have the second and third volumes, which I suspect I may enjoy more, since the stories in the first volume are much older and less familiar to me. -
The Graphic Canon, vol 1 runs from The Epic of Gilgamesh to Dangerous Liasonsi and is comprised of a number of short comics from different artists adapting classics of literature into ye olde sequential art. On a whole, I loved it, though I am willing to admit that there were some misses for me. Most of the works were treated with respect but sometimes I felt as if the artists were poking fun at other cultures. I think that out of all of the comics, I skipped maybe three. For instance, I had a hard time reading Lysistrata just because the art style jumbled my brain. But it was also really cool to see Revelations done in comic form. There were a number of stories that left me awestruck because they were just so well done, things of beauty.
This was a hella big book, 500 pages and large. If you intend to read it, I would suggest picking your way through it slowly, not carrying it to and from work with you, and not holding it while you read.
A short break, and then I'll be onto volume 2! -
I enjoyed the diversity of this collection. Cultures with work featured include Native American, Incan, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, American, British, and Greek, among others. Many of the works were new to me; others were staples from high school and college lit. classes. Selections include snippets from journals, novels, religious works, stories, fables, satire, and plays. The style of the graphic artists is as varied as the literature. Some of the artwork enhances understanding of the literature; some of the art is so beautiful that it could stand on its own. Works are often playful or move familiar classics into new territory. Other times, the art is geometric, garish, or vague, and adds nothing to the literature. (Because the literature and graphic art is so varied, it would be a rare reader who would find appeal in every entry.) As a whole, this is an exciting volume and an engaging way to explore world literature; reading this work made my "Want to Read" list longer.
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A collection of a chapter from famous graphic novels such as Medea, Beowulf and The Tale of Genji, it doesn't actually reproduce the whole GN. Getting a taster was ok - you get to experience the art, but not the development of a story. I guess it is supposed to make you seek out the GN's you like the most, but there are just so many in each canon that it got a bit overwhelming and also frustrating. I'd rather have fewer stories and more meat on the bones of each one.
It's a good idea, but not actually a novel or even a good representation of the GN's included in the collection. I'm going to pick through them - I'll try Shakespeare for example - but will forget about the rest.
My favourite so far is Lysistrata by Valerie Schrag. It is bawdy, stroppy and fun. -
The only section I am reviewing (and really liked) is the adaptation of Aristophanes' Lysistrata by Valerie Schrag.
I really enjoyed the sexual explicit drawings and dialogue. I had never read and/or seen Lysistrata and I think Aristophanes would have really enjoyed this adaptation.
I loved the drawings of the revealing Greek gowns and the men's cocks. I do not know what it is about explicit graphic novels but I really enjoy them.
If you get a chance to find this graphic novel collection be sure to check out Lysistrata, it is well worth looking for.
