This is something that's confused me for a while now. Lately there's been a trend (so far as I can tell) towards making graphic novel versions of already existing novels. I've known about a graphic novel adaptation of The Hobbit for a while now, but until the last year or so, I thought it was more or less unique.
Lately though, I've noticed quite a few other books being made into graphic novels: Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series being the first ones I found. Now there's Sherrilyn Keynon's Dark Hunter books being made into manga, and also her Lords of Avalon series as a graphic novel. And, just yesterday, I noticed in the back of Hunting Ground, Patricia Briggs latest novel, ads for graphic novels based on both the Alpha and Omega series and the Mercy Thompson series.
While I have gone out and bought the first two graphic novel adaptations of the Anita Blake book Guilty Pleasures, I haven't managed to finish reading one in the more than a year I've owned them. I will admit that the art was pretty spectacular though in the first of the Guilty Pleasures adaptations (and a bit more explicit than the book, IMHO).
What I don't understand is why there's such a market for adapting novels to graphic format. It's everything from urban fantasy to Shakespeare. The last one honestly makes me shudder. I guess I'm somewhat of a purist. I can understand adapting things from other media, such as T.V. shows and movies, but I just don't see the appeal of reading something that was already a book in the first place. Perhaps someone who's a fan of graphic novels can explain the appeal to me.
2 comments:
In a way, I kind of get making classics into graphic novels because it is a really good way to introduce people to those stories who wouldn't normally pick classics. But I don't get doing contemporary novels.
I can see it from that perspective, I guess. Still, will someone who reads Shakespeare as a graphic novel ever read it in the original? or will they simply figure they've read it and know the story?
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