As A YOUNc MAN, HE HAD WRITTEN POETRY! PLAYs AND ESSAYQ.
BUTGU‘TE ABRUPTLY, HE HAD (IIVEN UP ALL THAT.
A‘; FOR QUINN, HE WA‘J THIRTY-FIVE AND BUTH Hts WIFE AND yon WERE DEAD:
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HE NCW WROTE MYSTERY NOVELé UNDER THE NAME
QUiNN No LoNoER EXISTED FOR ANYONE BUT HIMBELF.
A PART CF HIM HAD DIED AND HE DtD NOT WANT IT HAUNTle HIM. g. r—r ‘ J I
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my S‘e'
NO ONE KNEW HI‘J SELRET.
HE Tow Hl‘: FRIENDb THAT HE HAD INHERITED A TRUST FUND FROM Hlb WIFE,
BUT THE FACT WAé THAT HIS WIFE HAD NEVER HAD ANY MONE‘I-
AND THE FACT WA‘) THAT HE N0 LON’OER HAD ANY FRIENDb,
comic writers are just not Using novels as their
source material. In this regard. ('t'ty ol'U/uss is virtually unique.
Nevertheless. it‘s simple enough to trace comic adaptations of literary classics back at least hall a century. (‘lassic (‘omics~ version ol‘ Robert Louis Stevenson‘s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was published in I‘M}. for example. These. however. were ham-listed abridged versions ol~ the original books. and wholly unworthy ol‘ their visual medium. lilsewhere. mining the rich vein ol pulp fiction -— lidgar Rice Burroughs~ 'létrmn. Robert Ii lloward's ('onun ~ produced better quality comic strips. but tailed to show much fidelity to the source material.
The most literate comics and graphic novels have always been original stories even it‘. as with Alan Moore‘s Victorian tantasy tiction parody The League of littruordinur_v Gentlemen. they are steeped in the world of literature. When the mainstream media pronounced comics had grown up in the mid- l‘)b’()s. the titles that prompted such tcomlescending) praise — The llktteh/nen. The Dark Knight Returns. .lluus — were inspired. variously. by their own medium. television. cinema. world histon and personal experience.
It was almost ten years later that Karasik and Max/ucchelli pen and inked their Auster adaptation. (‘itv (VII/ass was to be the Iirst in a series of graphic adaptations of prose Iictions. published under the crime/noir Neon Lit imprint for prose publisher Avon and co-edited by Spiegelman. who had previously tried and failed to get prose writers — including John L'pdike and
Auster himsell ~ to turn their hands to typewriting comics (Auster's .llr Vertigo was very nearly a comic). But despite the critical success of ('in ol'GIuss. .\'eon l.it published just one more title —- l’enh'tu lhmmgn. crime writer Barry (iil'l'ord‘s sequel to his own book ll’ih/ at Heart — and then the lights went out. Aside from the tenth anniversary reissue of (hr of (i/uss. there have been no other significant ‘picture l‘ictions'. as Neon l.it‘s other editor Bob (‘allahan calls this rare hybrid.
So. why didn't comic adaptations of prose liction take oll‘.’ 'I don't know that I think there should be more] says liric Reynolds ol' Seattle— based liantagraphics. the cutting edge comics outfit that publishes (‘hris Ware. l)aniel (’lowes. Joe Sacco and the llernande/ brothers. and has released everything from Peanuts reprints to the diary of a working dominatrix. but has not handled prose l‘iction adaptations. '\\'hether ('lassics Illustrated or the latest film tie-in. most adaptations are driven by the bottom line and aren‘t particularly well done. They are rather literal-minded and extremely condensed. with no regard for subtext.‘
‘ADD PICTURES AND PICTOGRAMS TO AUSTER'S MIX, AND THINGS GET VERY INTEREST ING'
Reynolds believes tltill (ll-[y (2/ (i/tlvs is a rare exception. in which ls'arasik and .\Ia//ucchelli translated Alister's prose into the language ol' comics. ‘lt's masterful. but I doubt too many cartoonists would have much interest in attempting this because comics are hard. Illustration is easier to make some dough: it takes less el'l‘ort. and most cartoonists ol' any ambition preler to save themselves as tar as comics go tor their more personal el'l'orts.‘
:\ lootnolc to this story suggests ('1'.'\' u/ (i/(st was. l‘or Karasik at least. a personal cll'ort. He studied comics at New Yorks Scltool ol Visual Arts in the early I‘mtls under Spiegelman. who would set his students the tricky task ol visualising chapters lroin William l’aulkner, By l‘)b’7. Karasik was teaching himsell in Brooklyn around the corner lit)!” a man who was linishing three novellas set in his native New York.
Shortly alter. Karasik learned that one ol his most talented students was l’aul :\tister's son. a discovery which led to the teacher reading the newly-published New York 'Iirl'luuy and later breaking a levy prose pages down into comic strip panels. It was seeing the break-downs in Karasik‘s sketchbook that prompted Spiegelman to commission him with the lirst successful graphic novel adaptation ol' a prose liction.
Thins. a story that‘s wholly unique in the world of comic books and graphic noyels also boasts an intriguing Austerian twist.
City of Glass is published by Faber on Thu 3 Feb.
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