Synopses & Reviews
The Graphic Canon, Volume 2 gives us a visual cornucopia based on the wealth of literature from the 1800s. Several artists—including Maxon Crumb and Gris Grimly—present their versions of Edgar Allan Poe’s visions. The great American novel
Huckleberry Finn is adapted uncensored for the first time, as Twain wrote it. The bad boys of Romanticism—Shelley, Keats, and Byron—are visualized here, and so are the Brontë sisters. We see both of Coleridge’s most famous poems: “Kubla Khan” and “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (the latter by British comics legend Hunt Emerson). Philosophy and science are ably represented by ink versions of Nietzsche’s
Thus Spake Zarathustra and Darwin’s
On the Origin of Species.
Frankenstein, Moby-Dick, Les Misérables, Great Expectations, Middlemarch, Anna Karenina, Crime and Punishment (a hallucinatory take on the pivotal murder scene), Thoreau’s Walden (in spare line art by John Porcellino of King-Cat Comics fame), “The Drunken Boat” by Rimbaud, Leaves of Grass by Whitman, and two of Emily Dickinson’s greatest poems are all present and accounted for. John Coulthart has created ten magnificent full-page collages that tell the story of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. And Pride and Prejudice has never looked this splendiferous!
This volume is a special treat for Lewis Carroll fans. Dame Darcy puts her unmistakable stamp on—what else?—the Alice books in a new 16-page tour-de-force, while a dozen other artists present their versions of the most famous characters and moments from Wonderland. There’s also a gorgeous silhouetted telling of “Jabberwocky,” and Mahendra’s Singh’s surrealistic take on “The Hunting of the Snark.”
Curveballs in this volume include fairy tales illustrated by the untameable S. Clay Wilson, a fiery speech from freed slave Frederick Douglass (rendered in stark black and white by Seth Tobocman), a letter on reincarnation from Flaubert, the Victorian erotic classic Venus in Furs, the drug classic The Hasheesh Eater, and silk-screened illustrations for the ghastly children’s classic Der Struwwelpeter. Among many other canonical works.
Synopsis
RUSS KICK's best-selling anthologies, including You Are Being Lied To and Everything You Know Is Wrong, have sold over half a million copies. The New York Times has dubbed Kick "an information archaeologist," Details magazine described Kick as "a Renaissance man," and Utne Reader named him one of its "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World." Russ Kick lives and works in Nashville, Tennessee, and Tucson, Arizona.
Synopsis
Vol. 2 gives us a visual cornucopia based on the wealth of literature from the 1800s. Several artists--including Maxon Crumb and Gris Grimly--present their versions of Poe's visions. We see two stunning but very different takes on the greatest American novel,
Moby-Dick, including one by Eisner Award-winning artist Bill Sienkiewicz. That other great American novel,
Huckleberry Finn, is adapted, uncensored for the first time, as Twain wrote it. The bad boys of Romanticism--Shelley, Keats and Byron--are visualized here, and so are the Brontë sisters. Philosophy and science are ably represented by ink versions of Nietzsche's T
hus Spake Zarathustra and Darwin's
On the Origin of Species.
Frankenstein, Les Misérables, Oliver Twist, Crime and Punishment (a hallucinatory take on the pivotal murder scene), Thoreau's Walden (in spare line art by John Porcellino of King-Cat Comics fame), Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman and two of Emily Dickinson's greatest poems are all present and accounted for. The inimitable Dame Darcy puts her unmistakable stamp on--what else?--the Alice in Wonderland books. Christina Rossetti's haunting, dark poem "Goblin Market" will linger long after the last panel is viewed. And Pride and Prejudice has never looked this splendiferous! Curveballs in this volume include fairy tales illustrated by the untameable S. Clay Wilson, a fiery speech from freed slave Frederick Douglass (rendered in stark black and white by Seth Tobocman) and selections from Wagner's colossal Ring cycle of operas, which won two Eisner Awards for artist P. Craig Russell, among many other canonical works.
Synopsis
"These works of literature do not reside just on the shelves of academia; they flourish in the eye of our imagination...will leave you awe-struck."—New York Times Book Review
"It's easily the most ambitious and successfully realized literary project in recent memory, and certainly the one that's most relevant for today's readers"
—NPR, Indie Booksellers Pick 2012's Best
The classic canon of Western civilization meets the artists and illustrators who have remade reading in the last years of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first century in Russ Kick's magisterial, three-volume, full-color The Graphic Canon, volumes 1, 2, and 3.
This special slipcase edition includes all three volumes of the series in an attractively designed slipcase, as well as the three promotional posters created for each volume's release, allowing graphic novel collectors and fans to quickly add this seminal work to their library.