The Art Of The Graphic Novel: Adapted and Inspired

By John Freeman on September 19, 2015

Guernsey Literature Festival 2015 Poster

There has long been a tradition of comics and graphic novels adapting, or drawing inspiration from, well-known stories, and “The Art Of The Graphic Novel: Adapted and Inspired“, an exhibition that’s part of the Guernsey Literary Festival (on now, running until 21st September 2015), presents a selection of the original artwork from five of the best graphic novels published in the last 10 years.

Each book has been carefully chosen to show off the different styles and techniques that illustrators and cartoonists can apply to such familiar tales.

Alongside the beautiful original artwork you can also discover more about the source material, the illustrators and writers.

This exhibition should be the perfect introduction to anyone who has never read a Graphic Novel, and should provide the connoisseur with an opportunity to see up close some of the original artwork.

Books featured are:

Alice In Sunderland, written and drawn by Bryan Talbot, published by Jonathan Cape
Wuthering Heights, originally written by Emily Brontë, adapted by Sean Michael Wilson, drawn by John M Burns, lettered Jim Campbell, published by Classical Comics
The Man Who Laughs, originally written by Victor Hugo, adapted by David Hine, drawn by Mark Stafford, published by SelfMadeHero
Romeo and Juliet, originally written by William Shakespeare, adapted by Richard Appignanesi, drawn by Sonia Leong, published by SelfMadeHero
and Lot No 249 (as featured in Halloween Classics Volume 23), originally written by Arthur Conan Doyle, adapted by Tom Pomplun, drawn by Simon Gane and published by Graphics Classics

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.