The Graphic Canon, Volume 2

October 1, 2012
Comprising original graphic versions of classic literature, from Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” to Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, this is the second volume of a must-have anthology for those who wish to lose themselves utterly in visual narrative adaptations of the works of the Western canon. Featuring spectacular graphic adaptations of some of the 19th century’s most famous works, contributors include Maxon Crumb, John Porcellino, and Megan Kelso. Each selection is prefaced with a short introduction to provide context, and a rationale is included for the marriage of a particular writer with a particular artist. And editor Kick certainly gets it right. Porcellino’s simple drawings are perfect for Thoreau’s Walden. Eran Cantrell’s silhouetted illustrations for Carroll’s “Jabberwocky” are positively stunning. And what PMurphy does with Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” is marvelously original. Apart from containing insightful introductions and wonderful artwork, these selections have a not-to-be-underestimated pedagogical value that educators will no doubt find invaluable in bringing classic works of literature to a 21st-century audience immersed in visual culture.

Starred review from November 15, 2012
Where the first volume of Kick's grandly ambitious effort collected thousands of years of world literature, this volume confines itself to the nineteenth century. This affords the opportunity to closely examine the currents that washed through that 100-year span, and also to scour some of its nooks and crannies. Bront's and Shelleys, Hawthorne, Melville, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, and Twain all show up, naturally enough. But so does a heaping helping of poetry as well as the epoch-shattering nonfiction of, for example, Darwin and Nietzsche, along with wonderful surprises like Der Struwwelpeter (with a ghastly new interpretation of the Scissorman). The macabre makes a particularly strong showingwith the likes of Poe, the Brothers Grimm, Dr. Jekyll, and Dorian Grayas does Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, honored with a gallery showcasing an extraordinary selection of comics visionaries. The range of interpretive styles is too vast to encompass here, ranging as it does from William Blake to Gris Grimly. It must suffice that, as with the previous volume, this collection has a wide array of applications for cultural scholars and historians (art and otherwise), but proves most powerful in its tear-inducing panoply of graphic talents and styles working in the comics medium.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)