Before I started working on Graphic Dead Man Walking, my library of graphics books consisted of a solitary volume, Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home.
This paucity was a result of a period of almost half a century when I lived in a graphic reading desert, between my young years with Hot Stuff, The Phantom, and Mad Magazine and my recent awakening when Graphic Dead Man Walking became a twinkle in Sr. Helen’s eye.
So, I’ve been on a learning curve as well as a writing curve—and wondering what took me so long to get into this game.
I admit to some degree of written vs. pictorial word snobbery, perhaps natural in a writer with scant drawing ability. But, as so many have done before me, I have discovered that the world of graphic books is varied and lush, literate and literary.
From desert to groaning shelves
My bookshelves now contain around 50 graphic books, plus dozens of comics in magazine form. Here are some of them:
The collection is running about 4:1 non-fiction to fiction, with a scattering of graphic adaptations, including Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (adapted and illustrated by Fred Fordham), Lois Lowry’s The Giver (adapted and illustrated by P. Craig Russell), and Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny (illustrated by Nora Krug).
This just in
The two most recent additions to my collection are the just-published Lies My Teacher Told Me: A Graphic Adaptation and Tim Smyth’s Teaching With Comics and Graphic Novels, which I expect will play an important part as we roll Graphic Dead Man Walking out to schools and colleges next year.
James W. Loewen’s original book, Lies My Teacher Told Me, Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, is an eye-opening critique of the way American history is taught in the nation’s schools. It was first published in 1995 and has since become a classic. It seems a perfect candidate for graphic adaptation, and it has found its way into the overwhelmingly competent hands of Nate Powell, who was the graphic force behind Congressman John Lewis’s March trilogy. I’m eagerly looking forward to diving into both of them. What graphic books are on your shelves? I’d love to hear about your comics and graphic reading habits and tastes:
- Have you been a long-time devotee?
- Are you drawn to a particular style?
- Anyone into manga?
- Do you have any recommendations?
Drop me a line (include photos of book covers if you like).