Prose to comic

[Another Editor]

Has anybody here ever tried re-purposing a work of prose (novel, short story, etc.) for sequential art (comic, graphic novel, manga, etc.)? If so, how did you do it? How well did it work out?

[Axler]

I'm actually doing that right now...turning a straight prose novel into a graphic novel.

I've done it before with short stories (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "Lot No. 249" and H.P. Lovecraft's "The Whisperer in Darkness"), and my approach is the same:

I block out and frame the prose into sequences. I break the sequences down into page layouts/thumbnails.

When you're adapting prose, you've got to employ visual shorthand and compress scenes, particularly those that might be dialogue heavy...otherwise you run the risk of pages of nothing but talking heads.

It can be problematical sometimes if the orginal work isn't particularly visual.

Adapting a film into the "graphic narrative" is much easier.

[RemusShepherd]

Has anybody here ever tried re-purposing a work of prose (novel, short story, etc.) for sequential art (comic, graphic novel, manga, etc.)? If so, how did you do it? How well did it work out?

Genocide Man was a short prose story I wrote in 2000, which I failed to sell. The jury's not in yet on how well it's working out, but I've expanded the basic story to trilogy size and included elements that just would not work in prose. So I wouldn't say that the story is the same, but the concept is.

I think if you're willing to revise a story to better fit the comic form, then any story can be translated without much problem.

[CheG]

That was an assignment I had in my scripting class at SCAD (yes, I majored in sequential art...)

But we used an existing work so I chose a Thomas Ligotti short story. I recomend xeroxing the story, going through it and circling each chunk of action you think you can fit on one comic page, then break the action chunks into panels. You may need to change it up a bit when you get scripting but that's what we did.

[Miss Plum]

It's not as much of a stretch, but I redid a screenplay as my current graphic novel project. In this case, it was almost nothing more than reformatting. But one thing that was really nice was being able to utilize thought balloons. Can't use those in screenplays!

[Prototype729]

It's not as much of a stretch, but I redid a screenplay as my current graphic novel project. In this case, it was almost nothing more than reformatting. But one thing that was really nice was being able to utilize thought balloons. Can't use those in screenplays!

Sure, voice-overs.

[Miss Plum]

Sure, voice-overs.
Ugh.

I don't like using intrusive elements in scripts such as subtitles, supertitles, and voiceovers. But I feel liberated by comic book elements -- sound effects, thought balloons, captions, insets, chapter divisions, all those tricks. And "directing" my movie in print has been incredibly fun.