Comics and books

Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is coming out in comic book form. You know, I’ve never read the book. I listened to it. I listened to a recording of Bradbury, himself, reading it, which also included a bit of an account of how he wrote it. Never forgot it. I went and read Ecclesiastes right after it was over.

So since my only experience with the book is a sort of adaptation, I am pretty open to this one. I could use a recap on the intricacies of the story, tho I know Bradbury did enlightenment on the cheap by using a pretty girl as the motivator. NPR’s Monkey See blog is not so excited.

If you’re interested in what makes comics different from prose books (and maybe also why comics seem to be ascending as prose descends), this piece might be worth checking out. It’s a nice contrast in the two, seen through the lens of how a book becomes a graphic novel. Just, for the record, tho: if the post inspires you to go buy some comics, the ones mentioned are … well … fine. It’s just that they are totally the ALA/NPR/NYT/Art Spiegelman/New Yorker/pretentious-ass-at-the-party prescribed reading list of graphic novels. It doesn’t really reveal much in the way of personal taste by way of the choices because everyone-but-everyone thinks the comics listed are the “must reads of forever”

End aside.

If you’re a writer and want to get a better idea here: take out a piece of notebook paper and draw one small sequence of events in comics form. Make some panels. Create a simple setting and simple figures and have your protagonist by a soda and find his wallet is empty or something. It will show you a lot about what’s going on in the heads of those who read your actual words.