THE GRAPHIC CANON (Seven Stories Press) is a gorgeous, one-of-a-kind trilogy that brings classic literatures of the world together with legendary graphic artists and illustrators. There are more than 130 illustrators represented and 190 literary works over three volumes-many newly commissioned, some hard to find-reinterpreted here for readers and collectors of all ages.
Volume 1- From The Epic of Gilgamesh to Shakespeare to Dangerous Liaisons takes us on a visual tour from the earliest literature through the end of the 1700s. We’re treated to eye-popping renditions of literature’s great-est epics-The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Iliad, The Od-yssey (in watercolors by Gareth Hinds), The Aeneid, Beowulf, and The Arabian Nights, plus later epics The Divine Comedy and The Canterbury Tales (both by Seymour Chwast) and Paradise Lost-as well as two of ancient Greece’s greatest plays, Euripides’ tragedy Medea and Aristophanes’ bawdy comedy Lysistrata. Also included is Robert Crumb’s rarely seen adapta-tion of James Boswell’s London Journal, filled with philosophical debate and lowbrow debauchery.
The literature of the world’s religions is well covered- the Books of Daniel and Esther, Rick Geary’s new rendition of the Book of Revelation, the Tao Te Ching, Rumi’s Sufi poetry, and the Mayan holy book Popol Vuh. The Eastern canon gets its due, with The Tale of Genji, three poems from China’s golden age of literature by Sharon Rudahl, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, and other works from Asia.
Edited by Russ Kick, The Graphic Canon is an extraordinary collection that will continue with Volume 2- Kubla Khan to the Bronte Sisters to The Picture of Dorian Gray in Summer 2012, and Volume 3- From Heart of Darkness to Hemingway to Infinite Jest in Fall 2012. A boxed set of all three volumes will also be published in Fall 2012.
