The rise of graphic novels
Deux romans graphiques qui ont fait parler d’eux.
Au Royaume-Uni, le roman graphique commence à prendre son essor, notamment grâce au succès rencontré par deux oeuvres publiées récemment. Sabrina de l’Américain Nick Drnaso (disponible en France chez Presque Lune Éditions) aborde le phénomène des « fakes news ». Ne Tirez Pas sur L’Oiseau Moqueur du Britannique Fred Fordham (Éditions Grasset) est une adaptation graphique du classique de Harper Lee. Petit tour d’horizon d’un art qui n’a plus rien de mineur...
The popularity of graphic novels is soaring and 2018 could turn out to be a key year for the genre. Sales of Nick Drnaso’s Sabrina rocketed this summer when it became the first graphic novel to be included on the Man Booker Prize longlist in the award’s 50-year history. A previous jury once dismissed this format as mere “comic books”. Six decades after it was published, Harper Lee’s seminal novel To Kill a Mockingbird was voted the UK’s most-loved book, according to a World Book Night survey. Now, it is being released in graphic novel form. 1. to soar (syn. to rocket) monter en flèche, exploser / to turn out to be s'avérer, se révéler (être) / Man Booker Prize prix Booker qui récompense chaque année une oeuvre de fiction de langue anglaise / award prix, récompense / previous précédent / to dismiss écarter, rejeter, considérer avec mépris / mere simple / comic book bande dessinée / decade décennie / seminal phare, incontournable / To Kill a
Mockingbird (VF) Ne tirez pas sur l'oiseau moqueur / according to selon / World Book Night évènement caritatif ayant lieu au R.-U. tous les 23 avril de chaque année. Des livres sont distribués dans tout le pays, notamment dans les prisons, foyers d'accueil... / survey sondage, enquête, étude (ici, réalisé(e) pour) / to release ici, publier. 2. Drnaso’s book – about murder, truth, the Internet and the crazy “fake news” cycle around the story of a missing woman – is vibrantly contemporary. The daunting challenge that faced artist and writer Fred Fordham was creating a modern and accurate illustrated version of a novel that has sold more than 40 million copies since its publication in 1960. “I was not trying to reinvent Harper Lee’s novel,” Fordham says. “I was trying to do a faithful adaptation in a new medium. I have taken it very seriously and thought about little else for a good year and a half.”
3. The proposal for a new “special visual edition” of Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel came from the estate of Harper Lee. The project fits in with plans by Tonja Carter, Lee’s attorney and executor, to grow
2. missing disparu / daunting difficile, ambitieux, de taille / accurate précis, juste / copy exemplaire / faithful fidèle / medium format, support, moyen d'expression. 3. estate ici, héritiers / to fit in with s'accorder, cadrer avec / attorney avocat / executor exécuteur testamentaire / to grow, grew, grown into transformer en / the author’s hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, into a major tourist destination for a new age. Carter liked Fordham’s previous work. His first graphic novel, Nightfall, was published in 2013 in France – where around 5,000 graphic novels are published every year – and four years later he was chosen to illustrate Philip Pullman’s The Adventures of John Blake: The Mystery of the Ghost Ship.
THE DEEP SOUTH
4. After accepting the commission, 33-yearold Londoner Fordham went to America to soak in the atmosphere of the Deep South. “I had not been to America before, so I flew to New York and then on to Alabama for 10 days. That was two sides of a fairly wide coin. Monroeville is where Lee grew up, the
hometown ville natale / age ici, génération /
Nightfall (VF) Nightfall, La Nuit. 4. commission commande / to soak in s'imprégner (de) / two sides of a fairly wide coin réf. à l'expr. two side of a coin deux facettes d'un problème (ici, d'un pays (fairly wide relativement vaste)). Deux régions d'un pays très éloignées géographiquement et culturellement /
place on which she based the novel. It is much more of an autobiographical novel than I realised, even down to the position of the houses. Although her former home is now a shop that sells ice creams, the famous courthouse survives and has been turned into a museum. The people working there have an encyclopaedic knowledge of the town and they shared their insights generously.”
5. The preparation Fordham undertook, allied to his training as a fine artist, meant he was able to bring a captivating realism to his illustrations, drawn with economy and effect. “I even down to jusque dans / position ici, adresse / former ancien / courthouse tribunal, palais de justice / to turn into transformer en / knowledge (inv.) connaissance(s) / insight connaissance (approfondie), savoir. 5. to undertake, took, taken entreprendre, mener / training formation / fine artist = fine art artist, artiste plasticien / ...with economy and effect ...sobrement mais avec un rendu incroyable / took pictures and did sketches of old frame houses, which are similar to how they were in Lee’s time,” says Fordham. “I knew the foliage and landscapes would be similar, although I had the illinformed idea that southern Alabama would be quite arid. It was very green and lush, in fact.”
ADAPTING THE WRITING
6. As well as finding the appropriate art style, Fordham had to adapt 100,000 words from the original prose into a long-form visual medium. “I read through the novel again several times and then I story-boarded the whole thing in quite a lot of detail,” says Fordham. sketch dessin, croquis / frame house maison à ossature en bois / foliage feuillage / landscape paysage / ill-informed ici, faux / lush luxuriant. 6. to read, read, read through lire en entier / to story-board ici, adapter en bande dessinée. 7. In many ways, Lee’s fiction writing is suited to the sequences of the comic book form and her sharp and impactful dialogue is perfect for the copious dialogue balloons. At the all-female Huntingdon College in Montgomery, the young Lee was known for her “salty language” and her knowledge of the sort of conversations natural to small town folk from the south was impeccable. “The people are not particularly sophisticated, naturally,” Lee said in 1964. “They’re not worldly wise in any way. But they tell you a story whenever they see you. We’re oral types – we talk.”
8. To open his version, Fordham reproduces (verbatim) the first 152 words of Lee’s novel before going straight into dialogue bubbles. “Lee had a free-flowing style and
7. to be suited to convenir à / sharp incisif, acerbe / copious très nombreux / balloon ici, bulle (de bande dessinée) / college université / salty salé, cru / folk gens; ici, habitants / to be worldly wise avoir/ connaître les codes sociaux, les usages du monde. 8. verbatim mot pour mot / to go, went, gone straight (into) passer directement (à) / free-flowing libre /
Lee’s fiction writing is suited to the sequences of the comic book form.
she jumps around spatially and temporally, and with illustrations that can be quite confusing,” says Fordham. “So there were a few occasions – such as the extended family history at the start of the novel – when I moved around description to avoid it being confusing. On the whole, though, because of the amount of beautiful dialogue, it was technically quite straightforward. It is not like trying to adapt Ulysses or Proust, although people have turned those into graphic novels.”
CONTROVERSY
9. True, there have also been graphic novel versions of Shakespeare, Dickens, Bronte, Melville and Kafka – and even a Marvel Comics adaptation of Pride and Prejudice that is faithful to Austen’s original – but Lee’s depiction of racial discrimination continues to arouse controversy. The racial slur “nigger” appears about 50 times in the book. In 2017, a school district in Biloxi, Mississippi, banned the book from eighth grade classes over concerns that the language “makes people uncomfortable”.
10. “Technically it would have been difficult to do a version without using the word,” says Fordham, who has a degree from Sus- extended family famille élargie / to move around ici, changer l'ordre de / to avoid éviter / amount quantité / straightforward simple. 9. Pride and Prejudice (VF) Orgueil et Préjugés / depiction description / to arouse susciter, provoquer / slur insulte / nigger nègre (péj.) / school district commission scolaire (autorité chargée de gérer les écoles sur un territoire déterminé) / eighth grade équivalent de la classe de quatrième / ...over concerns ...par crainte (concern crainte, inquiétude) / to make, made, made sb uncomfortable mettre qqn mal à l'aise. 10. degree diplôme / sex University in Politics and Philosophy. “There is a whole sequence where Atticus chastises Scout for using the word. The word is essential to the court scene. In the end, this is a semi-autobiographical account of life in rural Alabama during Jim Crow. It is an excruciating word that rightly has a gut-wrenching effect, but it was how people spoke.”
HIGH POINT
11. Graphic fiction is at a high point commercially and critically. “The Man Booker recognition for Sabrina will do something for the intellectual credibility of the graphic
Atticus/Scout personnages du roman (père et fille) / to chastise réprimander, punir / court (du) tribunal / account récit / Jim Crow ségrégation (les lois Jim Crow imposèrent de 1876 à 1964 la ségrégation dans tous les lieux publics dans les États du Sud) / excruciating atroce, exécrable / gut-wrenching déchirant. 11. high point point culminant, summum / recognition reconnaissance / novel,” says Fordham. The nomination marked perhaps the most significant moment for the genre since Art Spiegelman’s Maus won a special Pulitzer Prize in 1992. That re-telling of his father’s experience in a concentration camp, using mice to represent Jewish prisoners and cats as Nazi guards, is a masterpiece.
12. Fordham says he hopes that in the UK and USA “graphic novels are on the cusp of becoming an accepted media, as they are in France and Japan”. Harper Lee’s estate is certainly aiming to promote the novel, still purchased by more than a million people a year, as “reborn for a new age”. significant important, significatif / re-telling adaptation / mouse (pl. mice) souris / Jewish juif / masterpiece chef-d’oeuvre. 12. on the cusp of sur le point de / to aim to viser/ chercher à / to purchase acheter / to be reborn renaître; ici, une renaissance ....