Kick to sign ‘Graphic Canon’

Russ Kick is a man on several missions. As editor of the website The Memory Hole, a title taken from George Orwell’s dystopian novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” Kick published U.S. government documents on intelligence and covert action, and reports on scientific studies and consumer safety.

His work inspired the question: Why is this important stuff secret? The images he unveiled of the flag- draped coffins of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq had to be procured through Freedom of Information Act requests. Kick also is an editor and author for The Disinformation Company, publisher of such titles as “You Are Being Lied To,” “Everything You Know Is Wrong” and “50 Things You’re Not Supposed to Know.”

His latest project involves retrieving archives as well, but these documents reach farther back in time and often serve a gentler purpose. As editor of “The Graphic Canon” (Seven Stories Press), a three -volume pictorial recreation of the world’s great literature, Kick found more than 130 artists to illustrate “every A-list work of Western literature” plus a sampling of classics from Japan, China, India and Tibet.

Kick will be at The Booksellers at Laurelwood at 6 p.m. Thursday to sign “The Graphic Canon, Vol. 1: From ‘The Epic of Gilgamesh’ to Shakespeare and ‘Dangerous Liaisons’.” This edition includes Homer’s “The Iliad” adapted by Alice Duke and “The Odyssey” adapted by Gareth Hinds, (who also revisits “Beowulf” and “Gulliver’s Travels”). Will Eisner does “Don Quixote” and Robert Crumb takes on James Boswell’s “London Journal.” A painting by Cortney Skinner supplies “Advice to a Young Man on the Choice of a Mistress” by Benjamin Franklin.

Ddue out soon are Volume II, “Kubla Khan to the Brontë Sisters to ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’” and Volume III, “From ‘Heart of Darkness’ to Hemingway to ‘Infinite Jest’.”

The Booksellers at Laurelwood is at 387 Perkins Ext. Call (901) 6839801.

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