Paul Auster’s The critically acclaimed New York trilogy will be adapted into full-length graphic novels by Pantheon.
city of glassThe first novel in the series was adapted into a comic by the author Paul Karasik and artist David Mazzucchelli Although it was out of print back in 1994, a new edition in 2004 helped it continue to become a cult classic, with over 30 editions published worldwide and excerpted in Norton Anthology of Postmodern Fiction. Even in its original form, the book helped solidify the value of the graphic novel format itself.
Thirty years later, the remainder of Auster’s trilogy is being adapted, all written by Karasik, and collected into one edition this April. ghost adapted from great illustrations Lorenzo Mattottiand locked room Will be drawn by Karasik. Neither has been published before.
Even in a week of incredible news, the news that Lorenzo Mattotti has drawn a new adaptation of Paul Auster’s New York trilogy is still stunning.
For those unfamiliar:
The New York Trilogy is postmodern literature masquerading as noir fiction, where language is the prime suspect. Each book is an interpretation of detective and suspense fiction, exploring various philosophical themes. In “City of Glass,” a detective story writer investigates a murder and spirals into madness. The protagonist of “Ghost” is a private detective named Blue, who is tracking a man named Blake for a client named White. This also ends with the downfall of the protagonist. In “The Locked Room,” another writer is experiencing writer’s block and hopes to break it by solving the disappearance of his childhood friend.
Karasik is an important figure in the world of literary comics, starting out as associate editor of RAW magazine and later co-authoring How to read Nancy Among many other accomplishments, he helped reintroduce Fletcher Hanks to contemporary comic book audiences. He also The New Yorker, and many other things.
The collection will be released on April 8th. original city of glass is a unique masterpiece that powerfully blends Auster’s wordplay and allusions with Mazzucchelli’s imagery, proving the unique storytelling possibilities of this form. The completed trilogy arrives in a very different world… but should be just as fascinating.
