Unlikely bedfellows
The other day I was taking my nerdiness to a whole new level on poetryfoundation.org. A friend had tipped me off to a series the site ran a few years ago called “The Poem as Comic Strip.” The project asks some of the most respected and celebrated comic artists of today to interpret any poem in the Poetry Foundation’s archives from “Beowulf to present.” This collaboration allows for the artists and readers to explore the intersection of graphic and verse. While comics and poems might seem as unlikely bedfellows as Gabriel Bell and Emily Dickinson, the two have a few things in common. For one, both poems and comics are known for their use of space, especially white space, on the page. Combine this with the careful pacing necessary to both mediums and you have a sound combination—one worth further exploration.
There’s even a strip that uses a poem by the poet-in-residence at my alma mater: Diane
Wakoski.
The foundation seems to have removed the complete strips from the site, but Google Images pulls up some interesting results.
For the past couple of years, I have been adapting classic oEnglish and French poems, including works by Eliot, Keats and Poe, into comics. Check them out if you like on my website: http://julianpeterscomics.com/
Thanks Julian! Your site is awesome–I’d love to review it for my column sometime. If you don’t mind, send me your email address, maybe we could do an interview? katesloan@idler-mag.com
Thanks so much! I’d be more than happy, my e-mail is: jmarcopeters@hotmail.com
neat!