Via Eric Reynolds (scroll down) comes the news that a group known as PoetryFoundation.org has launched a new, hopefully ongoing feature, “The Poem As Comic Strip,” which apparently will consist of well-known cartoonists illustrating famous poems. First up is David Heatley, who adapts Diane Wakoski’s “Belly Dancer.” Eric notes Jeffrey Brown and Gabrielle Bell may soon be next. Coolsville.
February 6th, 2007 at 9:50 pm
I would have quibbled with Ed Park’s opening statement that “Heightened language — one possible or partial definition of poetry — isn’t the first thing one associates with comics” were it not for the fact that the next sentence, and indeed the whole concept behind this experiment, is based on understanding that heightened language is precisely the nature of good comics writing. Scripting a comic isn’t prose writing and it isn’t making a screenplay of spoken words (though both of these occasionally come into fashion as stylistic experiments) but a highly compressed form with rules and restrictions all its own. Likening the verbal aspect of comics to poetry rather than to novels or movies seems like a hugely useful and interesting comparison, and definitely one I’ve never heard before.