Graphic Classics

Among the graphic novels held at Wellington City Libraries are several adaptions of classic literary works. If you’re looking for a first step into these works, or simply want to experience them in a different way, here is a selection of what’s available!

Dracula / Bess, Georges
“Bram Stoker’s original novel about the world-renowned vampire, Dracula, is adapted into a beautiful graphic novel by the renowned artist Georges Bess. This volume includes an epilogue adapting Stoker’s short story “Dracula’s Guest” (believed to be the original novel’s first draft chapter before later revived for publication two years after the author’s passing).” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Watership down : the graphic novel / Sturm, James
” Watership Down is a classic tale of survival, hope, courage, and friendship that has delighted and inspired readers around the world for more than fifty years. Masterfully adapted by award-winning author James Sturm and gorgeously illustrated by bestselling artist Joe Sutphin, this spectacular graphic novel will delight old fans and inspire new ones, bringing the joy of Watership Down to a new generation of readers.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Macbeth : a tale of horror / Ascari, Stefano
“Deep within the walls of Castle Dunsinane, a seed of madness begins to bloom. Spurred on by the prophesies of witches, and the whispers of his scheming wife, Lord Macbeth plots the death of his friend, King Duncan. This one cruel act soon spirals out of control, and murder after murder erupt into a wave of chaos and violence that threatens to consume all of Scotland.” (Catalogue)

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Fables, Haruki Murakami and office jobs in space: New graphic novels

Fables, Haruki Murakami and office jobs in space. This month’s new graphic novels have a wide range of stories for you to enjoy. From the darker things in life to funny light-hearted stories, the variety in graphic novels is endless. Check out some of our new graphic novels and see where they take you!

The mysteries / Watterson, Bill
“In a fable for grown-ups, a long-ago kingdom is afflicted with unexplainable calamities. Hoping to end the torment, the king dispatches his knights to discover the source of the mysterious events. Years later, a single battered knight returns. From Watterson and Kascht comes a mysterious and beautifully illustrated fable about what lies beyond human understanding.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Haruki Murakami manga stories / Deveney, Jean-Christophe | eBook available for Haruki Murakami manga stories
“Haruki Murakami’s novels, essays and short stories have sold millions of copies worldwide and been translated into dozens of languages. Now for the first time, many of Murakami’s best-loved short stories are available in graphic novel form in English. With their trademark mix of realism and fantasy, centering around Murakami’s characteristic themes of loss, remorse and confusion.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Space job / Goodman, David A.
“Each day is an exciting new adventure in incompetence aboard the Bush. The Captain with self-centered priorities spends more time on space eBay than in command, the Chief Engineer can’t even fix a chair, the Operations Officer would rather be anywhere else, and the Communications Officer only seems to take personal calls. It’s a wonder they get anything done at all, but surely they can handle a simple cargo run. What could go wrong?” (Catalogue)

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Get Back into Reading with These New Graphic Novels

Getting back into reading can be hard, especially if you have a busy lifestyle. Graphic novels can be a perfect starting point! They bring so much to the table – any genre you want, beautiful artwork and page turning stories. To top it off, they can be a quicker read than your average book! Check out this month’s recent picks to jumpstart your reading journey.

The Jewish deli : an illustrated guide to the chosen food / Nadler, Ben
“A visual treat, this accessible and informative nonfiction graphic novel delivers stories of tradition and innovation, celebrations of iconic menu staples, flavor profiles, food preparations, ordering advice, spotlights on legendary and up-and-coming delis, and much more.” (Catalogue)

Soichi : Junji Ito story collection / Itō, Junji
“Whether it’s summer holidays or a birthday party, Soichi can turn any occasion into a nightmare in a heartbeat. Meanwhile, tormented by his little brother’s never-ending pranks, older brother Koichi has a soundproof room built. And then there’s the strange phenomenon surrounding the handmade casket their grandfather left behind. Ten tales that celebrate the sinister and hilarious world of Junji Ito’s favorite antihero, Soichi!” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Listen, beautiful Márcia / Quintanilha, Marcello
“Listen, Beautiful Márcia is a gripping story about a family pushed to the brink. Listen, Beautiful Márcia is a fast-paced, flamboyantly colorful new graphic novel by one of the most important Brazilian graphic novelists working today. Marcello Quintanilha’s first English-language graphic novel is a tour de force — a tightly wound drama filled with masterful suspense and a deep love for family and character.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

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Raymond Briggs, author of “The Snowman”, has died

Raymond Briggs, one of the world’s most unique and beloved author/illustrators has died, aged 88.

The Snowman, by Raymond BriggsAn iconic children’s author, he is perhaps best known for his hugely popular books of the 1970s, including Father Christmas, Fungus the Bogeyman, and especially The Snowman (1978). Although he was already well established as a children’s author at the time it was made, it was the 1982 multi-award winning animated adaptation of The Snowman that really propelled Briggs and his work into the wider public consciousness.

Born in Wimbledon in 1934, Briggs was evacuated as a child from London during the second world war. After doing his national service, he studied painting at University College London, which he briefly pursued as a career, before becoming a professional illustrator.

In 1966, he won the first of many major awards — the Kate Greenaway Medal, for illustrating  The Mother Goose Treasury. His 1970s work appealed to children, teenagers, and adults alike, whilst later works took on a more serious political aspect, with works such as When The Wind Blows (about nuclear destruction) and The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman (about the Falklands War).

In many of his works, Briggs liked to include autobiographical elements with poignant, humanist portrayals, such as Ethel and Ernest (about his parents). His last work — the brutally honest  illustrated memoir Time for Lights Out.

Taken as a whole the body of his works is remarkable funny, sad, political and sometimes deeply personal.  He always adapted his illustration style in a chameleon type way, to precisely suit the mood and tone of each work. In short, he created books that matter and will continue to matter as time passes and surely that is the ultimate point of great books, or indeed great art.


The snowman / Briggs, Raymond
“When his snowman comes to life, a little boy invites him home and in return is taken on a flight high above the countryside.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Father Christmas / Briggs, Raymond
“Strip pictures, with an occasional full-page spread, and words in comic-style balloons show domestic activities as well as the working life of a slightly reluctant Father Christmas.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Father Christmas goes on holiday / Briggs, Raymond
“Follows Father Christmas on a search for the ideal holiday spot.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Fungus the bogeyman / Briggs, Raymond
“Everyday life in Bogeydom is examined as Fungus the Bogeyman describes the skills of scaring people in the nighttime and living underground amidst slime and grime in the daytime.” (Adapted from Catalogue). We also have the award winning film available on DVD.

Ug : boy genius of the stone age and his search for soft trousers / Briggs, Raymond
“Ug, an inventive and inquisitive Stone Age boy, is misunderstood by his family and friends when he tries to improve their living conditions.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

The Puddleman / Briggs, Raymond
“Tom refers to his grandfather as ‘Collar’ because he drags him around on a lead. One day, Tom decides that he will take Collar on a walk to see the puddles he has named after the members of the family, but the puddles are not there. Collar insists that this is because it hasn’t rained, but Tom believes that it’s just because they haven’t been put in yet. He wanders off, leaving Collar talking to Mrs Whitebobblehat, and comes across just the person he needs.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Time for lights out / Briggs, Raymond
“In his customary pose as the grumpiest of grumpy old men, Raymond Briggs contemplates old age and death… and doesn’t like them much. Illustrated with Briggs’s inimitable pencil drawings, Time for Lights Out is a collection of short pieces, some funny, some melancholy, some remembering his wife who died young, others about the joy of grandchildren, of walking the dog… He looks back at his schooldays and his time as an evacuee during the war, and remembers his parents and the house in which he grew up. But most, like this one, are about his home in Sussex.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Notes from the sofa / Briggs, Raymond
“In ‘Notes from the Sofa’, Raymond Briggs traces the course of his life in a series of wonderfully observed vignettes that take him from the awkwardness and embarrassment of growing up to the vicissitudes and frustrations of growing old.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Gentleman Jim / Briggs, Raymond
“Jim is the story of Jim Bloggs, an imaginative toilet cleaner who, dissatisfied with his station in life, devotes his time to envisioning a world beyond it. His walls are lined with books like Out in the Silver West, The Boys’ Book of Pirates, and Executive Opportunities, which provide fodder for his ruminations on career change. Encouraged by his wife, who is also eager to incorporate more adventure into her life, Jim sets out to bring these dreams to fruition by accumulating various accoutrements, only to discover that the life of an executive, an artist, or a cowboy is more complicated and costly than it appears.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Graphic novels for NZ Music Month

One of my favourite things about the art of comics is how they depict sound. Since the medium is completely mute, comic artists have to come up with novel visual tricks to portray music.

In Ed Piskor’s Hip-Hop Family Tree, the colouring will go into a shaky ‘double-vision’, giving the panel the disorienting effect of looking at a 3D movie without the glasses, to depict the rattling bass of a sound system. In Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie’s Phonogram, music fans called ‘phonomancers’ turn pop songs into magic spells to illustrate (without music) that feeling of power and invincibility you get from listening to your favourite song.

It seems more and more comic artists are going to bat for this technical challenge, as the graphic novel music biopic has become a popular subgenre in the 2010s. Sitting somewhere between documentary and written biography, it allows artists to exaggerate and caricature the details of an artist’s career. Mike Allred’s pop-art inspired drawing style is a perfect match for his most recent work Stardust, rayguns & moonage daydreamswhich gives David Bowie a cosmic career odyssey worthy of the work that he put into building the myth of Ziggy Stardust. Similarly, The Fifth Beatle sees the Fab Four through the eyes of their humble manager Brian Epstein; the comic’s colouring accentuates the efforts Epstein went through to take four lads with the marks of musical greatness from the grey pallor of Liverpool to the bright shiny vistas of international stardom. The graphic novel biography makes bands and artists seem larger than life in a way that photographs or concert films can sometimes struggle to capture.

From the mega-pop stars, to the unsung heroes of music history, to the fans that keep the passion burning, there’s a graphic novel for every audience in our collection!

The complete Phonogram / Gillen, Kieron
“Collected in a single volume for the first time, the first critically beloved work from the creators of The Wicked + the Divine. Includes RUE BRITANNIA, THE SINGLES CLUB and THE IMMATERIAL GIRL, with RUE BRITANNIA coloured for the first time. The world where Music Is Magic has never looked better.” (Catalogue)

Hip hop family tree [2] : 1981-1983 / Piskor, Ed
“The second instalment of this acclaimed graphic novel hip-hop history (originally serialized on the popular website Boingboing) covers the years 1981-1983. Hip Hop has made a big transition from the parks and rec rooms to downtown clubs and vinyl records. The performers make moves to separate themselves from the paying customers by dressing more and more flamboyant until a young group called RUN-DMC comes on the scene to take things back to the streets.” (Adapted from catalogue)

The fifth Beatle : the Brian Epstein story / Tiwary, Vivek J.
“The Fifth Beatle is the untold true story of Brian Epstein, the visionary manager who discovered and guided The Beatles — from their gigs in a tiny cellar in Liverpool to unprecedented international stardom. Yet more than merely the story of “The Man Who Made The Beatles,” The Fifth Beatle is an uplifting, tragic, and ultimately inspirational human story about the struggle to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds. Brian himself died painfully lonely at the young age of thirty-two, having helped The Beatles prove through “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” that pop music could be an inspirational art form. He was homosexual when it was a felony to be so in the United Kingdom, Jewish at a time of anti-Semitism, and from Liverpool when it was considered just a dingy port town.” (Catalogue)

Blue in green / V, Ram
“The dark and haunting portrayal of a young musician’s pursuit of creative genius — the monstrous nature of which threatens to consume him as it did his predecessor half a century ago. From creators Ram V (Grafity’s Wall, These Savage Shores) and Anand RK (Grafity’s Wall). BLUE IN GREEN is an exploration of ambitions, expectations, and the horrific depths of their spiraling pursuit.” (Catalogue)

Bowie : stardust, rayguns & moonage daydreams / Allred, Mike
BOWIE: Stardust, Rayguns, & Moonage Daydreams chronicles the rise of Bowie’s career from obscurity to fame; and paralleled by the rise and fall of his alter ego as well as the rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust. As the Spiders from Mars slowly implode, Bowie wrestles with his Ziggy persona. The outcome of this internal conflict will change not only David Bowie, but also, the world.” (Adapted from catalogue)

Gunning for hits. music thriller / Volume 1, Slade : / Rougvie, Jeff
“In the 80’s NYC music business, Martin Mills, a record company talent scout, jumps at the chance to make a comeback album with his favorite rock legend. When it goes sideways, Martin is forced to use deadly skills from his past” (Catalogue)

Redbone : the true story of a Native American rock band / Staebler, Christian
“Brothers Pat and Lolly Vegas were talented Native American rock musicians that took the 1960s Sunset Strip by storm. Determined to control their creative vision and maintain their cultural identity, they eventually signed a deal with Epic Records in 1969. But as the American Indian Movement gained momentum the band took a stand, choosing pride in their ancestry over continued commercial reward. Created in cooperation with the Vegas family, authors Christian Staebler and Sonia Paoloni with artist Thibault Balahy take painstaking steps to ensure the historical accuracy of this important and often overlooked story of America’s past. Part biography and part research journalism, Redbone provides a voice to a people long neglected in American history.” (Adapted from catalogue)

Total jazz / Blutch
“In these freewheeling short stories, vignettes, and sketches that originally appeared in Jazzman magazine, the famed French cartoonist examines not only the genre and its creators but the nature of the subculture. The grumpy festival-goer, the curmudgeonly collector, the anxious auditioner, and many others are his targets. As improvisional as Coltrane and Mingus, Blutch captures the excitement of live performance and of creating and listening to music.” (Catalogue)

Topp : promoter Gary Topp brought us the world / Collier, David
“As with all of Collier’s work, his latest graphic novel is a combination of memoir and biography. This time, he explores his involvement in the cultural landscape of Toronto in the 1970s and 80s, specifically focusing on the life of Gary Topp, a concert promoter and founder of the pioneering Canadian repertory cinema. Topp emerged from an immigrant background, abandoned the family textile business, and became an influential figure in the lives of an entire community. He was also Collier’s first boss and mentor. Though outspoken and opinionated, Gary Topp inspired love and devotion, not only in those who worked for him, but also in the acts he booked — including the Ramones, The Police, and the Dixie Chicks. This graphic novel looks at a rapidly disappearing past and uses Topp’s ability to see beyond the mainstream for a look at where our culture is heading.” (Catalogue)

Comics in Conversation with Comics: Dial H for Hero Volume 2

This is the next in our Comics in Conversation with Comics series of posts, in which we explore comics and graphic novels that highlight, challenge, and celebrate the works that came before them, or say something about comics as an art form overall.

In this post we’ll be taking a look at the recent DC Comics series Dial H for Hero, by writer Sam Humphries and artist Joe Quinones.

Dial H for Hero is one of DC Comics’ more obscure series, but it’s a title that has a strong following among comic writers for its seemingly infinite potential. First appearing in House of Mystery #156 in January 1966, the premise centres around the H-Dial, a mysterious rotary phone (ask your parents) that, when H-E-R-O is dialled on it, can transform the caller into a random superhero. 

The 2019 Dial H for Hero series finds the Dial in the hands of two teen runaways, Miguel Montez and Summer Pickens, and this time the dial not only changes them into different comic heroes, but different art styles. These moments are the main draw of the series, referencing famous comics outside of the DC universe such as Dragon Ball, Krazy Kat, Peanuts, Tank Girl, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and paying homage to such celebrated artists like Dan Clowes, Mike Allred, Alex Toth, Rob Liefeld, Moebius and more over the course of the series’ twelve issues.

We’ve listed some of the best comic homages from the second volume, with links to the relevant comics that inspired them if you want to check them out from our collection. You can also jump away now and reserve both volumes of Dial H for Hero if you don’t want to be spoiled on the story.

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