The graphic novel adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novel of adventure, Kidnapped, by Alan Grant and Cam Kennedy, will be part of a major celebration of Scottish literature in February. Edinburgh Unesco City of Literature trust are organising the event, which is being backed by the city council, the Scottish Arts Council and Edinburgh University, and will be Edinburgh’s first ever city reading campaign, with thousands of different versions of Kidnapped in prose, graphic novel form and a version specially adapted for younger readers given out to schools and other locations free and is the biggest initiative since the city was designated a World City of Literature.
Alan Grant and Cam Kennedy will both be taking part in some of the events in February, including an event at the Scottish Book Trust on the city’s historic High Street (an area Robert Louis Stevenson would have known well as he wandered the hostelries of the city in his velvet coat) where they will talk about how they approach the creation of a graphic novel. According to the Edinburgh Evening News the National Library of Scotland (a near-neighbour to FPI Edinburgh on the next Old Town bridge along from us) has acquired a collection of Cam Kennedy’s work for the project for their archives.
How cool is this?!?!? Excuse my enthusiasm, but come on – a graphic novel at the heart of a major reading intitiative for a World City of Literature and comics art in the National Library? And the fact that this is all based on the work of one of my all-time favourite Scottish writers, RLS, is the icing on the cake for me (plus Kidnapped, along with his Treasure Island, is one of the finest adventure tales ever written – no, that isn’t open for debate, they just are. Trust me, I’m a bookseller). What terrific news – this is something I will need to keep an eye on.
(photo by Tony Marsh from the Edinburgh Evening News article of Cam’s art at the National Library of Scotland)
July 23rd, 2007 at 7:51 pm
My father bought me the DC Thomson copy (the one with the brown cover and Alan and David on the front) I was four and still have it today. Bought the new Kidnappit today and was blown away (the original is still my favourite but the new has remained true to the original drawings and the story is retold very well). Love the story and pleased to see that it is being retold again.