At the launch party for the Edinburgh International Book Festival I bumped into Ron Grosset from Scottish publisher Waverley Books and the man most directly responsible for getting the ball rolling on the recent graphic novel adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped. Since Kidnapped went down so well with readers, teachers, the UNESCO City of Literature campaign and the media (it really got a lot of mainstream media attention in Scotland, which can’t be bad for the genre) I asked if he was planning any more – the good news is that yes, he is. The even better news is that he has Alan Grant and Cam Kennedy working on it again. The even more good news is that they are again adapting Robert Louis Stevenson; in fact this time round they are adapting my favourite RLS story and a true classic which has embedded itself into popular culture for a century: The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Cam is beavering away on the artwork right now and the graphic novel should be due in February 2008, a year since Kidnapped made its bow. Alan and Cam will both be flying the flag for our beloved genre in the next few days at the book festival.
Mon, Aug 13, 2007
Comics and cartoons