The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log » Edwin Morgan

Liz Lochhead discusses Metaphrog

Joe — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:02:34 +0000

Scottish poet and playwright Liz Lochhead was on Scottish Television’s The Hour discussing Metaphrog‘s delightful comics adaptation of her friend, the great Edwin Morgan’s sci-fi poem The First Men on Mercury, which the Glasgow duo adapted for the Association for Scottish Literary Studies for National Poetry Day earlier this month (see here to enjoy the actual pages). The printed comic was given out to school students and we still have a small amount remaining in the Edinburgh FPI store which you can grab absolutely free.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhjqrRLjeoo

The First Men on Mercury

Joe — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 23:05:51 +0000

Happy National Poetry Day to you all! As I mentioned the other week the Association for Scottish Literary Studies has decided to mark this year’s UK National Poetry Day by asking Glasgow’s delightful Metaphrog to adapt The First Men on Mercury, a science fiction themed poem from the man that I (and a lot of others) would consider the finest living Scottish poet, the very fine Edwin Morgan (who was the first National Makar appointed by the new Scots Parliament, a measure of the respect and affection he is held in). Thousands of copies of the resulting four page, full colour comic adaptation are being given out to school students across Glasgow to mark the day. Comics have been getting used increasingly as a fun and accessible way to encourage more youngsters to read (especially to introduce them to the classics) by teachers and librarians and I’m utterly delighted to see poetry and comics coming together in this way and being shared out with school kids, especially since its often such an uphill struggle to get people to read poetry, which is a huge shame; much as I love well-written prose there are some ideas, feelings and thoughts which are best articulated in verse.

I’m also very happy that Metaphrog and the Association For Scottish Literary Studies have kindly agree to let us post up those pages to share with everyone (thanks, guys!); John and Sandra at Metaphrog, freshly returned from enjoying the Wigtown Book Festival, tell me that their own site will have a section with more information on the making of the comic, the project and some notes for teachers to use as study aides in the classroom (see here). There’s a nice 50s Sci-Fi feel to the art designs, I think, which I rather appreciate. Click on the pages below to see the larger size; the text is (c) Edwin Morgan, comics adaptation (c) Metaphrog and ASLS):

Comics, science fiction and poetry

Joe — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 23:01:41 +0000

In the UK the 8th of October will be National Poetry Day, an day to encourage people to read or listen to some wonderful verse. Its not always easy, even with heavy readers; too many people say “I don’t like poetry”, which always seems odd to me to be so dismissive – I ask them if they like the songs of the Lennon and McCartney or Dylan and usually they say yes. You’re enjoying a form of poetry then – see you do like some of it. This year to try and encourage more poetry reading the Association for Scottish Literary Studies has teamed up with Glasgow’s Metaphrog, creators of the wonderful Louis comics, to make a four page comics adaptation of The First Men on Mercury by the great Edwin Morgan.

(some of the art from Metaphrog’s adaptation of Edwin Morgan’s First Men on Mercury)

“We’re thrilled to be working on this. Adapting poetry into comics is proving to be a really interesting project, and “The First Men on Mercury”, being largely dialogue-based, is ideally suited to this,” Metaphrog.

Said comic will be distributed to 30, 000 secondary school pupils in the poet’s hometown of Glasgow. I’m doubly delighted – I love Metaphrog’s comics work and Morgan is my favourite living Scots poet. He was the first ever National Makar appointed by the Scottish Parliament when it came home to Edinburgh, an indication of respect both for his work and for the role poetry plays in the cultural life of a nation. Over recent years we’ve seen a growing tendency to embrace comics to encourage reading (think of the Alan Grant/Cam Kennedy Stevenson adaptations or Simon Gurr and Eugen Byrne’s Darwin graphic biography); how wonderful to see Morgan’s work – and one of his science fiction pieces at that – being adapted in comics to encourage a love of reading. Fingers crossed we’ll be able to share more of it with you here come Poetry Day.

“One of my long-standing interests has been science fiction. I enjoy writing science fiction poems, and try to give them some “point”, so that they are not merely fantastic. In “The First Men on Mercury”, I imagine the first successful Earth expedition to the planet Mercury, and an attempt at conversation between the leader of the expedition and the first Mercurian who comes up to see what has happened. … Earthman conquers the universe – or does he?” Edwin Morgan in Nothing Not Giving Messages, published Polygon, 1990.