Quote Originally Posted by Merlin1958 View Post
John? JIMHO it's somewhat of a sad commentary on the the present generation that in order to generate "new interest" in classic novels they have to become "Graphic Novels". I don't argue that its good business, but its a shame that this generation will, predominantly, only relate to the Graphic Novel and not the "Original book".
Much as I really like graphic novels, and comics, I agree. I'm not really a fan of comic adaptations of literary works. I'm happy with comics that extend a story though, as long as it's with the author's permission and, hopefully, writing. Hence I was happy to buy the DT comics so far except for The Battle of Tull. (Okay, The Gunslinger Born was essentially a retelling of Wizard and Glass, but it had quite a bit of other 'off-page' material which justified the purchase for me. Mind you, I bought Little Sisters too, but that was mainly for the origins stuff at the back. To be fair, I really enjoyed the main comic story too.)

Having an interest in comics, I am interested in the medium becoming more popular though, but certainly not to the detriment of the written book. I think it might be a different in the States (and it's certainly different in Japan, and even mainland Europe) but here in the UK comics are often or not associated as 'for kids', although that has changed somewhat. Ironically a lot of the comics we read (largely American imports, but 2000 AD and Judge Dredd Megazine are still going strong) aren't really all that suitable for kids, although 2000 AD started off aimed at young lads. And that's another issue as there's plenty for adults/late teens (albeit the majority probably don't read them, hence my earlier point) and plenty for young kids, leaving a bit of a void for the rest who probably think they're 'too old for comics' anyway.