'To Kill a Mockingbird' will soon get a graphic novel adaptation
Harper Lee's perennial favorite To Kill a Mockingbird has been turned into a stage play, a musical, and, most famously, a 1962 movie starring Gregory Peck.
But the multi-award-winning book has never been translated into comic book form -- until now.
Lee's estate has licensed a graphic novel version of Mockingbird, HarperCollins announced Tuesday. The publisher also released a single pane of artwork from London author-illustrator Fred Fordham, who will draw and adapt the book, showing Scout in her tire swing:
Fordham seems fully aware of the heavy burden on his shoulders. "Adapting a story that means so much to so many -– and finding the appropriate art style to give it life in a long-form visual medium –- is a great honor and responsibility," he said in a statement, "and, mercifully, also a great pleasure."
The book will be released in November 2018, HarperCollins said.
As for the question of why an adaptation took so long? There's no official word, but the famously reclusive Lee was known to be wary of alternate editions of Mockingbird during her lifetime. Indeed, she didn't even authorize an e-book version until 2014.
Controversy still buzzes around the release of Go Set a Watchman, which is in many ways an early draft of Mockingbird and shows an adult Scout becoming disillusioned with her racist father. Lee's lawyer revealed the existence of the book to a stunned world in 2015. Lee died in February 2016.
Mercifully, there are no plans to adapt Watchman in any format.
Chris is a veteran tech, entertainment and culture journalist, author of 'How Star Wars Conquered the Universe,' and co-host of the Doctor Who podcast 'Pull to Open.' Hailing from the U.K., Chris got his start as a sub editor on national newspapers. He moved to the U.S. in 1996, and became senior news writer for Time.com a year later. In 2000, he was named San Francisco bureau chief for Time magazine. He has served as senior editor for Business 2.0, and West Coast editor for Fortune Small Business and Fast Company. Chris is a graduate of Merton College, Oxford and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is also a long-time volunteer at 826 Valencia, the nationwide after-school program co-founded by author Dave Eggers. His book on the history of Star Wars is an international bestseller and has been translated into 11 languages.
