It’s not that Kafka’s story itself is obtuse, but his prose is so straight-faced that it can be difficult to visualize the surreal plight of his protagonist. The text is often interwoven with the images, radiating out from alarm clocks or falling down the page haphazardly to emphasize the unfortunate Gregor Samsa’s panic and distress. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka Adapted by Peter Kuper (Crown Publications, 2004) Kuper’s starkly black-and-white, cartoonish illustrations are the perfect complement to Kafka’s bleak absurdism in this classic man-becomes-bug story. With beloved stories, especially those that wind up getting made into movies, there’s always the fear that the interpreted visuals of the characters won’t match how you pictured them, but this adaptation keeps things simple: The two-tone illustrations don’t detract from the magic of L’Engle’s story, and instead breathe subtle life into her words. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle Adapted by Hope Larson (Square Fish, 2015) Hope Larson adapted the book – which is now a major motion picture as well – into a graphic novel just a couple years ago. Whatever the motivation, the results are frequently spectacular, as seen in the examples ahead.

It could serve to reinforce the power of sequential arts and comic books as legitimate literary forms, or as an ambitious experiment in illustrating complex prose and themes. It could be an attempt to convince The Youth™ that reading can be cool, or maybe it’s the desire to refresh an older work and remind contemporary audiences why that work still matters. There are a lot of reasons why someone might choose to adapt a classic written work into a graphic novel.

Paul auster graphic novel