Subject
Art Spiegleman & VN' _Laughter in the Dark_
Date
Body
As an aside, Art Spiegleman and poet Bob Callahan
together created Neon Lit:
Neon Lit: Noir Illustrated, a series of graphic novels or pop
art "picture paperbacks." The Neon Lit motto: "Where, in crime's
shadow, art and literature meet." The series takes modern or
postmodern crime fiction and, drawing on the talents of comics
writers and illustrators, adapts it to a black and white graphic
format (the mood's inspired, say the blurbs, by hard-boiled
crime stories and classic film noir). Last year Neon Lit
adapted Auster's metaphysical mystery City of Glass. This year's
entry is Barry Gifford's Perdita Durango (adapted by Bob
Callahan, art by Scott Gillis, Avon, $ 12.50) -- a tale of the
Texas-to-Los-Angeles adventures of a dangerous demimondaine.
Scheduled for future Neon Lit editions: Doris Lessing's The
Fifth Child, Vladimir Nabokov's Laughter in the Dark and William
Lindsay Gresham's Nightmare Alley. Fascinating stuff for both
lovers of art and fiction.
_Laughter in the Dark_ was due out in '98 but no sign of it yet. The
books are "labor intensive to draw and complex to produce" so
perhaps _LinD_is mired in production difficulties. The two
books which have been published were reviewed well.
Suellen Stringer-Hye
Jean and Alexander Heard Library
Vanderbilt University
stringers@library.vanderbilt.edu