For this project I chose to adapt the beginning of Paradise Lost into a graphic Novel. I actually had a lot of fun with this and would love to continue with the entire book if I had the time to do so (which I do not). I was inspired by a graphic novel for the Odyssey that I found in seventh grade and brought in as a support for my classmates that were struggling to read the poem. Graphic novels for epic poems I think make things a lot more accessible, since dyslexic students as well as younger students or students who struggle with the format can use them for reference. It makes it easier also to recognize where the dialog is if you have a guide for the scene. For this one, I chose to try to get the “gist” of what they were saying in prose non-archaic language.
For the first page of this I got through to the line art stage with some limited shading. This page was meant to illustrate both the call to the muse section of the poem and the introduction to Satan as a character. The second page is when the scene with Satan and Beelzebub takes place. I was hoping to get as far as being able to have the famous “it’s better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven” quote, but I didn’t have enough space. The second page I didn’t have time to get the full line art done for it, but I think the intention comes off clearly regardless. When I make comics I find pose/reference images online ad then put them together so that I have an idea of their flow/intention, and then I go back in and I sketch, line, and colour the comic later. This is the version of the first page at the same stage I got to for the second, but without the filter for the “old page” over it:
I chose to include the Italian quote from the Inferno because I think that Milton was trying to reference that passage in the section in which he describes Lucifer’s view of the pit. The translation for the words is “abandon all hope, ye who enter here” (Canto 3, Inferno) and is meant to be over the doorway to hell.
When writing the section of dialog between Lucifer and Beelzebub, I needed to have a pre-fall name for the first prince of hell. I’ve seen a lot of mythological traditions that have his name as Baal or Ba’al, since Beelzebub is a pun of a name for Baal. I chose to do “Ba’al” since the pronunciation of that is more clear in English. For the pre-fall name for Satan, I used the Hebrew from the Isaiah text that “Lucifer” comes from. I don’t have a reference exactly for that as I got it from Kez, my Hebrew expert.
For the first frame I chose to use a pomegranate rather than using an apple, as there is no actual distinction in the original text. I wanted to intentionally tie the imagery in this comic to the story of Hades and Persephone in choosing that image rather than tradition.
Works Cited:
Alighieri, Dante. Inferno, Hacket Classics: English and Italian version, 2009.
Hinds, Gareth. The Odyssey.
Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Introduction by John Leonard. Penguin Classics, 2003. Print.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Crossway. 2016
Sprockets and Springes 