When asked about this year’s graphic novel “Prose to Panel” exhibit, Alexandra Edwards, a graduate student in the English department and a graduate assistant to the library’s Outreach and Communication teams, told us of her work with other library staff, Laura Hutelmyer and Joanne Quinn, on the Graphic Novels in the Digital Age event and how the exhibit was “inspired by panelist Josh Levitas’s work on a graphic novel adaptation of James Joyce’s Ulysses.”

The exhibit included items that were carefully selected by Edwards and Hutelmyer for the library collection. Works like Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales and Darwin’s The Origin of Species and other graphic novel adaptations of classic literature were added to the library’s collection. Quinn created visuals for the display by scanning pages from the original books and pairing them with images from their graphic novel counterparts.

“I believe that graphic novel adaptations are worthy of consideration, not only as another entry point into classic texts, but as an artistic genre in their own right. How do artists and adaptation writers decide what texts to adapt, and what to include or cut out? How do they choose the art style to accompany the text? Are some adaptations more successful than others, and why? These are the questions we wanted to pose by putting this display together,” said Edwards.

The display will remain on the first floor until the end of the semester. As always, we welcome comments and also suggestions from library patrons for graphic novel titles to add to our collection.

Photos by Luisa Cywinski