The Pride and Prejudice and Zombies GRAPHIC NOVEL is here…

Illustrated by Cliff Richards (who did Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Cover art by Tony Lee (also did the Doctor Who comics)

I’ll admit that I haven’t been super excited, and so haven’t yet bothered to go and get a copy (and it costs about (AU)$23 and I’m a struggling student).  However, following the recent Twilight graphic novel… it can’t get much worse, right?  I’m reserving judgement.  Apparently it’s all black-and-white, with an organic style (meaning that a lot of the original lines that artists put in for scale and sketches behind the pictures are still in the background, so it looks unfinished). 

For the non-comic inclined: What’s the difference between a graphic novel and a comic?  Well, a graphic novel is like an extended comic.  A comic is a story, certainly, but it is part of a wider story-culture- spiderman, snoopy, garfield etc.  A graphic novel can stand alone, although it does allow for sequels, whereas a comic cannot.

From the sneak peek pictures though, I think it would at least be worth a flick through.  Aesthetically, I think it is interesting- but doesn’t do justice to the characterisation seen by Austen of Lizzy and each sister in every related sentence.  Also, although the action scenes presented I did hear that it’s a bit like that all of the way through- with little actual civil sitting down and talking (which, although to a lesser extent than the original, does actually happen in some places in the PPZ book).  There’s also a lot of “authenticity” criticism going around (the women wear knee-high stockings/garters etc) but I think the book is all in good fun in the end.

It would be nice to see it all visualised, as I really liked those that were in the book originally, and it will be nice to see how it may transcribe to screen and what certain fighting moves actually looked like.  I think the problem with adding colour in would’ve been making it too cartoonish, b-and-w always looks more sophisticated but it isn’t really as comic-esque or interesting to look at (for instance, the graphic novel From Hell is a film noir-ish piece that blows me away with its maturity and sensitivity even though it’s dealing with the Jack the Ripper story).  I’m particularly partial to the hands of the woman on the cover, those slightly skeletal claws- it’s just awesome (although the addition of the umbrella is a little ridiculous). 

Del Rey/RandomHouse have published this one.  So what do you think- another success for the classics-and-monsters mash-ups?  To much too soon?  Too, um, graphic?

(Also, if you’re interested, check out an interview with Tony Lee and some of the pre-art of the G-novel at Newsarama)