Adapting Barry Gifford’s “Night People” Into Comics

Joelle Jones cover for "Night People" #1

It’s been over 30 years since the publication of Barry Gifford’s novel Night People — a book which David Lynch once optioned for film, which ultimately led to their collaboration on Lost Highway. This year will see Gifford’s novel adapted into a very different medium. A collaboration with co-writer Chris Condon and artist Brian Level, the first issue — from publisher Oni Press — will be in stores on March 6. Among the artists contributing covers to the project are J.H. Williams III, Joëlle Jones, and Jacob Phillips.

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When Comics and Prose Collide: An Excerpt From Dave Baker’s “Mary Tyler MooreHawk”

Mary Tyler MooreHawk cover

It’s unlike that you’ve ever read a graphic novel quite like Dave Baker’s Mary Tyler MooreHawk before. This sprawling adventure tale is both a heady pulp adventure and a formally inventive work with more layers than you’d expect. (It would fit comfortably beside the work of James Stokoe and Tom Scioli on your shelves.) We’re pleased to present an excerpt from the book, along with Baker’s thoughts on making prose and comics work in harmony.

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Is “The Devil’s Cut” a Bargain Worth Accepting?

"The Devil's Cut" cover

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: there’s this new comic book publisher, and they’re making a splashy debut with a new line of comics. There’s been a bit of that this year, but right now I’m here to talk about the new press DSTLRY and their recent anthology The Devil’s Cut, which features an impressive array of writers and artists, including the people behind several of my favorite comics of the last five years.

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An Excerpt From Cam Dündar and Anwar’s “Erdogan”

"Erdogan" cover

We’re pleased to present an excerpt from Erdogan: A Graphic Biography: The Rise of Turkey’s Modern Autocrat, a new book from writer Can Dündar and artist Anwar. (The translation is by L.L. Kreider.) Dündar, a journalist who Orhan Pamuk called “a very courageous journalist,” is currently living in Berlin, for reasons discussed in this article. Read on for a glimpse of this groundbreaking graphic biography.

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An Excerpt From Marcelino Truong’s “40 Men and 12 Rifles”

"40 Men and 12 Rifles" cover art

We’re pleased to present an excerpt from 40 Men and 12 Rifles: Indochina 1954, a new graphic novel by Marcelino Truong, translated into English by David Homel. Publisher Arsenal Pulp Press described the book as “an expansive, gripping graphic novel set in Indochina in the year leading up to 1954, when the French-held garrison at Dien Bien Phu fell after a fifty-five-day battle, leading to the end of the first Indochina war opposing both French and Nationalist Vietnamese forces to Ho Chi Minh’s National-Communist underground state.”

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Cosplay Meets Horror: Joshua Viola on the Making of “True Believers”

"True Believers" cover

For many writers and artists, spending time at conventions is a regular part of an annual routine. It’s not surprising, then, that some have opted to use genre and comic book conventions as the setting for stories, including one of Evan Dorkin’s Eltingville Club stories, Nick Mamatas’s novel I Am Providence, and Paul Cornell and Marika Cresta’s Con & OnNow, in the new series True Believers, writers Joshua Viola and Stephen Graham Jones teamed with artist Ben Matsuya for a tale of cosplay and horror set at the Colorado Festival of Horror.

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Presenting An Excerpt From Derek M. Ballard’s “Cartoonshow”

We’re pleased to present an excerpt from Derek M. Ballard’s graphic novel Cartoonshow, scheduled for release this week from Oni Press. You might know Ballard’s work from his contributions to Adventure Time or The Midnight Gospel; you might have also seen his comics at places like The Nib. In a wide-ranging interview with The Comics Journal in 2021, Ballard said that “a book with a spine, that’s something I’ve been trying to do for a long time.” In Cartoonshow, Ballard reckons with the experience of being a single father and a working artist, and the complexities that come with both.

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