Wednesday 19 September 2012

The Graphic Poul Anderson?

I am imagining graphic adaptations of Poul Anderson's works. A prose novel can be adapted as a graphic novel but how about this in a monthly or bimonthly comic book format?

The Poul Anderson Fantasy Line would simultaneously serialise:

The Adventures of Holger Danske (Three Hearts And Three Lions);
The Adventures of a Witch and a Werewolf (the Matuchek series);
The Adventures of Prince Rupert of the Rhine (A Midsummer Tempest);
"Other Universes," which would show:

an alternative timeline ("The House of Sorrows");
travel between timelines ("Eutopia");
the inn between timelines (the two Old Phoenix stories);
Danske, Valeria Matuchek and Rupert meeting in the Old Phoenix (A Midsummer Tempest, xi and xii);
Valeria addressing a larger gathering in the Old Phoenix (A Midsummer Tempest, Epilogue).

One installment of "Prince Rupert" would end with Rupert and Will about to enter the Old Phoenix. The following installment would begin after they have left it. The reader would be referred to the appropriate installment of "Other Universes."

The Poul Anderson Science Fiction Line would simultaneously serialize:

Before the League (pre-Polesotechnic League stories);
The Polesotechnic League (stories contemporaneous with van Rijn, including the first two Falkayn stories and the first two Trader Team stories - van Rijn cameos in the first Trader Team story);
The Adventures of Nicholas van Rijn.

The third, fourth and fifth Trader Team stories, two of which are novels, also feature van Rijn so they would be crossovers. The short story, "Lodestar," easily divides into a Trader Team section which would be adapted in "The Polesotechnic League" and a van Rijn section, with him meeting the Team at the end, which would be adapted in "The Adventures..."

Graphic adaptations add visuals, thus are like a continuation of the book covers: van Rijn should look as he does on the cover of Baen Books The Van Rijn Method. Simultaneous serializations offer the extra dimension of reading connected works concurrently instead of consecutively.

2 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Hi, Paul!

Just a quick note. I thought the Baen Books cover for THE VAN RIJN METHOD did not make Nicholas van Rijn look fat enough. And he should be shown with those "greasy ringlets" we see mentioned so often. See the cover for the special Poul Andersion issue of the MAGAZINE OF SF AND F for April 1971 to get an idea of what I mean.

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

Maybe you are right. I still think the face and smile are right.