Les Misérables Artistic Adaptation / Graphic Canon Volume II

May 31, 2012

Les Misérables Artistic Adaptation / Graphic Canon Volume II

::: Graphic Adaptation of Les Misérables {slides shown} @ Rubin Museum of Art ny/ny :::

Special note from Seven Stories Press : "At the Rubin Museum in NYC launch last night, Russ showed a lot of art from the book in a slideshow, including 10 pages from Les Mis and a Gatsby slide. So great enlarged! It all looks amazing, and I have been telling folks around here that I am so excited to see volume 2 finally in print because your colouring is so fantastic."

A few questions from the publisher ; (See Les Mis Excerpts/Art below) :

1. What inspired you to adapt Les Misérables for the Graphic Canon Volume 2 ?

Victor Hugo's Les Misérables has been adapted to the screen and more notably to the stage. I found it to be a huge artistic undertaking and advantage to adapt into a graphic story. It was an opportunity to really throw myself into the depths of the narrative and time frame of the event. While depicting these characters I couldn't help but feel what it was like to be in their poor and wretched shoes. Yet there was something beautiful about the humbleness you can feel from these characters. A moment of suspense is when Bishop Myriel takes Jean Valjean in off the street and Jean robs them of their most valuable possessions and escapes. The police bring Jean back to the Bishop and his wife and the Bishop makes it out like they were given to him as a gift and saves him from going to jail. He makes him promise to use that exchange to change his life for the better. Being a parent myself, the scene that jerked a tear, was when Jean Valjean rescues little Cosette from the wicked Thénardier and they flee to Paris together. I made sure to carefully render the characters realistically so that none of the feeling or expression would be lost. This was a no-brainer for me, because the work is romantic on so many levels.

2) What other projects are you working on at the moment?

A documentary graphic novel about Burlesque Dancers. Illustrating a children's book called Oscar's Wild and in the beginning stages of illustrating a young adult graphic novel called Bittersweet Rage for Sea Lions Books. Illustrating Love Quotes like mad from philosophers, artists, musicians, poets ect..