julian peters comics

“Vigil” by Giuseppe Ungaretti

Posted on June 19, 2014 by julian peters comics

Here is my adaptation of “Veglia,” a short poem by the Italian poet Giuseppe Ungaretti. The poem was translated into English by Marco Sonzogni and Ross Woods, two professors at Victoria University of Wellington, in New Zealand. This comic is the product of an ongoing collaboration with Sonzogni and Woods, and with the New Zealand Centre for Literary Translation at Victoria University in Wellington.
Ungaretti (1888-1970) was one of the most innovative and influential Italian poets of the twentieth century, one of the originators of ermetismo (“Hermeticism”), the current of poetry with which Salvatore Quasimodo (one of whose poem I adapted earlier) is also associated. Ungaretti had greeted Italy’s entry into World War I with enthusiasm, and enrolled as a volunteer. The brutal realities of life and death in the trenches quickly caused him to become disillusioned with the war, however, and also moved him to write his celebrated war poems. (click on image to enlarge)

“Witch-Wife” in “Splitting the Genre: An Intersection of Poetry & Visual Art”

Posted on June 17, 2014 by julian peters comics

Six Arrow press is a new literary press based in San Diego. They have just released their first book, an anthology of creative combinations of poetry and visual art. I am pleased to announce that my adaptation into comics of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poem “Witch-Wife” is among the included works.
The book, entitled Splitting the Genre: An Intersection of Poetry and Visual Art, can be purchased here:
http://www.blurb.com/b/5377678-splitting-the-genre-an-intersection-of-poetry-visu
For more information on this project and upcoming releases from Six Arrow press:http://sixarrowpress.kevindublin.com/

Posted in comic book poetry, news, Poetry, Poetry Comics | Tagged Edna St. Vincent Millay, literary press, san diego, six arrow press, splitting the genre, Witch-Wife | 1 Comment

“Witch-Wife” by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Posted on June 16, 2014 by julian peters comics

Here is my adaptation of an Edna St. Vincent Millay poem first published in 1917. In her wonderful biography of Millay, Savage Beauty, Nancy Milford describes “Witch-Wife” as “clearly something of a self-portrait,” and that is the interpretation that I have gone with here (click on images to enlarge):

Posted in comic book poetry, Poetry, Poetry Comics | Tagged Edna St. Vincent Millay, Nancy Milford, redhead, Savage Beauty, Witch-Wife | 6 Comments

“And Suddenly It’s Evening”

Posted on June 11, 2014 by julian peters comics

Here is an English version of my comic-strip adaptation of the Italian poet Salvatore Quasimodo’s iconic poem “Ed è subito sera” (“And suddenly it’s evening”):

Posted in comic book poetry, Poetry, Poetry Comics | Tagged and suddenly it's evening, ed è subito sera, english translation, Italian poetry, salvatore quasimodo, sicily | 1 Comment

My first Italian poetry comic! – “Ed è subito sera” by Salvatore Quasimodo

Posted on May 22, 2014 by julian peters comics

I have begun a collaboration with the Italian poetry magazine Atelier (http://www.atelierpoesia.it/) in which I will periodically provide comics versions of classic Italian poems for their website. Here is my adaptation of Salvatore Quasimodo’s 1930 poem “Ed è subito sera” (“And suddenly it’s evening”), one of the shortest, but also one of the most well-known poems in the Italian literary canon:

Quasimodo (1901-1968) is associated with a current of Italian poetry known as ermetismo(hermeticism). The ermetici –perhaps somewhat unusually for Italians– believed in the value of expressing themselves using only a few carefully selected words. Their typically very brief, synthetic compositions are meant to suggest multiple shades of meaning and emotion. Because the poems of the ermetici depend so much on the connotative value of words, they are particularly difficult to translate (let alone illustrate!). A more-or-less literal translation of “Ed è subito sera” could be as follows:

And Suddenly It’s Evening

Each of us is alone on the heart of the earth
Pierced/run through by a ray of sun:
And suddenly it’s evening.

Posted in comic book poetry, Poetry Comics | Tagged and suddenly it's evening, ed è subito sera, ermetismo, fumetto, Italian poetry, rivista atelier, salvatore quasimodo | 8 Comments

Italian Erotic Comics at the CSSC Conference

Posted on May 7, 2014 by julian peters comics

I will be presenting a paper at the conference of the Canadian Society for the Study of Comics, which takes place this weekend in Toronto, May 8 to 10, in collaboration with the Toronto Comics Art Festival.

My presentation, which is based on a portion of my recently-completed master’s thesis, is titled “‘Tiny Forbidden Windows: Italian Erotic Comics of the 1960s and Dino Buzzati’s Poema a fumetti.” My talk will examine the connection between Poema a fumetti, a ground-breaking graphic novel from 1969 written and illustrated by the Italian novelist Dino Buzzati, and the genre that was then emerging in Italy of adult pulp comics. I argue that Buzzati was able to see in comics the possibility of a new, more direct and less baggage-laden means of developing the existential themes that had always been at the heart of his literary production because these mass-produced adult comics had already infused the medium with a certain raw immediacy and an undercurrent of unexpressed impulses and desires.

All CSSC and TCAF events are free and open to the public. Just in case you happen to be in Toronto and are interested in hearing my talk, I will be presenting on Friday, May 9, at 2:30, in the “Rosedale Room” of the Marriott Hotel, at 90 Bloor Street East. I’d love to see you there!

Posted in academic writing, dino buzzati | Tagged 1960s, CSSC, fumetti neri, italian erotic comics, poema a fumetti, TCAF | 4 Comments

Theorizing Poetry Comics

Posted on March 15, 2014 by julian peters comics

Nicolas Labarre has written a great article for his blog on visual culture on the subject of adapting poetry into comics.

labelledame9

Although the article is in French, Nicolas demonstrates his ideas through a series of his own adaptations of a single short poem by Emily Dickinson, the text of which he has kept in the original English.
As well as providing a much-needed overview of the development and present state of this practice, the article present some very insightful theories on the different strategies that have been used thus far by different cartoonists, including yours truly. After studying comics academically as a master’s student for almost three years now, I must say it is an odd and gratifying feeling to see my own work discussed in a scholarly tone.

Posted in academic writing, bande dessinée, comic book poetry | Tagged emily dickinson, i held a jewel in my fingers, nicolas labarre, picturing it | Leave a comment

Volume 2 of Le Canon graphique now in stores!

Posted on February 27, 2014 by julian peters comics

The second volume of the French-language edition of The Graphic Canon, Russ Kick’s terrific anthology of graphic adaptations of the classics of world literature, is now available in fine bookstores near you (assuming you live in a French-speaking country). In addition to my adaptation of Arthur Rimbaud’s “Drunken Boat,” which is also available in the English version, this new edition contains a French translation of my adaptation of John Keats’s “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” (no need to translate the title). This is the first time this comic of mine has been published in full in any language. Le Canon graphique is published in Paris by Les Editions Télémaque. So far, reviews in France seem to have been largely positive, although I read one article in which the book was describe as “très anglo-saxon.”

Posted in bande dessinée, comic book poetry, John Keats, news, Poetry Comics, Poetry translation, rimbaud | Tagged La Belle Dame sans Merci, le canon graphique, russ kick, The Graphic Canon, volume 2 | Leave a comment

“Sensuka”- A Poem by Alice Elm (English Version)

Posted on February 11, 2014 by julian peters comics

(In a post from a few months ago, I published a beautiful poem by the Montreal writer Alice Elm that was directly inspired by my on-going “Views of an Imaginary City” series. Now Alice has composed an English version of the the French original. I have amended a few words here and there, but the French-influenced sentence structure and word choice remain, lending what I find to be an additional air of exoticism to the text.)

The sea.
The stillness of the sea taming Sensuka, at dawn, as the world meditates.
This presence that breathes me in for having acknowledged its shade.
By this only do I exist, captured by its essence.
Sounds cannot translate my dissolving as it smiles and touches my heart, the way I am lost at sea, at dawn, on the shore of Sensuka, as the world meditates.

The ssssnake.
You nicknamed its curves, rising as a cliff where the swimming ended, turning to abyss for the merchant ships. And its hypnotic pull.
Once, after dusk, overcome by its call, I gave my body to its illuminated fluidity.
Not wishing to trouble its secrets with endless waves, my heart complied and I remained suspended, a victim to the beauty of this world. There the dream ended. Continue reading →

Posted in illustration, Imaginary City, painting | Tagged Alice Elm, Diane G. Paquin, sehnsucht, sensuka, translation | Leave a comment

Funny pages

Posted on January 25, 2014 by julian peters comics

Although my comics are rarely all that comical, I do occasionally try for a laugh in writing. I have started gathering some of these attempts at humour together on a page on my website, here: https://julianpeterscomics.com/humour-writing/
More to follow!

Posted in humour | Tagged beat poetry, Goethe, mcgill university, onanism, sorrows of young werther, werther's originals | Leave a comment