Zittaw Press is pleased to announce a new series of Gothic graphic novels to compliment our chapbook reproductions and rare novel reprints beginning next year. The series will feature graphic adaptations of Gothic chapbooks as well as full length novels based on well-known Gothic novels such as The Monk. The concept of a Gothic graphic novel, of course, is not new as there are multiple 'gothic' publications available including Richard Moore’s Boneyard,Roman Dirge’s Lenore and Butch Adams’ Lily – When I Was Dead, but none based on original 18th and 19th century Gothic fiction. However, the idea of illustrating Gothic chapbooks or even novels is not new as this illustration from the chapbook Raymond and Agnes underscores. Simply laid out in an extra large fold out illustration the artist captured several of the most important scenes from the chapbooks and provided the reader with an intimate glance at the characters. Novels, like chapbooks, often contained a frontpiece illustration and latter editions, I am particularly thinking about The Mysteries of Udolpho, contained several illustrated scenes from the novel. Fundamentally, at Zittaw Press we see the adaptability of the Gothic, the way it changes with time. While our main interest in reprinting the Gothic is to allow students, scholars and general readers access to these rare novels, we also want to allow a large audience to participate in discovering the genre and, perhaps, realizing how much the Gothic has influenced modern literature.
