Interview with Nancy Butler, Writer of the Comic Sense and Sensibility

Last year, Marvel Comics published a number of issues of Pride and Prejudice, which were such a success that it sat on the New York Times Graphic Novel Best Seller list for 13 weeks. Nancy Butler, the brains behind the graphic version of that novel, has adapted Sense and Sensibility for a similar treatment. The first of five S&S comics will be available for purchase at this site on May 10.

Vanetta Rogers of Newsarama interviewed Ms. Butler, who talked about the experience of condensing the book:

Austen tells you that Elinor falls in love with Edward without you reading any of their dialogue until, like, page 300. So she tells you that Mrs. Dashwood observes Elinor and feels that she has formed an attraction to him.

So, since I'm doing this as a comic book, I can't use prose to tell what's going on. I can't just have a comic filled with artwork and captions telling you how the characters are feeling. So I've had to invent – especially in this first issue – I've had to invent scenes that I thought were in keeping with the flow of the story, but do not occur in the book except as an author's description."

• Click here to read the rest of the interview.
• Sense and Sensibility #2 will be in stores on June 3