Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species: A Graphic Adaptation
A stunning graphic adaptation of one of the most famous, contested, and important books of all time.
Few books have been as controversial or as historically significant as Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life. Since the moment it was released on November 24, 1859, Darwin's masterwork has been heralded for changing the course of science and condemned for its implied challenges to religion.
In Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, author Michael Keller and illustrator Nicolle Rager Fuller introduce a new generation of readers to the original text. Including sections about his pioneering research, the book's initial public reception, his correspondence with other leading scientists, as well as the most recent breakthroughs in evolutionary theory, this riveting, beautifully rendered adaptation breathes new life into Darwin's seminal and still polarizing work.
Nominated for two Eisner Awards
- Best adaptation from another work
- Best painter/ multimedia artist [interior art]
“Writer Michael Keller and illustrator Nicolle Rager Fuller have artfully transformed this important book into a highly readable and copiously illustrated page-turner...The result is a powerful adaptation that offers a new generation of readers — and, indeed, readers of all ages — an engaging introduction to one of the most important books ever written.”
“A detailed and luminous examination of the work and life of darwin. With breathtaking art and text taken from Darwin’s own writings, this is THE book for the 150th anniversary of the publication of darwin’s seminal work.”
Hear the NPR Science Friday Interview with author Michael Keller.
Two Graphic Novels Explain Science, Colorfully
Moving beyond traditional superheroes, two new graphic novels recount the epic tales of scientists and the research that made them famous. Ira Flatow talks with authors Michael Keller and Apostolos Doxiadis about their graphic novels on natural selection and logic.
Please Forward: How Blogging Reconnected New Orleans After Katrina
Cynthia Joyce, Editor. Michael Keller et al., Contributor.
Much of the story of Hurricane Katrina lived on the internet as the city reconnected during its diaspora. When Cynthia Joyce went looking for one vital account for a course she was teaching, she found the site down and the piece forgotten. This inspired her search for the works that became Please Forward: How Blogging Reconnected New Orleans After Katrina. Some of the writing included is famous and easily obtainable; a good percentage of the work is currently unavailable due to aging servers and broken links.
The Graphic Canon, Vol. 2: From "Kubla Khan" to the Bronte Sisters to The Picture of Dorian Gray
Russ Kick, Editor. Michael Keller et al., Contributor.
The Graphic Canon, Volume 2 gives us a visual cornucopia based on the wealth of literature from the 1800s. Several artists—including Maxon Crumb and Gris Grimly—present their versions of Edgar Allan Poe’s visions. The great American novel Huckleberry Finn is adapted uncensored for the first time, as Twain wrote it. The bad boys of Romanticism—Shelley, Keats, and Byron—are visualized here, and so are the Brontë sisters. We see both of Coleridge’s most famous poems: “Kubla Khan” and “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (the latter by British comics legend Hunt Emerson). Philosophy and science are ably represented by ink versions of Nietzsche’sThus Spake Zarathustra and Darwin’s On the Origin of Species.
The Political Handbook of the World: 2008-2012 editions
Tom Lansford, Editor. Michael Keller et al., Contributor.
The Political Handbook of the World provides timely, thorough, and accurate political information, with more in-depth coverage of current political controversies than any other reference guide. With more than 200 entries on countries and territories throughout the world, housed in one place, these volumes are renowned for their extensive coverage of all major and minor political parties and groups in each political system. They also provide names of key ambassadors and international memberships of each country, plus detailed profiles of more than 30 intergovernmental organizations and United Nations agencies.
Awaiting Publication
The Hat Makers and the Heron Master
The Hat Makers and the Heron Master is a period dramatic novel and graphic novel set between the wilds of Florida and New York City from the 1850s to the turn of the century. It's a gripping tale that melds narrative elements of sweeping, interwoven storylines with American Westerns. Bringing these together, the story animates a little known piece of the country’s early frontier and creates a moody darkness reminiscent of Oscar-winning movie "There Will Be Blood.”
“The Hat Makers and the Heron Master” is a story about Karl Schulze, a simple man who immigrates to New Orleans from Germany to make a new life, only to suffer through his family’s murder at the outset of Florida’s last Seminole War. Broken, he recedes from society into the embrace of the deadly marshlands. His heart searches to feel again and connects with the wetlands’ wading birds. He appoints himself their protector against the onslaught of commercial hunters and development flooding the state during that period.
The Koch sisters, part of a millinery family who move from New York City to the brand-new village of Palm Beach, inhabit a Gilded-Age world wholly alien to the hermit. But their lives become tied together by the unquenchable global desire for feathers in women’s fashion. Schulze and the Koch sisters join Colonel Francis Styron, a former soldier repenting for past sins, and his ornithologist son Travis. Styron’s history is more deeply interwoven with Schulze’s than the hermit can possibly imagine. Together, the group works to acquire land to protect the birds from the swinging axe of development wielded by orange and railroad robber baron Samuel Chapman.
But Chapman’s desire and resources are too powerful a force for the allies to withstand. Schulze and Styron meet an inglorious end at the hands of Chapman’s henchmen and, soon after, Travis and the Koch sisters are shocked by a secret the two men harbored.
The Hat Makers and the Heron Master is about loss, ambition, regret, greed, and redemption. Its characters and setting are unconventional and complex. Together, they embody the unstoppable nature of progress and the invisible hand of fate that guides the lives of pawns and kings. The story is gripped by a central conflict: industrial development versus conservation. Here are a few sample pages of the graphic novel, with incredible artwork by comic book artist and illustrator Julian Peters. See more of his great work at his website.
