Slaughterhouse-Five: The Graphic Novel

by Kurt Vonnegut, Ryan North (With), Albert Monteys (Illustrator)

Overview

The first-ever graphic novel adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world’s great anti-war books.

An American classic and one of the world’s seminal antiwar books, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five is faithfully presented in graphic novel form for the first time from Eisner Award-winning writer Ryan North (How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler) and Eisner Award-nominated artist Albert Monteys (Universe!).

Listen: Billy Pilgrim has...
...read Kilgore Trout
...opened a successful optometry business
...built a loving family
...witnessed the firebombing of Dresden
...traveled to the planet Tralfamadore
...met Kurt Vonnegut
...come unstuck in time.

Billy Pilgrim’s journey is at once a farcical look at the horror and tragedy of war where children are placed on the frontlines and die (so it goes), and a moving examination of what it means to be fallibly human.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781684156252
Publisher:	Archaia
Publication date:	09/15/2020
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	93,206
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 9.60(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007) made his mark with his brilliant antiwar novel Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), published during the height of the protests against the Vietnam War. But he endured as a purveyor of mind-warping, surreal fiction that just so happened to be funny. In a career spanning over 50 years and numerous books, he published fourteen novels, including Breakfast of Champions and Cat's Cradle, three short story collections, five plays, and five works of non-fiction.

Date of Birth:

November 11, 1922

Date of Death:

April 11, 2007

Place of Birth:

Indianapolis, Indiana

Place of Death:

New York, New York

Education:

Cornell University, 1940-42; Carnegie-Mellon University, 1943; University of Chicago, 1945-47; M.A., 1971

Editorial Reviews

"...North harnesses his dry-humored goofiness to translate what is arguably one of the most darkly comedic stories ever told in fiction, hammering things home with delightful cartooning from Monteys.

Polygon

Only Albert Monteys and Ryan North could have adapted the unadaptable with absolute cleverness and absolute compassion; this team created something so poignant and profound, an incredible feat and mastery of craft that will awe uninitiated readers as well as the most faithful fans of Vonnegut's work. I was blown away.

MARGUERITE BENNETT

"Ryan North distills Vonnegut's signature rhythms into a perfect panel by panel choreography and Albert Monteys' skillful artwork brings energetic new angles to the subversive cosmic philosophizing and ruefully dark humor that's made this book beloved by generations. This version of "so it goes"? So, it's great."

EVAN NARCISSE

"Simply amazing work. An absolute tour de force, both respectful and audacious in the treating of the material."

Kieron Gillen

"Exceptional."

Brian K. Vaughan

To capture the details of Slaughterhouse-Five would be difficult enough—to capture the spirit of it seems impossible. But North and Monteys do exactly that, in a way that feels effortless and playful, without losing the beauty, the charm or the sadness of Vonnegut's original work. A masterful adaptation, highly recommended."

AL EWING

I’m in awe at the mastery of the medium shown in SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE. Ryan and Albert have perfectly adapted Vonnegut’s masterpiece to comics, elevating the story in a fresh and beautiful way, taking full advantage of the inherent language of the medium. They’ve created a benchmark far out of reach of the rest of us in the industry. I ... hate them?

CHIP ZDARSKY

★ 08/01/2020

After becoming unstuck in time, Billy Pilgrim begins to experience all of the major moments in his life nonlinearly. One minute he's a middle-aged optometrist, the next he might find himself recuperating after surviving a plane crash, or laboring in a prisoner of war camp in Germany toward the end of World War II or luxuriating with his lover and child in a zoo on the planet Tralfamadore. Throughout his life, Billy constantly encounters cruelty, hypocrisy, and pain; as the Tralfamadorian's say, "So it goes." In this brilliant adaptation of Vonnegut's classic antiwar novel, North (How To Invent Everything) and Monteys (Solid State) retain Vonnegut's playfully mordant and deeply compassionate voice and take full advantage of the opportunity to convey the novel's fractured narrative visually.Minor characters' backgrounds are depicted in short, three-panel comic strips, while sf stories written by Billy's favorite author, Kilgore Trout, are rendered in the style of pulpy E.C. Comics tales of terror, the bustling majesty of Dresden, Germany's pre-firebombing presented in a gorgeously detailed spread. VERDICT Wih this work, North and Monteys have created the best, and most effective, graphic novel adaptation of a literary novel in recent memory.

Library Journal