Mirka Andolfo & Fabio Celoni Hired For THE KITE RUNNER Comic Book Series
Published in 2003, the first novel by Afghan-born writer Khaled Hosseini chronicled the relationship between two boys growing up in Afghanistan in the 1970's, against the backdrop of events such as the invasion of the Soviet Union, to the rise of the Taliban.
Published in 2003, The Kite Runner, the first novel by Afghan-born writer Khaled Hosseini, chronicled the relationship between two boys growing up in Afghanistan in the 1970's, against the backdrop of events such as the invasion of the Soviet Union, to the rise of the Taliban. Since it's release it has become an international bestseller, being translated into a dozen languages, and spawned a play and an Oscar nominated movie. And now, as reported by Comic Book Resources, it is being made into a graphic novel illustrated by Fabio Celoni and Mirka Andolfo, and published by Penguin's Riverhead books. Speaking of the project, Hosseini revealed he read comics when he was younger, and it was this that influenced his decision.+ I was approached to do it by my Italian publisher, Piemme. It was their idea, but it really caught my fancy as I have been a fan of comic books since childhood, I gave my go ahead and the search began for a set of artists to bring the story to visual life. He also added that his work on the comic is minimal, he would rather let the artist bring his own style to it. He did send me pages as he progressed, both in black and white and some color samples as well. It was really exciting to see the sketches and to see the story shaping up visually.This project, while bringing the story to a wider audience, is also an attempt to make the story more accessible to younger readers.
The graphic novel is intended for a wide spectrum of readers. This includes readers of the novel who may be curious to see the story depicted in a visual, artistic form. It includes younger readers who may not have read the novel but may pick up the graphic novel, Hosseini has said, The key of any adaptation, be it screen, stage or graphic novel, is to preserve the core emotional experience of the original story, the element which made the original story appealing to readers in the first place. I think this graphic novel does accomplish that, and does it well for a younger audience. It should be noted that there is still some violence and some mature themes, those are integral to the story (the stoning by the Taliban and the central rape scene). But they are rendered more or less impressionistically and some of the rougher language has also been toned down.I will admit to having never read the novel or seen the movie, but I appreciate that they told an important story, and am glad that it is been made available to a readership that was previously denied it.