The Road is a grim, unrelenting novel. Written by Cormac McCarthy, the 2006 book has been adapted previously into a similarly tough-to-watch movie. And now, Manu Larcenet has spent years crafting The Road into a graphic novel. So what’s it like living solo in the world of this book for so long? Not great, Bob.
“The end of this long book was somehow suffocating, and painful,” Larcenet told Comic Book Club over email, translated from his native French. “I spent more than 2 years reading the novel and reading again, constantly drawing… Once I spent an entire day on a 5 cm² panel (1). I sometimes got lost in the merciless world I had recreated.”
The story follows an otherwise unnamed father and son traveling South on the titular road, trying to find food where they can while avoiding other people. And Larcenet’s gorgeous adaptation stuns, with mostly monotones broken up by occasional splashes of color. It will hit stores next week from Abrams ComicArts. But in advance of the book we discussed the adaptation, trying to secure McCarthy’s permission, and more with Larcenet.
Comic Book Club: The Road is a bleak, upsetting story yet people return to it time and again… What is the appeal of the tale? And specifically, what drew you to it?
Manu Larcenet: I loved The Road for the atmosphere it creates. Most likely because I enjoy drawing the snow, the chilling winds, the dark clouds, the sizzling rain, snags, rust, and damps. I draw violence or kindness, wild animals, dirty skin, pits, and stagnant water. I enjoy the contrast between the characters and their environment. I felt that I would be able to draw the silences of the novel…
I am very sensitive to slowness and the absence of Hollywood-style action scenes. There is no classic narrative arc but rather a succession of scenes, sometimes very contemplative. Scenes that follow each other, stretching until the next one. The story progresses somewhat impressionistically. The atmosphere and the landscape bind the scenes and hold everything together.
What is it like living, artistically, in such a grim world?
Thrilling from moment to moment but difficult to live with in the long term.
The end of this long book was somehow suffocating, and painful. I spent more than 2 years reading the novel and reading again, constantly drawing… Once I spent an entire day on a 5 cm² panel (1). I sometimes got lost in the merciless world I had recreated.
Can you talk about working with McCarthy on this? What insight did he give you into the book, if any?
Cormac McCarthy is a secretive, taciturn writer who has only given two interviews in his life. And from what I know, reluctantly. To present my project of adaptation we got in touch only through his agents. It was obviously based on my future work that I thought we were going to have a dialogue. Unfortunately, this has not been possible; he only saw half of the book and I was only told that he was both happy and impressed by it. Which is both a little and a lot.
It so happens that I had complete freedom. Today I like to think that it was the way McCarthy wanted and I believe that he would have been happy with the result.
Was there anything you used for reference? There’s the film, of course, but I’m guessing you avoided that?
I don’t think I was influenced by the film… I had seen it a long time ago and I definitely didn’t watch it again to distance myself from it as much as possible.
But I perfectly remember the heaviness, the threat, the grayness… it seems to me that I liked the film for the same reason as the novel: the absence of a classic narrative.
So I only worked from the one novel that I read and reread during all these months.
To stay on this track, there is so much that you capture here from gaunt bodies to broken down landscapes… Was there a point you needed to step away? Or did you enjoy being in the middle of this story?
Of course living in such an universe has been demanding and sometimes depressing. No one can « enjoy » such an environment. You have to admire both the original novel and the writer…
I like to see this graphic novel as a great tribute to an immense writer.
What was important to capture in the look of the father and son?
It seemed important to me to use the gaze of the two characters to convey this very strong bond between the father and his son and the emotion that emanates from it. Because of the darkness, the hunger, their endless walk… they look ahead with very few words. Their eyes and what they conveyed became essential.
Your use of color is fascinating here… Why save color specifically for the soda cans?
Of course I did not use the color only for soda cans but for pointing out turning points and important items. The graphic style was imposed from the start, that of a classic drawing far from caricature. I had also made the resolute choice of black and white, but it turned out to be very violent, too binary, radical. I then remembered my classes when I was an art school student and my discovery of colored grays. A way to soften the drawing without denaturing it, a very sparing use of color. I am my own colorist and I think I used 14 shades of gray (!) and readers tell me that I owe some of the most beautiful pages of the graphic novel to these colored grays.
What is your takeaway from The Road? Is there hope, or is it all a neverending journey?
I am very sensitive to slowness and the absence of Hollywood-style action scenes. Similarly there is no classic happy-ending.
A glimmer of hope perhaps?
I let the readers choose.
The Road hits stores everywhere on September 17, 2024, from Abrams ComicArts.
