Sea Lion Books has acquired the worldwide rights to create a graphic novel adaptation of Anne Rice’s critically-acclaimed novel Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana. Anne Rice and comic creator Anne Elizabeth are adapting the novel with Siya Oum providing the artwork.  Sea Lion expects to have the graphic novel adaptation ready for publication in the spring of 2012 in time to take advantage of Easter sales.

 

Sea Lion Books has plans to publicize Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana heavily with Christian groups.  Sea Lion’s David Dabel told ICv2 the idea is not just to sell the book through Christian bookshops but also to bring “non-comic reading” Christians in to comic book shops.

 

Rice appears to be excited at the prospect of the graphic novel adaptation, “Christ the Lord: the Road to Cana I consider one of my personal favorites.  The writing of it took less time than the research because I feel driven to recreate authenticity in the narrative.  The characters must see what people saw in first century Palestine because I want my readers to see the same.  Any artistic effort short of that fails not only for me but also for the actual figures I endeavored to recreate in my novel.  Today this work is being reinterpreted through the marvelous medium of graphic novels.  The visual imagery will give my characters a new dimension that cannot be captured in words alone.  Sea Lion Books will translate The Road to Cana into a format that will do as I have done: Recreate first century Palestine with the women and men who changed the course of human history.  The characters you know will be there -- Jesus, Mary, Joseph -- in the rich colors and beautiful forms that only artists can draw.”