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Ted Adams discusses adapting timeless classic 'The Great Gatsby'
Clover Press

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Ted Adams discusses adapting timeless classic ‘The Great Gatsby’

The new project debuts today via Kickstarter.

If you grew up in America, you likely read The Great Gatsby at some point during grade school. It’s a timeless classic that is so ingrained into the American spirit that it’ll likely never go out of fashion. And now, you can read it as many times you want as a brand-new comic book adaptation.

As part of an all-new Kickstarter campaign from Clover Press, The Great Gatsby: The Essential Graphic Novel Adaptation aims to faithfully adapt the novel in a daring new way. Written by Ted Adams (Diablo House, The Island of Dr. Moreau), with gorgeous art by artist Jorge Coelho (Rocket Racoon, Time Before Time), the new project is meant to enhance the novel’s experience and not replace it entirely. That’s proven as the Kickstarter campaign aims to introduce The Great Gatsby to a new generation of readers and inspire a love of literature and art through the comics reading experience. To back up that very effort, there’s several special campaign tiers, including those for libraries and school donations, both of which will help get the book into the hands of new readers, including a partnership with Reader to Reader, Inc.

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The project officially launches today on Kickstarter. In the lead-up, we caught up with Adams to not only talk about The Great Gatsby but the creative process, where he sees Clover Press in 10 years, and other topics and tidbits.

'The Great Gatsby' Ted Adams

Courtesy of Clover Press.

AIPT: You’re no slouch when it comes to adapting literature classics into comics, was The Great Gatsby a story you’ve been itching to adapt for some time?

Ted Adams: The last adaptation I worked on was The Island of Doctor Moreau with Gabriel Rodriguez and it was such a fun experience, I knew I wanted to tackle another book. Gatsby was always at the top of my list but, like many people, I hold the book in high regard and only wanted to do it if I could find an artist who shared my passion. I spent a long time thinking about who would be my dream artist and approached Jorge in 2019. I was happy to learn he also loves the book. So, the artist I wanted most for the project agreed to do it and, in my experience, that rarely happens.

AIPT: How faithful is this adaptation of The Great Gatsby?

TA: It’s extremely faithful. This isn’t an abbreviated Classics Illustrated adaptation, every scene from the book is in it and all of the words are by Fitzgerald. I didn’t add any words or edit him in any way. Robbie [Robbins, Ted’s business partner at IDW and Clover] did an amazing job with the design and lettering and we’ve worked together for so long that he put up with my obsessiveness about making sure the text matched the book exactly. I’m sure he was internally sighing when I told him the dash on the last page needed to be longer because Fitzgerald intended it to remind the reader of the dock where Gatsby famously sees the green light from Daisy’s house.

'The Great Gatsby' Ted Adams

Courtesy of Clover Press.

AIPT: Your adaptation of The Great Gatsby has been in the works since 2019, and you’ve said this project has seen many changes. What sort of changes were they visual, story-based etc?

TA: We started working on the book before the pandemic and I wrote most of my adaptation during the early days of isolation. I’ve always been a voracious reader and the pandemic shutdown gave me the time to read even more than I normally do. For a couple of months, I read a lot of Fitzgerald and a handful of books about him and his work. There were two books that influenced my approach to the adaptation – Under the Red White and Blue: Patriotism, Disenchantment and the Stubborn Myth of the Great Gatsby and So We Read On: How the Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why it Endures. The pandemic changed the world while we were working on the adaptation but I think it’s true that Gatsby endures.

Gatsby is a first person narrative told by Nick Carraway and I initially struggled with how to handle the exposition that drives the early parts of the book. I went through several versions before settling on the idea that we would see Nick sitting in a bar where he’s telling his story to the people who come and go around him. Once that was in place, the rest was straight adaptation.

The Great Gatsby

Courtesy of Clover Press.

AIPT: Jorge Coelho’s art is stunning, was there any particular scene or moment in the adaptation that went beyond your expectations (I’m rather fond of the clothing-throwing scene!)?

TA: It’s hard for me to express how much I appreciate the work Jorge did on this book. He’s a serious and thoughtful artist. The clothes throwing scene is also one of my favorites. Jorge handles all of the big scenes beautifully – I’m thinking of the car crashes and parties.

But what really sets him apart is there’s not a single panel in the entire adaptation where he took the easy way out. I’ll give you two examples. In Chapter Two, there’s a scene where Nick and Jordan explore Gatsby’s library. Jorge not only drew a massive two-story library, he spent the time to actually draw in the hundreds of books on the shelves. In Chapter 4, we learn that one of Gatsby’s associates fixed the 1919 Word Series and Jorge not only draws the buildings around the ballpark in detail, he also includes a crowd scene where all the men are wearing hats and suits. Jorge’s work is extraordinary and it was a privilege to work with him.

AIPT: For someone who has never read The Great Gatsby, do you recommend they read the book first, or this comic first? Or maybe both at the same time!

TA: As much as I love our adaptation, I think it’s always best to start with the source material.

'The Great Gatsby' Ted Adams

Courtesy of Clover Press.

AIPT: You probably get this a lot, and I’m sure teachers are saying it as we speak across the nation, but what makes The Great Gatsby so timeless?

TA: I think there are a few reasons that teachers use Gatsby for their English and US lit classes. First, it’s not very long so it’s not intimidating for students. Second, many Americans are still striving to succeed in the same way Gatsby does in the book. Americans love the idea of the American Dream – work hard and you’ll succeed. That’s not really true for most people, but the idea of it is ingrained in our society. And when financial success does happen, it often ends in tragedy like it does in Gatsby. Finally, it’s well-written and entertaining. Yes, academics can tell us about context and foreshadowing and the others things teachers like to discuss but the average reader can just enjoy it for what it is – an entertaining way to spend some time.

The Great Gatsby

Courtesy of Clover Press.

AIPT: I’m a fan of both adaptations in cinema. What did you think of the movies?

TA: I purposely didn’t watch the movies before starting work on our adaptation because I didn’t want to be influenced by the choices they made. I did see the Baz Luhrmann movie when it came out in 2013 and remember enjoying it. Now that we’re done with our adaptation, I plan to watch the one with Robert Redford.

AIPT: Where do you see Clover Press in 10 years?

TA: I hope it’ll be the same as it is today. When we started, we defined ourselves as an eclectic, boutique publisher putting out books we like and I hope that’s what we continue to be. I have a short list of novels I’d like to adapt to comics, and maybe, in 10 years, Clover’s catalog will include a couple of them.

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