"How does a cartoonist go about adapting a work of history, specifically Eric H. Cline’s 1177 BC The Year Civilization Collapsed? In this talk I will describe the process of interpreting Eric’s text in comics, an exercise where I repeatedly asked myself: how might I tell this story visually, and how can I put Eric’s words into the mouths of characters involved in the story? This meant making historical figures (such as Ramses III) speak, as well as imagining characters for whom we have no record offering commentary and opinions. To guide the narrative, I introduced two new young characters, Pel (of the Sea Peoples) and Shesha, (an Egyptian scribe) who ask the central question of the book: Why after three prosperous centuries did the civilizations of the Eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age suddenly come to an end?" (Glynnis Fawkes)
Glynnis Fawkes is a cartoonist and illustrator living in Burlington, VT, and member of the faculty at the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, VT. Her latest book, Eric H. Cline and Glynnis Fawkes, 1177 BC A graphic History of The Year Civilization Collapsed (Princeton University Press) is coming out in April 2024. Her other books include Charlotte Bronte Before Jane Eyre (2019), Persephone’s Garden (2019), a collection of autobiographical comics that have appeared in The New Yorker among other places, and several books connected to her archaeological work, including Archaeology Lives in Cyprus(2001), Cartoons of Cyprus (2001) and Greek Diary (2017).
Her current project is a middle grade adventure set after the eruption of Thera in Late Bronze Age Greece, for which she won a Vermont Arts Council Grant in 2019 and The School of the Museum of Fine Arts Traveling Fellowship and a Sustainable Arts Foundation Grant in 2020.
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