This comic adaptation is part of a series of short comics I’ve been working on, all of them a tribute to my friend and mentor Jeanne Leiby, former editor of The Southern Review and The Florida Review, who–back in ’05, before many university-sponsored literary journals would even consider running comics–initiated the comics section at The Florida Review, and constantly defended the art form against criticism from more “traditional” writers and editors. Each comic in my series is an adaptation of a different small-press author’s work, and is an attempt to offer a quick glimpse at what can happen when the literary world and the comics world meet. So far, I’ve been able to work with Lavinia Ludlow, Ben Tanzer, and J. Bradley, and I was ridiculously excited to create an adaptation of an excerpt from Steve Himmer’s The Bee-Loud Glade (Atticus Books, 2011), a book bursting with amazing visuals (so maybe another artist will take the challenge and offer his/her own view of Himmer’s world? we can only hope…).

Click on Panel 1 and follow the links to read Nathan’s illustrations in sequence, or just enjoy the gallery.

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