Discussion

Song of Roland: Prologue

June 10, 2009, filed under: Roland, by Lex

Writing and drawing the Prologues is one of the most challenging parts of doing the Kid B. series. The prologue is the part of the book where I do my own retelling of the epic poem the graphic novel is based on. I want to make these books as accessible as possible, so anyone unfamiliar with BEOWULF or The Song of Roland can pick up the book and read the prologue and know what the original epic was all about, then dive right into the Kid B. portion of it. The challenge is trying to condense the poems into just a few pages (written in quatrains) and then draw the action in a style to match. It takes a lot of writing and rewriting to get the rhymes just right and the drawing can be laborious. But when I get it done I give the pages to my colorist Brian Kolm, who makes the pages really sing with some terrific watercolor washes (converted to grayscale for the final book). Below are a few choice pages from the prologue (click the image for a larger view).