Dispossession: A Novel of Few Words

Bigamy, colonization, and gambling wreak havoc in this graphic adaptation of John Caldigate, Anthony Trollope’s 1879 novel. Driven by debts, John heads to the gold fields of New South Wales and promises to marry a former actress he meets there—only to wed another woman upon his return home to England. This is a work full of intriguing conceits: the usage of Wiradjuri, an Aboriginal language, the six-panel grid used throughout, the arm’s-length distance at which each panel is framed. But these conceits do not elevate the work and often feel like gimmicks. Moreover, the process of adaptation seems to have shorn off necessary details of the story, rendering it a dry confusion of manners. That said, Grennan, whose previous work was mostly academic study of comics, is a talented artist, whose sketchy pencil brings out the lush details of 19-century life without devoting slavish attention to each and every curtain—there is a charmingly abstract quality to the way he renders Caldigate’s complicated world. (Nov.)