I'm afraid that this is a project that I wouldn't be interested in buying. I've seen the prose of comics writers, when they were working in that medium and not in page scripts and dialogue, and very little of it gives me any pleasure. Gaiman, okay, yes, he's a readable writer, though not one I like so much that I want to have all of his novels on my shelves. I might credit Whedon with the possibility. But I've read prose passages by Alan Moore and Terry Moore, both of whose comics writing I enjoy . . . or, more precisely, I've read at them and found myself unable to keep up my interest for even a few pages. I just don't think the talent for writing comics correlates with the talent for writing fiction or essays. Certainly I wouldn't bet the price of a new hard cover novel on the prospect.
I really, really love the idea, although I'm also not exactly sure of use of comics writers, but I guess we have very few jobbing poets these days.
...unless the format were clear plates of Piranesi's etchings plus acetate overlays bearing the comic writers' and artists' work - which would allow for all the devices of comics writing on the image?
My copy of the Dover edition (1973) was priced $12.95 when new, has an 8-page introduction and two states of 14 of the 16 prisons, for a total of 30 plates. It's a tricky size (11x15 inches, more or less), which I bet increases print costs, but it would be so nice to make it that big - it gives the pictures room to breathe (and is still only 60% of the original plate size).
I like your facing page format, but perhaps it's difficult to sell such a slim book? That said, nothing I'm thinking of would be as nice or as elegant: I think immediately of the creative potential of having a comic work in response to each plate, and then I wonder who would want to go up against Piranesi, picture for
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...unless the format were clear plates of Piranesi's etchings plus acetate overlays bearing the comic writers' and artists' work - which would allow for all the devices of comics writing on the image?
My copy of the Dover edition (1973) was priced $12.95 when new, has an 8-page introduction and two states of 14 of the 16 prisons, for a total of 30 plates. It's a tricky size (11x15 inches, more or less), which I bet increases print costs, but it would be so nice to make it that big - it gives the pictures room to breathe (and is still only 60% of the original plate size).
I like your facing page format, but perhaps it's difficult to sell such a slim book? That said, nothing I'm thinking of would be as nice or as elegant: I think immediately of the creative potential of having a comic work in response to each plate, and then I wonder who would want to go up against Piranesi, picture for
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