Aimée de Jongh on adapting Lord of the Flies into a graphic novel

Everyone has heard of Lord of the Flies. It’s one of the books that people either grew up reading for school, or reading because everyone else has read it, or at least have put on their bucket list. So imagine how excited Aimée de Jongh was when she knew that she would be turning it into a graphic novel. Along with being nervous.

Today we are honoured to have Aimée de Jongh with us to chat about embarking on this project.

Were you more nervous or excited to embark on this project? And what exactly was so nerve-wracking about creating this illustrated edition? 

I don’t think I’ve ever been more nervous for a graphic novel project. So many people are familiar with the novel and formed their own version of it while reading. Many have seen the films, too. So I’m aware that readers might have a preconception, and will compare this graphic novel to something else. That’s new territory for me. Also, the heaviness of adapting ‘a literary classic’ has something to do with it, obviously!

Why is Lord of the Flies important to you? 

When I read this book in English class, at the age of 14 or 15, it really resonated with me. At that age, I found myself somewhere between a child and an adult. Reading about these kids on the island, I recognized parts of myself: Wanting independence like an adult, but also searching for protection like a child. It shaped me more than any other book.

Why do you think it’s so important to create graphic novel adaptations of classics?

Sadly, fewer and fewer young adults enjoy reading these days. And it’s understandable. With streaming services and smartphones, who needs books to entertain them? I think graphic novels form a fantastic bridge between moving image and literature. There’s the visual aspect, the speed and movie-like sequences. But there’s also room for words, phrases, poetry, metaphors… Reading a graphic novel still means you’re experiencing the joy of reading. I would recommend graphic novels to anyone who has trouble finishing or even picking up regular novels.

And who do you think the target audience is? Young adults who have never read the original tale before? Adults who hated the book when they had to read it in school?

I’d be very curious about the experiences of both groups you mention. I intentionally made the graphic novel suitable for both readers who are familiar with the original and readers who are not. Mostly, I hope it will inspire new readers to pick up the original, too.

Each dialogue and each line of text comes from Golding’s original work, but you rearranged them. Did that make the adaptation process easier or harder?

Actually, I had started writing my own texts first, but that felt wrong. Part of that was insecurity. My level of English isn’t that good, let alone compared to a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. So I tried working with Golding’s original texts then, fully aware that these may sound old-fashioned at times. But actually, that worked really well. It gave the graphic novel something timeless, which I liked. It wouldn’t have worked to let the kids talk more modern, more hip. So I’m happy with how it turned out. It wasn’t easy. It was a like a puzzle, to decide what to use, and what to leave out. That makes it a very different writing process than usual.

Can you tell us a bit about your process? Did you reread Lord of the Flies first before you started thinking about the adaptation, or did you already create sketches immediately once you started this project? How many times did you have to revisit the book while you worked on this?

I used three copies of the original novel in the end, all filled with sticky notes, lines, arrows, comments. I read the book about 10 times front to back, but throughout the process I must have picked it up hundreds of times. In the final stages, if I needed to check a scene, I could blindly open up the novel at the exact scene I needed. That’s how familiar I had become with it. I even noticed that one sentence was phrased differently in an American edition – a detail my publisher was even unaware of. So for a short while, I was working with the text obsessively.

My drawing process starts with thumbnails, which are very tiny sketches. Then I move on to more detailed digital sketches, which I print and trace on a light table with pen and ink. Then I add digital colours and digital fonts. The book took about 2 years to make.

You had full control of each panel, the composition and the colour. Was there a scene you particularly struggled with in adapting? 

Yes, I struggled with how to draw the ‘beast’. In the novel, it’s quite clear that it is in fact a man hanging from a parachute. But in the boys’ minds, it’s a monster. So I asked myself, what should I draw? The man or the monster? After many tries, I decided to draw a monstrous paratrooper… But this question definitely kept me awake at night!

And finally, would young Aimee rather have picked up the graphic novel or the Golding original first?

Probably the graphic novel first – but the original right after that!

Lord of the Flies (graphic novel) is out now.