Jane graphic novel

My latest graphic novel recommendation is a re-telling of a classic Gothic story.

As you can see,  it's modernized, so at first I didn't even realize that it was a re-telling. The main character is named Jane, she's an orphan who left the home of her aunt, and she gets a job caring for a young girl named Adele.  .  .I'm ashamed to say that none of those things tipped me off, and it wasn't until the name of her employer, Edward Rochester, is revealed, that I understood.

And then I was hooked, because Jane Eyre is one of all-time favorite books. In this adaptation, Jane leaves the home of her aunt and cousins; they're not really characterized as abusive like they are in the original text, but they don't care for her, or even notice her. She's pretty much invisible.

So she hops a bus to New York City to begin a new life. She rents a room (actually, it's a kitchen pantry) in the apartment of a cross-dressing fashion designer named Hector (her friend in the original story is named Helen). She enrolls in art school, and gets a hjob as a nanny.

The references to NYC fashion designers and nannies are a stand-by for the author Aline McKenna:

McKenna is perhaps most well known for writing the screenplay for the  2006 movie The Devil Wears Prada. 

The use of color in this story reminds me alot of another graphic novel I recently wrote about, The Wendy Project.  In the beginning, the illustrations are black and white and shaded:

But when Jane begins her new life in NYC, her world becomes colorful. At first, it's like a sunrise:

Then it begins to seep into more frames, highlighting parts of her life. The boots she wears as she walks through the city, the clear sky above her new apartment building, and her first real friend are all in color:

As the story continues, the color becomes richer:

And beautiful double page spreads are filled with to the frames with symbols of independence and romantic encounters:

Readers who have not read Charlotte Bronte's tale can still enjoy the story and the art, but fans of the original text will enjoy seeing this artist's interpretation and updating.