The Romeo and Juliet graphic novel is part of the international project Classics in a Graphic Novel: A pilot model of new high school culture education through graphic novels, coordinated by the Slovenian Theatre Institute with partners from Poland (Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute, Warsaw) and Slovakia (Theatre Institute, Bratislava) in the period 2019-2023. The project is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union and the Ministry of Culture Slovenia. Drama-graphic novel is available in Slovene, Polish and Slovak language.
Making the graphic novel Romeo and Juliet
Being a Shakespeare fan, so I was delighted to work on the illustrated version of Romeo and Juliet and to attempt to transform it into a graphic novel – a comic book. The Slovak translation of Romeo and Juliet by Ľubomír Feldek was edited by the dramaturge Daniel Majling in a well-defined structure of the layout of images and individual scenes. I was to present the story visually and give it an artistic form.
I based the interpretation of the story on dramatic visuals, on the contrast of black and white, and easy-to-read gestures, alternating linear and flat-looking windows with more dynamically refined ones. I kept the setting fictional, inspired by Verona, though without direct influence and significance in relation to the construction of the story.
At the outset of the project, I sketched the entire story on the pages to get an idea of the space needed for its construction. After consultation with Daniel Majling, I continued with the second phase of laying out the texts in the windows (bubbles), where I tried to find an ideal place in the context of the image of the scene, so the image and text flow as smoothly as possible. At this point, I was altogether looking for the looks of the lead characters and drew the visual scenes in the exposed windows. In the third phase, I was finalising the scenes. Then, the text part was fine-tuned based on the changes in individual windows.
(Juraj Martiška)
About the author of the graphic novel
Juraj Martiška (1969), Slovak visual artist, has been focusing on book illustration, free hand painting and graphic design. Until now, he has illustrated dozens of schoolbooks and books for children and youth. In 1990 he started publishing comics in the magazine Ver (Believe!) with his debut called Ostrov Samar (The Island of Samar). Since 1992 he has published numerous comics in magazine Svetlo (Light), such as original comics Veľký priateľ (A Big Friend), Starosti kráľa Michala (Worries of King Michael) or Vesmírni pútnici (Space Pilgrims). He also collaborated with magazine Včielka (The little Bee) and with AHA magazine and magazine Výskumník (Explorer). Juraj Martiška won numerous awards, among them The Ľudovít Fulla Award for his achievements in book art for children and youth and several prices The Most Beautiful Books of Slovakia and The Most Beautiful Children’s Book. His name was put on the prestigious IBBY Honour List in 2012 and in 2020.
