Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery"

 
 
Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery"
The Authorized Graphic Adaptation

by Miles Hyman

adapted from the short story by Shirley Jackson
Hill and Wang
1948, adapted 2016

 

 

Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" is, as you might guess from the title, a graphic novel adaptation of Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery." It was adapted by artist Mikes Hyman, who is Jackson's grandson. 

 
This might be one of the rare cases where it takes longer to read the comic book version than the original (though not by that much) because Hyman slows the pace of his adaptation to build suspense at a few key moments.

 
The art reminds me of the murals that got painted in a lot of city halls as part of the WPA's Federal Arts Program. It's very distinctive, because few if any other comics look like this, and it fits really well with the text, which has always felt like it took place during the Great Depression to me.

 
"The Lottery" is deservedly famous, and caused a bit of a stir when it first came out. On a specific day of the summer, in a small town in New England, the whole town gathers, as they do every year, for the lottery. It's an old tradition. 

 
First, the head of every household draws a slip of paper from the old box. One slip has a black mark. Then, everyone in that house draws again, and one family member is the final person to get the second black mark. What happens is, of course, also a very old tradition.