Where to begin indeed? I keep hearing that this Ulysses book is one of the most, if not the most, difficult novel in the English language! Hmmm! Difficult in what way? Difficult to read? Difficult to understand? Difficult to appreciate? All slightly different questions surely? As I said before somewhere – it is only one word after another. It is – isn’t it? It’s not, like … backwards or anything? It’s not in a made-up language like Nadsat or Elfin?
… and maybe an offering to the gods of website maintenance? As regular visitors may already have noticed we are in the process of streamlining this part of the site. Our apologies for any inconvenience caused. Fear not though for nothing has really gone, we’ve merely rearranged it. You can still find everything you want by either clicking one of the tabs along the navigation bar, by selecting a general category in the side bar or, if you’ve got something more specific in mind, you can still use the tag cloud on the right. It’s all so much easier, but should you be missing something then do let us know. There’s usually someone online and we’ll get back to you just as quick as we can.
As usual you can keep up-to-date with what’s happening here via twitter or facebook or even by RSS feed. Whichever is most useful to you.
Welcome dear readers to my first post on this new blog page. This is the part of the site where I get to tell you about the comings and goings of all the various contributors, alert you to the schedule of the updating comic, let you in on production secrets (if they let me), talk shop and generally liven up your day with all things Ulysses! I’m Michael Perridge and that’s my signature picture to your left, a guarantee of quality if ever I saw one, but none of that will mean anything to you until you get to know me. You might have noticed that this site is based around Rob Berry’s interpretation of the James Joyce novel Ulysses in comic book form. That may seem like a fairly simple statement, if you take out the fact that Ulysses is considered to be that most difficult of modern novels, but I assure you attentive reader that the webcomic aspect of this venture is just as torturous as the Joycean.
My background is almost entirely made-up of an enduring interest in comics in all their myriad forms. Not just your Batboy and Superhorse but Oor Willie, Roy of the Rovers and Dan Dare too. Yes, I’m one of Her Majesty’s British Subjects, the son, not of a Joycean, but a Shavian, and if nothing else I hope here to bring you into an appreciation, not of the novel because there are better people here for that than me, but of the comic book adaptation presented here. There’s more to comics than childhood nostalgia too as we will find out, but here is where two worlds collide. The Joycean and the comicbook geek. They have so much I think (and hope) in common, so it is only fair that in bringing the two together that I, standing on the one side representing comics, join the opposing forces and attempt the novel itself.
It is, after all, only a book. It is only one word after another. How difficult can it be? What is it? A driving examination? Feel free to chip in whenever you like. I’ve some reading to catch up with.
… Well, the blog, anyway. The New Yorker found us on Bloomsday, and we’re quite pleased with what they had to say.
Also. Paste Magazine has found us and given us a review and link. Thanks to Gray Chapman for the review!
Also – a while back, a great post from the Rutgers MFA blog. Thanks for your kind words, rnmfa!
And another great post on the City of Books blog. We’re happy to be a catalyst for first, second, and hundredth readings of the novel. There’s no name given, but we thank them, just the same.
And finally a 3-word post from Lorrek. Sometimes you don’t need to use a lot of words to get your point across. The irony of saying this on a site that celebrates Joyce’s ULYSSES is not lost on us.
