In 1994, art director Paul Karasik worked with iconic author Paul Auster and comic book artist David Mazzucchelli [Batman: Year One] on a graphic novel adaptation of Auster’s 1985 noir detective mystery novel City Of Glass.
But while Glass was never a lone detective story — it was actually part of a series with 1986’s Ghosts and 1986’s The Locked Room that Auster called The New York Trilogy — graphic novels of the other two books were not to be.
That is, until now. In Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy: The Graphic Adaptation (hardcover, Kindle), fans of the titular novels not only get the original adaptation of City Of Glass, but also new graphic novels of Ghosts and The Locked Room.
In the following email interview, Karasik — who served as the art director on the collection, as well as the artist on The Locked Room — talks about how this came together, how Glass happened back in the day, and how Auster was involved in both.
Paul Karasik
Photo by Ray Ewing
For people who never read them, what are the three novels in Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy about?
Two of the novels take place in the early 1980s, and one takes place in 1947, but all three New York tales begin as straight-forward mysteries that veer into darkness where ultimately more questions are asked than answered. Like many a film noir, each features a decent man who, through a series of chance decisions, finds himself in a moral maze without a roadmap. The books are distinctly different tales with similar themes and minute overlaps in their realities. Part of the fun in reading them is in detecting their intersections and deviations.
The graphic novel version of the first book, City Of Glass, was originally released in 1994. You were the art director on it, like you are for this collection. Back then, whose idea was it to adapt Glass into a graphic novel?
Art Spiegelman was approached by an editor named Bob Callahan with the idea of finding comics artists to adapt contemporary noirish fiction into comics. They chose City Of Glass as the first book test-run because it was so complex regarding the nature of fiction and words. After a few other artists tried and failed, Art called me to take a crack at it, and I proceeded to concoct a visual language that served to support Auster’s ideas about prose language.
What was it about this idea that made you want to work on it?
I had read the novel years before Art called and had already thought about the possibilities of it being adapted. Like so many instances in the works of Paul Auster, it was meant to be.
Auster was around when that the adaptation of City Of Glass was done. Was he involved in it at all?
Auster gave us complete freedom to do anything to turn the novel into comics except the edict that we were not to change a single word of his prose. Of course, there are a lot fewer words in the adaptation than the prose novels, but they are all Auster’s.
In 1994, when the graphic novel version of City Of Glass came out, the other two books in The New York Trilogy— Ghosts and The Locked Room — had been out for years. And yet, they didn’t get adapted into graphic novels. Was there any talk of doing them back then?
There was no discussion at the time to adapt the other two as Glass was to be a stand-alone volume in a proposed series of adapted noir novels by several authors.
So then what happened recently that led to adaptations of those books being done?
It took me a long time to understand what they were truly about. I called Auster and shared my assessment, and he concurred with my interpretations. That set me in motion.
David Mazzucchelli did the art for the graphic novel version of City Of Glass, Lorenzo Mattotti did it for Ghosts, and you did it for The Locked Room. Is there a reason why it was decided to have different artists do the different books as opposed to having David do all 3?
For one thing, David would not have been interested. We remain good friends, but he has other fish to fry. Plus, the other two novels are quite different in many ways that dictate that they should look different.
Similarly, why did you ask Lorenzo to do the art for Ghosts, and why did you want to do the art for The Locked Room?
In many ways, Ghosts is different from the other two books. The adaptation we conceived is more like a picture book, and so it made sense to seek out someone who is a great illustrator, like Lorenzo, who was an utter pleasure to work with.
We had some false starts with The Locked Room until finally Auster, himself, approved my sketches and strongly suggested that I draw it, myself.
In preparing to do the art for The Locked Room, did you look to any other graphic novel adaptations of prose novels to get a sense of what to do, and what not to do? Aside from City Of Glass, of course.
While I have a deep knowledge of the history of comics, and try to keep up with what is happening in the field, I did not emulate anyone else’s approach to comics adaptation. Most comics adaptations are not of interest to me.
That said, while my work has been influenced by many artists, the work of cartoonist, Harvey Kurtzman, has probably had the deepest effect on my comics storytelling.
Paul Auster
Paul Auster died on April 30, 2024. Was he aware that Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy: The Graphic Adaptation was happening?
Before he died, Paul saw and gave his blessings to all the finished art. We reviewed every page together but most of his few editing suggestions were text-based.
Also, is the version of City Of Glass in Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy: The Graphic Adaptation the same as when it originally came out in 1994?
It is the same.
The original graphic novel of City Of Glass also had an introduction by Art Spiegelman. Does that also appear in Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy: The Graphic Adaptation?
Art’s intro was specifically about the evolution of City Of Glass and his role in that development, so it is not included in Trilogy.
Hollywood loves making movies out of detective novels, and it loves turning graphic novels into movies. Do you think Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy: The Graphic Adaptation could work as a movie? And I don’t mean Paul Auster’s original novels, but specifically this collection, like how they turned Frank Miller’s Sin City graphic novels into some movies or how they adapted Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis into an animated film?
I suppose the Trilogy could be adapted into a movie, but the adaptation that we have created is specifically conceived and designed as a comic. Comics and films are built from different construction materials.
That said, if someone asked me to work on an adaptation of the books into a film, I have some ideas of how this material might translate…but it would be quite different than the comics.
Would you want it to be animated or stylized live action like Sin City?
Live action.
And who would you suggest they cast in the main roles?
I am reluctant to speculate.
So, is there anything else you think a potential reader might need to know about Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy: The Graphic Adaptation?
Auster is often labeled a Post Modernist, but I think that designation can be off-putting as it sounds so cerebral and formal. His prose is accessible, and the comics are easy to follow.
Most importantly, I feel that the novels are gripping tales about lonely men who get caught in the crosshairs of emotional vortex.
Finally, if the option presented itself, which of Paul Auster’s other novels would you want to do a graphic novel adaptation of, and why that one?
I would like to take a crack at [2002’s] The Book Of Illusions. In it, Auster creates silent films in prose that the reader can see. It would be fun to turn them into comics.
