Millennial gothic. On Runberg, Homs and Carot’s graphic novel adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy

ABSTRACT

A modern classic and a true cross-media phenomenon, Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy (2005-2007) has been filmed both in Sweden and in the U.S. and adapted into two graphic novel narratives . This article investigates the adaptation process from novel to graphic novel with reference to the second, Franco-Belgian, transposition in six volumes, scripted by Sylvain Runberg and drawn by José Homs and Manolo Carot (2013–2015). Special attention is given to the conceptual device of the ‘icon’ in adaptation studies, while the exploration of the gothic presence in the adaptation takes two directions. First, it seeks to discuss the graphic novel creators’ choice of magnifying Salander’s goth persona and the visual glossary at work in the representation of the girl with the gothic attire. Second, it draws attention to the ways in which the adaptation relies on the specificities of the comics format in visualising what has been identified as 'the gothic core' of Larsson's trilogy.

KEYWORDS:

• The Millennium trilogy
• Stieg Larsson
• graphic novel adaptation
• transécriture
• Sylvain Runberg
• the Gothic
• crime fiction
• comics
• goths

Acknowledgments

Panels from the graphic novels have been reproduced by kind permission from @Dupuis 2017.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Gaudreault (1998, 269): ‘chaque lecture d’un texte, chaque lecture singulière, produi[t] dans l’esprit du lecteur ce que l’on pourrait appeler un “icone” du texte et […] ce serait cet icone du texte que l’adapteur adapter[a], le faisant passer dans la “moulinette” d’un autre média’. Unless otherwise indicated translations are mine.

2. Both adaptations have, on the whole, received little scholarly attention. However, the Swedish researcher Kerstin Bergman (2014) has discussed the ‘trans-medial transformation’ of Lisbeth Salander in the American graphic novel adaptation with fine sensibility.

3. Strömberg (2015, 64): ‘Det handlade […] om att välja ut de aspekter och de ämnen som enligt min vision var viktiga, och få dem att fungera med de nya aspekter som jag ville ha med i serieversionen. […] Det verkligt intressanta med att göra en bearbetning är inte att göra en imitation av originalet, utan att hitta en ny rytm, en ny strategi, och ge historien och figurerna ett nytt liv, samtidigt som man respekterar andan i den ursprungliga romanen’.

4. See for example Runberg and Homs (2013a, 25–26); Runberg and Carot (2014b, 42–43).

5. Kerstin Bergman (2014, 96) has similarly commented on this simplified vision of Lisbeth Salander, which is also present in the US graphic novel adaptation of the Millennium trilogy. According to Bergman, Lee Bermejo visualises Salander as ‘a muscular, cool, and androgynous presence […] strong and rebellious in her appearance with tattoos, piercings, heavy black makeup, and smoking a cigarette […]. Simultaneously, however, […] in a constant state of mourning, as signalled by the black armband tattoo on her left arm, something that adds complexity and depth to an otherwise fairly straightforward cover image.’

6. Larsson (2006, 284): ‘en krönika i familjen Addams anda’.

7. See Johansen (1986); Leffler (1991); Haugen (1998). From the early twenty-first century onwards, this interest involves studies in the Gothic, e.g. Fyhr (2003); Omdal (2010); Mehtonen and Savolainen (2013); Kastbjerg (2014).

8. Fyhr (2003, 64): ‘en eller flera subjektiva världar, som saknar högre ordning och utmärks av en atmosfär av förfall, undergång och olösbarhet, samt innehåller grepp som ger texten labyrintiska egenskaper’.

9. Elsa (2013): ‘On voulait qu’il y ait vraiment de l’empathie pour les victimes. Et ne montrer qu’une partie de la scène de crime, sans en dévoiler les éléments les plus sanglants, pour nous c’était forcer le lecteur à imaginer la suite, et à faire en sorte que ces scènes de violence prennent une véritable dimension humaine’.

10. See, for example, Runberg, Homs, and Carot (2014a, 25, 57–58 and 64), as well as Runberg and Carot (2014b, 51, 57 and 60).

11. Runberg and Carot (2014a, 3, 25 and 64).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Camilla Carita Storskog

Camilla Carita Storskog, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Scandinavian Studies at the University of Milan, where she has been teaching Scandinavian Literature since 2003. Her main research interests include encounters between verbal and visual languages (literary impressionism, graphic novels, comics, illustrated books), but she has also worked on issues such as travel writing, autobiography, and the historical novel. Her current research project focusses on graphic novel adaptations of Scandinavian classics.