My last rough Odyssey experiment - Book 23

Obviously these cartoons are only basic scribbles - my next task will be to develop them. I need to ensure the characters are consistent and recognisable and carefully select the text/speech I include as it has to make sense to someone who knows nothing about the Odyssey whereas these are as much to refresh the story in my mind as anything. They were helpful to try out format though, the little boxes are an obvious and easy-to-read way to tell a cartoon story.


I may also present a visual guide to the book's characters (perhaps only major ones as there are hundreds!) to go alongside the plot summary.

More rough cartoons - book 10 and 12

I have tried to select (for these rough experiments) the most interesting/relevant/famous parts of the Odyssey, for example in book 10 the sorceress Circe turns Odysseus' companions into pigs.



The simplifying skills I developed in my earlier Jane Austen exercise are proving very useful here, and will do when I come to condensing the whole Odyssey as I plan to eventually.



In Book 10 Odysseus' companions betray him by opening a bag of winds which propels them to a land of cannibal giants. They escape after some of them are eaten and split up to explore the new island, but half are turned into swine and Odysseus has to sleep with a sorceress to get them turned back. She then helps him travel to the underworld. 
In Book 12 Odysseus is back from Hades so they leave the island, avoiding sea monsters. They reach a new place and the men vow not to eat the cows but a storm traps them there so they eat some. Unfortunately he cows belong to the gods and Zeus sends a storm which kills all of them except our hero, who manages to avoid the monsters a 2nd time and wash up on a beach.

The beginnings of a cartoon Odyssey

What I have observed from my research of Horrible History books is that images, particularly cartoons, make learning entertaining and easy. The success of these books illustrates this.


A passing reference to The Simpsons in my last post was actually really useful in explaining that cartoons aren't just for children: adults enjoy and understand them too.


Keeping this in mind, I have started to develop cartoon-style summaries of the Odyssey starting with just a few of its 24 books (chapters). 


Here's Book 9 in which Odysseus (or Ulysses as the Romans rebranded him) introduces himself to his hosts in a place called Scheria and begins to tell them the long story of how he got there.

The Odyssey

For my visual study guide I have thought in depth about choosing a work of literature and finally settled on the Odyssey. I chose it because its extremely old and doesn't appear often in popular culture (like Jane Austen's work). This unfamiliarity makes it daunting and unapproachable, but I can change this.

It was also essential for me to select a book I knew well as, though I'm going to simplify it (visually) it helps if I know what I'm talking about! I wanted to choose a story that was exciting, not just so I could spread my enthusiasm for it to others, but also so I don't get bored along the way. 

Perhaps most importantly, I chose the Odyssey because it precedes any kind of literary technology, having been orally narrated. Handmade books did exist when the poet Homer was alive, but he would have struggled to write one - he was blind!


I'm aiming to make images which can be understood by the masses, most of whom are only familiar with this Homer:

Horrible literature!?

It is worth noting that spin-offs of the hugely successful Horrible Histories series encompass (gruesome) geography and (horrible) science. But there's none about english literature!

There is definitely a niche in the market for such study guides, particularly for boys as statistically they prefer school subjects like Science but struggle with English.


"Last year 85% of 11-year-old girls reached the expected level in English for their age compared to 76% of boys"
"Nearly a third of the teachers questioned said boys were put off before the book had even been opened, if they saw it had more than 200 pages."
"Teachers also revealed that classics of English literature, such as those by Jane Austen, are putting boys off reading." (via BBC News)

Visual study guides

Though I thought the email format in my previous post would be really helpful in a study guide to the book, not all works of literature contain letters from one character to another. It was entertaining but not very universal.


As I established earlier, VISUAL information is what's missing from a lot of online study guides. Before I begin creating my own images, I had a quick look at existing examples. 


Though not available online as a study source (their website simply promotes their TV show and live tour) the 'Horrible Histories' series dominates this market, outside of the internet.

What makes them successful?

Though aimed at children old enough to read, they use images on every page. These include fake adverts, cartoons and comic strips. 

Also, the information provided isn't what you'd learn at school (teachers are made fun of in the introduction of each book) it's more tailored to children's interests: 'history with the nasty bits left in'. 

A text from Mr Darcy

I took my last experiment a step further and reduced the same letter down from an email to a text!

I feel like this has gone too far in abbreviating the message; a lot of meaning has been lost and it's almost incomprehensible. Perhaps it's fair to say that people communicated on a deeper level, though less frequently and easily, in the 1800s.

For me, a text is not the right format for such drastic information and too much has been discarded here. Or perhaps Carol Ann Duffy is right in claiming a text forces us to choose our words more carefully and powerfully. It could be that this text, in its brevity, is more dramatic than the email or the letter!

Be not alarmed madam on receiving this email

I thought it would be amusing to take letters from well-known work of literature and turn them into emails.


I looked at Pride and Prejudice and changed this famous letter from Mr Darcy into an email by abbreviating it and incorporating colloquial language, sloppy spelling, internet slang and nicknames. 

The result is quite funny but I wonder if this kind of thing would work well as a study tool? I think it might as the language is simplified/easier to read while i've tried to maintain all the same ideas.

Where next?

I made a mind map of my ideas based on what I've looked at so far and how I have questioned it.

Though I initially considered the Internet detrimental to literature and education I have realised its visual potential as a study tool and need to explore this now through a series of practical experiments: time to get drawing!

It's nearly Christmas!

The images I have been making have ignored an important element of books - their three-dimensional physicality, as opposed to the flat computer screen.

Here's a festive way of showing you can make sculptures from books. While I don't think this is hugely relevant to the way my ideas are developing, it's a good reminder of the ways real books have more uses than e-books.