'Margaret's prose is haunting and I felt like any adaptation that just focused on the plot would lose so much of that. What quality of the novel were you hoping to capture in this version? When it came out and was such a huge phenomenon, I realized that the book was going to get a much wider audience than I had initially thought. I tried to ignore it because if you think about it too much, you freeze up creatively.'Ĭoncept art from The Handmaid's Tale graphic novel adaptation by Renee Nault. 'When I started the adaptation, the TV show hadn't come out yet. I went through the novel over and over again with a highlighter and tried to figure out what passages made the novel what it is, the essence of it.'ĭid you feel pressure taking on an adaptation of one of the most famous books in the world? A lot had to be cut out and shifted around. I made a movie-style script for the publishers and for Margaret. 'My first task was to adapt it into a script that would work as a graphic novel. Once you landed the job, how did you start the process?

They had us each do a few sample pages and a pitch to get an idea of our vision. I was nervous because I, of course, really wanted the job.' I think it had been Margaret's idea to do a graphic novel and I was on a list of artists that they were interested in. 'I was contacted by McClelland & Stewart, Margaret's Canadian publishers. Concept art of The Handmaid's Tale adaptation by Renee Nault.

The handmaid's tale the graphic novel