‘A Confederacy of Dunces’ Gets the Comic Book Treatment

‘A Confederacy of Dunces: A Graphic Novel Adaptation‘By John Kennedy Toole and Alfred NoyesPenguin Random House, 240 pagesThe publishing history of John Kennedy Toole’s “A Confederacy of Dunces” is nearly as strange as the surreal plot of this beloved epic. By the time Toole died by suicide in 1969, the New Orleans-born author had spent years trying to publish this comic paean to The French Quarter’s most eccentric denizens.The title comes from Milton: “When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.” At the heart of this unhinged farce is perpetually aghast Ignatius J. Reilly, a rotund Miltonic genius in his own mind who avoids paid work at all costs while gorging on philosophy, hot dogs, and Dr. Nut soda.It was John Kennedy Toole’s mother who ultimately got this book published, by showing up at the Loyola University office of National-Book-Award winning novelist Walker Percy and vowing that her dead son’s “badly smeared, scarcely-readable” manuscript was a masterpiece. Astonishingly, Mr. Percy agreed, declaring that his “third reading” of the book “astounds me even more than the first.”“A Confederacy of Dunces” went on to win the 1981 Pulitzer Prize. Ever since, Hollywood A-listers from John Belushi and John Candy to Will Ferrell have tried to get a big-screen version of Confederacy made.Until then, we have a rollicking graphic novel adaptation by Spanish artist Albert Monteys. It opens with Ignatius in his iconic green hunting hat and oversized flannel jacket, standing outside of Holmes department store.There, he is confronted — for no discernible reason — by dull-witted Patrolman Mancuso. A crowd gathers, a scuffle ensues, and Ignatius’ long-suffering mother has yet another reason to worry about her unemployed, medievalist, 30-year-old son.Mr. Monteys’ rendering of this opening scene captures the distinct verve and flair he brings to “A Confederacy of Dunces.” Officer Mancuso appears barely more substantial than the precious “lute string” carried by Ignatius, who, by contrast, looks more like a howling bear. The outraged bystanders, meanwhile, are bug-eyed and finger-pointing, shouting about fascists and communists in the distinct accents of their home city. (“You can’t arress me… Go get the strippers on Bourbon Street.”)Ignatius and his mother are presented in distant silhouette as they flee the scene, kicking off a journey that will include stops at the sleazy Night of Joy bar, the tacky offices of Levy Pants, and a “weenie wagon” warehouse.Then there’s the Reilly home, where Ignatius lounges in the bathtub, reads the philosopher Boethius, and laments the unhealthy state of his pyloric valve. There’s also the Celtic cross on the front lawn that Noyes presents as utterly unimportant — until the novel’s end, that is, when it becomes very important.With its burlesque performers and mean drunks, alongside an Alfred-E.-Newman-esque urchin trafficking illicit goods, “A Confederacy of Dunces” gets spicy quickly, reinforcing Ignatius’ belief that the world is falling apart. Which is why he believes the U.S. needs “a good strong monarchy.”In a provocative Foreword, the book’s editor Kwanza Osajyefo writes: “This graphic novel contains language and attitudes that cause harm,” and is “saturated with the casual bigotries of its time and setting.” This is quite a departure from Walker Percy’s infectious enthusiasm, which greeted generations of Confederacy readers.Mr. Osajyefo, though, defends this material “because there’s something urgent about seeing what was normalized, especially the ugly parts, if we want to recognize what survives in new costumes.” Ignatius, Mr. Osajyefo adds, is “convinced he’s morally and intellectually superior to everyone around him,” and blames “society for failing to crown him,” and “rails against ‘modernity’ even as he “produc(es) nothing but tantrums. … Sound familiar? It should.”Let’s give Mr. Osajyefo the benefit of the doubt and assume he’s alluding to the obnoxious, self-important ranting we see across the 21st Century ideological spectrum. Ignatius, after all, is an unapologetic royalist, possibly even a budding fascist.But he’s also a role model for Seinfeld’s feckless George Costanza; a proto-Gen-X-slacker; an excitable undergrad-for-life; and occasional social activist, who organizes a cringey protest in the name of “Moorish dignity” amongst black workers at Levy Pants, thus earning the label “white savior.”In other words, he seems to represent a broad array of intellectual follies. While Mr. Moyes’ artwork enhances many aspects of Confederacy, condensing the full narrative does result in some shortcomings. Shorn from Toole’s prose, transitions from one absurd scene to the next even-more absurd scene can be downright disorienting. Furthermore, some of Confederacy’s more dated Cold War satire — written in the1960s — could probably have used a bit more judicious editing.None of which detracts from the overall exhilaration of reacquainting ourselves with Ignatius J. Relly and Mr. Toole’s cast of naughty misfits. Noyes’ depiction of Ignatius slumped over a writing desk compels readers to also imagine him at a computer station, perhaps with access to the Internet and social media.What sort of misadventures and misguided crusades would 21st Century Ignatius J. Reilly get into? Mr. Toole may have had something like this in mind when he has Ignatius say: “I always suspected democracy would come to this.”

‘A Confederacy of Dunces’ Gets the Comic Book Treatment

‘A Confederacy of Dunces’ Gets the Comic Book Treatment

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