The Road Anniversary: What Did Cormac McCarthy Leave Behind?

This year marks a literary milestone – it’s been two decades since the first publication of Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic novel The Road. Not only did this slim volume quickly win the Pulitzer Prize, but just a few years later, a film adaptation was released starring Viggo Mortensen. If you missed the movie and want to see what it looks like when Aragorn trudges through a grey, depressing landscape where humanity no longer functions as we know it and civilization has long since fallen into an eternal sleep – go for it. A bleak and desolate atmosphere is guaranteed; this is post-apo as it should be.

Beyond the silver screen, The Road also reaches us through the pages of comics. Thanks to the Argo publishing house, you have the chance to indulge in a dose of post-apocalyptic depression in an adaptation by the acclaimed French artist Manu Lercenet – his graphic novel is as faithful to the original as possible, while successfully breathing life into a masterpiece of modern comics.

The initial status quo remains the same – the world has been consumed by an unspecified apocalypse, after which everything was covered in constantly falling grey ash. As far as the eye can see, there is such devastation that even Smaug wouldn't be ashamed of the ruin. There is no room for life or growth here, only wreckage, decay, and corpses – a darkness and oppressive atmosphere that breathes on the reader again and again with every turned page.

In this bleak world, we follow the journey of a father and son traveling south toward the ocean and a glimmer of hope that drives them further. All their possessions have shrunk to the contents of a battered shopping cart. Unfortunately, they don't just face hunger and cold; on the road, they must avoid feral gangs of other survivors – their daily bread is the constant threat of being ambushed by the other inhabitants of this world (it's hard to call these cannibals human), for whom the remnants of people are just walking snacks.

What makes Lercenet’s The Road striking is its visual silence. McCarthy’s literary minimalism is a quiet place in comic form, where dialogue is rare, and you shouldn't expect Hollywood-style dramatic action scenes. Instead, it is a more or less oppressive sequence of scenes that invite contemplation of the powerful images and visions that won't let you sleep.

Since this comic isn't an action-packed blockbuster, why read it? The key asset is the artwork. While it might seem like just a variation on fifty shades of grey and black meant to illustrate endless dust and ash, that’s not the case – the author works masterfully and sparingly with color accents; in the case of danger or blood, we clearly recognize it by the red color. In various memories, other colors occasionally peek through for the reader.

An important aspect of the comic adaptation is the detail with which individual scenes are drawn. Dirt, ash, and blood are almost tangible on the paper; the author depicts everything perfectly – from the smallest wrinkle to a rusty can by the road or randomly found corpses. The world he captured is monumental, full of decaying cities and wild forests, yet it feels empty – the absence of humanity is obvious at first glance, and the ruthlessness of the local inhabitants chills the reader to the bone.

It is astonishing what the author managed to do – he not only captured the depressing atmosphere of the book but gave it a new face. He captured the story visually in a way that text alone cannot – he breathed a soul into it that will emotionally chew yours up and spit it out several times while reading. The story of bare survival in a cruel world, where the last spark of hope is the bond between father and son, won't leave you cold. If you’re having a melancholic moment and the real world doesn't seem like a scary enough place for contemplation, I highly recommend picking up this comic. Your depressed self will be satisfied to the brim, and you’ll get a polished hardcover comic that will be the pride of your library. And you want that!