The Toronto Sun is reporting that a local university professor, George Rigakos, is embarking on a four-issue comic book adaptation of The Communist Manifesto, which is to feature original works by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

Rigarkos, who is an associate professor in the Department of Law at Carleton University, plans to use the series to tech political economy. The first volume on the series was released on December 11th, by Red Quill Books, and according to Rigakos, the response has been overwhelming, and they’ve already started to receive requests from England and Germany.

Rigakos tells the Sun that he’s taking “anything but textbook” approach, and that, “There is nothing like a comic book and graphic novel to grip a reader.” He says that it is the concept  of villains, victims and heroes that enables the Manifesto to be easily transformed into a comic, going on to say that, “The original work of Marx and Engels focused on the bourgeoisie, the proletariat and their heroes - the Communists - which will each constitute separate comic books in the series.”

In an interview on the Carlton University site, he says that he embarked on the project because, “The Manifesto is a foundational and fundamental text that students should be aware of,” says Rigakos. “I thought it would be intriguing to bring this part of history alive using a graphic novel or comic book approach that would engage more students.”

Red Quill will be publishing this new series of comic books in four languages: English, French, Spanish and German. A promotional video about these books is available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCnx96laCv0 or www.redquillbooks.com.

You can order the book from amazon, by clicking here

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