MARVIN · Graphic Novel · Purple Dragonfly Book Awards · 2020
MARVIN Wins 1st Place in the 2020 Purple Dragonfly Book Awards
MARVIN: Based on The Way I Was by Marvin Hamlisch received 1st Place in the Graphic Novel category of the 2020 Purple Dragonfly Book Awards.
Published by Schiffer Publishing Ltd., the 64-page graphic biography was adapted, written and illustrated by me from Marvin Hamlisch’s autobiography The Way I Was, written with Gerald Gardner.
1st Place — Graphic Novel
The Purple Dragonfly Book Awards recognise books for children and young readers across a range of publishing categories.
In the 2020 awards, MARVIN received 1st Place in the Graphic Novel category.
For me, the award marked an important moment because MARVIN was the first full-length graphic novel I had adapted, written and illustrated.
A graphic biography of Marvin Hamlisch
MARVIN tells the early life and career story of composer, pianist and conductor Marvin Hamlisch, based on his memoir The Way I Was.
The book follows his childhood as the son of Viennese Jewish immigrants, his musical education at Juilliard, his early professional struggles and the beginning of the career that would later span Broadway, Hollywood, concert music and popular culture.
Hamlisch went on to win the Pulitzer Prize as well as Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards.
Adapted, written & illustrated
My role covered the complete graphic-novel adaptation:
- adaptation from autobiography to sequential narrative
- script development and dialogue compression
- page structure and pacing
- character drawing
- scene composition
- visual continuity
- lettering logic
- final illustration
The challenge was not simply to illustrate passages from the memoir. The prose had to be reshaped into scenes, sequences and page turns that functioned as comics.
Some sections could be compressed into a single panel; others needed space to develop across several pages. The adaptation therefore involved selecting what to show, what to omit and what could be communicated visually rather than through narration.
From memoir to published graphic novel
The project was represented by Anna Olswanger of Olswanger Literary LLC in New York and published by Schiffer Publishing Ltd. in 2020.
The finished book brought together several strands of my work — cartooning, character drawing, editorial compression, script development and sequential storytelling — within one sustained narrative.
Book details
- Title: Marvin: Based on The Way I Was by Marvin Hamlisch
- Adapted, written and illustrated by: Ian David Marsden
- Based on: The Way I Was by Marvin Hamlisch with Gerald Gardner
- Publisher: Schiffer Publishing Ltd.
- Publication: 2020
- Length: 64 pages
- ISBN: 9780764359040
- Award: 1st Place — 2020 Purple Dragonfly Book Awards, Graphic Novel category
The full MARVIN project
This page records the 2020 Purple Dragonfly award. The complete project page goes further into the adaptation, visual development, research and production of the graphic novel.
MARVIN — A Graphic Novel About the Life of Marvin Hamlisch →
