'The Little Prince' graphic novel to be published in English

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A graphic novel based on The Little Prince by French artist Joann Sfar is set to be published in an English-language edition in October, reported Publishers Weekly on September 22.

An internationally acclaimed cartoonist, Joann Sfar is known for previous graphic novels including The Rabbi's Cat, which was adapted for film and for which he won the prestigious Jury Prize at the Angoulême Comics Festival, as well as for his The Little Vampire children's books.

Sfar's adaptation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's classic novella takes the unique approach of depicting the story's narrator, the pilot, who never appears in the original book's illustrations. The adaptation was first published as a French-language title in France in 2007.

In an email interview with Publishers Weekly's Comics Week, Sfar said the project "would be a great way to demonstrate that a graphic novel is NOT an illustrated book. I feel there is a specificity in comic book storytelling which allows a different path than illustration."

Written while Saint-Exupéry was living in the US, The Little Prince was first published in 1943, appearing that year in both French and English. The book has been translated into more than 190 languages and has sold more than 80 million copies, ranking it among the best-selling books of all time.

The graphic novel will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which publishes the US edition of The Little Prince and also released a pop-up version of the title in 2009.

The English-language edition of The Little Prince Graphic Novel will be out internationally on October 18.