Scottish crime writer to give the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo a graphic twist

It has been reported today (NZT) that Scottish crime writer Denise Mina, who's recently been in the news down this way with the announcement she would be a guest at the 2012 New Zealand International Arts Festival (and was the subject of a very good feature by my fellow Ngaio Marsh Award judge Bernard Carpinter in a recent New Zealand Listener) willl take the reins of the "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" series. Not to complete any rumoured fourth manuscript, but to bring Lisbeth Salander and her escapades to full vivid colour via graphic novels.

Alison Flood of The Guardian has said that, "Mina has been chosen by Larsson's literary estate to adapt the late Swedish novelist's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and its sequels The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest into six graphic novels for DC Comics. The author, whose latest novel The End of the Wasp Season was shortlisted for the Gold Dagger award, said she had nearly finished adapting the first book, with the first volume to be out next March. The illustrator is Leonardo Manco, with whom Mina has previously collaborated on the Hellblazer comics."

You can read Flood's full article here.
 
It will be interesting to see Mina's graphic novel take on the Swedish crime tales. I'm fascinated by how some writers produce excellent work in a variety of mediums, while others concentrate solely on one. Different strokes for different folks, of course. Amongst the crime writers I've spoken to this year, our own Neil Cross writes film and television scripts in addition to bleak and gripping thriller novels, Robert Crais went from TV scripts to private eye novels, and Gregg Hurwitz juggles thriller writing with graphic novels, film, and TV scripts. And I thought my life was busy!
 
Hat tip to another of my fellow Ngaio Marsh Award judges, Graham "Bookman" Beattie, for the heads-up with the news about Mina.