Death Row Everyman: Stanislas Gros's Image-Based Interpretation of Victor Hugo's The Last Day of a Condemned Man

In countries with a high readership of graphic literature, such as France, comics serve as a crossover medium, bridging the gap between genres and age groups. France has exploited the versatility of the medium, in the service of profit and, more notably, of cultural capital, with comics being used to initiate young readers into literary classics, mostly from the Western canon. The most striking example is the collection "Ex-Libris," published by Delcourt and directed by the comics writer Jean-David Morvan, which includes an adaptation of Victor Hugo's The Last Day of a Condemned Man, a work particularly well-suited for a young adult audience given that young adults and Romantic writers often share a similar sensibility and values: a passion for justice, a love of humanity and the natural world, and a fascination with the macabre. Stanislas Gros, the writer and illustrator of the adaptation, does not shy away from the darker aspects of Hugo's work, creating a work that is both engaging and authentic.