Jabberwocky - A Doc Hoff Adaptation

In 1871, English author and mathematician Lewis Carroll published the nonsensical poem entitled "Jabberwocky." It is a poem of made up words that leaves the reader in a place of “filling in the pieces” to be able to add meaning to words that have no meaning. Carroll included this poem within his novel “Through the Looking-Glass,” the sequel to “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland” (1865). The book tells of Alice's adventures within the back-to-front world of the Looking-Glass world.

In an early scene in which she first encounters the chess piece characters White King and White Queen, Alice finds a book written in a seemingly unintelligible language. Realising that she is travelling through an inverted world, she recognises that the verses on the pages are written in mirror writing. She holds a mirror to one of the poems and reads the reflected verse of "Jabberwocky". She finds the nonsense verse as puzzling as the odd land she has passed into, Later revealed as a dreamscape.

Throughout the years this poem has been interpreted by many in many different ways. For myself, I had never read this piece until I started to draw it. As a matter of fact, I drew it as I read it for the first time. As I progressed through each stanza, I drew each page. The first time I read the last stanza was when I drew the last page as it is here in the final form. I hope you enjoy this zany comic adaptation of this classic piece of literature. As Jabberwocky was first revealed in the context of a dreamscape, so this comic reads like a bit of a nightmare.

Enjoy! Bwhaha! Doc Hoff

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