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This French edition is the true first and the first adaptation ever of a book by McCarthy into a graphic novel. It was a huge success and ran out of stock the morning after its publication. By June 2024 the book had gone through five further printings (with a sixth one on its way) and over 200,000 copies printed. The rights have been sold in 12 different countries. The American edition was released by Abrams Comic Art on September 17, 2024. 

ADVANCE REVIEW COPIES: 20 of them were issued in February, 2024. They are much smaller than the first trade edition and were for the most part distributed to journalists. One or two of them were held in the publisher’s archive.

LIMITED EDITION: Larcenet, actually, used a variety of colored grays which makes the original album definitely colored. In order to emphasize the beauty of the drawings and the artist’s work, Dargaud released, in the same format but with a different cover design, a Black & White edition which is, as its name suggests, only in black and white. Additionally, 16 pages on heavier paper, showing additional drawings, boards, or sketches are included. It had a first (and only) print run of 4,000 copies and was released on the same day as the first trade edition, March 29, 2024, at €39,00. 

A new collector’s limited edition, in a larger format and with an original cover, with a print run of 6,000 copies, was released by Dargaud on October 30, 2024.

PAPERBACK ILLUSTRATED EDITION: Points, the French publisher of the paperback edition of The Road in France, released a paperback edition illustrated by Larcenet. The date of publication mentioned on the publisher’s website is the same as the Dargaud first edition, March 29, 2024. According to other reliable sources though, it was published one week later. The first print run was 20,000 copies and priced at €13,55.

LARCENET AND MCCARTHY: Manu Larcenet is one of the most renowned graphic novel  authors in Europe. He was born in Issy-les-Moulineaux, on May 6, 1969. Among his works are the series Blast and Le rapport de Brodeck, which were big successes. 

In three emails sent in June and July, 2024, Claude de Saint Vincent, publisher of La Route, wrote: 

“We started to talk with Cormac’s agents very early in 2022 and signed our agreement in May 2022. Larcenet first wrote a letter to Cormac McCarthy explaining what drew him to adapt The Road into a graphic novel. And we sent him some of Larcenet’s previous works and specially extracts from Blast and The Brodeck Report. In his letter, Larcenet asked Cormac to allow him to draw the silences of his novel. McCarthy accepted, and, during the next year, we regularly sent him, through his agents, the first drawings and boards of the album. And so, before he passed away, he had seen the first 80 pages. And he said he was both pleased and impressed”.

Manu Larcenet wrote about McCarthy: 

“I believe I have been completely faithful to the novel and the author. I have never met Cormac McCarthy, but I certainly share many of his visions… The challenge was to draw a universe devoid of life, apocalyptic landscapes, broken, dirty, even filthy, and above all dead. An environment without nature, without leaves, without animals… It is a book full of silences. And the drawing must be sufficiently interesting for the reader to continue reading, even without the presence of words.”

COLLECTING TOPICS: copies of the first trade edition are already uncommon with prices around $80. Copies of the Black & White limited edition more so. Three of them were offered for € 200 and €250 in July 2024.