Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird' to be developed into a graphic novel by 2018

LOS ANGELES: Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize- winning novel ' To Kill a Mockingbird' is being developed into a graphic novel.

The graphic version of the celebrated 1960 novel will be drawn and adapted by artist Fred Fordham, who most recently illustrated Philip Pullman's graphic novel, 'The Adventures of John Blake: Mystery of the Ghost Ship', reported Entertainment Weekly.

"Adapting a story that means so much to so many, and finding the appropriate art style to give it life in a long- form visual medium, is a great honour and responsibility, and, mercifully, also a great pleasure," said Fordham.

The novel, told through a young girl, Scout, is about her growing up years in the racially-divided 1930s Maycomb, Alabama, with her brother Jem and laywer father, Atticus Finch.

Atticus is the defence lawyer for Tom Robinson, a black man who has been falsely accused of sexually assaulting a young white woman.

Translated in more than 40 languages, the American classic was adapted into an Oscar-winning film with Gregory Peck playing the role of Atticus.

Lee's estate has given a green signal to the graphic adaptation, saying, "The Estate is very happy to be working with Fred Fordham on this wonderful project. Fred's work has a quality that surpasses time, just like the novel he will bring to life in a new way. We can't wait to hear the reaction from old and new fans."

The graphic novel, published by William Heinemann, will be released November 2018.