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This article discusses the issues faced by two French artists who have produced a bande dessinée adaptation of a novel, říliš hlučná samota ['Too Loud a Solitude'], by the Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal, and the reception of their work in the Czech comics community. In adapting the novel to another medium, the artists have not merely illustrated the original, but have used a variety of techniques intended to convey its emotional coloration and its self-referentiality. Furthermore, they have changed its context from Prague during the Communist era to twenty-first-century Lyon at a time when the jobs of print workers are threatened by out-sourcing. The article argues that the adaptation thereby enhances the contemporary resonance of the original.

As part of the Potsdam Agreement following World War II, 2.8 million Germans were expelled from Czechoslovakia. Disturbing details of mass executions and forced marches of Germans have become the topic of public debate in the Czech Republic. In recent years, representations of this traumatic episode in Czech history have filtered into popular culture as well. This article considers how the graphic novels Alois Nebel and Bomber, whose authors were inspired by Art Spiegelman's Maus, address the controversial issue of the German expulsion.