The Challenges and Benefits of Adapting ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ into a Graphic Novel

A Story Shaping Believers for Generations

My first encounter with The Pilgrim’s Progress was not John Bunyan’s original masterpiece or even a faithful abridgment. It was a thirty-five-minute 1978 animated version on VHS.¹ Admittedly, some of the film’s animation techniques felt like they owned a home in the uncanny valley. I distinctly remember my grade-school self being terrified of certain scenes in ways Bunyan almost certainly never intended.

Nevertheless, that brief film planted a seed in my heart for the extraordinary tale presented in the seventeenth-century classic, and for that I’m forever indebted. Since then, I’ve traced the journey of Christian from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City many times over. The original book is an incredible work of English storytelling, providing a glimpse into the heart and mind of one of the most influential Christians to have ever lived.

Since The Pilgrim’s Progress was first published in 1678, the Lord has used it to shape generation after generation of believers in countless ways. My earnest desire with the graphic novel is to draw new readers into Bunyan’s astonishing tale through a contemporary method of storytelling, even if it is simply as a stepping stone to other more fulsome editions. I hope that readers find this novel something like the pathway carved across the Slough of Despond, allowing you to reach the Help of Bunyan’s original in all its richness of language and form.

The idea of revisiting The Pilgrim’s Progress as a graphic novel was both thrilling and dreadful to me. It was thrilling because it might introduce the world of Bunyan to entirely new readers. It was dreadful, however, because—as one with a deep affection for the Puritans and John Bunyan, in particular—the last thing I desired to do was deviate from his original meaning in any significant way.

The wording in the book is obviously not a copy-and-paste of Bunyan’s precise wording from the original 1678 edition, which for many modern readers would likely feel impenetrable. My hope as I adapted Bunyan’s tale was to capture the spirit of his original language and the heart behind the words he chose. This is Bunyan’s story, and I felt protective of it as his story. While you will encounter conceptual simplifications, shortened dialogue, and even a few modernizations within its pages, my desire was to draft words close enough to Bunyan’s tone and intent that very little has been left out of this graphic novel.

Pilgrim's Progress

John Bunyan

This graphic novel, saturated with bold artwork, meaningful allegory, and timeless language, visually retells John Bunyan’s beloved Pilgrim’s Progress to a brand-new generation of readers.

Allegory as a Barrier

One challenge with bringing a work like The Pilgrim’s Progress to a modern audience is ironically one of its most beautiful features. When Bunyan quoted Hosea 12:10 at the beginning of his original work—“I have . . . used similitudes” (KJV)—he was telegraphing his approach to his readers: The Pilgrim’s Progress is told in the form of allegory. A similitude is a comparison, a likeness, an analogy representing something. When these similitudes are woven together into the tapestry of a larger narrative, the story becomes an allegory.² As such, the reader encounters the names of people and places that directly correlate to the truths they represent. There is no ambiguity or mystery here. The name “Obstinate” means the character is obstinate. The character Help is clearly helpful to Christian. Interpreter interprets, Flatterer flatters, and the City of Destruction is actually going to be destroyed. For an audience mostly familiar with the nuanced implications and hidden subtext of modern storytelling, allegory may feel a bit jarring and alien, perhaps even overly simple. This is an understandable point of friction, but it ought not serve as a barrier to enjoying the story.

Bunyan wrote his story in the seventeenth century, when rhetorical precision in sermons, vivid imagery, and stark emblematic concepts were part of the air his audience breathed. In that context, ambiguity was not a virtue of good storytelling but a hindrance to clarity of the truth. Openly transparent allegories, like those mentioned above, should rather be viewed as the topsoil of Bunyan’s story. Below it, a careful reader can discover a bounty of wisdom in the form of theologically rich analogies and biblical allusions. Beyond the shores of the straightforward references is an ocean of profound spiritual truth accessible to the thoughtful interpreter and the student of Scripture. The reader is beckoned deeper through the more topical allegory as if it was a portal into another world. And by stepping into that world, they can then see how Christian’s journey maps to their own and lay hold of the biblical insight, encouragements, and warnings in Bunyan’s story, whenever the allegory seems to materialize in their own lives.

The reader is beckoned deeper through the more topical allegory as if it was a portal into another world.

The Glory of Similitude

One obvious benefit of telling Christian’s story within a graphic novel is that storytelling is not restricted to words. Various elements of Bunyan’s story are vibrantly brought to life in this edition by the masterful work of artists Brent McKee and Matt Wilson. This approach provided us an incredible opportunity to push the spiritual imagery even further, allowing Bunyan’s similitudes to shine forth in exciting and unique ways. What could only be symbolized in word form before now takes on a visual manifestation, intensifying and elaborating its spiritual correspondence for us.

For example, we don’t just read about Christian’s burden, but we see it as a terribly large stone bound to his back by unbreakable cords. Carrying it is as unnecessary as it is unbearable. His burden is the hard heart of a sinner seen from the outside, and its weight is the guilt that mounts as a sinner comes to grips with his own depravity. Another instance is the great city of Vanity. It is not a typical, terrestrial locale but rather held aloft in the sky, as if it were a place from which no one would ever desire to depart. It’s an artificial heaven, a substitute and weak version of eternal joy, designed by its founder to explicitly keep pilgrims from their true destination (Ps. 16:11).

An even more subtle case is the context of our pilgrims’ dialogue with Ignorance. The conversation takes place on the limbs of trees high above the Enchanted Grounds and revolves around the ultimate ground of one’s faith. Here, we endeavored to weave the theological richness of that discussion between the characters into the environment itself, drawing a sharp distinction between roots and fruit, between the source of salvation and its result. These examples and others reflect our desire to richly color the symbols of Bunyan for the readers of this edition, delighting in the original’s theological beauty through art.

Safety on the Path

Proverbs 11:14 tells us, “Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.” The matchless value of The Pilgrim’s Progress is no doubt Bunyan’s embodiment of the role of counselor, providing his readers with safe passage through life by way of the truths presented within his tale. Dominated by the glorious realities of Scripture, Bunyan deliberately crafted this story to be a guide for believers. Within its pages, he carefully teaches us the sorrows and glories, as well as the dangers and delights, of the Christian life. And graciously attending every step along the way we find the faithfulness of the one true King, “who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy” (Jude 24). This is a central goal of The Pilgrim’s Progress. It was written so that we pilgrims might safely reach our desired country, the heavenly one (Heb. 11:14–16).

To reinforce the impact of Bunyan’s work, I have included reflections for every chapter to invite readers to consider specific insights from key events and characters, and how these might affect the readers’ daily lives. You’ll also find a lexicon exploring many of the characters and locations encountered in the story. There I spend time drawing out biblical wisdom from each facet of the story. I have prayed that every aspect of this book would be a blessing to those who walk the path, and I trust that the Lord will use it for his glory and your good.

Ad Fontes

Although Bunyan’s original work—and this adaptation—seek to offer practical wisdom to believers as they journey through life, the ultimate goal of both works is to bring the reader face-to-face with God and his word. This is why this graphic novel edition, following the spirit of Bunyan’s book, is saturated with so many references to Scripture. God, the Creator and sustainer of all things, has spoken in history, a staggering reality that changes everything. In the pages of the Bible, God has revealed who he is, who we are, and why we exist. All other aspects of human understanding are secondary to this. Therefore, biblically faithful books like The Pilgrim’s Progress, in whatever edition it might be read, are designed to point to God and to what God has said.

The Latin phrase ad fontes, which means “to the sources,” has been employed in a variety of ways in history, one of the most notable examples being the Reformers’ efforts to return to Scripture in its original languages. The Pilgrim’s Progress is doubtless one of the great tributaries that flows from this impulse. And in doing so, men like Bunyan drew from a far deeper and abiding spring than any story of man. They drew from God himself and what he has revealed in his word. “This is the one to whom I will look:” God tells us, “he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word” (Isa. 66:2). Therefore, as you turn each page of this book, read through the reflections, or browse the lexicon, may every word send you to the great and true fountain—to God in Christ Jesus, in whom we hope and before whose words we tremble. Godspeed, pilgrims.

For King and kingdom,
Jeremy Patenaude

Notes:

Pilgrim’s Progress, directed by C. O. Baptista, adapted by Maxwell Kerr (orig. 1950, adaption, 1978; Omega Entertainment), VHS.
“Similitude: an imaginative comparison.” Merriam-Webster Dictionary, under “similitude,” accessed May 6, 2026, https://www.merriam-webster.com.

This article is adapted from Pilgrim’s Progress: The Graphic Novel by John Bunyan, adapted by Jeremy Patenaude, and illustrated by Brent McKee.

Jeremy Patenaude has served in pastoral ministry in both Seattle, Washington, and Orlando, Florida, while spending nearly two decades telling stories for video game franchises, including Halo. He is committed to increasing the church’s love for Christ through storytelling and expository preaching.