As D.H. Lawrence famously wrote, ‘It’s the one thing they won’t let you be, straight and open in your sex. It’s the one taboo left, sex as a natural and vital thing.’ Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover, first published in 1928 but banned in the United Kingdom until a hotly-contested trial in 1960 which allowed it to be issued in popular paperback format, tells the story of Constance Reid, a young woman trapped in a loveless marriage to Sir Clifford Chatterley, a wealthy abut paralyzed aristocrat. After Clifford returns from World War I injured and emotionally distant, Connie feels increasingly isolated. Seeking connection and vitality, she embarks on a passionate affair with Oliver Mellors, the gamekeeper on Clifford’s estate.

Their relationship transcends physical attraction; it offers Connie emotional fulfilment and a sense of freedom from the rigid class system that confines them both. As they grow closer, Connie must confront the societal expectations and moral judgments that surround them. The novel explores themes of physical and emotional intimacy, the disconnection of modern life, and class divides.

Emerson’s long association with Knockabout Comics resulted in some of the best adaptations of classic narratives in the history of comic books, producing such wonders as Dante’s Inferno and the three volume Bloke’s Progress, based on the works of John Ruskin. His witty and audacious adaptation of Lady Chatterley, however, stands out as the pinnacle of the collaboration, gaining widespread attention and positive feedback.

In a wide-ranging and highly insightful 2022 interview in The Comics Journal with Tasha Lowe, which you can read in full here, Hunt Emerson provided some interesting background to his version of Lady Chatterley:

One of the things I have loved about your work is the juxtaposition of sources and subject matter. I think people forget how really racy some of the classics are, then to see your take on it and realise that they’re really more interesting that we thought.

Well these things are interesting, aren’t they? I’ve got into doing these things because we did Lady Chatterley’s Lover all those years ago. That was to cash in on the fact that Knockabout had been through a censorship proceeding in the courts and had finally got clear of it, and won the case. It was a kind of a celebration of that, because Lady Chatterley’s Lover had been through a similar sort of thing back in the 1960s. And also, quite importantly, the book had just come out of copyright.

Here’s another ‘way back’ sort of question. In the previous Journal interview you talked about wanting to draw comics that were underground, but not focused on sex and drugs because you wanted to be able to show your mum. Did she ever see Lady Chatterley’s Lover? If so, how did she and your dad react?

Well, my dad’s been dead a long time, since 1992. He saw Lady Chatterley and called it filth. Told my mother to throw it out. But she didn’t, she kept it. Me dad really didn’t have any time for or understanding of what I was doing at all. My mum also doesn’t understand it, but she did appreciate that I’ve got talent and she’s proud of the fact that I’m doing books and things.

Lady Chatterley’s Lover was published by Knockabout Crack Editions.