Results tagged “Classics Illustrated” from Birmingham Mail - Speech Balloon

THE UK'S Classic Comic Store is currently busy reissuing a number of classic comics from around the world.

Notable releases include English language versions of the Greek and Joint European Classics Illustrated and a special version of The Grapes of Wrath.

"This is an adapted version of the Philippines National Classic Comics series. A very good adaptation in Black and White," Jeff Brooks revealed.

In 2008 Papercutz, under license from Jacklakeproductions Inc., published The Wind in the Willows, the first new title with a Classics Illustrated logo for thirty years. That book and subsequent new releases are also available in the UK now.

It was also made known they are "Now selling the delightful new Classic adaptations from Marvel - as well as the mid-seventies graphic comics.

The company also has 750 issues available in the old UK Pocket Library series: Thriller Picture Library, Cowboy Picture Library and Super Detective Library, plus new new versions of the Holland and Ashford's reference guides

The company is listed as attending BICS 2009 in Birmingham this weekend (October 3rd - 4th) so visitors to the show can see for themselves the vast assortment of titles they have on offer.

For more information visit: classiccomicstore.com and www.classicsillustrated.co.uk

For more information on BICS 2009 visit: www.thecomicsshow.co.uk

Classics Illustrated No. 7:
Les Miserables
By Victor Hugo

I've never sat through or listened to a whole performance of the musical Les Miserables and I'm unlikely ever to do so. It all sounds too earnest with too much effort put in for something rather melodramatic. Obviously millions around the world feel differently. That's their choice.

The book on which it is based on the other hand is a different matter. Adventure fans will note it has a few key elements rather similar to The Count of Monte Christo. Socialists might comment on its characterisation of the choices forced upon people under dire circumstances.

It's that and more, and this old adaptation brought back into print recently by Classics Illustrated does a most noble and pretty damn good job of pulling it off successfully.

One night a former Jewish convict by the name of Jean Valjean breaks his parole and thereafter must go undercover; finding fortune, adopting an orphaned child, and forever attempting to stay one step ahead of Police Inspector Javert, all caught up in the constant developments and outcomes of the French revolution.

It's a tale of honour, love and quite frankly more than its fair share of despair. One wonders if today's governmental quangos on education would actually let such a book into a school (it might upset the poor dears); well let's face it if they can read this then that's brilliant and they'll start thinking of the greater possibilities available in their world if they put a little effort into things and refuse to accept the status quo. Sermon over.

This comic book adaptation captures an awful of the story within its pages, evocatively. Norman Nodel's art is bleak, well-rendered, and while possibly not automatically attractive on the eye to the young, they could end up finding it deeply moving.

Nodel's real name was Nochem Yeshaya. It is not surprising he began his career drawing military maps during World War II, thereafter he developed several different art styles and was known for his work illustrating many children's books and magazines. He apparently did several other adaptations for Classics Illustrated so readers can look forward to those too.

For more about Classic Illustrated titles from Classic Comic Store Ltd visit: www.classicsillustrated.co.uk

Classics Illustrated No. 5:
Romeo and Juliet
By William Shakespeare

Behind a cover evoking a frame from a 50s movie, whose artist is unknown, we are entreated to some forty plus pages of finely rendered pages by George Evans.

Thoughtful angles, clear use of perspectives, background detail that adds texture without interrupting the main story, and a beautifully drawn Juilet, make this a book well worth checking out.

Almost everyone thinks they know the story of Romeo and Juliet: two lovers forbidden union by their warring families who, unable to live without each other, take their own lives.

Most of us can even quote a line or two. Far less of us have actually seen the play or read the story in full. And I have to include myself. That stated; there's a lot more to it than I expected. And in this version I came out of disliking Romeo intently.

Told today, he'd be a loud-mouthed soccer player, forever with a different blond in tow, until he found his one-true love that he'd talk about exclusively about in Hello magazine; then when it all goes belly-up the Sunday tabloids could pour over their misfortunes. To me, the true tragedy of this story is that Juliet couldn't see she deserved better! Very nice art by Mr Evans though.

For more about Classic Illustrated titles from Classic Comic Store Ltd visit: www.classicsillustrated.co.uk

Classics Illustrated Junior No. 2:
The Ugly Duckling
By Hans Christian Andersen

When my daughter saw the cover to this she started sobbing. Comforting her, I asked why and she explained that since she was little (and she's only nine now) she had thought the story sad.

I reminded her about the happy ending and she said she knew that but it didn't matter because it was awful the things that happened in it.

I looked at the cover and I nearly started sniffling myself. From the duckling's great big tear to the snapping mother duck in the background, it says it all.

William A. Walsh drew the cover and illustrates the comic strip adaptation within, and it's one that, though awkward in design in places, features pleasant drawings and includes some nice little scenes.

A tale about bullying. I can't remember, do the very young think that we all turn beautiful in the end and so others will stop picking on us, or do they readily acknowledge metaphors and understand they'll one day be appreciated for their own unique talents and personalities?

I'm not sure, but, I think, my daughter was trying to tell me that bullying is bullying and even when it stops you can't change the fact that it did happen.

Since it shouldn't happen in the first place, if we can educate our kids about such things early in life and get them to stand up against them then perhaps we wouldn't have so many adults in workplaces attempting to continue their bullying ways in positions of relative power.

Sorry for going off into a sermon there but as anyone around me knows, I don't tolerate attempts at bullying well.

This a very valuable little comic book, and overall nicely done.

For more about Classic Illustrated titles from Classic Comic Store Ltd visit: www.classicsillustrated.co.uk

Classics Illustrated Junior No. 5:
The Sleeping Beauty
By Charles Perrault/Brothers Grimm

The Classic Illustrated Juniors comic book range was introduced in 1953, and presumably intended for the very young.

It's a tried and tested formula to have pictures and words together in books for the young (in fact didn't most books at one point in history?) to help them make educated guesses about what the words they're learning might mean; although comics as a storytelling medium does much more than that.

The late cartoonist Dik Browne provided the cover, with interior art by Pete Costanza (known to old superhero fans for his work on both Captain Marvel and Jimmy Olsen, plus assorted ACG mystery short tales) and Alex A Blum who illustrates a single page that recites the Simple Simon rhyme.

Costanza draws both Perrault/The Brothers Grimm story of The Sleeping Beauty story that takes up most of the book and Hans Christian Anderson's The Real Princess.

They're faithful retellings but the collection is nothing to get excited about for comic fans. Nonethless, it's a fair enough way for the very young to be introduced to either comics or the stories themselves and parents might want to check this out.

For more about Classic Illustrated titles from Classic Comic Store Ltd visit: www.classicsillustrated.co.uk

Classics Illustrated No. 3:
Robin Hood

THIS COMIC book adaptation features interior art by Jack Sparling.

Sparling was a DC/National Comics traditionalist during the 60s working on books like Bomba, and, I think I'm correct in saying that he later went on to do work out of Neal Adams's Continuity Studios.

Sparling's actual interpretation of Robin Hood appears to be based on the classic Errol Flynn film version, although, in places, it can feel more like the old Richard Green television series story wise.

The artwork is a much more simplified affair than that seen in the previous Oliver Twist book. Nonetheless, that fits the looser story being told that flits around and picks choice bits from the popular folklore tales of the merry archer until it ambles merrily towards its happy conclusion.

Generally speaking, it's a pleasant enough introduction for younger readers seeking their first tastes of adventure.

For more about Classic Illustrated titles from Classic Comic Store Ltd visit: www.classicsillustrated.co.uk

Classics Illustrated No. 2:
Oliver Twist
By Charles Dickens

This is the second adaptation of this particular story that was scripted by Alfred Sundel for Classics Illustrated.

Sundel did a good job of condensing what's most likely Dickens' most well known story these days.

Oliver Twist's been adapted into films, musicals and the devil only knows what down the years, and those adaptations have tended to lessen the harsher elements that are present in the original book so it's curiously pleasing that this comic adaptation doesn't necessarily shy away from them.

The art is by Reed Crandall and George Evans. The latter no slouch in the artistic department but Crandall was truly a master at drawing this kind of period detail.

It's top notch throughout, detailed but in subservience to the storytelling. An excellent little read and certainly worth picking up.

For more about Classic Illustrated titles from Classic Comic Store Ltd visit their website at: www.classicsillustrated.co.uk

CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED was an American company that, if not the first, then certainly the most famous international publisher to adapt works of literature into the comic book format.

The company existed from the 30s through to the early 70s with countless translations of the books made globally. Though heavily condensed, the adaptations featured the work of many well-respected artists, and the original comics are still highly sought by collectors and fans.

Back in the early 90s, First Comics bought the license to produce new works using the title. The books were larger, generally lasting around 48 pages with side bindings to cater for the fledgling graphic novel market. Unfortunately, that company had over-expanded itself and folded.

More recently, Jack Lake Productions Inc started republishing the original Classics Illustrated, and over here in the UK; Classic Comic Store Ltd has been established to bring them to the British public's attention.

Many companies, all over the world, now realise the advantages of turning novels into comic books, the best example I can think of being Classical Comics, based in the UK; who obviously put a lot of time and effort into producing works that are faithful to the original stories and so combine excitement and scholarly pursuits in an admirable way.

What Classics Illustrated still has to offer modern audiences may not be as immediately apparent: certainly fans of artwork by the likes of George Evans will want to buy the titles, but those numbers are unlikely to keep a company in business, where they will succeed is as primers to not only the real books but more extensive modern adaptations by the likes of Classical Comics.

The fact that Classics Illustrated titles have newsstand distribution via Comag and are generally inexpensive should be of benefit, also that they have side-bindings like real books so won't be displaced on shelves like regular comics. Ultimately it will be down to how the individual titles appeal to their young modern audience.

Over the next few days, we'll be looking at a few of their titles.

Classics Illustrated No. 1:
The War of the Worlds
by H.G. Wells

Interesting this one. A very famous tale, but known much more for its radio and film adaptations than its original novel. Those adaptations made it contemporary to the times they were made, whereas, this comic book version, while abridging the story, generally establishes it as taking place in the late 19th century or thereabouts as Wells intended it; with a quaint take on the setting of a Britain as viewed by an American artist.

Lou Cameron apparently did a number of works for Classic Illustrated. I've also read before that a number of his other strips for long-lost American comic book companies were reprinted, or syndicated in UK published anthologies, and while that was over 40 years ago, AC Comics in America has reprinted some of his work in their own books over more recent years.

Cameron's art is loose, very slightly cartoony, strong on movement and he had a penchant for foreshortening that when drawn as the barrel of a gun or even just a pointed finger aimed at the reader creates a nicely intense feel that works well in drama and horror, which The War of the Worlds essentially is; alongside the obvious metaphors for humanity's common greed, social injustice, and the unknown alien or foreigner in our midst.

As stated, a brisk story as delivered by Cameron with a script by Harry Miller. The cover should attract young lads, but I'm not so sure about the interiors; as I've said, Cameron's art doesn't go in for excessive detail, and kids probably tend to prefer more action less personality, and opt for film versions, but for those who do, and probably more so for the younger ones, they'll find the tale is lightly told yet gets its theme and message across, and may entice them to check out the real book.

For more about Classic Illustrated titles from Classic Comic Store Ltd visit: www.classicsillustrated.co.uk