Results tagged “John M Burns” from Birmingham Mail - Speech Balloon

CLASSICAL COMICS recently started adding to its line of critically revered graphic novel adaptations of the works of Shakespeare by adding Charles Dickens, Jane Eyre and Mary Shelley to their imprint. Here are my thoughts on each book.

Jane Eyre
By Charlotte Bronte, Script adaptation by Amy Corzine, Art by John M Burns
(Classical Comics)

I've been fortunate enough to view copies of John M Burns's black and white art for this book for well over a year now, and quite a few of the coloured pages too. Every time I see them I come out with the same old line to the people at Classical Comics, "This one's an award-winner - Put it up for as many as you can!" I know I'm like a broken record (that's something they used to make out of vinyl, kids!) but quite frankly I don't care.

John M Burns, for those unaware, is a master craftsman of the comic strip medium. Schooled in our proud British illustrative tradition, perfectly at home on the comic book page as much as the now neglected newspaper comic strip, he is also well versed in both adventure and romance and to some degree both skills are called upon in this graphic novel adaptation.

Period dramas are big news on our terrestrial television stations, and the film world continues to see their currency. It's not just some romantic link for more innocent times, it's the fact that stories of an elder pedigree were put together to work, to be read and enjoyed by as wide a populace that could read.

Personally I have a problem with anything that lingers around the parameters of being a bodice ripper but there you go, each to their own.

For those unaware, Jane Eyre is the story of an orphaned child sent to live with her non-blood related aunt. The girl refuses to be subservient and is blamed for the things her cousins do and so is sent to a pauper's boarding school. Many more trials and tribulations are made but we are made to see the important humanitarianism that the new middle classes could bring about alongside the atypical bullying we've come to witness in such sagas.

Jane becomes a teacher herself at the school, then a governess, finding employment and a home at Thornfield Hall but it is some time before she meets its gruff master, Mr Rochester. They are blunt with each other but over time a general distain grows to a gradual respect, and eventually an unspoken love. During these developments of affection we are witness to some wonderful discourses between the pair.

Some may find the turns of phrase and colloquialisms in the full version a little hard to grasp - not that the words are difficult but the unfamiliarity of the way they are expressed - and for that reason I can see where the abridged text using more modern expressions could prove the more popular read. However, I much enjoyed the full-bodied text, rich in its language, with Jane giving as good as she gets, thus showing the first flowering of women' s emancipation in an admirable, subtle manner.

These dialogues add tremendously to the humour that can be found deep in this romance, and tragedy.

I'll not give the game away but even as the couple express their love openly tragedy does indeed wait to stab them from the wings. This twist in the tale takes place roughly half way through the story and there are more changes of fortune for Jane before the end of the story.

As the reader will find for themselves from the various supplementary text features at the rear of this book, a substantial amount of the novel's plot was derived from Charlotte Bronte's own ordeals in life, but equally so her own life followed suit with some of the chapters; as if she was either channelling her own future life or living out her own fantasies in the real world.

I have to say the novel itself, as noted before, with its affectations towards subdued bodice ripper romance doesn't always grab me, but the fine persuasive lines of conversation between the action certainly engages my attention and so I forgive the former.

A few points, again, on Mr Burns's art: whether it is the script adaptation or his own presence of style, he reclaims comic book storytelling for storytelling sake. The use of a surprise/shock page ending to induce enthusiasm to turn over to the next page has been taken for granted as a pre-requisite, Burns gives us moments within the page itself that are just a vital, startling and positively rewarding in their artistic merit.

While the fully painted art that is published is admirable, there is a great part of me that wishes this were printed in black and white - while the colour doesn't hide the detail it does disguise the fact that these were drawings created in pencil then ink, with attention to detail in the folds of a curtain as much as the flaring nostrils of a horse. This is not slick work this is consummate drawing with thought and concentration given before a pencil line is delivered. People should be impassioned enough to want to take up drawing themselves, for the sheer pleasure of it as its own reward.

Burns is an artist's artist and doesn't fail to deliver, picture the scene: it's early Sunday evening and the Birmingham International Comics Show 2008 has just finished so there's a handful of comic book creators in need of a stiff drink, once deposited in the nearest city centre public house someone brings out a copy of this book, and it's not me, it's followed swiftly by a chorus of: "I've got that!" from most of the artists gathered. Simply put the book caught their eye at the show and they bought it.. Professionals they were and are, and talented ones too, but the level of expression they had for Classical Comics' Jane Eyre proved that even these seasoned stars paid their venerable due respect to a master of the form.

If this doesn't find its way into graphic novel award nominations some serious questions about why not have to be asked.

A Christmas Carol
By Charles Dickens, Script Adaptation by Sean Michael Wilson, Pencils by Mike Collins, Inks by David Roach, Colouring by James Offredi.
(Classical Comics)

While I was at a gathering where professionals applauded Burns' Jane Eyre, I went out of my way to interrupt a conversation Mike Collins, pencil artist on Classical Comics' A Christmas Carol was having with cartoonist Lew Stringer (my apologies for that, Lew!) to tell him I'd liked what I'd seen at the time, liked it a lot.

The ever-delightful Karen Wenborn had handed me review copies of Classical's books only a few hours previously. I'd not had chance to study them to any great length but in flicking through them I was struck by this book, being highly impressed with the overall look and feel of the story's visual layout.

Mike has worked on all sorts of comics from Judge Dredd to a forthcoming Dr Who graphic novel, with The X-Men and Batman thrown in for good measure.

He's a commercial comic book artist in the best sense. His work always shows the visual punctuation of the old British school (as perhaps influenced by the likes of the aforementioned Burns, along with Ron Embleton and Martin Asbury to my mind) but it's always been with an American twang to it - as initially influenced by that Curt Swan/Murphy Anderson clean line look they produced for Superman, then updated by those who were just breaking through or at their peak as he himself entered the profession - guys like Alan Davis and John Byrne (who may have lived on the American continent for most of his life but was born in West Bromwich just like Collins!).

Whether I'm wrong or right about the actual influences, these are the kind of artists one can see he processed intuitively to make his work, clean accessible and readily translatable on the printed page - not via overt cheating by prolonging in the shadows for mood, but by physical interaction both between characters and with the page itself.

Within that framework - by use of perspective, angles and depth of clarity - Mike Collins work has returned A Christmas Carol to the ghostly horror story it is.

Far too many other adaptations of this classic in many media have diluted the impact of that particular facet to the story. They have given more attention to its humour often to the level of a farce, or sentimentality reigns at the end with its more valued theme 'a celebration of life' debased to play second fiddle at best.

The plot itself is universally known but those other adaptations take liberties with the aspects they have wished to portray, curious since it's not an overlong story anyway. Scrooge is a miser and is visited by Christmas spirits who show him the error of his ways so that he repents.

To be frank with you, unlike Jane Eyre, I suggest most readers choose the full version to read - not that there's anything wrong with the abridged per se - but that Dickens' novel is not a long one, his words still common currency in this our England: common, direct and meaningful, yet still rich and evocative in their combinations to move the listener - Yes, read this out loud I did a section of it to my daughter.

What Mike does is move the story gently but firmly with the characters well defined from the off - and they are characters rather than the caricatures of them we've come to expect down the ages. His pacing then adds some fair degree of suspense - a constant use of different levels of perspectives within a single panel frame comes into play here.

I'm wondering if over the last couple of years he'd picked up DC Comics' Showcase editions of The Phantom Stranger where the main artist, the late Jim Aparo, another clean storytelling artist like Mike, and one whose graphic design background lent itself to multiple perspective levels and so may have guided Mike into following suit for this particular book.

Whatever, his angles and choice of frames increases the tension and add terror, even at times eliciting a feel of light claustrophobia on viewing. Scrooge's own antics engage fear, concern and worry. They draw the reader in and carry them through on a true journey of self-discovery for Ebenezer Scrooge, and to some degree those around him.

You may view this book in another light, being too over familiar with the story yourself, but I think that the very ease with which this has all been achieved makes it all the more admirable.

To say I enjoyed its very accessibility comes across as crass and undervaluing what Mike Collins has done. This is a big comic. Kids will get it, grown-ups will get it, and so will comic book fans of various ages - who to be honest may well be more superhero orientated than this book's raison d'etre, but there you go; they can enjoy it too.

The script adaptation by Sean Michael Wilson, with frequent Collins collaborators David Roach inking and James Offredi colouring each do their job, and I don't mean to be disrespectful here, but it's Mike who makes this book the enjoyable page turner it is.

Yes, I still consider that Jane Eyre should be the book Classic Comics have nominated for graphic novel awards, but as an all round success of their achievements and, presumed, intentions as a company: to marry original novel and the graphic narrative of the comics medium together and make the resultant accessible to the great unwashed non-comics reading public, kids, schools, moms and dads etc - A Christmas Carol is a runaway success as far as I'm concerned.

Frankenstein
By Mary Shelley, Script adaptation by Jason Cobley, Line Art by Declan Shalvey, Art direction by Jon Haward, Colouring by Jason Cardy & Kat Nicholson.
(Classical Comics)

I confess I've never read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein novel before. The various films and other comic book adaptations from the past, yes. I know they diverge greatly from the original, I've read many a newspaper or magazine article telling me so, and vocally heard it from rabid fans too. This here, being the genuine article supplemented, or rather working in conjunction with the comics medium, surprises me somewhat.

It's even less about the monster than I had supposed, in fact all the other characters take a back seat to Frankenstein himself. And I'm not sure if he's actually qualified as a doctor in it! Regardless, he creates a monster, though we're not quite sure how, and he is appalled by it - The monster is likewise aghast its own existence and in time begins to operate as a serial killer destroying those Frankenstein held dear, until he promises he will create it a female companion in the same manner.

Frankenstein agrees, but later reneges on the deal, among his reasons being that he fears the creatures might breed an army of themselves who would one day take over humanity.

The story is narrated by one Robert Walton, a would be explorer come Darwin in the making, via his own love letters to his betrothed, for when his the ship rescues Frankenstein being intelligent men of their class they talk and the monster-creator's secret life is told in flashback during the length of the book.

It's a grim tale, and I can't say I gain any emotional fondness for Frankenstein - he did the deed and I somehow don't feel the level of remorse he claims to have for doing so. More a feeling that his creation wasn't as wonderful as he thought it would be so is shamefully humilated by it, less so remorseful.

Still, it reads well, and I think the adaptor Jason Cobley appears to have paced the structural breakdown well. Artist Declan Shalvey is a name that's been bandied about to me for a while now, and by people I respect, so I've been eager to see his work properly. I've previously only come across the odd illustration that looks like there's a blooming talent there, but not any full strips. This is a large undertaking for an artist just starting out, and Classical has brought in Jon Haward as art director to help in that area.

Having seen some pages very recently, I thought Jon may have been producing layouts that Declan then finished but the How to section at the rear of the book proves this is not necessarily to be the case. It seems that Declan would draw the pages then Jon suggest alterations to heighten the storytelling, in the example shown that proved to be the right choice from Jon.

For the most part Declan's work moves the story along fine, but the art is definitely subordinate to the story in this case, more visualising texts, and I would personally have preferred it to be much more defined. I wondered if this could be the digital colouring but again the How to Section didn't seem to indicate as such.

This is such a mammoth project for, with all due respect, a novice artist, and a bit similar to how I felt about Classical's Henry V , drawn by Neill Cameron. If I were editor, I would probably have gone with a more experienced, seasoned artist in both cases for such page counts. That stated, the learning curves that Neill must have undergone on Henry V improved his skills no end as can be seen in the liberated manner he has subsequently produced his appealing manga stylisations on Mo-bots within the pages of The DFC.

I'm not saying that I expected the level of the great Mike Ploog or that master of the macabre Bernie Wrightson both who have previously made their own mark illustrating Frankenstein and it is unfair for a young artist to be compared to them, but in the commercial world of publishing these are things that cannot be ignored. I'm hoping the efforts Declan has put into this will, as with Neill Cameron, provide dividends on a personal creative level for him and I look forward to investigating that out for myself.

You can see more for yourself via bookstores, comic shops and by visiting www.classicalcomics.com