Classics Illustrated
One of the advantages of the internet is that I can now scour lots of different sources of news from around the world. Back in the UK, I rarely had the opportunity to read newspapers on weekdays because I used to leave home well before the newspaper boy would have delivered them, but I did have two of the Sunday newspapers delivered and would sit and scour the pages on Sunday morning once having finished the ironing whilst listening Alistair Cooke’s Letter from America and the Archers omnibus edition. Now every day, having checked the email, I can scan several websites and read articles from a wide variety of newspapers.
Yesterday, I came across a story about the publication of a new edition of the classic story of “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner“ by Samuel Taylor Coleridge as a graphic novel – that is, in comic book format.
Now, I am not particularly fond of poetry. This is a bit of a handicap here in Kyrgyzstan as the education system here seems to place a high value on the subject. The children learn large chunks of poetry and many can quote them for years afterwards. I am often surprised at how many people I have met who turn their hand to writing the odd verse to commemorate an occasion and how many toasts at celebrations like birthdays weddings are given in verse. One of the few passages of poetry I ever had to learn by heart was, in fact, an excerpt from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner:
The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
The furrow followed free;
We were the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea.
Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down,
‘Twas sad as sad could be;
And we did speak only to break
The silence of the sea!
All in a hot and copper sky,
The bloody Sun, at noon,
Right up above the mast did stand,
No bigger than the Moon.
Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.
Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any a drop to drink.
My interest piqued by the headline, I clicked on the link and read the story. In fact it seems to be a reworking of the story to give it a modern twist which is designed to emphasize an ecological message about the need to “save the world’s oceans.” So it is not exactly being given the “Classics Illustrated” treatment.
Classics Illustrated was a comic book series started in the 1941, with a comic book version of Alexander Dumas’ “The Three Musketeers”. Over the next thirty years they produced so some 169 titles, spin off publications in Britain and Greece as well as a specialist “Classics Illustrated Junior” series dealing with fairytales, folk tales, legends and myths.
As a youth, I used to enjoy reading comic books – things like Superman and Batman. These American imports seemed so much better to me than the home spun British comics like the Deano and the Dandy, Victor or the Eagle, because they tended to be in colour and usually told a story from beginning to end, so you didn’t have to wait until the following week for the next installment. The storylines of heroes with super powers battling evil also appealed far more than the childish antics of the Bash Street Kids, Rodger the Dodger or Desperate Dan. Even the more sophisticate stories of Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future couldn’t compete. The problem was that these American imports weren’t sold in the newsagents of Malvern, my home town, so I had to travel the eight miles to Worcester in order to get them. This simply added to their appeal.
When I first came across a copy of a Classics Illustrated title, I picked it up with interest. When I got it home and started reading, however, I understood that it wasn’t quite what I expected. No-one in spandex costumes, less action, no “Pow” and “Zap” … but it was interesting all the same. I didn’t see every edition, but I did buy a few of them, and they provided me with an insight into several classic works of literature which I doubt that I would otherwise have touched “with a bargepole”.
Although, as I grew older, the appeal of these comics diminished, it was revived in adulthood when a new shop, Stateside” opened in East Barnet, just a few miles from where I lived. It became a regular stop on my Saturday morning shopping expeditions, after having been to the supermarket to stock up on provisions for the week. By then, of course, the range of titles, super heroes and villains, had expanded exponentially.
Of course, I discovered that by then the world had moved on and comic books had developed. They had had to adapt in order to meet the challenges of other forms of entertainment, TV and films and computer games. There were more publishers, not just the giants DC and Marvel. Although the standard 24 page format still ruled, there were a wide variety of other formats, such as the Graphic Novel, with titles like The Dark Night and The Watchmen. The artwork was more varied and individualistic. The themes and storylines more varied and adult. They had also become “big business” with collectors and aficionados, and blockbuster movies which cost megabucks to produce which helped to widen their appeal.
Unfortunately, however, Classics Illustrated had not been able to adapt in the same way. The very material on which they were based was static rather than dynamic – published stories told in an abridged and graphic format. The appeal wasn’t as great. There were, however, a number of individual “classic” works published in comic book format – including versions of Bible stories.
Perhaps that background information helps to explain why the headline grabbed my attention and clicked on the link to see what the story was all about.
Having read the article, however, it occurred to me that there are a number of Kyrgyz legends and stories that might benefit from receiving the Classics Illustrated treatment, such as: the Manas epic, the stories of Kurmanbek Baatyr, Tolubai and Kojojash.
I have seen children’s books with some of the traditional Kyrgyz stories, but they are in the more traditional book format: text, sometimes with illustrations, sometimes not. There is talk about producing a film based on elements in the Manas epic … so, I ask myself, why not a comic book.
It’s funny, but the kids seem to know all about Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, the Green Hornet, Spiderman, Daredevil, Iron Man, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, and even the Red Tornado, (whom I had never heard of until I came here). Of course, a lot of that is because of the films based on these heroes but, there are also comic books available here in Russian, here in Kyrgyzstan. There was even a bar in downtown Bishkek that was decorated with paintings of Dr. Strange, Spiderman, Batman and the like. It is true that the comics that I have seen hanging up in kiosks are few and far between and they tend to be simply translations of titles featuring American Super Heroes, but that shows that there is at least a potential interest in, and a potential market for, such a product.
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Bishkek