Broken Frontier

Classics Illustrated, that old mainstay of comicdom, once again rears its head. Jim Salicrup and Terry Nantier of the publishing company  Papercutz resurrect the classic formula and make it shine for a new age. Aptly named, every issue of this series provides a comic adaption of a classic literary novel.  

Back in 1940, Albert Lewis Kanter recognised a niche in the thriving comics industry that hadn’t been mined yet: adaptations of populist novels. Already having experience in comics publishing by issuing repackaged pairs of remaindered comics, Kanter immediately searched for financial backing and published Classic Comics in 1941. His first choice of novel fell on The Three Musketeers. Other such notable works as Ivanhoe, Moby Dick and A Tale of Two Cities soon followed. It was backed by a rather revolutionary idea. The comics contained no ads, had a biography of the author and only had educational fillers. It would also stay on the newsstand, month after month untill it was sold.

The well known moniker of Classics Illustrated was given in 1947 and proved to better describe its contents. Kanter’s comicbook adaptations of Shakespeare, Twain, Verne and many others were soon used in schools and the like for their literary and educational contents. Albert Lewis Kanter would continue to expand his empire and launched titles as Classics Illustrated Junior, Classics Illustrated Special Series and The World Around Us. His Classics empire changed hands around 1967 and kept on being published untill 1971. 

In 1990, a second try was initiated by the Berkley Publishing group featuring adaptations of novels by such industry greats as Bill Sienkiewicz and Graham Wilson. And now Papercutz carries on the torch with their first outing, immediately grabbing for one of the true classics: Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations; presenting the GN as a high quality hardback with glossy paper.

The adaptation comes from the skilled hands of alternative mainstay Rick Geary, who already had experience with the line in an earlier incarnation. Alternative is a very relative word here though, meaning he is not a super-hero artist. He has contributed illustrations for magazines, national newspapers and had his work published by Marvel Comics, Dark Horse, DC and Fantagraphics.

Geary chooses to go with a rather straightforward adaptation of the book. There’s nothing wrong with that, with it being such an exceptional classic. The trouble with Dickens of course is that the man is incredibly wordy; adapting such a lyrical prose style to comics without making it too text heavy is a great challenge.

The humble and orphaned Pip is apprenticed to a blacksmith, however his dreams lay in becoming a gentleman. Through luck or fate, he is given a chance to make his great expectations a reality. During the course, he learns about human nature, the follies of women and the frustrations of a class society.

Overall the comic is a success. It is an accessible and easy to read version of the novel. Sometimes it falls into the trap of telling instead of showing, leading to a few too many captions on the whole, but Geary uses well chosen excerpts from the book so at least the prose is very well written. It follows the book quite closely and that makes it one of its strengths. The scenes are well chosen and everything rolls along quite nicely. I found myself breezing through the graphic novel, not an easy feat for a book that utilizes rather heavy-handed language.

The only problem lies in the rhythm of the telling. It reads breezily but that breeze never seems to slow down, speed up, swell or falter. Everything happens at a certain pace and when you get to the end, it’s over. Something happened in the translation from novel to GN that seemed to take some of the pathos away. The same happens with the characters, we need the captions to tell us their inner feelings and thoughts because the way the story is built up here doesn’t provide enough of an emotional rhythm to let the reader rest nor gasp for air. There’s a certain sameness to all the scenes. It’s a pity because you don’t realize it while reading. When you have finished the book, you realize that everything seemed a bit disconnected; like even the characters are going through the motions, telling what needed to be told. This is a bit of a shame because Dickens’ strength lays in his characters and period setting.

Recognizing the inherent heavy-handedness of Dickens, Geary goes for a very accessible cartoony style that contributes to the reading pace of the comic. The period setting is well researched and a natural for Geary with his popular A Treasure for Victorian Murder series. The colors are also well thought through, drowning scenes in grays and blues befitting the industrial times of the Victorian period.

A very promising start for the new Classics Illustrated line of graphic novels by Papercutz. Rick Geary transforms Great Expectations by Charles Dickens into a breezy read with clear artwork. I’ll be looking forward to their future adaptions of the classic novels.

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For more information about future issues, please visit  the publishers website. If you are interested in a more detailed overview of the history of Classics Illustrated, we recommend Classics Illustrated: A Cultural Overview by William B Jones Jr.