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April 01, 2008

DUMAS FOR DUMMIES?

It's been an odd convergence of Dumas this week.  I spent some time over the weekend in the garage poking through boxes and came across these two treasures:

Dantes_001

(Can any of my comic fan friends tell me exactly what is meant by "the Marvel manner" other than, apparently, hopelessly cluttered panels.)

Dantes_002

I hadn't seen these in years - my manager gave them to me back in the 90s after I had finished writing a screenplay for a modern-day retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo, a book that has been touchstone for me since, well, forever.  Since the story of the Count figures prominently in Harry, Revised (hence the Penguin cover), it seemed time to bring these up from purgatory.  Only to find in today's news that the Telegraph has begun excerpting The Last Cavalier, Dumas's long-lost novel.  Which seemed as good an excuse as any to reproduce these two fine covers.

As for which is better, it's sort of a toss up.  Though I poke some fun at its clutter, the Marvel is a bit more distinctly drawn; it also hacks out huge swaths of the tale, thus making it more digestible in comic size, whereas the Classics Illustrated tries to stay truer to all the story marks, thus giving it a somewhat superficial feeling. 

In the end, for my money, nothing beats the genuine article.  (Though if anyone can help me find a downloadable version of the Mister Magoo version, I could be persuaded to, you know, throw the next giveaway ... Amusing to note that this Time Magazine mention of his Monte Cristo cartoon ran exactly one day before I was born.)

Do any of you have any favorite literature-as-comic books?

Posted by TEV at 12:01 AM in Harry, Revised, Worthy Titles |

Comments

Ahem! seen this, Mark?
(Campbell used to draw for Marvel too.)
http://eddiecampbell.blogspot.com/2007/08/gre-t-gatsb-y-first-time-i-saw-nicki.html

Posted by: genevieve | April 01, 2008 at 02:11 AM

That URL should have .html on the end, by the way. Not .htm

Posted by: genevieve | April 01, 2008 at 02:13 AM

Comic books are too wordy! I go for the Viewmasters versions.

Posted by: Daniel | April 01, 2008 at 04:24 AM

Actually, the one on top is my favorite too. I got it (in Spanish) in the early 1980s or so, edited as a "quality paperback."

Posted by: rick | April 01, 2008 at 07:45 AM

I think Classics Illustrated did Mary Shelly's FRANKENSTEIN a while ago. The illustrators used the Boris Karloff monster image throughout. Pretty good, as I recall; and surprisingly faithful to the original.

Posted by: Alan Cranis | April 01, 2008 at 07:45 AM

OMG Daniel! I remember my Viewmaster version of The Poseidon Adventure, which my folks had to crowbar away from my forehead!

Posted by: TEV | April 01, 2008 at 09:57 AM

The Classics Illustrated Count looks remarkably like...John Banville.

This explains a lot.

Posted by: e | April 01, 2008 at 10:23 AM

I think I read my CI Moby Dick fifty times. It actually made me want to read the book.

Posted by: John Shannon | April 01, 2008 at 02:39 PM

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