The Comic Book History of Comics (3 Points)

 Page 167 of The Comic Book History of Comics introduces us to Classics Illustrated, which were comic book adaptations of classic works of literature. This peaked my interest as I had been considering doing a literary comic adaption for my thesis. Although not my sole reason, I had read a graphic novel adaptation of Beowulf during middle school, and it had entranced me and was subconsciously one of the reasons I became not only a fan of literature, but of more sophisticated comics as well. More recently, I had discovered a renewed passion for both after reading an adaptation of Anne of Green Gables, which was illustrated by Brenna Thummler (an RCAD alumni) and published fairly recently in 2017. Thanks to that book, I had this idea for thesis. From further research, I had discovered that a majority, if not all, of their stories were based on pieces of literature that was public domain, meaning that it was no longer copyrighted and could be used without any legal strife. Another thing to note with not only comic adaptations, but adaptations of any medium in general, is pacing, as mentioned in the text with the cheeky joke about the Odyssey. I may consider doing a story that Classics Illustrated may have already published, to see where I can improve and expand upon their version of the story, as well as how they handle pacing, interpretation, and handling of the original piece, which I would obviously research and refer to as well when working on the project. Although only having a short run of 21 years (compared to larger companies like Marvel and DC,) I'm glad to have discovered a large source of literary comic adaptations, and hope to be able to reference them in my thesis and other future projects.


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