Comic Classics

There has been a long tradition of comic versions of classic literature: the Classics Illustrated series began in 1941, and ran for 30 years, for example. I have read very few such adaptations, but have nothing against them in principle: a comic version is like a film version--almost certain to be inferior, but with the potential to do some things visually in a way that text on a page cannot. Because of this, I was interested to come across the publications of Selfmadehero, a company dedicated to comic adaptations of classic fiction, crime fiction, and Shakespeare (see below).

I'm posting the covers of their classic adaptations here because it's interesting to see these visual approaches to great works.

I have to say that I'm tempted to see what Andrzej Klimowski makes of Robert Louis Stevenson, and Martin Rowson seems a natural fit for Tristram Shandy. I do have an older graphic novel by Rowson, who is most famous as an incredibly savage political cartoonist: it's a weird book that recasts T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land as a detective story.

Among other books, he's also done a cartoon history of the universe, entitled Fuck: The Human Odyssey.

Selfmadehero's Shakespeares, by the way, are all done in manga style:

More Master and Margarita

A book which this blog keeps coming back to is Mikhail Bulgakov's astonishing The Master and Margarita: in the past we've looked at the numerous English-language book covers, as well as a number of attempts at comic adaptations.

I've recently come across the work of Ukrainian artist Pavel Orinyansky (born 1955). He has produced a number of illustrations for a Russian edition of this great book, as well as colour cover artwork. Here is the Mucha-influenced front cover (click for a bigger version):



Here's the sinister title page:



And here is a selection of the interior artwork (click for bigger versions):



















Orinyansky's work has been chosen to decorate Bulgakov House in Moscow, with some of these images shown at life size. (Warning: that site is in Russian only; for a vague English translation, try this.)

Comic Bulgakov

Early in the life of this blog I looked at the numerous covers for the numerous editions of Mikhail Bulgakov's wonderful and bizarre The Master and Margarita, as well as his other books.

I've just discovered that this book has inspired a number of comics artists to attempt their own adaptations. This makes sense, given the vivid and sometimes hallucinatory effect of Bulgakov's prose.

Here is the cover to the newest version, by Andzej Klimowski and Danusia Schejbal.


I've not read this, so I can't comment on its fidelity, nor can I find any examples of the interior art online. I'll be interested to have a look once it appears in the shops.

Another version, three-quarters of which is available online, has been done by Russian cartoonist Rodion Tanaev. First printed in 1997, and now quite rare, you can find it here (the final quarter is due to come online soon).

Here's the cover, and some of the interior pages. Click for more detail.





Finally, there's Askold Akishine and Misha Zaslavsky, also Russian, whose adaptation has been published in French. Again, I haven't seen this one, but one review describes this version as lacking Bulgakov's narrative skills.

The only interior art I could find find online from this edition is a single panel.

Mikhail Bulgakov

One of Russia's greatest (and most suppressed) Twentieth-Century writers, Mikhail Bulgakov produced several wonderful books, the most famous of which is The Master and Margarita. Given the relative dearth of modern Russian literature in English translation, it's heartening to see just how many competing editions of Bulgakov's books are available. Here we'll look at some of their covers.

The Master and Margarita is the obvious starting point. It's a very hard book to describe. One blurb tries thus: "The devil comes to Moscow wearing a fancy suit. With his disorderly band of accomplices--including a demonic, gun-toting tomcat--he immediately begins to create havoc. Disappearances, destruction and death spread through the city like wildfire and Margarita discovers that her lover has vanished in the chaos..."

The covers below are from 7 current editions. As you can see, the cat (a remarkable character) features heavily:



They are the [top row] Penguin Classics, Vintage Classics, Oneworld Classics and Penguin Red Classics editions, and the [second row] Picador, Avalon and Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics editions. The particular winner here must be the first, created by Matt Dawson and the winner of a competition run by Penguin and the Guardian newspaper. More on Matt Dawson below.

This post was inspired by my having just read Bulgakov's A Dog's Heart, the tale of Polygraf Polygrafovich Sharikov, a dark political satire about a dog turned into a man. The covers below are for the Penguin Classics, Vintage Classics, Hesperus Modern Voices and Avalon editions. The Penguin is again by Matt Dawson.



A third great novel, sadly left unfinished at Bulgakov's death in 1940, is variously translated as Black Snow or A Dead Man's Memoir. It's a savage comedy about the theatre, censorship and suicide. Below are the Penguin (by Matt Dawson) and Vintage Classics editions.



Finally, we have two other Bulgkov books--the early White Guard, set during the Revolution, and The Fatal Eggs, a science fiction satire on Soviet politics. The first is from Vintage Classics, and the second from Hesperus.





Matt Dawson has a lovely website where he shows alternative versions of his Bulgakov cover designs, and also images inspired by The Fatal Eggs, as well as some other clever and playfu artwork. It's well worth a visit.

Also worth a visit is this site, which is a goldmine of information for anyone reading The Master and Margarita. Even better is the set of links to other artwork inspired by the book: there's some inspired stuff there, much of it featuring the tomcat.

UPDATE: Commenter Readymade also posted about some of the different Master covers they have encountered--head over to Walking Without Rhythm to see them.