Samstag, 17. September 2011

Illustriete Klassiker - Another comic version.

Illustrierte Klassiker - or Classics Illustrated - was a series of comic books aimed to bring the great classics of literature closer to children throu the medium of comic. Here is their try with Alice in Wonderland. I say try since this comic isn´t really good...
 It was first published in the 1950s or even 1940. I don´t know who the artist was, it is nowhere told in the book. Quite possible that he was some no name illustrator, who didn´t really care about it as long as he gets his money, or its a great name in comics who didn´t care since its just for children and children are idiots anyway. Or its just that the comic really hasn´t aged that well in the last 50+ years. I really don´t know.
In the hall of doors. The perspectives look quite odd here. This has got to be one of the most boringly designed Hall of doors I have ever seen. Also, why is the "Drink Me" bottle an amphora?
 Alice just is tiny from one page to the next, no process whatsoever. Also compare her size to the leg of the tabe in the different panels. Its really inconsequent. A good sign that the artist didn´t give a damn.
Again no process, Alice is just huge from one page to the next. Whats wrong with her feet? That crappily drawn puddle is never deep enough that she can sink into it down to her ankles! And again we have very weird looking perspectives.
I just love how the artist just drew crappy doodles in the middle of the page, you need chutzpa to pull off such a waste of space, especially when you are payed by pages. At least we see SOME process in this page...
And were done withn this scene. Note that the puddle appearantly shrank with Alice.
I like the rustic look of the white rabbits house. But compare the bottles in the first and the second panel. A wine bottle turns into a moonshine jug? Awfull. Her growth looks okay here thou...
I have no idea what kind of animal Pat is supposed to be. A rat? a vole? A mongoose? Your guess is as good as mine.
How, just how is she supposed to kick up the chimney in that position? She seems to have lost her socks too in that panel.
And she shrinks small again. the interior of the rabbits house is horribly inconsitant.
What really irks me is how rushed some parts of the comic feel. How are you going to interest kids for great books when you rush important parts? Alice encounter with the puppy is just one panel here, her encounter with the caterpillar (which is an entire bloody chapter in the book) is here merely 4 panels long! I mean really!
Who ever made the colours, he has never seen a pidgedon before.
Passing the hall of doors again, again she shrinks between panels.
Alice in the court room: I don´t really get why the bench looks completely different in the last panel.
I think at this point the artist has given up. He doesn´t care about perspective anymore, he doesn´t even bother drawing backgrounds. He is just randomly posing characters in the panels. Note how the kind is sitting on the throne all the time and in the last panel standing about somewhere in space. And alice is poking her head in, so that we don´t forget who the main character is.
Why is the griffon in the first panel sitting in the knave of hearts hat? And what is going on in the last panel? Are the king, the queen and the knave (who is now unexplainable on the other side of the courtroom falling asleep? Thank god I´m through with this comic. Its really, really bad. I don´t wnow why I bouzght it back then, possibly just to have it in my collection. At least its from a limited edition (no. 345 of 666).

1 Kommentar:

  1. this comic was published in 1948 in US and the author is Alex Blum...
    thank you for the beautiful collection!

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