OK, we've got plenty of time on our hands with the lockdown, this might help fill it. Who remembers the Classics Illustrated comics ?, a classic novel in 80 colourful pages.

Some of them are available to read online at archive.org. Left click the chosen book and it will open in the archive reader, after that it's just a matter of adjusting the zoom for easy reading and moving the page up and down, flip right/ left to turn the page.

Classics Illustrated

Trike, thank you very much for these strips. I had a look...they are nearly endless...and really something for this lockdown, and in any case interesting to me. As I have not that much spare time, even these days, as I explained somewhere else, I will nevertheless give it a go, because many of these novels are new to me. Perhaps they are, even among the international ones, mainly focused on highlights of British history, I think on the first sight. You don't believe me, but I never read "Pride and prejudice" while it was too heavy for me. I did only read: "Anna Karenina" because at school they made such a fuss of it.

And yes those strips remember me at my childhood, reading the "Tintin" weekly from Hergé. Each week a four pages history (no ficition) about an event: For instance the first flight in history over the Channel by Blériot. Magnificent strips drawn by the best cartoonists of the Franco-Belgian school. Those Fifties. It was in these strips that my interest for history was awakened.

Kind regards, Paul.

Judging by their impressively long title range on the site, Paul, I'd be more inclined to say there was a huge American bias there - not surprisingly given that it was sold to American readers. Of the authors whose works feature in the range about half are American, a third British (with Scottish works more than holding their own against English, I notice), and the rest "international". I counted French, Russian, Polish and Spanish authors with more than one example within this category.

The series was a well known breeding ground for young illustrators who would later go on to better things. They were not allowed sign their artwork within the strips, and received no credit from CI's publishers, so many took to slyly inserting their names into the actual pictures themselves - shopfronts, ships' prows, and even blades of grass deftly spelling out the letters of their surnames being used at different times to artistically record who had done the hard work. It started as a simple "up yours" to the publishers by artists feeling unloved (and badly paid), but when word got out it soon became a challenge for readers to see if they could find these hidden signatures.

Among those who contributed were Norman Nodel, who for decades drew the film parody feature of Mad Magazine, Lillian Chestney, who as a female in a largely male field earned huge respect from her peers for her famous interpretations of "oriental" themes, and Jack Kirby who, as a Marvel and DC illustrator, would of course go on to invent and/or develop practically all of the super-heroes who now dominate Hollywood movie output.

So the 'graphic novel' is not new.  Well nordmann said on another thread there is nothing new under the sun.  Fascinating snippet of information about the artists craftily inserting their names into the pictures.  I remember someone - it may have been nordmann again but I don't feel like trawling through all the back comments on Res Historia to make certain - mentioned that an illustrator who had done much of the work for the Disney animations made while Walt Disney was still alive was never given the credit in his own name that his work deserved.

Then without googling I wouldn't know the names of the artists who drew Minnie the Minx, Dennis the Menace, the Bash Street Kids, Lord Snooty in the British comics of my childhood - to say nothing of the "Bunty" and "Judy" and the stories therein.  I remember nordmann once making fun of the picture of Bunty that readers could cut out and stuck on a bit of cardboard in order to 'dress' her in various outfits with little tabs that went over the shoulders.

The insertion of the CI's artists' names reminded me of something I read many years ago (early 2000s anyway) about a style of embroidery practised by some indigenous (south or central) American women which sometimes incorporated a subversive element (which wouldn't be understood by random people) into their traditional designs.  I can't remember the style of embroidery off the top of my head unfortunately.

Thank you nordmann for this interesting clarification of Trike's "Classics Illustrated" about the Americans. You know me...not so much knowledge about the Anglo-Saxon world.

I still remember an English comic strip in a boarding school with a fat student as one of the best I have ever seen. But the author and the title escapes me. If I only see one picture I will be able to say: That is the one.

Kind regards, Paul.

That would be Billy Bunter, I reckon, originally written by Frank Richards and visually conceived by C.H. Chapman



Now no longer deemed acceptable fare for young readers, young Master Bunter has gone the way of the golliwog ...

Yarroooo !!!!!!!!!!!!!

EDIT: I've altered my picture to one more representative of Chapman's early interpretation of Bunter. MM's picture below, that I had also used, is actually from the 1950s and I think the artist was aiming to caricature an actor who played Bunter in film or on TV at the time.

EDIT : Cripes! I've crossed posts with Nordmann, et touché, he was just a bit quicker, although with the same pic ... Although I now see, that while I've correctly rehosted the pic and so it works for me - Nordmann hasn't and so his doesn't   Touché encore!

You would, Paul, perhaps be thinking of the character Billy Bunter? Although originally created by Frank Richards and first published in cartoon form in 1908 in the magazine 'The Magnet', Bunter and his chums at Greyfriars School underwent something of a renaissance in the 1950s when they were republished in book form as stories for children (boys principally I guess) and also as a children's TV serial which ran for ten years, but I personally don't recall them ever being in bande desinée format.

We had the odd "Magnet" year-book and old versions of Richards' Greyfriars stories knocking about in the house growing up - but in my generation it was really this version which introduced me to the character first:



Oh for the days when one could have a good chortle at the expense of obese people who planned to violently assault their teachers only to be thwarted by an axe murderer. People don't have a sense of humour anymore!

I only really knew Bunter from repeats in the later 1960s or early 70s, of the original BBC TV serialisation which ran from 1952 to 1962, and starred the then, thirty-something-year-old, married-with-two-children, Gerald Campion, suitably padded out as the obese 'Fat Owl' Bunter.

A complete BTW:

The Belgians produced an animated Tintin TV series between 1957 and 1964. In two of these episodes the voice of Tintin for the English adaptation was provided by the then middle aged "young master Campion" pictured above.

Thank you nordmann and MM, that's it.

But now I have problem. I see now that it were perhaps the Dutch ones I saw in the time, while I at that time didn't know enough English to understand the text balloons.
And now looking at that I am not sure the ones of "Billie Turf" were exactly the same as "Billy Bunker".
And I have a vague memory that they were in "four colour" print as the early cartoons.
They seems to be appeared from 1955 on, but as I see here they are already fully coloured.
https://eindeloosinwoordenbeeld.blogspot.com/2019/04/billie-turf-de-verschrikkelijke-billie.html



These pictures seems a bit the same of nordmann's? However most of the cartoons of Billie Turf were drawn by Reg Parlett.
And it seems that several artists were at work, even on the same time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reg_Parlett
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Minnitt

I am nearly sure that I later saw also cartoon strips of Billy Bunter in English in black and white and the Billie Turf's ones look very similar to them.

Kind regards to both, Paul.

In the 1950s Amalgamated Press, which was a UK company that had inherited a lot of old titles and characters including the Magnet and Billy Bunter, had a go at syndicating their more popular strips, though with limited success. Bunter was then by far the most well known of these characters and there was a serious attempt to sell the strip abroad. I was aware that they had tried and failed miserably with a French and German version, but hadn't realised that a Dutch version existed. If the Dutch version was based on the German syndicated version then it is likely that it featured strips drawn by German artists. If based on the French version then it was simply recycled British strips with rather literally translated captions. Given that the German syndication proved very short-lived then the Dutch may have had to rely on the French strip, which I imagine would have led to rather poor humour content as it suffered terribly from lack of investment in proper adaptation.

Amalgamated became IPC in the 1960s and they made another attempt at European syndication, but this time concentrating more on action/adventure strips than comedy. Again this met with limited success (an obsession with WWII themes with "good" Brits and "bad" Germans probably didn't help) though they did for a while score a big success with this unlikely "hero", who ended up very popular abroad, particularly in France and Holland - I was pleasantly surprised to see him still selling breakfast cereals in Greek posters and advertisements in the 1990s!

As Billie Turf, Bunter seems to have remained popular in the Netherlands long after he disappeared from the UK. I see that as a cartoon strip character he still appeared occasionally in the comic Sjors even into the 21st century and there were also three Dutch-language 'Billie Turf' films made between between 1978 and 1983:



The film clearly calls him Billie Turf, yet in the opening scene the teacher seems to address him as "Bunter", neh?

nordmann, I preferred the Tintin TV series with the BB actor to the version with the American voiceover.  There was a "Bessy (or Bessie can't remember) Bunter" in one of the comics aimed at girls though I would have to google to ascertain which one.  I think I mentioned the Bengo the Boxer TV comic strip before www.turnipnet.com/whirligig/tv/children/other/bengo.htm and I also remember Princess Tai-Lu the Siamese (was she a puppet - oh, the vagueness of a 70-something memory). A puppet wouldn't be a comic of course.  Would comic strip characters who were of their time be considered "classic" because of course classics are usually stories which have lasted.  Like Jane Austen and Mrs Gaskell are still read whereas William Harrison-Ainsworth perhaps is not read so much except maybe for interest as a writer of his time.

Bessie Bunter was Billie's younger sister, called Elizabeth Gertrude but generally known as Bessie. There was a younger brother too, Samuel (Sammy), also at Greyfriars School. The Bunter siblings all hated each other as I recall.

Classic literature often means books that no one reads anymore but everyone feels they should, mainly because we are told they are "classics", which is a sort of circular reasoning that keeps some titles alive long after their actual worth or relevance may no longer pass scrutiny.

Bessie Bunter was certainly a regular in the June & Schoolfriend comic that made it into our house every week and enjoyed a very long run, though I sincerely doubt there was ever an attempt to syndicate her abroad.

I really had no idea about Bunter's Dutch parallel life - which certainly seems to have lost a dependence on re-using British illustrations long ago and must have been taken over by Dutch illustrators and story-writers to some extent.

Paul, the continental trait of a cartoon's artist being as well known as his (or her, though mostly "his") creation is not replicated in British comic culture. Even at the height of a character's popularity it was not uncommon for strips to have been drawn by several artists in the employment of a publisher, clever enough to emulate each others' style but with subtle differences we eagle-eyed (pardon the pun) kids often spotted. As someone who grew up with British comics I can still tell you at a glance which "stable" of artists any strip from the 1950s through to the 1970s came from (primarily either IPC or DC), but it was only when I started to look deeper into cartoons in general that I began to find out the names of many of the artists whose work I had so enjoyed as a child.

So far I've read "Frankenstein" and "Waterloo".

I'll bet the CI versions of Scott, Fenimore Cooper and Dumas are easier to digest than the originals.



PS. I've found what works best for me, is to select single page format, zoom in and scroll down vertically page by page.

Triceratops wrote:

So far I've read "Frankenstein" and "Waterloo".
I'll bet the CI versions of Scott, Fenimore Cooper and Dumas are easier to digest than the originals.
PS. I've found what works best for me, is to select single page format, zoom in and scroll down vertically page by page.

That's the way I did it too, Trike, after some hesitating trials.
Kind regards, Paul.

Meles meles wrote:

As Billie Turf, Bunter seems to have remained popular in the Netherlands long after he disappeared from the UK. I see that as a cartoon strip character he still appeared occasionally in the comic Sjors even into the 21st century and there were also three Dutch-language 'Billie Turf' films made between between 1978 and 1983

Thank you MM for the film. I had already a quick look (moving with the cursor   ). And of course it is in "Ollands", but I appreciate the language and even some typical "attitudes" are resembling the English ones? (or perhaps are they copied from the original English one?). Although the Dutch (in my humble opinion!) act sometimes as Englishmen? As the stiff upperlip ?

Kind regards from Paul.

Re "stiff upper lip", there have  been times when Englishmen needed such a one in order not to go under the table.

As in the chorus in the WW I song, "I've seen 'em, I've seen 'em, drunk upon the dugout floor."

nordmann wrote:

Classic literature often means books that no one reads anymore but everyone feels they should, mainly because we are told they are "classics", which is a sort of circular reasoning that keeps some titles alive long after their actual worth or relevance may no longer pass scrutiny.

Bessie Bunter was certainly a regular in the June & Schoolfriend comic that made it into our house every week and enjoyed a very long run, though I sincerely doubt there was ever an attempt to syndicate her abroad.

I really had no idea about Bunter's Dutch parallel life - which certainly seems to have lost a dependence on re-using British illustrations long ago and must have been taken over by Dutch illustrators and story-writers to some extent.

Paul, the continental trait of a cartoon's artist being as well known as his (or her, though mostly "his") creation is not replicated in British comic culture. Even at the height of a character's popularity it was not uncommon for strips to have been drawn by several artists in the employment of a publisher, clever enough to emulate each others' style but with subtle differences we eagle-eyed (pardon the pun) kids often spotted. As someone who grew up with British comics I can still tell you at a glance which "stable" of artists any strip from the 1950s through to the 1970s came from (primarily either IPC or DC), but it was only when I started to look deeper into cartoons in general that I began to find out the names of many of the artists whose work I had so enjoyed as a child.

nordmann,

about your last paragraph. I learned it yesterday (what one leerns here every day pushed by this board), as for Billy cartoonists as Chapman, Frank Minnit, Reg Parlett...And even changing with others...
Quite different in Belgium/France each cartoonist had his very own cartoon series...although Hergé's clear line was taken over by other artists.

about what you wrote:
"I really had no idea about Bunter's Dutch parallel life - which certainly seems to have lost a dependence on re-using British illustrations long ago and must have been taken over by Dutch illustrators and story-writers to some extent."
 
From what I read yesterday:
https://eindeloosinwoordenbeeld.blogspot.com/2019/04/billie-turf-de-verschrikkelijke-billie.html

De oorspronkelijke Billie Turf (de originele Engelse naam Billy Bunter) is een creatie van de Engelsman Frank Richards (pseudoniem van Charles Hamilton). Het dikste studentje ter wereld werd in 1899 bedacht en figureerde aanvankelijk alleen in geillustreerde tekstverhalen. De stripfiguur Billie Turf verscheen in 1908 in het eerste nummer van The Magnet Library. Vanaf 1939 verschenen Billie's avonturen ook als strip in het Engelse blad 'Knock-Out Comic.' Deze stripverhalen verschenen ook in het Nederlands en waren van 1955 tot 1976 in Sjors en Eppo geplaatst. Sinds 1963 zijn ze ook in albums gebundeld. De strip is nooit door een vaste tekenaar en schrijver gemaakt; dat kon van aflevering tot aflevering gemaakt. De meeste strips die in Nederland werden gepubliceerd, waren voor het grootste deel gemaakt door Reg Parlett.

As I understand it, the cartoons in Dutch from 1955 to 1976 appeared in Sjors and Eppo, children magazines as our Belgian weekly Tintin. And I am nearly sure that it were mostly translations from the English ones in the text balloons and as mentioned in the Dutch text the cartoons were mostly drawn by Reg Parlett.

Kind regards, Paul.

Before starting this thread, I had ordered two of the CI books, The Time Machine & The First Men on the Moon, from Amazon. They've arrived and they are brand new reprints, 2019 and 2018 respectively.

They are also slightly shorter due to the non story material at the end of the books being dropped or altered.

Also, the illustrators receive full credit, Lou Cameron for The Time Machine and Gerald McCann (cover) & George Woodbridge for The First Men on the Moon.

As mentioned, there are alterations at the end of the books. In the case of The Time Machine, the new CI version gives a synopsis of the original book including mention of a non published text, which I have to admit, I was unaware of.
This is a link to the missing text of The Time Machine which was withdrawn by the publisher as the ultimate degeneration of humanity was thought to be too shocking for Victorian readers.

Chapter XI: The Grey Man

George Woodbridge - a legend among illustrators! Extremely colour-blind so, naturally, he chose to work almost exclusively in colour, the result often being so unintentionally surrealistic that some of his works are still featured in retrospective exhibitions of surrealist art today.

While working for Mad Magazine he also co-invented, with Tom Koch, the "sport" of 43-Man Squamish in 1965. The original intention was to describe a totally unplayable game, but so precise (if confusing) were the rules that some colleges in the states not only set up their own teams but started issuing challenges to other colleges and a league of sorts therefore ensued (not quite "of gentlemen" but with enough clinically insane participants to qualify it as such at least in appearance). In Alberta, Canada, one forlorn team wrote to the magazine declaring themselves Canadian champions as they had yet to find any opposition so were therefore technically unbeaten. When it was pointed out to them that losing was the only point of the sport they agreed to honourably resign their title, which was then awarded to Harvard, who had resisted several challenges to meet lesser colleges in a Squamish tie on the grounds that it was "silly". This makes Harvard the only US champions of a Canadian league in history, as well as demonstrably sore winners.

Marquette University, a Jesuit outfit in Milwaukee Wisconsin, had to withdraw their team from all competition in early 1966 when it was reduced to 40 players, 3 team members having been unfortunately suspended for "sportsmanlike" behaviour. As this happened after the frullip had been touched to the flutney but before the Probate Judge had left the field the match is still technically in progress, making it - after cricket - the sport with the longest and most boring recorded game in history (see England V The Scilly Isles, Third Test, 1876 for reference).


One of Woodbridge's  Squamish illustrations (Mad got round his colour-blindness by printing his work in black and white - which was ok, Squamish cannot be played in colour anyway)

For anyone interested in taking up the sport the rules are as follows:

Each team consists of one left and one right Inside Grouch, one left and one right Outside Grouch, four Deep Brooders, four Shallow Brooders, five Wicket Men, three Offensive Niblings, four Quarter-Frummerts, two Half-Frummerts, one Full-Frummert, two Overblats, two Underblats, nine Back-Up Finks, two Leapers and a Dummy—for a total of 43. The game officials are a Probate Judge (dressed as a British judge, with wig), a Field Representative (in a Scottish kilt), a Head Cockswain (in long overcoat), and a Baggage Smasher (dressed as a male beachgoer in pre–World War I years). None of the officials has any authority after play has begun.

Squamish is played on a pentagonal field, or Flutney, and the game is divided into a period of 15 minutes, known as an Ogre. Most squamish games consist of seven Ogres, unless of course, it rains. In that case, they are to play eight Ogres. Competitors wear gloves, a helmet, and flippers. They pursue the Pritz (or ball), which is ​3 3⁄4 inches in diameter, constructed from untreated ibex hide, and is stuffed with blue jay feathers. Each player is equipped with a Frullip, a long hooked stick very similar in appearance to a shepherd's crook that is used to impede opponents.

Before any game, the Probate Judge must first flip a coin, usually a new Spanish peseta, while the Visiting Captain guesses the toss. If he guesses correctly, the game is cancelled immediately. If not, the Home Team Captain must then decide if he wishes to play offense or defense first. Play begins after a frullip is touched to the flutney and the recitation "Mi tío es enfermo, pero la carretera es verde!", a wise old Chilean saying that means, "My uncle is sick but the highway is green!" Penalties are applied for infractions such as walling the Pritz, icing on fifth snivel, running with the mob, rushing the season, inability to face facts, or sending the Dummy home early.

The offensive team has five Snivels to advance to the enemy goal. Carrying the Pritz across the goal line is a Woomik and scores 17 points; hitting it across with the frullip counts as a Durmish and only scores 11 points. Except in the 7th Ogre (and the 8th, if it rains), only the offensive Niblings and Overblats are allowed to score. In such cases, the four Quarter-Frummerts are allowed to kick or throw the Pritz, and the nine Finks are allowed to heckle the opposition by doing imitations of Barry Goldwater.

The teams must play a sudden-death overtime to break a tie, unless both Left Overblats are out of the game on personal fouls. If this is the case, the tie is settled by the teams lining up on opposite sides of the flutney (inherently difficult on a pentagonal shape) and shouting dirty limericks at each other until one side breaks up laughing.

When an insufficient number of players precludes a regulation 43-Man Squamish match, a simplified version may be played: 2-Man Squamish. The rules are identical, except in 2-Man Squamish, the object is to lose.

Trike, what is the name of the publisher of the 'new' Classics Illustrated?

I'd never thought to look until you asked there, LiR. It is a company called CCS Books, the trading name for Classic Comic Store Ltd. They're based in Newbury.
Here is their website:

CCS Books

Thanks for that information, Trike.  One of the activities the Spanish U3A teacher encourages is the reading of simplified texts.  One text was a (much shortened) version of Marianela by Benito Perez Galdos and we are currently working through a detective novella Distinguidos Senores by Loreto de Miguel and Alba Santos.  I might be able to find something in Spanish at my level (higher than complete beginner but nearer to beginner than expert if I'm honest) on archive.org though obviously archive.org deals with out of copyright stuff.

You might like to try this one, LiR. "The Encyclopaedia of Things that Never Were" Spanish version:




Enciclopedia de las cosas que nunca Existieron

Thanks for the Classics Illustrated and The Encyclopaedia of Things that Never Were links Trike. Great reads and perfect for the times. I was going to post the following on the On this day in history thread but think it’s probably better here.

Chambers’ Book of Days was an almanac compiled by Scotsman Robert Chambers who, along with his brother William, founded the famous publishing house which bears their family name. Jammed full of trivia, both historical and anecdotal, it was first published in 1864 and through further editions and reprints remained hugely popular throughout the English-speaking world over the next 50 years.

Online copies of the original books can be read here:

The Book of Days - Volume I (January - June)

The Book of Days - Volume II (July - December)

(Whoever was tasked with scanning Volume II, however, really needed to be more mindful in his work as it’s shockingly badly scanned in places.)

Thankfully a fully digitized, hyperlinked and searchable version is also available online here:

The Book of Days - A Miscellany of Popular Antiquities in Connection with the Calendar including Anecdote, Biography & History, Curiosities of Literature and Oddities of Human Life and Character

Hours of pleasurable browsing.