Green Mansions - a Classics Illustrated comic adaptation

Years ago, watching Saturday morning cartoons, my favorite show was always Super Friends, a cartoon about the major characters from DC Comics.  Watching that show was my first introduction to a character by the name of Rima, the Jungle Girl.  It was not until many years later, as an adult, that I learned DC Comics had actually published a seven-issue comic book series about this character back in the mid-70s.  Of course, I hunted down those seven issues so I could read the stories about this character.  She later appeared briefly in DC's short-lived revival of their pulp characters in the First Wave series of titles back in 2009 (she only made guest appearances, she did not have her own title).  It was not until recently that I learned the character was not actually a DC owned character, but rather, a creation of author William Henry Hudson (a/k/a W.H. Hudson) from a novel that was originally published way back in 1904!

Green Mansions, subtitled "A Romance of the Tropical Forest," was originally published in the United Kingdom, but later saw printings here in the States as early as 1912.  Since then, it has gone through numerous printings and has been adapted not only into comic book form, but also into a 1959 film of the same name (which, from what I could find online, was NOT a box office success, despite having stars like Audrey Hepburn and Anthony Perkins in it!).  Since I loved the character of Rima, based on her appearances in Super Friends and the DC Comics' series, I wanted to have a complete comic book run of the character, which meant finding a copy of the 1951 comic book adaptation of the novel, issue 90 of the Classics Illustrated series.  At last, I managed to find a reasonably priced copy in great condition, so I bought it!

Not having read the novel, I can't say just how faithful the adaptation of the comic is to the book, but the story of Green Mansions in the Classics Illustrated comic is definitely a superb read.  The narrator and main character is Abel Gueves de Argensola, who is forced (for political reasons, he tells his readers) to flee Venezuela into the South American jungles.  He makes friends with an Indian tribe, who warn him that the forest is protected by a mysterious woman they call "the Daughter of the Didi."  Abel, of course, does not heed their warnings, and he ultimately meets this woman, who turns out to be Rima.  He is bitten by a poisonous snake when he tries to touch Rima, and he later awakens to find himself in a hut belonging to an older man named Nuflo, who claims to be Rima's grandfather.  It is here that Abel learns the strange origins of Rima and ultimately falls in love with the strange jungle girl.

I'm not sure who was in charge of doing the adapting here, as far as the writing goes, but I must say, I do rather like Alex Blum's art on the story.  His use of non-traditional panels (circles, photo frames, slanted panels, etc.) help keep the reader's attention and provide variation and emphasis on certain scenes that might otherwise be glanced over by the casual reader.  Blum also manages to draw some beautiful "action" scenes that truly bring the characters to life - when Abel is chasing after Rima in the woods, when the Indians go on the hunt, when Rima is encouraging Abel to climb to the top of the mountain with her, and so on.  Just looking at the panel, you can almost "feel" the movement of the characters.  And having only known Rima through Super Friends and the DC Comics' series, I was not aware of Rima's fate until I read this comic.  Of course, no body was ever found (at least, in the comic - can't say for sure whether the book is any different), so perhaps Rima did survive after all, which would account for her appearances in the cartoon and comics in later years!

The prompt on the very last page of the story, "Don't Miss The Added Enjoyment of Reading the Original, Obtainable at Your School or Public Library," would have definitely driven me as a kid to seek out the book (although I'm not sure whether my school library would have carried this book).  Now, I'm more likely to find this book only on eBay or in a used bookstore, perhaps.  I definitely have this on my want list to hunt down some day, so I can compare the original work to this adapted version.

I like the fact that Classics Illustrated also offered a one-page bio on the author of the story, William Henry Hudson.  I knew literally nothing about this man until I read the bio, so it's nice to have some information about the author, which only adds to my appreciation of the story.

It's funny that a character who was killed off in a story written and published at the turn of the last century would still manage to stick around for so long in various forms.  Nearly half a century after Green Mansions was published, she appeared in this comic book form from Classics Illustration.  More than twenty years later, she appeared in comic book form again, but in a somewhat different form thanks to DC Comics and the series' writer, Robert Kanigher.  Even though that series only lasted seven issues, it clearly made an impact, because that version of the character appeared a few years later, albeit briefly, in three episodes of Hanna-Barbera's The All-New Super Friends Hour.  She has been in a movie adaption of Green Mansions, she has been mentioned in other comics and novels, and there is even a memorial in Hudson Memorial Bird Sanctuary in London's Hyde Park that has a "bas-relief" of Rima, sculpted by Jacob Epstein.  No other character from this story seems to have garnered such longevity, and it just leaves me to wonder where and when Rima will show up next!

I am so thankful that Classics Illustrated took the time and effort to adapt so many classic stories into comic book form.  While I grew up reading the "standard" classics, such as Treasure Island, Tom Sawyer, Black Beauty, Heidi, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, etc., there are so many classics, such as this, that I might never have heard of, let alone read, if it weren't for Classics Illustrated.

RATING:  9 dishes of roasted pumpkin and sweet potatoes out of 10 for keeping the classics alive through the art form of comic books!

Tom Brown's School Days - a Classics Illustrated comic adaptation

Sometimes I stumble across the most unusual finds while browsing antique malls, flea markets, and used book stores.  I've come across a number of book series that I have never heard of before, or found some rather off-beat comic books that pique my interest.  Well, on a recent trip to Kentucky to visit my father, I was wandering through Peddler's Mall (a chain of flea markets) when I happened upon an old issue of Classics Illustrated that gave me pause.  For those who may not know (since the series is not exactly as popular as it once was), Classics Illustrated was a series of comic books that gave readers some of the "greatest stories by the World's Great Authors" (or so the by-line said) in abridged, comic book form.  You can find pretty much any true classic published in this series - from Moby Dick to Rip Van Winkle to Alice in Wonderland to The Red Badge of Courage, and even a large number of lesser known books, such as The Spy, Lord Jim, The Hurricane, Kit Carson, and so many more.  Now, as a kid, I was never really interested in these comics, as I much preferred to read the actual book and get the whole story.  Even as an adult, the only Classics Illustrated comic I own (at least, up until I bought this one) is The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, which I purchased when I was doing a paper in college on the various comic book adaptations of that particular book.  Well, while I was combing through a box of comics at the Peddler Mall, I came across this particular book - and based on the title and the cover art, I knew I could not pass it up.

Prior to this, I had never heard of Tom Brown's School Days by Thomas Hughes.  The title alone was similar enough to any number of children's series books from back in the early part of the 20th century to catch my eye, but the cover, sporting a group of young men playing football, only clinched the deal.  I was pretty confident that this had to be an adaptation of yet another children's series book of which I had no knowledge.  So, I splurged the $2.00 to buy the comic and brought it home to read.  

Tom Brown's School Days tells the story of - you guessed it! - young Tom Brown, who was a spirited boy from the very beginning, and when the local school could not seem to give young Tom what he needed, his father decides to send him to a Rugby school for boys.  Once there, Tom quickly makes friends with an upper class boy named Harry East, who shows Tom the ropes.  He proves his worth at playing football and doesn't flinch when he's "initiated" by some of the older boys, and ultimately puts a bully in his place, freeing himself and some of the other younger boys from the oppression of some of the upperclassmen.  However, Tom was not exactly the picture of good behavior.  He and his friends caused their fare share of trouble, to the point where the headmasters decided something needed to be done to put Tom back on the right track.  Enter: George Arthur - a poor little fellow whose father had died, has no siblings, and is a pale, thin young boy.  Tom takes George under his wing and protects him from the antics of the older boys.  As the years pass, George grows stronger, Tom grows more stable and confident, and by the end of the tale, Tom has ended his term at Rugby and is preparing to return to London and begin his new life as an adult.

While there is no "mystery" at all in this story, which is what I normally enjoy in a children's book, the story definitely reads very much like the type of children's books that were written back in the early part of the 1900s.  It turns out, though, that Hughes actually wrote the book in 1857, and the story is set in the 1830s (which I did realize while reading the comic, as it does not indicate anywhere in the story what year it is).  The story is apparently based on the author's own experiences, with Tom being based on the author's brother and George Arthur believed to be based on Arthur Penrhyn Stanley.  The book has had both film and television adaptations (as well as this comic book adaptation), and it also had one sequel, Tom Brown at Oxford.  Thus, while it turns out Tom Brown's School Days was not actually a children's "series" book (unless you count two books as a "series"), it did turn out to be a quaint little read, and interested me enough that I am now hunting down the book version and its sequel so I can read the full story.

RATING:  7 bowls of curds out of 10 for opening my eyes to an even older children's "series" that I never knew existed!