Where can I find comic book versions of famous plays and novels?

[battleknight24]

Okay, okay, okay... I know I should read the actual stuff... but I'm lazy okay? Anyway, do they have stuff like this at Waldenbooks or Barnes and Noble?

[PragMantisT]

1. Do they still make Classic Comics?

You may find some in a comic book shop, or a used book shop, or a flea market. They are usually very well done and true to the text.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. They were called Classics Illustrated

and there were about 100 titles, everything from Charles Dickens to H.G. Wells. I haven't seen them for decades, not that I've actually shopped for non-Japanese comic books lately.

There are two other alternatives:

1. Cliff's Notes: the college classic

2. Masterplots: a lot of reference libraries have this. These are kind of an encyclopedia of novel plots, with each synopsis being about 2 pages long and quite dedtailed.

But remember the saying that the head of the audiovisual department at my last teaching job had over her desk: "A lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part."

[jdsmith]

3. Classics Illustrated were re-issued as pocket books

and should never be read instead of the original works. (I'm an English prof, dammit.) (Although I do have a nearly complete set of them--ask me whether I've read some great work of literature and I'll say "Sure." Then I'll say I've got to make a phone call, be back atcha in a minute, and, bingo!, when I get back I know everything there is about _The Red and the Black_.)

These re-issues were available for a bit in college bookstores, but disappeared fast and have never returned.

[non sociopath skin]

4. Here's the Classics Illustrated collectors' website....

http://www.classicscentral.com/

They were called "Classic Comics" when they were first launched in the late 40s but changed their name to the more upmarket "Classics Illustrated" in the 50s.

They were what got me into literature in the first place and I remain eternally grateful. BTW, jd, you'll remember that they always ended with a rejoinder to read the original next.

They crop up on ebay now and again. Busy doing some work on the American realists and, just for fun, bought the Classics Illustrated version of "The Octopus" from a collector. Remarkably good, considering!! Don't think I could have whittled it down to comic book length!

The Skin