The War of the Worlds has been adapted to virtually every medium, but few as memorable as the vintage Classics Illustrated rendition by writer Harry Miller and artist Lou Cameron. The cover is without doubt one of the best in the whole of the Classics Illustrated run.
Cameron does his own distinctive interpretation of the invaders, creating a robust variation on the tripods. These have a slightly modern flavor to them.
And this issue of Classics Illustrated is unique to my experience in that in addition to several full-page images it has a center two-page spread, which must've been quite awesome in the early 50's when such tour de forces were quite rare save for Simon and Kirby.
The story by Wells has been simplified for comic use here and perhaps some of the horror stripped out for the benefit of the young target audience. The infamous Black Smoke is not evident as the invaders just plow ahead with highly visible heat rays. Also gone are the red weeds which create such a weird atmosphere in the latter stages of the story. Otherwise the tale stays true to the general structure of the Wells original.
This one has been reprinted by Jack Lake Productions who have the Classic Illustrated right these days. The asking price is steep, but for the War of the Worlds completist necessary, though I personally have this one as well as a rough copy of the original for less money.
Classics Illustrated adapted five of the Wells novels, but War of the Worlds was easily the most successful. Here is a glimpse at the others.
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Lou Cameron is a really interesting character, from the little I've seen. He went from drawing some beautiful horror comics to turning out a ton of potboiler pulp novels, TV and movie adaptations and pornographic Westerns. In my younger days, I used to read the various "Men's Adventure" paperbacks from used book stores and I recall really enjoying the Renegade("Captain Gringo") series,written by Cameron under one of many pseudonyms.
ReplyDeleteHe wrote those hot westerns as "Ramsey Thorne", a great name for that kind of work. I'd never heard of them before, but a quick internet check schooled me quickly. I've always been fascinated by the nexus between old fashioned porn and comics for kids, the two being closer than most suspect. Disney owns Marvel now, but its origins are pretty seedy actually. Thanks for the info.
DeleteMuch of the early hierarchy of DC came out of Culture Publications, the purveyors of the Spicy pulps.
DeleteI've got The Time Machine issue - must dig it out and re-read it one day - as well as re-read the novel.
ReplyDeleteOne of my meager regrets is that as a youth I didn't make a stronger effort to get Classics Illustrateds. In my defense the line was folding up about the time was getting interested but it was around.
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