Ivanhoe by Walter Scott (1819),
illustrated by Norman Nodel.
Classics Illustrated Replica No 29,
CCS Books, 2018 (1958).
I first read Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe in one of the cheap hardcover UK editions in the early 60s – possibly from Blackie & Sons, Thomas Nelson or Dean & Sons – but not since, and though I retained some memories of the key figures and the final outcome both the sequence and the writing itself remained hazy.
So it was with some curiosity that I picked up this graphic novel version. First published in 1958, I don’t remember ever reading this offering from the Classics Illustrated stable even though this was a series which formed a lot of my pre-teen reading; however not all issues were truly classic then – for example, the comics adaptation I read of Frank Buck’s Bring ‘Em Back Alive was brought out not long after his death in 1950.
This being a reissue the colours are a lot brighter and fresher than I remember, perhaps the result of it being printed on better quality paper. If, as a result, Merrie England comes across as more technicolor than we thought, on the plus side it makes following the story a distraction-free experience.
Continue reading “Knight time”
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