Great time for CAS comic adaptions with two arriving in my mail box within an a week. Horror Classics: Graphic Classics Vol. Ten containing Clark Ashton Smith's "The Beast of Averoigne" - by Rod Lott & Richard Jenkins ($10) and Clark Ashton Smith's Hyperborea by Jason Thompson ($3) (both B&W).

Horor classics contains 10 more adaptions from the classic horror canon, each individually illustrated by some of the best comic artists.

Hyperborea is richly illustrated with two headed frogs and dripping jungles filling the densley packed frames and a rather amusing drawn pair of heroes. While The Beast is drawn in a somewhat sparer technique using strong b&w contrast and no grey shading.

I found Jenkins beast a little disappointing. In the original the narrator gives a number of perspectives on its ever changing amorphous form, yet Jenkinss sticks to using one rather hackneyed defused snake throughout (till the reliving end).

Since my discovery of the Graphics Classics collection I have grown quite found the comic adaptation form. It is stimulating to see how another reader interprets an author words and translates them in images. It is a form that can fully combine the best of both worlds.

It is quite telling to see just how much of the original narrative is used in the Graphics Classics collection; some adaptions are more book-picture than picture-book.

Both works are a credit to the CAS and I'm sure he would of approved.

Dr F,

Do you know of CAS's attitude towards the comics of his day?

Boyd, -- thanks for the request --

First, are you aware that Stan Lee's company adapted two of Clark's stories as "Conan" adventures? I have them both, and well recall my astonishment seeing them on the stand some years ago. At that time i had no idea of the status of his work - copyrights etc. I tried to reach their offices to find out if they had acquired the rights, but had no success.

Clark had grown up in the earliest days of the Sunday comics
era - he still enjoyed "Snuffy Smith" which was originally
"Barney Google and Snuffy Smith" as hillbillies returning home from WW1 - no resemblance today - He also enjoyed
"Lil' Abner", "The Katzenjammer Kids", "The Phantom", and
"Prince Valiant." Of the Comic book form, he had admired the earliest "Superman" (which often stole Burrough's formats),
though subsequent "superheroes" did not get his interest.
"The earliest "Tales from the Crypt" type magazines he held some hope for, but later dismissed. He believed that horror
or fantasy is far more telling when in the mind than graphically drawn out on a page, or worse, film; I do not
mean to imply that he was a devotee at any level, but that he
was aware of these things, and read them with pleasure if someone happened to leave the Sunday paper on the table at the Happy Hour, or if Marilyn Novak had a second hand one at her store which he would browse while visiting. (I used to
trade comics at her store as a kid - two for one). My knowledge of this part of Clark's makeup is due to the fact that I always bought a paper when visiting in Pacific Grove, and noticed that the funnies was the only part Clark paid attention to -- so we idly chatted on the subject one day.

Calonlan,
For us comic book collectors out here, what issues of Conan do these adaptations appear and from what stories are they adapted?
Thanks

Another recent CAS comic adaption is in Dark Horse Book of Witchcraft Pub. Date: July, 2004, $14.95.

But I don't know which story is in it - anyone??

I just picked up the Dark Horse collection today (along with Jason Thompson's HYPERBOREA comic). It reprints the NP version of "Mother of Toads", with illustrations by Gary Gianni. The illos are quite well done, and it is nice to see the story printed with so much respect. Thompson's comic, OTOH, was more eccentric than anything else, although it was fairly faithful.
Nice to know that CAS liked the Man of Steel. How'd he feel about Batman? I think he would probably enjoy how the Dark Knight has turned out today!
Best,
Scott

The Batman should have been mentioned with Superman -
Clark didn't much care for western comics ala Red Ryder et al.