Graphic Classics, Volume 8: Mark Twain

Graphic Classics #8

by Mark Twain, Shary Flenniken (Illustrator), Toni Pawlowsky (Illustrator)

Graphic Classics: Mark Twain is revised, with an all-new comics adaptation of "Tom Sawyer Abroad" by Tom Pomplun and George Sellas. Returning from the first edition are "The Mysterious Stranger" by Rick Geary, "A Dog's Tale" by Lance Tooks, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog" by Kevin Atkinson and "The Carnival of Crime in Connecticut" by Antonella Caputo and Nick Miller. Also "Is He Living or Is He Dead?," "A Curious Pleasure Excursion" and eight women artists interpret Mark Twain's "Advice to Little Girls." With a dramatic cover painting by George Sellas.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Classics, Humor, Short Stories, Comics, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction

144 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2007

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Faulkner calling him "the father of American literature." His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), with the latter often called the "Great American Novel." Twain also wrote A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) and Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894), and co-wrote The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873) with Charles Dudley Warner.

Reviews

[Ed Erwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I generally avoid comics created from "Classic" fiction. I fear that the shortening of the stories will inevitably dumb them down. My fear was not justified in this case.

I particularly enjoyed this version of The Mysterious Stranger, a bleakly funny story picking apart contradictions in the stories of a good "God" and an evil "Satan". It was one of the last novels Twain tried to write. He went through multiple versions and never quite finished it. Even if he had finished, I think that the shortened version here works very well, and perhaps better than the longer originals. (Twain's other work in a similar vein, such as the diaries of Adam and Eve, while pointed and funny, are not as much fun to read as more modern takes on those ideas, but could be made more amusing by an adaptation.)

The story Advice to Little Girls, being a set of short sarcastic aphorisms, is well-suited to the addition of illustrations, with different artists for each.

Here A Dog's Tale is accompanied by images that make the story seem to be about racism, and man's inhumanity to man, rather than just about the mistreatment of a dog. I don't know whether that was actually Twain's intent, but it works.

I enjoyed all the stories, but those three stand out. Note that different editions of this book contain some different contents. I read the first edition, which does not contain "Tom Sawyer Abroad".

[Elian Gonzalez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Graphic Classics by Mark Twain has fifteen stories, each story is based on a different genre. Most of the stories are based on the 15th- 19th century, but Twain includes stories based on the late 1890s. The story that I liked the most was “Ghost Story”, especially because it had graphics made by Anton Emdin. The story begins with a man getting close to an old, scary, and dusty building, in the illustrations made by Edmin you can a see a frightened man. Throughout the story, the man thinks a lot about ghosts, noises and whether they are real or not. For me, the short story was mysterious, funny, and suspenseful and as soon as I opened the book, that was the first that popped up. I personally read other stories and some of them were good and others not. Mark Twain knows how to combine moral, humor, and social issues in his stories. If the author wrote another entertaining story similar to “Ghost Story”, I would read it in three minutes, when I reach the end of the story I wished that story did not have an ending because it was amazing.

[Michelle Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

It wasn't the stories or the artwork but merely the layout. Not very appetizing.

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting selection of stories by Twain which show his wide variety of writing styles; I only wish something from his travel writing was represented here to polish it off. "Advice to Little Girls" is a satirical, pastiche which is found a verse at a time throughout the volume advising young girls on the best way to get rid of younger brothers, make mum think she's being paid attention to and not to smoke, drink or marry in excess, etc. There is another satirical poem about promoting a grand tour excursion on the tail of a comet as it comes by just as if it were an ordinary train ride. The Celebrated Jumping Frog is classic Twain as is Tom Sawyer Abroad though it strays off into the fantastical in the vein of A Connecticut Youth in King Arthur's Court. It certainly does not contain the charm or seriousness of the original Tom or Huck. The other stories I'm afraid rather brought me down and made me realize what an unhappy man Twain must have been. His work here is called cynical but I must add bitter as that is all I felt from it. I knew Twain was atheist but these stories : A Dog's Tale, The Facts Concerning the Recent Carnival of Crime in Connecticut and most pernicious of all "The Mysterious Stranger" show a very bitter, merciless, vitriolic man behind the pen. A man with these qualities and such a clever, cunning wit is not someone I would have liked to meet in person, that's for sure! A Dog's Tale got to me, if it really was about a dog and scientific experiments on animals, or was it a thinly disguised satire on the owners of black slaves as the artist pointed out and took even further to racial discord in the 60s, the Jewish Holocaust and the H-bomb. Was Mark Twain making an early "Love not War" statement? I truly enjoyed Is he living or is he dead as we finally had a story with a happy ending even though fraud had to bring it about, as some Robin Hood type of thinking was adhered to. I'm not in love with Twain's outlook on life, in fact I hate it, but this comic is well illustrated and well put together. My heart soared to see Rick Geary back for the diabolical Mysterious Stranger and Lance Tooks' rendition of a Dog's Tale was gut-wrenching.

[Peacegal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Twain's satire enlivens this delightful volume. If you think Mark Twain was only about Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, take some time to introduce yourself to his other work. I particularly enjoyed "A Dog's Tale," a story that was surprisingly progressive in its message about animal welfare, vivisection and the lowly place of animals in our society.

Wikipedia notes of "A Dog's Tale,"

It first appeared in the December 1903 issue of Harper's magazine. In January of the following year it was extracted into a stand-alone pamphlet published for the National Anti-Vivisection Society.

However, I will say that the illustrations chosen for this particular story are rather bizarre. Instead of the heroic and abused dog of the story, we see an African-American woman and child in dog masks who are terrorized by an African-American man in 1960's garb as they flee through Civil War scenes, and by the end they join together to protest the Iraq war. Huh?

Sometimes a dog is indeed a dog, guys.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was amused to see the stories of Mark Twain (who was already quite the character himself) translated into 'comic book' format... though some stories are also in text in these volumes- something I think makes them perfect for a younger reader to have, to introduce them to literature. They can get a feel for the 'comic book' aspect of the stories, and then at least one will be more serious 'graphic novel' style, while at least one other will be in text with only the one or two illustrations... a great introduction indeed. :)

My favourite in this volume has got to be "A Dog's Tale" which is a not-so veiled smack at the way we treated blacks in his day, but written as it it were dogs the story was about- the pictures are of blacks with dog masks, to clue the reader in that although this story is about dogs, it is echoing some of the worst behavior man has had against man, in that era. Sad, and even disturbing at times, and yet poingnant and it stuck with me.

[Erin Sterling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mark Twain is hysterical! But maybe because kids are forced to read him in school and he's from a long time ago, people aren't interested in reading him. At least, I wasn't. This graphic novel edition of many of Mark Twain's stories is excellent. Different artists do different stories and it works really well (some a little better than others perhaps.)

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed "The Mysterious Stranger" but all of the other stories were awful!

[David Grassé · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great litlle series of graphic novels - Recommended!

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Graphic Novel. Picked some of Twain more esoteric stories, which were not as much fun. Many of the illustrators took a very dark and mean approach.

[wildct2003 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed what I read. Read about 40% of the book.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting adaptations of some short Twain works into graphic format. (Note to self: didn't finish everything here, so return to it at some point.)

[Crys · Rating 4 out of 5]

Graphic novels are a good way to introduce kids to writers that are a part of the classic cannon.

This one is no exception.

Loved the interpretation of "The Mysterious Stranger" and "Advice for Little Girls."