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About
Classical Comics Classical Comics are new publishers who are creating engaging new versions of literary classics, by converting the timeless stories into stunning graphic novels. Spearheaded by Clive Bryant, Chairman, following his successful exit from a business start-up, he was joined by Karen Wenborn as Managing Director in May 2007. The core team was cemented when Jo Wheeler became Creative Director soon afterwards. To quote Clive 'Neither Karen or I have a publishing background, but we're both strong businesspeople, and are probably overly enthusiastic about books, literacy and education. Jo comes from a print background, so we rely on her to make sure the end product is right.' The books, as well as meeting the criteria of being strong in colour, dynamic in action, vibrant, engaging and exciting, have a myriad of applications in education across all ages and skill levels. The planned publication list encompasses Shakespeare, Dickens, Shelley, Wilde and Bronte, and there are eight titles already in production. The team of scriptwriters include teachers, playwrights and novelists, while the artists range from newspaper stalwarts to Spiderman creators and Eagle award winners. The Classical Comics Story February 2007 "Maybe, just maybe, we can change society for the better" In October 2006 in a bar, somewhere in London, Clive Bryant was explaining a new business idea to a friend. On the train journey to the city, he'd been reading The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, and was inspired by the notion of a zero tolerance to crime having a dramatically positive effect on the streets of New York. On reading the book, the question came immediately to mind, "Would people behave in an antisocial way, if they appreciated fine literature?" It was a chicken-and-egg question; certainly some people would disregard such literature regardless of the circumstances. However, the thrust of The Tipping Point is that the balance changes once a critical point is reached; there is no need to "convert" everyone, only the need to convert enough people for the rest to follow. So, how to create that appreciation? Surely it starts at school? Ask teenagers their opinion on Shakespeare, Dickens and Bronte, and the vast majority will answer back with a number of variations on the word "boring"; and that is the major hurdle to overcome: turning "boring" into "cool". Earlier that year, Clive had written a self-help book entitled POP Success (soon to be available from Providence Press). As an aid to readability and accessibility, he had introduced cartoon illustrations to the book. To do that, he researched the area of cartooning, and as a by-product had become hooked on a style of comic-strip. This twist of fate provided the key to breaking down the 'cool' barrier. "If we can make Shakespeare look as exciting as Spiderman, then that would be cool". And so the concept behind Classical Comics was born: to create exciting and engaging graphical novel versions of classical literature; to introduce new generations to the world of classic fiction; and to make the works of masters available and accessible to all. Although at the time it was a wholly original thought, we quickly realised that it had been done before; at least in broad terms. In our opinion, and that of readers we questioned, all of these predecessors lacked appeal for the modern audience; principally, they were missing the vital ingredient: excitement. Classical literature has a reputation for being dull and staid. Unlike superhero comics, or indeed more modern literature, they weren't influenced by film structures or geared towards the 'instant' society in which we now live. Therefore we had to "turn up the excitement volume" to compensate for this and in order to draw today's reader into the story. Think about it for a second. Wouldn't it have been great to study English Literature with gripping visual renditions of the stories running alongside the original text? Wouldn't Shakespeare have been so much more accessible if there was an illustration with the text - or better still, pictures with a plain English version - such that they were actually fun to read? How much of a benefit would it have been when going through GCSEs and other tests to already know the stories because you'd tackled them in a simpler form years ago? We, and the teachers we've consulted, can see huge benefits within the education process with the introduction of our book range. To reach the audience at all ages and literacy levels, each Shakespeare play comes in three versions:
(Incidentally, non-Shakespeare comes in Original Text and Quick Text
only, because the language is much easier to start with). |