Coming June 2012

Coming Sept 2012

Now on Sale

• Recent reviews of
African-American Classics

• from The Comics Journal, March 2012, review by Rob Clough
“This is the latest in Tom Pomplun’s increasingly ambitious line of comics adaptations of public-domain prose works. This volume, which adapts classics from African-American writers and poets, is unusual in that he shares editorial duties with frequent series contributor Lance Tooks. Every contributing artist and writer to this volume is African-American, and the results are fascinating... It’s a terrific mix of voices, ranging from highly refined language to dialect. There’s a mix of serious and comedic, pointedly sociopolitical and fantastical.”

• from Blogcritics, March 2012, review by Bill Sherman
“For all the talk about the U.S. being a multi-cultural society, it’s telling that the material in African-American Classics will be largely unfamiliar to most of its audience. Where earlier Graphic Classics collections like Fantasy Classics or Christmas Classics have included comic art adaptations of fare most readers will recognize, the work in this set is a different matter. The names may be familiar (Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, W.E.B. DuBois), but their actual written words are less so.”

• from Comic Bits Online, Jan 2012, review by Terry Hooper
“I can’t find any story or artist in this book that hasn’t done a great job. From the comic to the tragic, this is a great exposure to African-American classics that most of us might be unfamiliar with — even in the U.S.!”

• from Comic Mix, Feb 2012,
review by Martha Thomases
“I suspect this book will stay in print forever, a way to entice reluctant readers to seek out other works by these authors. It’s a great book to have on your shelves all year round, not just February.”

• from Go Comics, April 2012, review by RC Harvey
“An extraordinary book in an extraordinary (and lamentably unheralded) series of graphic novels, this is the twenty-second volume in Eureka Productions’ Graphic Classics, which includes titles that adapt to the visual form the work of Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, Louisa May Alcott, Oscar Wilde and many other well-known authors. In this volume, all the stories are written by African American authors and drawn by African American cartoonists/ illustrators... Eureka’s production standards maintain the highest quality in reproduction, and I have no explanation at all for why the books produced by this publisher aren’t on everyone’s shopping list — at this season and all others.”

• from In These Times Magazine, Feb 2012, review by Kristian Williams
“For more than a decade, Eureka Productions has been converting 19th- and 20th-century literature — Poe, Wilde, Stevenson, Alcott — into high quality graphic novels. The Graphic Classics series reminds us of the comic genre's literary potential and harkens back to the popular origins of much of our most revered literature... For readers, like me, whose education offered little exposure to black art, and almost none to black literature, the experience of reading African-American Classics is enlightening, exciting and humbling.”

• from Midwest Book Review,
Jan 2012, review by James A. Cox
“The stories selected do not shy away from troubling, complex, or life-threatening matters, but are overall suitable for readers ages 12 to adult. Each story is vividly adapted in full color by a different artist with a unique style complementing the work. The result is a solid, reader-friendly introduction to African-American literary heritage, worthy of the highest recommendation especially for public and school library collections.”

• from Rain Taxi, March 2012, review by Paul Buhle
“African-American Classics testifies to the blending of unique art and historical understanding in the broadest sense. Readers of the book with Ph.D.s will not feel condescended, and fifteen-year-olds of any color will feel lifted up. This is popular art at its best.”

 

 

 

 

What’s Happening at Graphic Classics —

May 2012

GRAPHIC CLASSICS GOES DIGITAL

• Digital versions of Graphic Classics volumes for iPhone, iPad, and Android devices are now available from both iVerse Media and Ave! Comics. You can purchase and view Graphic Classics on your device via iVerse or Ave!’s apps, available from the Apple App Store or Google Play. Digital versions are also available for viewing on any computer from the Ave! Comics site.

GRAPHIC CLASSICS AND THE PUBLIC DOMAIN

• Public domain is the legal name given to a work that is not protected by copyright. Anyone may copy, distribute, modify or adapt the work freely. Copyright law was created to protect the rights of the original creator(s) of a piece of literature, art, or music. After the death of the creator, the founders of our country intended that the works would then pass into the public domain. Popular and important works could then be widely distributed at low cost, and could be incorporated into other creations and sequels, or adapted to other forms such as stage plays and operas (or later, films and comics.)

The first United States Copyright Act (1790) provided for a term of 14 years, renewable for a second 14-year period.  Later the initial term was extended to 28 years, renewable for a possible total of 56 years.  The 1976 Copyright Act eliminated the renewal requirement, and gave works a life, plus 50 year term for individual authors and a flat 75-year term for “corporate authors” (works made for hire). This was a reasonable extension which allowed an author’s immediate family to benefit financially from the creator's works.

In 1998, Congress passed S.505, now generally known as the “Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act” (after the entertainer/legislator who sponsored the bill in the House), extending the term of copyright protection by another 20 years. The legislation covered new works, as well as those already in existence. The bill was lobbied and promoted by ASCAP (the music-licensing agency) and the film industry, particularly the Disney Corporation, which feared its Mickey Mouse character and early cartoons falling into the public domain. The bill was passed despite the objections, in a detailed statement to Congress, by sixty copyright and intellectual property law professors, who asserted that it was a bad deal for the public. They countered the arguments offered by the proponents of term extension and demonstrated the drastic and permanent harm to the public domain that extension would bring about. 

Unfortunately, the corporate interests prevailed. The result of the bill is that what was once a simple author’s life, plus 50 years copyright term is now an extremely complicated variety of copyright terms, registrations and extensions which is difficult to understand without specialized legal consultation. The only clear and uncontestable condition is that works published prior to 1923 are now in the public domain. US copyright law is also now at variance with that of other countries, most of which allow works into the public domain after author’s life plus 60 years or less.

Most of the works adapted in the Graphic Classics series are from the pre-1923 period. Others are unrenewed works, or are licensed from the authors’ estates.

On our new e-texts page we will link to PDF files of the original text stories on which Graphic Classics’ adaptations are based. We are beginning with the originals of Edgar Allan Poe’s and Arthur Conan Doyle’s works, and will gradually expand to include all authors whose public domain poems and stories are adapted in the series. These files are free for downloading or online viewing. You can click to read online, or control-click to download a PDF to your computer.

You can find more information about copyright and the public domain at these sites:
Cornell University Copyright Information Center
Arizona State University Opposing Copyright Extension Forum
University of Pennsylvania Online Books Page
Duke University Center for the Study of the Public Domain

The Duke University site offers a free, 74-page, downloadable explanation of copyright law, particularly as it applies to fair use, in comics form: Bound by Law?


RECENT INTERVIEWS

• Graphic Classics publisher Tom Pomplun is interviewed in the Spring 2012 Wisconsin People & Ideas magazine.

• African-American Classics editors Tom Pomplun and Lance Tooks, plus cover artist Afua Richardson are interviewed in the January 2012 Graphic Novel Reporter.


UPCOMING VOLUMES

• Now at the printer and scheduled for June 1 release is a revised edition of the long-out-of-print Graphic Classics: Robert Louis Stevenson, featuring a new comics adaptation of Stevenson’s “Treasure Island” by Alex Burrows and Scott Lincoln. Returning will be “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” by Simon Gane and Michael Slack, plus “The Bottle Imp” by Lance Tooks, with a collection of short “Verses and Fables” illustrated by Joe Ollmann, Maxon Crumb, Cynthia Martin, and eleven other great artists.

• September 1, 2012 is the release date for Halloween Classics: Graphic Classics Volume 23. The book will feature an EC-style introduction by Mort Castle and Kevin Atkinson, with adaptations of Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Ben Avery and Shepherd Hendrix, H.P. Lovecraft’s “Cool Air” by Rod Lott and Craig Wilson, Mark Twain’s “A Curious Dream’’ by Antonella Caputo and Nick Miller, and Arthur Conan Doyle’s “Lot No. 249” illustrated by Simon Gane. Also, in a first for Graphic Classics, we adapt the screenplay for the silent film classic “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”, with art by Matt Howarth.


illustrations ©2012 Craig Wilson

GLYPH AWARDS NOMINATION

•“On Being Crazy”, from African-American Classics, has been honored with a nomination as Story of the Year for the 2012 Glyph Comics Awards, and Kyle Baker as Best Artist for the same story. The Glyph Awards recognize the best in comics made by, for, and about people of color. The award winners will be announced May 18, 2012, at the African American Museum in Philadelphia, as part of ECBACC, the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention in Philadelphia.

illustrations ©2011 Kyle Baker