Markus Oppolzer

Teaching Frankenstein through comics :

A critical look at C lassics I llustrated

Abstract
Based on Linda Hutcheon's seminal study A Theory of Adap-
tation (2006), this paper explores one of her central tenets,
that the "contexts of creation and reception are material, pub-
lic, and economic as much as they are cultural, personal, and
aesthetic".1 Using comics adaptations of Mary Shelley's
Frankenstein (1818) as the corpus for this enquiry, I will show
that artistic considerations are, indeed, just one of several fac-
tors that have an impact on these intermedial transfers.
A key to a better understanding of these comics is their
almost exclusive reception in educational contexts. Therefore
it becomes necessary to complement a structural analysis with
both a diachronic and synchronic look at the particular cir-
cumstances under which these comics have been produced.
The obvious starting point is the Russian-born entrepreneur
Albert Kanter (1897–1973), who launched a series of comic
book adaptations in the United States, entitled Classic Comics
(renamed Classics Illustrated in 1947), which ran for thirty
years, between 1941 and 1971. Ruth A. Roche and Robert
Hayward Webb's adaptation of Frankenstein (1945) is a prime
example of the sometimes contradictory demands of artists,
publishers, teachers, and teenage readers, a conflict that is
mirrored in the great number of contemporary adaptations.
The English National Curriculum strongly recommends the
use of multimodal adaptations of literary classics to promote
critical reading. However, comics are almost exclusively
employed to teach literacy and literature to low-ability learn-
ers, who would have great difficulties understanding the origi-
nal texts. A survey of the titles available reveals that many of
these books are, in fact, neither comics nor adaptations in
Linda Hutcheon's sense, but graded readers with plenty of
illustrations. The output of such compromised comics adapta-
tions becomes understandable under these circumstances, but
it also signals a lack of interest in more sophisticated titles on
part of the readers, who, in this case, are mostly teachers.

1
Linda Hutcheon, A Theory of Adaptation (New York and Abingdon:
Taylor&Francis, 2006), p. 28.

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 Markus Oppolzer

1. Introduction and theoretical framework

In 2006 two seminal publications in the field of adaptation studies

demanded a radical break with previously held notions about the artistic
inferiority of what had long been considered derivative works of art. The
first title is Julie Sanders's Adaptation and Appropriation, which focuses
almost exclusively on films based on literary classics, a self-imposed limita-
tion found in countless other studies of this type.2 The second is Linda
Hutcheon's A Theory of Adaptation, where the scope is extended to all
media:

If you think adaptation can be understood by using novels and films

alone, you're wrong. The Victorians had a habit of adapting just
about everything – and in just about every possible direction; the
stories of poems, novels, plays, operas, paintings, songs, dances, and
tableaux vivants were constantly being adapted from one medium to
another and then back again. We postmoderns have clearly inherited
this same habit, but we have even more new materials at our dis-
posal  – not only film, television, radio, and the various electronic
media, of course, but also theme parks, historical enactments, and
virtual reality experiments.3

In a later passage Hutcheon specifies some of the media which have been
sadly neglected by most critics in the field: "Videogames, theme park rides,
Web sites, graphic novels, song covers, operas, musicals, ballets, and radio
and stage plays".4 Following the eminent film critic Robert Stam, who –
amongst others – has always been a strong opponent to so-called 'fidelity
criticism',5 both Sanders and Hutcheon attempt to destabilize the Romantic
notion of the hierarchical relationship between original creations and so-
called derivatives.6
Since all works of art are culturally embedded and based on other pre-
existing material, Sanders suggests that it would serve us better "to think in
terms of complex processes of filtration, and in terms of intertextual webs

2
Julie Sanders, Adaptation and Appropriation (London and New York:
Routledge, 2006). While there is a Cambridge Companion to Literature on
Screen (2007), two editions of Shakespeare on Film (2000/2007), and a Shake-
speare and Popular Culture (2007), no Cambridge Companion to adaptation
studies has been published, let alone a companion to any other intermedial
transfer.
3
Linda Hutcheon, A Theory of Adaptation, p. xi.
4
Ibid. p, xiv.
5
See ibid., p. 6, but also Stam's programmatic essay "Beyond Fidelity: The Dia-
logics of Adaptation" in James Naremore, ed. Film Adaptation (London: The
Athlone Press, 2000), pp. 54–76, for a basic introduction to his ideas.
6
See Hutcheon, pp. 3–4.

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 Teaching Frankenstein through comics: A critical look at Classics Illustrated

or signifying fields, rather than simplistic one-way lines of influence from

source to adaptation".7 For the creative achievement lies in the artist's abil-
ity to transform and redefine what has come before, since "it is usually at
the very point of infidelity that the most creative acts of adaptation and
appropriation take place".8 Consequently, both Sanders and Hutcheon shift
their focus from works in isolation to their complex relations with other
texts and especially to the creative processes involved in and the "many dif-
ferent possible intentions behind the act of adaptation".9 Hutcheon repeat-
edly stresses that the "contexts of creation and reception are material, pub-
lic, and economic as much as they are cultural, personal, and aesthetic".10
Such a diversified approach is particularly needed when dealing with
comics adaptations specifically geared to schools.11 As Hutcheon observes,
"teachers and their students provide one of the largest audiences for
adaptations",12 which has given rise to "a secondary educational industry
devoted to helping students and teachers 'make the most'" of them.13 In
contrast to adaptations that set a high value on artistic integrity and fore-
ground personal and aesthetic considerations, educational comics are
always compromised by their functional nature. They have to acknowledge
their target group's specific needs by making the original works of art more
accessible to teenage readers. This usually entails some modernization of
the setting, a significant simplification of all aspects of the source text,
especially in terms of language, and the use of illustrations as visual sup-
port only. This raises the important question of whether comics adapta-
tions for a teenage audience are compatible with Hutcheon's plea for an
"understanding of adaptations as adaptations".14 By this she means that the
readers or viewers should not only be able to appreciate a new addition to a
particular intertextual web as a work of art in itself but also as a conscious
reworking of its precursors. This tension between artistic aspiration and
pragmatic considerations shall be the main focus of the present enquiry.
To limit its scope I want to focus on comics adaptations of Mary Shel-
ley's Frankenstein (1818), for the plain reason that this is one of the most
popular and widely taught novels in British schools and has generated

7
Sanders, p. 24. See also pp. 38 and 152.
8
Ibid., p. 20. See also Hutcheon, pp. xiii and 20.
9
Hutcheon, p. 7.
10
Ibid., p. 28.
11
"Comics", as a singular, is the established term for the medium. Used as a plu-
ral, it is a short form of "comic books", a particular publishing format. See
Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics (New York: HarperPerennial, 1994), p.
4, and Danny Fingeroth, The Rough Guide to Graphic Novels (London: Rough
Guides, 2008), p. 4.
12
Hutcheon, pp. 117; see also p. 92.
13
Ibid., p. 92.
14
Ibid., p. 126.

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 Markus Oppolzer

about a dozen adaptations specifically tailored to teenage learners.15 How-

ever, before a critical overview and assessment of these comics can be pro-
vided, two broader educational contexts have to be established which have
a significant bearing on their production: the long-standing tradition in the
English-speaking world of teaching literature through comics, and the
standards, requirements, and specifications of the English National Curric-
ulum that create a particular framework within which these texts are read.

2. The beginning: Ruth R. Roche and Robert Hayward Webb's Frankenstein

(1945)

In a well-researched monograph,16 William B. Jones, Jr. demonstrates how

the Russian immigrant Albert Lewis Kanter (1897–1973) set out to bridge
the gulf between comics, the teenagers' medium of choice in the 1940s, and
the classics:

When he launched Classic Comics in the fall of 1941, at the peak of

the so-called Golden Age of comic books, Kanter was attempting to
wean young readers from Action Comics, Detective Comics, and
Marvel Comics, employing the same medium to win new adherents
to the works of Dumas, Scott, Cooper, Melville, and Dickens. As the
series progressed, the emphasis on its character shifted from comics
to illustrated books and led to the new name, Classics Illustrated, in
March 1947.17

Since mainstream comics became increasingly violent and raised the alarm
of many parents and teachers, "the [publishing] company endeavored to
distance itself from the perceived excesses of the comics industry".18 In the
late 1940s "the educational role of Classics Illustrated grew more
prominent",19 resulting in a decidedly different approach in the way these
adaptations were handled:

The change of focus […] led to something of an identity crisis for

Classics Illustrated. Many educators looked at the issues and saw
comic books, pure and simple. To the extent that the series in the
early years (1941–44) bastardized the originals – and one need only
look at the 1943 edition of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to see how cor-
15
Although I fully agree with Julie Sanders, I will also not be able to analyse the
whole intertextual web, such as the impact of James Whale's highly successful
films Frankenstein (1931) and The Bride of Frankenstein (1935).
16
William B. Jones, Jr. Classics Illustrated: A Cultural History, with Illustrations
(Jefferson, NC, and London: McFarland, 2002).
17
Ibid., p. 5.
18
Ibid., p. 35.
19
Ibid., p. 38.

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 Teaching Frankenstein through comics: A critical look at Classics Illustrated

rupted a text could become – the critics reviled Classics as worse

than regular comic books because they polluted great literature and
subverted high culture.20

Comics fans, however, complained "that, with their lack of original stories
and innovative art, they bore too little resemblance to comic books and
were therefore meritless".21 This tension was not lessened by the controver-
sial treatment of the source texts, the "loose adaptations" of the early
issues, often including a "complete indifference to historical detail",22 or by
the "unpolished awkwardness" of the artwork and the "interpolated
material".23 Despite its many shortcomings Classics Illustrated became a
much-beloved and highly successful series of publications that ran for 169
issues in the main series alone and continued to be in publication for thirty
years, between 1941 and 1971.24 In a postscript to every issue Kanter
encouraged his young readers to get hold of the novel on which the comic
book was based: "Now that you have read the Classics Illustrated edition,
don't miss the added enjoyment of the original, obtainable at your school
or public library."25 This concluding statement served a double purpose: it
anticipated critical voices that saw literary classics replaced with and
degraded by cheap substitutes; but it also justified a more liberal approach
to adaptations, with their strong focus on action and excitement, as their
reading could claim to be a prelude to an engagement with the original
text.
As a forerunner to, and inescapable model for, all the later adaptations,
Ruth A. Roche and Robert Webb's Frankenstein shall be discussed at some
length.26 It was published in December 1945 as issue 26 of the series and
became "one of the most popular titles, going through nineteen printings
between 1945 and 1971".27 This title had all the markings of the early phase:
a liberal interpretation of the source material and an art style that misrep-

20
Ibid., p. 6.
21
Ibid.
22
Ibid., p. 27.
23
Ibid., p. 29.
24
See ibid., p. 1. Jones talks of "estimated peak monthly sales of between two and
four million" (p. 10) at the height of its success, which can partly be explained
by the fact that Kanter struck a deal with the Red Cross and the Army, so that
"between five and ten million copies were sent to soldiers" (p. 10). These sev-
enty-year-old titles were again printed and sold to schools, an issue I will
address later.
25
Quoted from ibid., p. 4.
26
Ruth A. Roche and Robert Hayward Webb, Frankenstein (CLASSICS Illus-
trated No. 13 [UK edition]; Thatcham: Classic Comic Store, 2009), p. 1. The
book features additional illustrations by Ann Brewster and was lettered by
Louis Goldklang. All references to this edition are provided in parenthesis,
indicating the page and panel numbers.
27
Jones, p. 40.

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 Markus Oppolzer

resented the period.28 By the "standards of the mid-Forties, Frankenstein

featured the most shocking mixture of sex and violence to appear in Classic
Comics".29 Contrary to some of the later titles in the series, this book,
despite its flaws, represents a serious attempt to translate a novel into the
medium of comics. It avoids the usual pitfall of simply illustrating key
scenes from the book and, thus, of doubling the information through
unnecessary redundancies.
Roche and Webb, who had to work within the narrow frame of 43 pages
for their complete adaptation of Frankenstein (1945), open the book with a
striking panel covering the whole page. It shows a hand in the bottom left
corner trying to tear out the very page we are reading. Superimposed we
find the third-person narrator's opening address to the reader, commenting
on what is happening: "Here is a haunting tale of shame and horror …
these clutching fingers are trembling with remorse and would wrench the
very pages from your sight … so dwell with tolerance, gentle reader, on the
incredible life of this nameless monster … this creature without a soul!!"
(Roche, p. 1) Our attention is immediately drawn to the monster, a peren-
nial favourite among young readers, and the mysterious circumstances of
his life. Though we are asked to refrain from an outright condemnation of
the creature on moral grounds, the narrator seems to settle one of the piv-
otal questions of the novel straight away: the monster is not human and
thus outside the scope of Christian redemption. This teaser is clearly
intended to arouse readers' curiosity, kept alive through the first four pages
of the exposition till the monster is finally created on page six. The frame
story of the original text is sacrificed so that the transition to the exciting
parts of the narrative is further shortened. Robert Walton, the Englishman
who, in the novel, finds Frankenstein in the icy wasteland north of the Rus-
sian city of Archangel and provides a verbatim record of the scientist's
autobiographical tale, only appears briefly at the end of the comic as an
unnamed captain. However, he establishes a different frame by echoing the
third-person narrator's view of the monster in the prologue and adopts an
even more biased attitude, probably resulting from the fact that he never
meets the creature in person. In the very last panel he comments on the
monster's almost certain demise: "'Tis better this way. He is a monster, pol-
luted by bitter crimes and torn by remorse. Death to him!" (Roche, p. 43/6;
original emphasis) While the book is framed by such moral judgments, the
creature's own narrative (see Roche, pp. 19–23) tells a very different story.
He is the only character who is granted a subjective point of view through
first-person narration, and his most controversial act, the murder of Frank-
enstein's brother William, is presented as an accident (see Roche, pp. 22–3).
This establishes a clear contrast between the points of view of the authori-

28
See ibid.
29
Ibid., p. 41.

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 Teaching Frankenstein through comics: A critical look at Classics Illustrated

tative voices in the narrative, the narrator's, Frankenstein's and Walton's,

on the one hand, and the monster's tale of victimization, in which he
appears as a most rational and moral being, on the other. The contrast is
even further substantiated by Walton's doubts about Victor's tale – "By the
saints tis more than a man can believe!" (Roche, p. 42/5) –, but also through
the inclusion of an often overlooked detail in the original novel, the several
months Victor spends in a lunatic asylum after the death of his wife Eliza-
beth, here reduced to a few weeks (see Roche, p. 37/1).30 One could argue
that the contrast between the two moral points of view preserves Shelley's
interest in the tension between how someone is perceived by society and
how he presents himself, and the truth hidden behind this pretension.
What undermines the moral and narratological complexity of the novel
is a shift in the narrative situation of the comic from Frankenstein address-
ing Walton to a third-person narrator addressing the readers. This has, of
course, far-reaching implications. While Frankenstein wants to win Wal-
ton's sympathy through the "unparalleled eloquence" of his passionate
speech,31 the narrator's introductory sentences reveal a blind acceptance of
Frankenstein's insistence that fate, and not he himself, is responsible for the
countless deaths that are to follow: "Our story unfolds at a gay family out-
ing attended by those whom fate has already marked for death" (Roche, p.
2/1–2). This faith in Frankenstein's narration transforms the highly subjec-
tive and untrustworthy statements of an obsessed man on the brink of
physical and mental exhaustion into the third-person narrator's 'official'
version of the tale. We are explicitly told that Victor's meeting with Profes-
sor Waldman is "the milestone that is to change his entire destiny" (Roche,
p. 5/4) and a thought bubble in the next panel reveals his intention "to ban-
ish disease from the human frame and render man invulnerable to any but
a violent death" (Roche, p. 5/5). In the novel, however, Frankenstein uses
such ideas as red herrings to distract both Walton's and the readers' atten-
tion from the true source of his misery: his sociopathic behaviour and dis-
astrous obsession with glory and global recognition. It is the "immortality
and power" of the ancient scientists that he admires most, which makes
him strive for the "boundless grandeur" that comes with a major scientific
breakthrough.32 Only those who are willing to sacrifice everything have a
chance to "ascent into the heavens" and be rewarded with their own apoth-
eosis.33 In the comic, however, these references to Prometheus – ostenta-
tiously stressed in the subtitle of the novel – and the literary tradition of the
Faustian over-reacher are lost. Frankenstein's role is reduced to that of a

30
See Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, ed. J. Paul Hunter (New York and London:
Norton, 1996), p. 138.
31
Ibid., p. 16.
32
Ibid., p. 27.
33
Ibid., p. 28.

165
 Markus Oppolzer

generic scientist, a character known from contemporary popular narra-

tives. This is explicitly emphasized when Henry greets Victor with the
words: "Hello, you old molecule chaser!" (Roche, p. 8/2). This odd moderni-
sation of the language, also evident in a sailor's comment on Frankenstein's
fatal condition, "He's a goner all right!" (Roche, p. 42/3), not only signals a
clear concession to the young readership of the 1940s, but also a familiarity
with the scientist as an established protagonist of popular tales. It seems
ironic that science fiction scholars trace this type of character back to
Mary Shelley's novel, arguing that Frankenstein is a proto-SF text.34 This is,
in fact, the major reason why curricula suggest the teaching of Franken-
stein. Its cultural relevance now seems to lie in the many parallels one can
draw to cloning and similar manipulations of our physical existence. What
tends to be forgotten about the novel, especially when teaching it to
younger students, are its comments on contemporary institutions, such as
the judiciary and educational practises, the first-person narrator's unrelia-
bility, the political and social attitudes expressed, Shelley's own biography
and related feminist readings of the text, the sublime as an aesthetic cate-
gory, and its affiliations with the Gothic genre, just to name the most
important ones.35
Despite such concessions to the target group and the constraints on
commercial comics publications at the time, there are also signs of sophis-
tication. Starting from a basic pattern of six panels per page, some subtle
variation of layout is used for specific narrative functions. To draw the
readers' attention to important moments in the narrative, such as the mur-
der of Elisabeth (see Roche, p. 35/2) or the monster's appearance at Frank-
enstein's death bed (see Roche, p. 43/3), round panels are used to stand out
amongst the mass of rectangular frames. The monster's narration (see
Roche, pp. 19–23), essentially a long flashback, is marked by panel borders
and text boxes that are rendered as wavy lines – a popular device in comics
to indicate a different time frame or an altered state of reality. During Jus-
tine's trial Roche and Webb contrast the guard's testimony – "Justine
couldn't possibly have come there as she claims or I would have seen her
…" (Roche, p. 15/3) – with a visual flashback that shows him asleep while
the girl is indeed trying to get inside the city walls (see Figure 1).

34
For the idea that SF begins with Frankenstein see Brian Aldiss and David Win-
grove, Trillion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction (1973; Thirsk: House
of Stratus, 2001), esp. pp. vii, 3–4, and Carl Freedman, Critical Theory and Sci-
ence Fiction (Hanover, NH, and London: Wesleyan UP, 2000), esp. pp. 4, 48–9.
35
See the following study guides aimed at A-level and undergraduate students for
more diversified approaches to the text: Neil Bowen, Classical Comics Study
Guide: Frankenstein (Towcester: Classical Comics, 2008); Stephen C. Behrendt,
ed. Approaches to Teaching Shelley's Frankenstein (New York: MLAA, 1990);
and Nicholas Marsh, Frankenstein (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).

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 Teaching Frankenstein through comics: A critical look at Classics Illustrated

Figure 1: The guard's false testimony at Justine's trial (©2012 First Classics Inc. All
Rights Reserved. By permission of Jack Lake Productions Inc.)

An ingenious way of translating parts of the novel into purely visual story-
telling can be found in the superimposition of the monster over Victor's
journey to Scotland (see Roche, p. 25). In the fourth panel of the page it is
established that the creature is pursuing Frankenstein: "All the while a
menacing figure lurks in the background … following … following"
(Roche, p. 25/4). This very idea is then expressed as a gigantic outline of the
monster dominating almost every panel of the page (see Figure 2). His
sheer size and all-encompassing ghost-like presence remind the reader of
his power over Victor's life. One could also read this as internal focalisa-
tion, since Frankenstein feels haunted by his own creature, his life over-
shadowed by the demands of a son he refuses to accept as his own.

167
 Markus Oppolzer

Figure 2: The monster's pursuit of Frankenstein (©2012 First Classics Inc. All
Rights Reserved. By permission of Jack Lake Productions Inc.)

It is not difficult to see how a young audience in the 1940s would relate
favourably to such a visually exciting rendering of dramatic events, espe-
cially at a time when cinema tickets were too expensive for them and televi-
sion sets not yet available. It is, however, a mystery why children of today
would be interested in this seventy-year-old text. Roche and Webb's Frank-
enstein (1945) is again in print. On the back cover of the most recent British

168
 Teaching Frankenstein through comics: A critical look at Classics Illustrated

edition we find three photos of contemporary classrooms and an advertise-

ment that praises the educational merits of the series:

Classics Illustrated and Classics Illustrated Juniors are being used

extensively in the classroom. […] The Classics Illustrated series
engages readers from eight to fourteen years old and is particularly
relevant for reluctant readers where high adventure and excitement
will gain their interest and improve reading levels. Both series are
also relevant to Special Educational Needs students.36

Why should students who have great difficulties reading any English text
improve their reading competence through this particular comic? This sec-
tion has highlighted the cultural impact of Classics Illustrated as a decisive
factor in the proliferation of such adaptations, but an even more important
influence can be found in the teaching practices of the English school sys-
tem.

3. Teaching Frankenstein in English schools: The national curriculum

In England the National Curriculum for English – Key Stage 3 (2007) spec-
ifies that students should be enabled "to understand the appeal and impor-
tance over time of texts from the English literary heritage. This should
include works selected from the following pre-twentieth-century writers:
Jane Austen, […] Charlotte Brontë, […] Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan
Doyle, George Eliot, […] Mary Shelley, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jonathan
Swift, […] HG Wells" and, of course, "at least one play by Shakespeare".37
The curriculum strongly recommends the teaching of various adaptations
in this context.38 These are not meant to be radically reduced in complexity
but should encourage students to "recognise and discuss different interpre-
tations of texts, justifying their own views on what they read and see, and
supporting them with evidence".39 Thus, they eventually develop into
"enthusiastic and critical readers of stories, poetry and drama as well as

36
Back cover of Roche and Webb's Frankenstein.
37
"English – Programme of study for key stage 3 and attainment targets", http://
curriculum.qcda.gov.uk/uploads/QCA-07-3332-pEnglish3_tcm8-399.pdf (26
September 2011), pp. 60–81, p. 71. Key Stage 3 encompasses years 7–9 or the
12–14 year-olds. This is a selection from the list of prose writers. I left out an
equal number of poets. The inclusion of Shelley amounts to a strong recom-
mendation to read Frankenstein.
38
See ibid.
39
Ibid., p. 65.

169
 Markus Oppolzer

non-fiction and media texts".40 Here, the National Curriculum is completely

in line with Linda Hutcheon's approach to adaptations.
However, this lofty ideal has to be seen in the context of a comprehen-
sive school system that develops curricula for its brightest students, but
then forces those with special educational needs to face the same chal-
lenges. How do you teach Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to those who can
barely decipher written texts? The advertisement for Classics Illustrated is
a clear indication that a large number of teachers is desperate to find suita-
ble means to teach the classics to low-ability students, even if that should
entail an almost seventy-year-old comic book that is outdated by modern
standards. Comics seem to be a natural choice as there is actual reading
involved, students can enjoy the book at their own speed and leisure, and
the images provide plenty of clues about what is going on. In short, reading
comics has become a viable option for British educators to teach literacy
and literature at the same time.
Such an approach has several practical implications for contemporary
adapters catering for this set of low-ability learners: they have to radically
simplify and modernize the language, provide a lot of self-contained illus-
trations that mirror exactly what the text says, and refrain from complex
and creative forms of visual storytelling. This is clearly not what the curric-
ulum demands, but very understandable given the situation at hand.
If one is to take the National Curriculum seriously, then students
should become "enthusiastic and critical readers of […] media texts",41
which is further specified in the section entitled "Reading for meaning":
"Pupils should be able to […] understand how meaning is created through
the combination of words, images and sounds in multimodal texts".42 This
statement is more revolutionary than it sounds as it redefines literacy as the
ability to read narratives across a wide range of media, from prose fiction
via films and comics to hypertexts. Tim Stafford's excellent book Teaching
Visual Literacy in the Primary Classroom (2011) demonstrates how media
literacy can be taught even to five-year olds – an ideal starting point if one
believes in the necessity to teach students how to read those media texts
that they are exposed to every day.43
The real problem, however, does not come from the students or a lack of
approaches and methods, but from teachers who have been trained to read
prose only. The National Curriculum strongly suggests the use of adapta-
tions to teach key works of the English literary heritage, not as illustrations
but as critical engagements with the source material. Yet, this can only be

40
Ibid., p. 61.
41
Ibid.
42
Ibid., p. 65.
43
Tim Stafford, Teaching Visual Literacy in the Primary Classroom (London and
New York: Routledge, 2011).

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 Teaching Frankenstein through comics: A critical look at Classics Illustrated

accomplished with at least a basic knowledge in how films, comics, and

other media narrate. Linda Hutcheon insists that "the medium – as the
material means of expression of an adaptation – is crucially important",44
because almost all of the creative decisions are influenced by the interme-
dial transfer. "Audiences need to learn – that is, to be taught – how to be
knowing audiences in terms of medium",45 she demands. Yet, how should
teachers impart a solid grounding in visual literacy if their own back-
ground is exclusively in traditional literary studies?
While there are several introductory guides to graphic novels and visual
literacy, teachers are faced with a dearth of critical discussions focusing on
comics adaptations and their applicability as teaching tools.46 What they
find is a mass of articles written by other teachers who report about their
own experiences with comics in the classroom. Paula E. Griffith's "Graphic
Novels in the Secondary Classroom and School Libraries" is a revealing
example.47 The author does her best to remedy the deficits of many teachers
in terms of visual literacy, media studies and narratology, but reveals her-
self to be part of the problem. Apart from an obvious unfamiliarity with
established terminology,48 she also tends to see comics exclusively as teach-
ing tools rather than works of art. This is confirmed by her expectations
concerning comics adaptations of literary classics: according to her, they
have to "stay true to the original works but include beautiful illustrations

44
Hutcheon, p. 34.
45
Ibid., p. 125.
46
Dirk Vanderbeke's "It Was the Best of Two Worlds, It Was the Worst of Two
Worlds: The Adaptation of Novels in Comics and Graphic Novels", in Joyce
Goggin and Dan Hassler-Forest, ed. The Rise and Reason of Comics and
Graphic Literature: Critical Essays on the Form (Jefferson, NC, and London:
McFarland, 2010), pp. 104–18, and Stephen A. Tabachnick's "The Graphic
Novel and the Age of Transition: A Survey and Analysis", English Literature in
Translation, 1880–1920 53:1 (2010), pp. 3–28, offer a basic introduction to qual-
ity adaptations of literary classics, but leave out the question of their suitability
for schools. Even Teaching the Graphic Novel (New York: MLAA, 2009), a col-
lection of essays edited by Tabachnick for the MLA series 'Options for Teach-
ing', largely ignores the issue. One of the few exceptions is Norbert Bachleitner's
"Jane Eyre for Young Readers: Three Illustrated Adaptations", in Margarete
Rubik and Elke Mettinger-Schartmann, ed. A Breath of Fresh Eyre: Intertextual
and Intermedial Reworkings of Jane Eyre (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi,
2007), pp. 273–86, which offers some observations on the suitability of comics
adaptations as teaching tools. In fact, The Third International Comics Confer-
ence (Bournemouth University, 9–10 July 2012) dedicates a whole day to "Com-
ics and Education" precisely because of this lack of critical assessment.
47
Paula E. Griffith, "Graphic Novels in the Secondary Classroom and School
Libraries", Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 54:3 (November 2010), pp.
181–9. Griffith is American, but the situation is not very different on both sides
of the Atlantic.
48
Ibid., pp. 181, 183.

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 Markus Oppolzer

that aid reading comprehension".49 Here, the most wide-spread misconcep-

tion about adaptations – fidelity to the original work of art – meets the
most persistent misunderstanding about comics, which is that the images
merely illustrate the narrative.50
Griffith's understanding of comics as the new crutches of literacy teach-
ing is perfectly in line with an increasing demand for these texts to make
the classics available to low-ability learners. Consequently, most of the
comics adaptations of Frankenstein are marred by an overreliance on ver-
bal narration and a degradation of the images to mere illustrations.

4. A survey of contemporary adaptations of Frankenstein in the

comics medium

For a discussion of the available examples I am going to divide them into

three groups – picture books, educational comics, and graphic novels – to
mirror their orientation in terms of artistic integrity. The first group could
be described as graded readers that contain far more illustrations than any
of the traditional fare of abbreviated and simplified texts. They have been
specifically designed as teaching tools and their predominant feature is a
doubling of information by having the illustrations express the same con-
tent visually that the text boxes provide verbally. An extreme example of
this approach is Philip Page and Marilyn Pettit's contribution to the
Livewire Graphics series, published by Hodder Education.51 The narrative
is broken up into sequences of one to three pages. Each is headed by a brief
summary of one or two sentences in plain English. Then there are several
text boxes which tell the same passage in some more detail, using language
approximating that of Mary Shelley. These texts, in turn, are illustrated,
poorly mirroring what has already been said twice.
When Frankenstein's father confronts his son about the long-pending
marriage with Elizabeth, we notice some signs of visual sophistication.
While Alphonse expresses his wish, Victor is oddly turned away from him.
We see his face in close-up: his eyes are wide open to signal a state of alarm
and his glance indicates that he is afraid of facing his father directly. The
reason for his agitation is expressed in a thought bubble: his "solemn prom-

49
Ibid, p. 185.
50
Sanders, Hutcheon, and Vanderbeke convincingly argue that most adaptations
fail precisely because they try to stay true to the original. It is simply impossible
to retain or compete with the verbal complexities of a novel in a multimodal
text if the visuals do not count as complex forms of expression. Concerning the
second point, the visuals in comics are the narrative and it is the words that are
reduced to a supportive role.
51
Philip Page and Marilyn Pettit, Frankenstein (London: Hodder Education,
2009).

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 Teaching Frankenstein through comics: A critical look at Classics Illustrated

ise" to the monster to let him "depart with his mate".52 However, the next
panel undermines this brief burst of creativity: the verbal text carries all
the important information again. One could argue that the set-up of both
men looking directly at Elizabeth implies a certain amount of pressure,
which would qualify her assent, but the expressionless faces reduce such a
reading to mere conjecture. In "Jane Eyre for Young Readers: Three Illus-
trated Adaptations", Norbert Bachleitner offers a pertinent summary of
the main features of the Livewire Graphics series: he remarks that the
"backgrounds are often completely barren", that "action and body lan-
guage are reduced to the bare minimum" and that "static pictures of speak-
ers prevail" which frequently "add faces to the dialogues but not much
else".53 Contrary to comics, the images are not visually interrelated and rely
heavily on the prose narrative as the main source of cohesion. In short,
these books are intended to encourage reading prose fiction for which most
aspirations to visual storytelling are sacrificed. Strictly speaking, these
books should neither be considered comics nor adaptations in Hutcheon's
sense. The redeeming grace of this version of Frankenstein is its widespread
use of silhouettes, using stark contrasts between black and white, which
leaves some drawings open to the interpretation of the readers. As with
most of these texts, the teaching material included in the student's book
itself is appalling: half a page of introductory notes that end with an invita-
tion to the readers to take notes on what they find most frightening in the
book.
As a representative of the second group of texts, educational comics,
the most ambitious new series, Classical Comics,54 which has garnered
some reputation for its Shakespeare adaptations, 55 shall serve as an exam-

52
Shelley, p. 104.
53
Bachleitner, p. 283.
54
Jason Cobley and Jon Haward, Frankenstein: The Graphic Novel (Original and
Quick Text Versions; Towcester: Classical Comics, 2008). The success of Clas-
sics Illustrated transformed the title into a brand, for which several companies
presumably paid a lot of money to use it as a label for their own series of com-
ics, such as First Comics, Berkeley Publishing, Papercutz, or Classic Comic
Store. However, there have also been attempts to approximate the title without
causing a copyright infringement, such as Illustrated Classics, Classical Com-
ics, or Graphic Classics.
55
The website features several 'testimonials' or short statements by celebrity
actors and teachers alike endorsing the new series. See: http://www.classicalcom-
ics.com/testimonials.html (6 October 2011). There are several reasons why a
comics adaptation of a play is a much more fruitful enterprise, of which I only
want to present the three most obvious ones: the text is intended to be visual-
ized and acted out in the first place; it is short enough to be included without
the necessity of major cuts; and many aspects of a play, but especially the stage
directions, can be clarified without the necessity of footnotes by simply show-
ing the context.

173
 Markus Oppolzer

ple. These comics come in two varieties, "Original Text" and "Quick Text",
of which the first is a misnomer, since it is neither possible nor desirable to
retain the novel's text in its entirety. This stratification, to which the Shake-
speare volumes add a third, "Plain Text", signals that students of several
ability levels are supposed to read the same literary classic. As most of its
competitors, the Original Text version suffers from the misguided attempt
to cram as many words as possible into the text boxes and speech balloons.
With 130 pages this comics adaptation is more than double the length of all
the previously discussed titles and contains the largest part of Shelley's
original text. A direct comparison to the Quick Text edition shows that it is
not only the language that has been simplified but the overall complexity of
the narrative. Page 21 may serve as an example:

PANEL 1:
OT: When I found so astonishing a power placed within my hands, I
hesitated a long time concerning the manner in which I should
employ it.
QT: I knew how to give life to lifeless matter.

PANEL 2:
OT: Although I possessed the capacity of bestowing animation – yet
to prepare a frame for the reception of it, with all its intricacies of
fibres, muscles and veins, still remained a work of inconceivable dif-
ficulty and labour.
QT: Yet to prepare the body for animation with fibres, muscles and
veins seemed impossible.

PANEL 3:
OT: As the minuteness of the parts formed a great hindrance to my
speed, I resolved to make the being of gigantic stature: about eight
feet in height, and proportionally large.
QT: I decided to make the body larger so that it was easier to put
together.

OT: I seemed to have lost all soul or sensation but for this one pur-
suit.
QT: [not included]

PANEL 4:
OT: In a solitary chamber, or rather cell, I kept my workshop of
filthy creation;
QT: In a solitary room I worked on my creation.

OT: and often did my human nature turn with loathing from my
occupation.
QT: [not included]

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 Teaching Frankenstein through comics: A critical look at Classics Illustrated

PANEL 5:
OT: I was thus engaged, heart and soul, in one pursuit. Every night I
was oppressed by a slow fever, and I became nervous to a most pain-
ful degree; the fall of a leaf startled me, and I shunned my fellow-
creatures …
QT: So determined was I, that I made myself ill. I didn't stop work-
ing, even to look after myself.

OT: … as if I had been guilty of a crime.

QT: [not included]

The first important observation about the Original Text variant is the nar-
rative consistency of its text boxes, which makes it completely independent
from the visual information. This is only possible through the large amount
of verbal text it uses, which degrades the images to the level of illustrations.
Both textual variants are superimposed over the same illustrations, which
is highly understandable in terms of production, but questionable in terms
of artistic integrity. The captions for the first panel do not even match, as
the Quick Text simply ignores Frankenstein's feelings and motivations.
This leads to the strange situation that the two versions are exactly the
same visually, but very different in all other respects. The panels and page
layouts show greater signs of sophistication than most of the adaptations in
the first group so that the term 'comic' is finally justified.56 What I find
slightly irritating is the melodramatic acting of the characters and a predi-
lection for graphic violence and horror, presumably to appeal to young
male readers. The worm-eaten corpse of Victor's mother, the creature's exe-
cution of William, the vision of a female monster roaming the lands, the
destruction of her body with an axe, or Victor firing at the 'fiend' with his
pistol are all rendered in an excessively graphic way. These strong influ-
ences from the superhero genre seem oddly out of place. The teachers'
resource pack by Neil Bowen, however, which is available separately, is eve-
rything one could wish for. Bowen covers a lot of ground, offering activities
for all age groups, learner types, and abilities. Even teachers of A-level
English literature or undergraduate courses at university may find Bowen's
ideas worth a try. All in all, this offering by Classical Comics comes closest
to a successful compromise between teaching tool and comics adaptation.

56
Michael Burgan and Dennis Calero's Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (Minneapolis
and San Diego: Stone Arch Books, 2008) is a noteworthy title in this respect.
Despite its target group of very young readers and a substantial simplification
in terms of language and themes, the visual design stands out as a
true achievement: through heavy shadows, silhouettes, lighting effects and
minimalist artwork, Calero creates a unique mood largely missing from the
previously discussed titles. The drawings suggest scenes rather than depicting
them in great detail, which invites readers to imagine the specific circum-
stances. The panels are more clearly related and do not need the interpolated
texts to establish meaningful links.

175
 Markus Oppolzer

The last and smallest group contains two books that truly deserve the
label 'graphic novel'. Here, the artistic integrity is not severely compromised
by practical considerations. To appreciate the complexity of the visuals and
the narrative strategies that bind them together one requires at least some
familiarity with the medium. Gary Reed and Frazer Irving's Mary Shelley's
Frankenstein: The Graphic Novel (2005) and Marion Mousse's adaptation
were not exclusively produced for schools, which is indicated by the com-
plete lack of teaching suggestions or complimentary material.57 It may
come as no surprise, then, that the one is out of print, and the other a
translation from the French. Apart from Philip Page and Marilyn Pettit's
Livewire Graphics edition Reed and Irving's book is the only adaptation in
black and white – an excellent artistic choice or, at least, an impressive
compensation for a limitation imposed on the artists by the publishers.
Despite an over-reliance on captions, the book drastically reduces the
amount of text and thus frees the visuals to tell the narrative over 144
pages. This shift in complexity from the written word to the image may
deter some readers, which is a pity, as almost every page contains a gem of
visual storytelling. The book even contains a 'making-of' section (Reed/
Irving, pp. 149–65) explaining the artistic processes involved in the creation
of the comic. Gary Reed is quoted at the beginning of this appendix: "My
hope is that this adaptation will be strong enough to stand on its own as an
individual piece of work in the graphic novel format." (Reed/Irving, p. 149)
This artistic aspiration signals a significant departure from the previously
discussed texts.
One of the most noteworthy sequences in the book is the creation of the
monster (Reed/Irving, pp. 25–28). While the first page shows Victor's hectic
completion of the creature over four panels in close-ups, offering different
angles on his activities, the actual birth scene covers a double page of three
static images (see Figure 3).
The first panel shows Victor sitting completely exhausted on the floor
(Reed/Irving, p. 26/1). A zoom-out to the larger second panel reveals the
monster lying on a bed. There is still Victor, mirrored exactly from panel
one, but he is now dwarfed by the overpowering presence of the monster,
who dominates the frame and is partly obscured by heavy shadows (Reed/
Irving, p. 26/2).
The next page uses one of the narrative strategies unique to comics: the
visual co-presence of panels rendered in sequence and the page as a unity.
In this case, a close-up on the monster's face is split into four sections that

Gary Reed and Frazer Irving, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: The Graphic Novel
57

(New York et al.: Puffin, 2005). All references to this edition are provided in
parenthesis, indicating the page and panel numbers. Marion Mousse, Franken-
stein: By Mary Shelly [sic], trans. Joe Johnson (New York: Papercutz, 2009).
Colours are by Marie Galopin and the lettering by Ortho.

176
 Teaching Frankenstein through comics: A critical look at Classics Illustrated

Figure 3: The deed is done (© Gary Reed and Frazer Irving)

represent a clear temporal progression: "I waited with anxious agony. …

Then … then, its eyes opened. … I heard a deep breath … a gulping breath
… and my creation … my perfect creation … was alive!" (Reed/Irving, p.
27/1–4) The part of the face revealed in the panel corresponds to the sign of
life described in the text. The final page (Reed/Irving, p. 28) breaks with
the quietness of the birth scene and returns Victor to a state of agitation.
Irving's magnificent and highly expressive artwork is a powerful dem-
onstration that visuals can leave almost as much to the imagination as the
written word. Comics are indeed an ideal medium to reveal and obscure at
the same time. Despite the fact that we get to see the monster's face over

177
 Markus Oppolzer

and over again, its features remain elusive. The book uses an astonishing
amount of point-of-view shots to draw the reader into the narrative and
thus offers the vicarious experience of seeing the world through the charac-
ters' eyes. This is especially true of the sequence in which the monster
awakes (Reed/Irving, pp. 50–1), which starts with three panels gradually
revealing the creature's visual sense impressions (see Figure 4).

Figure 4: The monster’s first sensory impressions (© Gary Reed and Frazer Irving)

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 Teaching Frankenstein through comics: A critical look at Classics Illustrated

The monster's confusion is reflected in the wobbly lines of the panel

frames, which signal impaired vision. What Reed and Fraser's adaptation
sacrifices in terms of verbal complexity is compensated by a stunning vis-
ual presentation, probably the best artwork of all the available titles.
Marion Mousse's take on the Frankenstein myth is the most ambitious and
daring. In addition to the original novel by Mary Shelley this French comics
artist uses all the Frankenstein adaptations, such as the films by James Whale,
as a source of inspiration. This is a book that Sanders and Hutcheon would
greatly appreciate. Despite the fact that the religious context of Frankenstein's
creation is largely left out in the original novel, Mousse recontextualizes the
whole narrative in Christian terms. He does not shy away from creating new
characters, such as Pastor Dessuard, who discusses Victor's calling with his
mother Caroline. Similar to Kenneth Branagh's Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
(1994) – and very much at odds with the novel – the death of Victor's mother is
presented as the decisive turning point, though with markedly different con-
sequences: it puts an end to Victor's religious beliefs and causes him to under-
stand the world in purely materialist terms. In the absence of God, he feels
entitled to take creation into his own hands.
Not only does this re-conceptualization demand a certain measure of
open-mindedness but, more importantly, an extensive knowledge of the
original text and its various adaptations. Mousse's book breaks new
ground in a number of significant ways. He dares to narrate whole
sequences in visuals only. His cartoonish, non-realist style may not be to
everyone's liking. And he enriches the book with new intertextual refer-
ences, such as to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mari-
ner. In short, this is a highly idiosyncratic adaptation that challenges the
readers instead of reducing the complexity of the book to suit a young and
inexperienced readership.

5. Concluding remarks

This survey of several comics adaptations of Frankenstein has shown that a

study of the "contexts of creation and reception" that Linda Hutcheon
addresses must go beyond the "personal, and aesthetic" and include the
"cultural", "material, public, and economic", especially if one looks at com-
ics adaptations geared to schools.58 All these titles reveal a tension between
artistic aspiration and practical demands. Contrary to the explicit recom-
mendations of the English National Curriculum, comics adaptations are
almost exclusively used to teach literacy and the canon of English literature
to low-ability learners. This leads to the paradoxical situation that many of
the books that are marketed and perceived as comics adaptations of Mary

Hutcheon, p. 28.
58

179
 Markus Oppolzer

Shelley's Frankenstein are, in fact, neither comics nor adaptations in Linda

Hutcheon's sense – works of art that engage creatively with its predecessors
and require trained readers. They are merely teaching tools, specifically
designed to open the world of literature to those who would not be able to
comprehend the original novels. This explains the unusual predominance
of written text in these publications, in some cases simplified beyond recog-
nition. The illustrations are intended to be purely motivational rather than
integrative parts of the narrative. Therefore, it seems more appropriate to
think of these books as heavily illustrated graded readers rather than com-
ics. Despite this prevalence of tailor-made materials, there are a few titles,
such as Gary Reed and Frazer Irving's Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: The
Graphic Novel (2005) or Marion Mousse's Frankenstein (2009), which are
worth reading on their own terms, especially if one wishes to expand adap-
tation studies beyond the latest Hollywood rendering of Jane Austen's nov-
els or Shakespeare's plays.

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