No. 5
March 1956
Gilberton Company, Inc.
Cover: John Parker
Script: ? (adapted from the novel by Herman Melville)
Art: Norman Nodel
Pages: 52
Cover price: 15 cents
Reprinted from the 1947 Classics Illustrated edition is this adaptation of Herman Melville's classic 1851 story, Moby-Dick or, The Whale. Melville based it on the calamity of the whaler, the Essex, that sailed from Nantucket in 1820 in search of sperm whales. The boiled-down blubber of these enormous creatures was the process to make whale oil, a coveted commodity used in lamps and lighting around the world. An estimated 100-foot whale rammed the ship when the crew was out in their smaller whaling boats, causing it to take on water and sink. Moby-Dick concerns the character, Captain Ahab, who has a score to settle with a whale that had previously taken off his leg. The final confrontation between man and monster is the stuff of literary history.
This comics adaptation was scripted by an unknown writer and illustrated by Norman Nodel, a noted golden age comics artist who drew numerous other stories for the Gilberton Company. In the 1960's, he worked for Warren, illustrating stories for CREEPY and EERIE using the name, Donald Norman.The cover is by John Parker, who also painted many other covers for the Classics Illustrated line.
I have this one still somewhere among my too many comics. I got hold of it along with four or five other Classics Illustrated when I was just kicking off my comics reading experience and loved it. The novel is better, but the comic is great, and all I knew for decades.
ReplyDeleteI read a lot of classic and adventure literature when I was younger, but somehow missed this one. It's running near the top of my reading list.
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