Tucked away inside an obscure UK newsprint comic book is the first illustrated adaptation of a Ray Harryhausen film on either side of the Atlantic, MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (RKO, 1949), in SUN comic by Amalgamated Press.
Previously, SUN was owned by J.B. Allen who published the first UK post-war comic, THE COMET, in 1947, after paper restrictions were lifted. Some of its earliest stories were adaptations of THE SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON and ROBIN HOOD. Amalgamated bought Allen out in 1949.
The bi-weekly-published SUN was comprised of a combination of humor and adventure strips, illustrated text stories, and adaptations of recent popular movies -- some using photographs and word balloons in the fumetti style -- all aimed at a younger readership.
The adaptation of MIGHTY JOE YOUNG ran in six full-page parts, from 10 December 1949 until 18 February 1950.
The strip was drawn by Robert Robertson MacGillivray (1913-1986). During his career, MacGillivray worked for several British companies that published mainly humor and adventure comic books for children and young people. He was known as a versatile artist and could draw in any number of styles, depending on the needs of the story.
The next Harryhausen film adapted into a comic book wouldn't be until Dell published THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD in FOUR COLOR COMICS #944 (September 1958).
Here are two sample pages from Amalgamated's MIGHTY JOE YOUNG:
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| SUN (January 21, 1950). |
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| SUN (February 18, 1950). |
Read more about MIGHTY JOE YOUNG HERE.
Fantastic! I'm not a huge fan of the movie, but these strips do capture the kid friendly feel of it.
ReplyDeleteIt was a surprise coming across this. Wish I could have found the rest of the strips.
ReplyDelete