We’re often asked questions from students who need help with a dissertation or a school project. Here are a few of the answers we give which you may find useful for your own research.
Background
When was Classical Comics founded and why?
As the brainchild of the company’s founder and Editor-in-Chief, Clive Bryant, Classical Comics came about when Clive’s own son and daughter expressed their frustration at understanding and interpreting many of the classic literature that formed part of their school curriculum. Clive added: “It was whilst on a train journey that I began to ask myself what made classics such as Shakespeare so hard for youngsters to read and understand. I then asked myself what youngsters did enjoy reading and immediately thought of comics. Whatever the story, or the hero, they are all written in plain English prose, with the story unfolding in engaging and exciting pictures.”
Where are you based and how big is the company?
Classical Comics is and always has been a small UK publisher. We outsource the artwork to artists well known in their industry to create the quality and authentic feel we are looking for.
Did you work closely with schools to develop your products?
Yes, we did. Here is a testimonial from Northampton Academy, UK from 2012:
The words 'Shakespeare' and 'Macbeth' are both heavy-duty and intimidating for teenagers. English teachers all know that there's something wonderful in the language and story, however pupils are not easily convinced by reading the play, and engagement is crucial to their success in external examinations. However, the form of a graphic novel is something more contemporary and familiar to today's teens - and the impact of reading Macbeth as a graphic novel was stunning in our school! Our pupils immediately engaged with the text, and lost themselves in the story and the characters in a way which would no doubt have gladdened the heart of The Bard himself! … The graphic novels have encouraged pupils to become more independent in their studying of Macbeth, they don't need a teacher around to be able to understand the text and are happier to read the play on their own, in the confidence that they won't have a problem with understanding. We were interested to find that results for Macbeth controlled assessments were better than results for a more modern text with the same assessment objectives, but which doesn't have the language barriers!
J Pattison, KS4 Leader, English, Northampton Academy
Who buys your books?
Our books are available worldwide with our main customers being schools and educational establishments alongside individual readers. Schools tend to purchase multiple class copies at a time whereas a library, for example, may purchase fewer.
Our readers in the United States have specific American English Plain Text and Quick Text versions. For the rest of the world including the UK we use British-English.
What is the driving force behind Classical Comics?
What makes the team feel passionate about what they're doing?
We promote and encourage reading. Our books allow readers to appreciate and enjoy classic literature no matter what age or reading level. That has always been our driving force and it remains so. By recently branching out into ebooks and having a social media presence we’re bringing our books to new audiences too.
The Publishing Process:
What makes your books different?
Our books remain true to the original vision of the authors. It has always been important that we stay true to the stories and keep them as authentic as possible. This contributes a lot to the popularity of the books. Our USP is that each Shakespeare play is available in three text versions allowing readers of mixed abilities to enjoy the story:
Original Text - An unabridged version, where the wording is kept to the original but the story is enhanced through the use of graphic images.
Plain Text - which uses the same artwork as the Original Text, but features dialogue in plain English, making it far easier for children to understand.
Quick Text - again, the same artwork but with fewer words making it ideal for younger, reluctant or emergent readers.
Our Classic Literature titles are available in two versions:
Original Text and Quick Text (a Plain Text translation is not necessary here).
The quality of the books was an important factor, highlighted early on. Clive explained:
“The books had to be engaging right from the start. They had to have instant appeal. We ‘road-tested’ a number of styles of artwork and book design with a number of children aged 9-19, and quickly discovered that they showed a noticeable preference for high colour, glossy shiny artwork. To be true to the original novel or play, we had to create a very traditional style of artwork and then make it dynamic through the colouring and lettering. I think we have achieved that, but it’s not always been easy. We also match the style of each artist to the atmosphere of the title, so the reader gets a great experience.”
How do you acquire the rights to the books you publish?
The only book where we’ve needed to acquire rights was for An Inspector Calls. We are thankful to The Estate of J.B. Priestley for granting us permission to publish as this is a popular title in education establishments and as it is a play it lends itself perfectly to the graphic novel format. Shakespeare’s plays are free to publish as they are in the public domain as are all of the other classic literature titles we publish.
How do you choose which books to publish?
We choose titles that are mainly studied in the UK curriculum.
Do you have plans for future books?
Our titles are big productions - almost like movies - sometimes taking over two years to complete. There is considerable investment upfront which outweighs the return at the moment. We already have the most popular titles available so there are no immediate plans to add to these titles.
Many of your books credit multiple roles. How much of this work is outsourced and how much do you do in-house?
To produce a title from scratch we need a script, roughs, pencils, inks, colours and letters. Those roles are usually given to artists and writers mostly based in the UK whose style of artwork we think works best with the book in question. Then we put it all together in house along with additional educational material which we include in the books too.
Who creates the Teaching Resource Packs for your books?
The teaching resource packs are mostly written by teachers for teachers. We include a varied range of activities so they can be used with differing skill levels and across a number of subjects.