Thursday, August 21, 2014

Jules Verne, Part 30

(Continued from Jules Verne, Part 29)

DARK HORSE CLASSICS  (Dark Horse Comics  /  1992)  Part 5

First Comics was a successful "small" publisher in the 80's, until they teamed with Berkeley to do CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED.  They'd been over-expanding for some time, but the new deal, which involved a series of brand-new, "prestige format" adaptations, many with fully-painted color, pushed them over the edge into bankruptcy.  It might have worked, if they'd limited themselves to 1 such book a month-- instead of 4 or more...!

One of the books announced but cancelled wound up being published some time later by Dark Horse Comics, who seemed to understand more about "limited" runs.  The project was scaled down to a standard comic-book format, printed in B&W on newsprint paper.  Kind of a shame, as according to his website, artist Gary Gianni spent "over a year" working on the book-- with STUNNING results!

DARK HORSE CLASSICS   /
Cover by GARY GIANNI   (Dark Horse Comics  /  1992)
"20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA"
Adaptation & art by GARY GIANNI

"And now-- the EPIC conclusion!!!"

Page 37
Page 38
Page 39
Page 40
Page 41
Page 42
Page 43
Page 44
Biographies
9 years after its original publication, Gary Gianni's adaptation was reprinted
in a limited edition (50 copies!!) available only from his websiteFittingly, the new cover is in the style of a 19th Century publication! 

20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA  /
cover by GARY GIANNI   (Hieronymus Press  /  2001)
In 2008, 18 years after it was finished, Gary Gianni's adaptation was finally issued in an expensive, full-color package as originally intended! 

20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA  /
cover by GARY GIANNI   (Flesk Publications  /  September 2008)
Cover rough for 1992 edition
(Continued in Jules Verne, Part 31)

Dark Horse Classics (C) Dark Horse Comics, Inc.
Adaptation & Artwork (C) 1992 Gary Gianni

Scans from my collection

For more:
Read the Gary Gianni page at Wikipedia!
Visit the Gary Gianni website!

BUY the book at the Flesk Publications website!!! (It's IN COLOR!!)

See the 20,000 LEAGUES overview!
Read the Jesse Marsh 20,000 LEAGUES adaptation!
Read the Frank Thorne 20,000 LEAGUES adaptation!
Read the Wally Wood 20,000 LEAGUES parody!
Read the Jack Kirby 20,000 LEAGUES parody!
Read the Dan Spiegle CAPTAIN NEMO series!

Read the Jim Fair CAPTAIN NEMO series!
Read the Bill Baker 20,000 LEAGUES adaptation!
Read the Gary Gianni 20,000 LEAGUES adaptation!
Read the Ernie Colon 20,000 LEAGUES adaptation!

See the JOURNEY overview!
See the MYSTERIOUS ISLAND overview!

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