Novelizations
Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2026 4:58 pm
Couldn’t find a thread for these.
Anyway, I was motivated to make a post because I have been reading a lot of public domain comics lately and encountered something truly odd. Jumbo comics was primarily a collection of reprints of British comics made by the Eisner-Iger studio during the 30s and 40s. It featured a lot of literary adaptations and Sunday strip style comedies. Randomly in issue 3 from November 1938 they included a photorealistic adaptation of the Joe Penner RKO comedy Mr. Doodle Kicks Off. It’s a good adaptation that in many ways, I suspect, improve on the source material through the pacing of jokes and the very modern balance of humour to character development. Just a fascinating cultural artifact.
Anyway, I was motivated to make a post because I have been reading a lot of public domain comics lately and encountered something truly odd. Jumbo comics was primarily a collection of reprints of British comics made by the Eisner-Iger studio during the 30s and 40s. It featured a lot of literary adaptations and Sunday strip style comedies. Randomly in issue 3 from November 1938 they included a photorealistic adaptation of the Joe Penner RKO comedy Mr. Doodle Kicks Off. It’s a good adaptation that in many ways, I suspect, improve on the source material through the pacing of jokes and the very modern balance of humour to character development. Just a fascinating cultural artifact.