Soap operas… hands up anyone who never saw a single episode of Dallas or Dynasty. Nobody? It seems we all sneer at them while simultaneously checking through the TV guide for the next episode of Lost.

Soap operas, or telenovelas if you are Latin American, pin millions of people to their TVs, following the vicissitudes of JR or Pamela.

Our great-great-grandmothers enjoyed similar entertainment, the only difference being that they read these stories in book form. Stories with plenty of thrills and drama, often read surreptitiously because they were considered too dangerous for the gentle, delicate minds of young ladies.

Basic ingredients of the plot are as follows:

1 ~ a young girl: she has long, blonde hair and big, blue eyes. She is the orphan of both parents, and the heiress of a reasonable fortune.

2 ~ an evil relative: he or she is either an uncle, an aunt or a cousin. This person is stony-broke, therefore they plan to steal the heroine’s fortune.

3 ~ a young lover: he is the son of the arch-enemy of the girl’s family: either that, or he has been undeservedly accused of a crime. With his love he will save the girl and her fortune.

4 ~ a location: a dark castle with dungeons, barred windows and long, narrow corridors…

5 ~ an ending: the villain dies asking forgiveness, and the two lovers marry and live happily for a long time.

I was prepared for a similar plot when I was given the job of adapting The Dream, by Mary Shelley. In this story the heroine, Constance, can’t marry her sweetheart, Gaspar, because he is the son of the arch-enemy of her family. I could imagine young ladies weeping at the thought that such gentle love could never be, just because of ‘family matters’. OK, so Gaspar’s father butchered Contance’s father and brother during a religious war, but these are mere trifles…

Because love must always win out, Shelley used an old trick, a deus ex machina: in this case, the vision of St. Catherine appearing in a dream. The saint blesses Constance for her love, the girl changes her mind, Gaspar is forgiven and they all live happily ever after. The end.

Though I did my best to preserve the saccharine nature of the story in my script, I wasn’t sure if an artist could convey, through my descriptions, this cloying sweetness. When I saw Anne Timmons artwork, which she kindly showed me at the pencil stage, I knew she was the right artist. Anne has a soft and gentle touch, and was able to soften those passages where I couldn’t cut corners. The result is a graphic story depicted exactly as if seen through the eyes of a young lady of the nineteenth century. Although I prefer stories that are stronger stuff, I found The Dream very enjoyable to adapt.

The Dream is published in Graphic Classics©: Special Edition. This is a limited edition first published for Free Comic Book Day 2008. You can buy it from the Graphic Classics website.

I asked Anne a few questions about herself. Here are her answers:

Barbarella or Catwoman?

Barbarella. Who wouldn't like flying with an angel? Barbarella has more costumes, too!

What’s in your drawer?

Templates, lead holders, pencils, compass, a quartz crystal, glasses case, lens cleaner, barrette, toy from a cereal box and a mini calculator

What was the first book you ever read?

Cat In the Hat

If your life were a book, it would be a book about…

A person who could go to any city they wanted to in the world, at a moments notice.

What would you be happier without?

Doubt.

What do you wish you had bought but never got around to it?

A scooter.

It’s a waste of time to…

let yourself worry about everything little thing.

Instead of taking sleeping pills, you would read a couple of pages of…

I rarely read to go to sleep but if I just can't sleep, I'll read articles in old TV Guides.

Never give up…on a friend. Stand by them through everything.   

Why do you do it?

Drawing? Because I know it's something I will do till the end. I don't think I'll ever retire like most people do. It's always been the most comfortable way of expressing myself.

Anne Timmons' pencils for pages 12 and 18 of Mary Shelley's The Dream.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008 11:29:25 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

More escapees from the secret wing of the OED...

"TU QUOQUE: The retort so are (or did etc.) you. [Latin, = you too]".

"TULCHAN: Calf-skin stuffed with straw or spread on mound beside cow to make her give milk".

Monday, June 09, 2008 10:51:18 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

I’ve collaborated with Tom Pomplun, publisher of Graphic Classics©, for several years, adapting stories by the best of British and American authors, but I always thought of myself as a part-time scriptwriter because at the end of the day I became a writer more by accident than design. When Tom asked me to look for a retailer in Lancaster (UK) who might be interested in distributing free copies of Graphic Classics during Free Comic Book Day, it wasn’t a problem for me. A quick search and I found a little gem of a shop called First Age Comics, run by Mark Braithwaite.

Young and with plenty of enthusiasm, Mark has a contagious smile, so when I went to see him he was more than willing to distribute free copies of Graphic Classics and even persuaded me that I could do a book signing session. He told me that Andy Diggle would also be signing on the day. Needless to say, with such a big name at the event I was puzzled as to why I should be there. However, things had been set in motion and I had to carry on.

I was supposed to be doing my signing session late in the morning. The big day came and I arrived at the shop ten minutes early. After a cup of tea, at 11 o’clock I sat down, ready to sign copies. There were two or three people hanging around waiting for the main event who, seeing as I was there, approached me for an autograph, after all, you never know one day…

I was so flustered that morning I forgot to wear my reading glasses, and was left wondering why I couldn’t focus on the point of the pen as I wrote my first signature. After the first one however, everything went more smoothly. Sort of…

As I usual I was puzzled as to why young people would be interested in something that was so far from superheroes and manga, but Mark did a good job of introducing me and Graphic Classics.

By midday, all the copies were gone. At one o’clock it would be Mr. Diggle’s turn. In the best English tradition, a queue was already forming.

At twenty past one, Andy Diggle arrived running, sat in the chair, took out his pen and started signing. His fans were over the moon. I was too shy to ask for a signed copy.

I asked Mark some questions. Here are his answers:

Superman or the Hulk?

Superman. Not to be dismissive of the Hulk, there have been some very good Hulk comics over the years. The Superman concept has endured for so long and survived so many changes in the comics industry over the decades. The material that Kurt Busiek and Geoff Johns have been writing recently are also definitely worth a read.

What’s in your drawer?

A seemingly endless supply of paperwork (it's a very big drawer), a calculator, two pens (one black, one red) and a diary.

On the road with…

My wife Lucy and daughter Katie. There's no-one else I'd rather travel with.

What was the first book you ever read?

I can't honestly remember the title but I do recall Meg The Hen being in it somewhere meeting with some accident prone pots and pans.

Comics or comix?

Comics. Definitely comics.

What would you read while travelling from Earth to the Moon?

I'd probably take a few carefully selected Green Lantern comics. Those and the Lord Of The Rings trilogy

Instead of taking sleeping pills, you would read a couple of pages of…

Currently I'm reading William Shatner's autobiography "Up Till Now" and "Showcase Presents Booster Gold Volume One".

It’s a waste of time to…

Regret. Always look at what you can do about the future. The past has already happened.

Never give up…

...never surrender!!!!

Why do you do it?

For the love of the game.

Sunday, June 08, 2008 5:12:57 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

"FRICANDEAU: 1. Slice of fried or stewed meat, esp. veal, served with sauce".

Saturday, June 07, 2008 5:55:50 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

"Humbug: 1. n Fraud, sham; deception; impostor. 2. Kind of hard-boiled sweet usu. flavoured with peppermint. 3. Delude (person into, out of, thing or doing). 4. Be, behave like, impostor". 

"Matrass: Long-necked glass vessel with round or oval body, used for distilling".

Friday, June 06, 2008 3:39:53 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

In an effort to generate some kind of creative impulse, I've taken to choosing words from the Concise Oxford English Dictionary at random, sketching whatever comes into my head, then going back to the OED and checking the definition to see how close I came. Here's the first two...

"JAGER: Var. of JAEGER:German or Austrian rifleman; kind of woollen clothing-material excluding all vegetable fibres as unwholesome; garment of this".

"RETROGRESSION: backward or reversed movement; return to less advanced state, reversal of development, decline, deterioration".

Thursday, June 05, 2008 10:30:26 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0]