The Beatles Story In Comics

I was surfing 'Links for Beatles cartoons, and I found a fantastic site with a comic book of the Beatles story! (In English AND Spanish!) It's really thorough, starting with the very first Quarrymen lineup. There are 3 books completed, and Pete Best hasn't even joined the group yet! The detail is fantastic - some of the people look a bit too "cartoony" (you'll see what I mean), but it's really terrific. The artist took several of the famous Beatles photos and rendered them in comic form. He said he took the story information from several sources, but it seems to be mostly based on Philip Norman's "SHOUT!" book.

The main site is Beatle Web, but the comics are buried pretty deep in the site, so here's the direct link. I can't wait to see more of this - I can't imagine how many books it would take up if he ever finishes it!

http://www.beatle-web.com/comic/comicser.htm


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There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness." - Dave Barry

Stop Worrying: A Tribute To "HELP!"

[This Message Has Been Edited By EasternBird On November 02, 2002 08:56 PM]

Very interesting. The line work has a definite style, unlike the bad B&W that was released a few years ago, and the coverage of the story's a bit more carefully done than the version Marvel did back in the 70s.

I'll probably wait till the art team gets to the middle of the story (around 1965 or so) before I can tell how I'll feel about it, but it's not off to a bad start.

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"Democracies die behind closed doors" - Judge Damon J. Keith

"Like Kurasawa I make mad films
Okay I don't make films
but if I did they'd have a Samurai"
-Barenaked Ladies

I think it COULD be good, but it would need better drawings AND better dialogue. That guy has John speaking completely out of character. He never says anything that Wally Cleaver wouldn't say--give me a break! But the concept is interesting.

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Paul is still alive.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Tahoma, Arial, Sans-Serif">Quote:</font><HR>Originally Posted By angelgodiva:
I think it COULD be good, but it would need better drawings
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I couldn't agree more (as an artist). Considering he's doing them cartoon style, they could definitely be improved. I admire the effort though!

-lennon4

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Imagine. (it's here)

~All You Need Is Love~

*Need Beatles Art? E-mail Me!*

Well, I do think the facial features need improvement. But I really like the overall detail and artwork design. I didn't see anything wrong with the dialogue, but maybe I'll have to read it again. I honestly don't know much about the late 1950s John, so I'm not sure if it's totally off the mark or not, but least they showed his conflicts with Aunt Mimi. I think it was original done in Spanish and then translated into English, so I wonder if that has any effect on the dialogue.

But regardless, I can't wait to see more of this. It seems like a very ambitious project to undertake, especially because it's so thorough! I'd love to see what artwork he'd come up with for the more psychedelic stuff. Like MMT. Or the Dental Experience!

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There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness." - Dave Barry

Stop Worrying: A Tribute To "HELP!"

I liked it so far - it has some style of its own (John's chin is a laugh). Let's see what he'll bring next...

Thanks for the link, Eastern!

Anna

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A truth that's told with bad intent/beats all the lies you can invent (William Blake)

These are a hoot! I love them!

I bought a Beatle comic (1978) and it's well drawn. It's really adorable, chronicling those lovable moptops.

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Then we will remember things we said today. Yeah.
-- Beatles, 1964

With a love like that, you know you should be glad, yeah, yeah, yeah!
-- Beatles, 1963

Read www.rooftopsessions.com for high caliber Beatles fan fiction.

BB1964

At the LBJ Library there is a section on political cartoons. My favorite is one of showing LBJ drawn in quadruplicate, replete with moppy hair and singing, "YEAH, YEAH, YEAH!" Two crabby elephants with dour and sour expressions lumber by, clad in business suits, grousing, "It just SEEMS like there is 4 of him."

I love it!

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Then we will remember things we said today. Yeah.
-- Beatles, 1964

With a love like that, you know you should be glad, yeah, yeah, yeah!
-- Beatles, 1963

Read www.rooftopsessions.com for high caliber Beatles fan fiction.

BB1964

It is hilariously drawn--the Dell Comic from 1964 was probably ther most realistically drawn comic of them,though went by the Mythology of its eras (1964--meaning no can say WHY John hadda marry Cyn fer example...)

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Tim

Tim Brent's Yellow Submarine Page
The Beatles' Record Advertisements
The Beatles' Record Covers Yahoo! Club
The Beatles Video Theatre

I wonder how long it takes this guy to get one book done? Holy cow...that's a lot of work!

-lennon4

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Imagine. (it's here)

~All You Need Is Love~

*Need Beatles Art? E-mail Me!*

Well, it says it takes him 8-12 days to do each page, and each book is 20 pages. So that's at least 6 months per book (assuming he stays on schedule)!

I guess the next book won't be out for a while.

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There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness." - Dave Barry

Stop Worrying: A Tribute To "HELP!"

I've seen this page beofre when I searched for Beatles Comics, but I lost the address. I think the comics are pretty well done, but like L4 and some other people said...that artwork needs a bit.

Paul's eyes sort of scare me. They're not supposed to be scary! They're supposed to be purty......but cartoon form is pretty hard (at least for me...the prospect of looking at someone's photograph and turning them into a tom and jerry charactor scares me). We're all used to seeing the Beatles in all thier sexy glory in photos, and not as flat, one demensional charactors.

Overall, I think hes doing a good job, considering he probably has other things to do than concentrating on just the comic alone. I don't think hes getting paid...(?)...unless people wanted to buy the book.

Does anyone know of any other Beatle comics out there( discontinued or in the making)?

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Paul is a sexy beast and you know it.

Check out my site, Studio #5!

http://www.geocities.com/pauluver69/clicktoenter.html

Six months is a long time to work on one thing! The longest I've spent on one art project was about three months, but that wasn't even working on it every day for long periods of time. I definitely admire the guy's patience!

-lennon4

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Imagine. (it's here)

~All You Need Is Love~

*Need Beatles Art? E-mail Me!*

Beatles comics... hmm... Excuse my memory, because I can't remember the titles, but here's what I know:

There was a series of six or eight unauthorized biographical comics about the Beatles that came out in the mid- to late 80s. The publisher was something like Unauthorized Comics or Rock Star comics. I have them, but they're all bundled up somewhere, so I can't check them.

There was a weird independent comic around the same period where a cowgirl got the Beatles to reunite and play country-western music (John was the steel guitar player).

The Thing (from the Fantastic Four) met the Beatles very briefly in one 1964 Marvel comic.

Jimmy Olsen once went back to ancient Rome, donned a Beatle wig, and became a big superstar.

A fairly recent series called The Invisibles, from DC, had at least one issue where John and Stu were characters, but whether they were ghosts or the story was set back then, I can't recall.

A miniseries called The One had a character who walked around in Sgt. Pepper uniform all the time, and when everyone died and went to heaven, they all sat in a park and watched the Beatles play in a gazebo.

Oh, there have been a number of mentions of the Beatles in MAD magazine--usually very positive.

I'll provide more when I can think of them.

Aviva

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With Strings Attached--the classic online Beatles fantasy novel! http://www.rationalmagic.com/Strings/Strings.html

I think I've mentioned this before, but in case not...

Batman 222 (1970) features a group called The Twists (obviously meant to be the Beatles whom they resemble physically and namewise) who have a member that supposedly died in a plane crash. They happen to stay at Wayne Manor and Batman and Robin uncover the truth which is this - Saul Cartwright never died in a plane crash, the other three did. Once this happened it was decided to start planting hints in their songs and record sleeves that Saul had died so that no one would ever think to pay too close attention to minor differences in the three other lookalike members. I always thought it was a clever notion.

Originally Posted By Jongo McHarrison:
Batman 222 (1970) features a group called The Twists (obviously meant to be the Beatles whom they resemble physically and namewise) who have a member that supposedly died in a plane crash. They happen to stay at Wayne Manor and Batman and Robin uncover the truth which is this - Saul Cartwright never died in a plane crash, the other three did. Once this happened it was decided to start planting hints in their songs and record sleeves that Saul had died so that no one would ever think to pay too close attention to minor differences in the three other lookalike members. I always thought it was a clever notion.

<font size="2" face="Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif">"Saul is Dead!" [img]graemlins/laugh5.gif[/img] I love it!

Originally Posted By MissusLennon:
I'm really enjoying this so far, except the fact that John looks a little too much like Jay Leno [img]graemlins/wink3.gif[/img]

<font size="2" face="Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif">[img]graemlins/laugh1.gif[/img] I know what you mean! I finally figured out who the "John" character reminds me of - has anyone ever seen the cartoon "Dr. Katz?" It's BEN!! It looks just like him, except for the hair. [img]graemlins/teeth1.gif[/img]

I checked out the Beatle Web site again, and I see the artist now has the 4th comic book up. It's still 1960, and they're about to leave for Hamburg. I can't believe how thorough this thing is! At this rate, he'll have a 30-volume series on his hands.

Originally Posted By EasternBird:
[img]graemlins/laugh1.gif[/img] I know what you mean! I finally figured out who the "John" character reminds me of - has anyone ever seen the cartoon "Dr. Katz?" It's BEN!! It looks just like him, except for the hair. [img]graemlins/teeth1.gif[/img]

<font size="2" face="Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif">I love that show! I haven't seen it for a really long time though, I don't think we get it on our local station any more.

Hey, I just came across this topic now, sorry I'm so late into the discussion, heh.
I'm really enjoying this so far, except the fact that John looks a little too much like Jay Leno [img]graemlins/wink3.gif[/img]
Thanks for the link, Bird!

Kewl when i get to use my grandmothers scanner i will send you some of the Beatle commics and pictures i have been working on!

Cool!
I'm also working on a beatles comic book. So far I have about 8 notebooks done, but ony half of them are in color. I just love dong it!
Yeah it's kinda hard to dominate the technique of drawing cartoonish but cute Beatles, isn't it?