Yet that’s precisely the way the artists here present them. Even in The Screwtape Letters, he warns against picturing demons as ugly little creatures with pointy tails (or something along those lines). Perhaps he wouldn’t appreciate the design at all.

We can’t know which of today’s (or the 90’s’) trends would have made it into the illustrations, had Lewis himself directed the design. Anachronistic and politically driven fun is poked. The illustrations poke fun at things that didn’t yet exist in Lewis’ time. Before sharing the work, perhaps flip through it to make sure it’s suitable for the audience. Typical of their style, the Marvel team depicts some subjects to which parents may not want to introduce their children. And the illustrations may draw a wider audience. While Marvel’s 1994 graphic novel version is watered down, the text remains quite helpful. The Screwtape Letters provokes self-examination through an imaginative mockery of demonkind. It was a nice idea to adapt Lewis's work, but not enough respect or understanding was put in by the staff to make this the success it could have been. Had the characters resembled the cover versions throughout the body of the work, perhaps that would have helped. It does not match the tone of Lewis's work at all, trying to add too many visual 'gags' and what the creative team no doubt thought would be 'creative appropriate background design.' Some of it works, but most of it fails. Clearly this book is not suitable for children, since the depiction of the devils and their activity (though undoubtedly considered 'tame' by 'modern aesthetic standards' - an issue Lewis addresses within the work!) is rather grotesque and disturbing.

The main problem with this version, though, is the artwork.

I did not compare each selection with the prose version of the epistolary book, but I'm fairly certain a fair amount of editing and paraphrasing was done, in part to trim the letters down to manageable comic-book size (though fortunately the creative team did not decide to squeeze the work into typical panels on a page). Lewis's work shines through as an intelligent presentation of Christian belief. Concerning it's a totally different attempt at the work and has a completely different ISBN, why Goodreads fails to consider them different entities is bemusing.Įven in an adaptation of a diabolically twisted perspective, C.S. This review is for the Marvel Comics 'Christian Classics Series' graphic novel adaptation.

The screwtape letters book