H. G. Wells seems like a natural for comic book adaptation. He inspired so many Science Fiction ideas and the comics use all of them (Time travel, anti-gravity, invisibility, future war and alien invasion just for starters). No Invisible Woman in the Fantastic Four, for sure. One of the reasons he works so well is things actually happen in the novels (well, the early ones anyway. There is a reason why there aren’t any comics after Food of the Gods.) There were comics that took their start with Wells, then went on. from there. Killraven is the most obvious example but Jack Kirby’s Kamandi owes a lot to Moreau as well. The X-Men borrowed the Morlocks. We can look at those comics another time. Here are the originals.
The Time Machine (1895) is the story of a traveler who goes to the future and finds humanity split into two races, the Eloi and the Morlocks. Wells keeps you reading because of the mystery elements that make you want to understand what is going on. the answer is a gruesome truth and a comment on the class system. Fleeing the Morlocks, the traveler also sees the end of the solar system and a grim reminder that nothing lasts forever. Alex Nino’s artwork for the Marvel Classics is a joy to behold.
The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896) was an anti-vivisection piece that is so brilliant in other ways beyond the obvious hatred of experimenting on animals. Wells comments on organized religion and human nature. His beastmen would inspire any number of human-animal hybrids in future SF. The panther woman was a later Hollywood addition.
The Invisible Man (1897) seems to be the most popular of the comic adaptations. The face without a chin wrapped in a mummy’s worth of bandages seems to be the image the artists all grab onto. You would think this would have been one of the least popular since an absence of a man is not thrilling drawing. The artists handle this in a number of ways.
The War of the Worlds (1898) was Well’s commentary on Imperialism. He also works in some nice discussion of religion too. The image of the tripods is a cover art necessity.
The First Men on the Moon (1901) has interplanetary travel, building on Jules Verne. The comic artists have focused on that for the most part, though Alan Weiss preferred to draw the Selenites. (I agree.) the novels are starting to have less happening in them. Wells focuses on outlining a Socialist/ant-like society. Fortunately the Earthmen have to make a break for it if they want to go home.
The Food of the Gods (1903) inspired an entire genre of film, the Giant movie! Animals, people, you name it, it can be made large and rampage through the streets. Wells’s book has giant rats and insects, the chicken seen here, and finally a human baby. He implies rather than shows what all those movies will do later.
Future Wells adaptations may eventually get to some of the some stuff he did. There are a lot of great short stories that need a comic version such as “In the Avu Observatory” or “Aepyronis Island” and “The Country of the Blind”. No doubt we will see these novels again the next time a publisher wants to do a “Classic Illustrated” line. There is a reason why H.G. is there with all the Treasure Island and Ivanhoe comics. Wells is an original, fascinating and fun to read in four colors.
