Jungle Book: Stories

by P. Craig Russell (Adapter), Rudyard Kipling, Jo Duffy

A collection of the last three Kipling tales adapted by Russell (opus 19, 25 & 40), with a few added pages and a couple of new drawings. A beautiful book, and a perfect opportunity to discover another facet of Russell's varied art styles.

Genres: Comics, Literature, Graphic Novels

88 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1997

About the author

Philip Craig Russell was the first mainstream comic book creator to come out as openly gay. Since 1972 his work has won multiple Kirby, Harvey, and Eisner Awards, and Cartoon Crossroads Columbus presented him the Master Cartoonist Award in 2019.

Reviews

[Dolly]

This collection of stories captures the essence and drama of Rudyard Kipling's classic stories. Each tale is adapted for length and clarity, and the dialogue is accompanied by sections of descriptive narrative, poetry, axioms, and onomatopoeia.

Many of the images are filled with bloody fights, death-defying action, and dangerous adventures. This may prove to be a bit mature for some children, but overall, I think it is a fairly typical comic book.

interesting quote:

"Those were the days of good hunting. No stranger dared to break into the jungles that belonged to Mowgli's people, and the young wolves grew fat and strong." (p. 31)

"It is no longer the man-cub that asks leave of his pack, but the maser of the jungle that changes his trail." (p. 84)

[Uri Cohen]

This isn't a graphic adaptation of Kipling's The Jungle Book, but rather of three Mowgli stories from Kipling's sequel The Second Jungle Book -- "The King’s Ankus," "Red Dog," and "The Spring Running."

Having said that, the adaptation is excellent. I recommend combining it with Gil Kane's Marvel Illustrated: Jungle Book (2007) #1 (Marvel Illustrated: Jungle Book, which adapts three earlier Mowgli stories (and does a good job graphically).

[Jessica]

Read a copy translated to Swedish.

Not what I expected but in a positive way. Nice deep story, great pictures and use of visual form.

[StrictlySequential ArtNarrative]

It's P. Craig- his work needn't reason for its greatness.

He sure can't resist drawing a perfectly handsome male even though Mowgli would have scars like the illustrated man has tattoos.

[David]

This book may have been published in 1997, but the style of artwork and choice of colour tones gives it the look of the comic books that had been around long before *I* was a child- the old zip dot shading and the choice of single shades of color to emote with on some pages... it was really a marvelous work of retro-art.

Of course, Rudyard Kipling is one of my favourite authors in the whole world- and these stories especially so... but he did an ADMIRABLE job of taking whole volumes, and giving us a nice wide story arc that was not confusing and did not fall prey to that 'reader's digest condensed novel' feel either! It flowed well, and it carries a lot of old-style emotion with it.

I would find it suitable for adults and children, personally, but younger readers might need some help with the concepts and words. I think this would be a great book to share!