Classics Illustrated Arabian Nights 1943 by Lillian Chestney

This week I read Classics Illustrated Arabian Nights from 1943 by Lillian Chestney. The story is very sound and a good choice for comic format, as it is about a woman telling a series of stories. It is also a good choice because the stories are recognizable. Even as a child cartoons and other media would reference the 1,001 tales of Sheherezade.

But what I found most appealing was the wispy quality to the drawings, especially the females. The spacing on the page was also interesting. I like how the boxes are relatively even in size, but then have unusual shapes thrown in, mostly the use of circular forms and rounded edges. The work looks like a saturday morning comic from the newspaper, but that is understandable considering the fact that it was made in the early 1940s. It's really nice to know that women were making comics like this around the time where comic book companies were trying, and failing, to make comics for girls. It has the dramatic appeal girl's like, with romance and adventure, but also has stronger female roles. In the tale of Ali Baba there is a slave girl named Morgiana. She is shown to be incredibly clever and quick witted as well as very loyal. She is the only one to foil Ali Baba's enemies, going so far as to become an assassin at one point. Her tale is very inspiring as she manages to become freed all on her own merits and eventually marries Ali Baba's son out of his gratitude toward her. It's interesting because it is almost the reverse of traditional fair tales where the knight saves the damsel and then gets to marry her out of gratitude. Sheherezade uses her intelligence and creativity to stay her own execution as well as foil the plot of a cruel King who would behead his new wife at night, and in the end, the whole country praises her.