Hello!

Both Charlie Largent and correspondent Annelise Purdie reminded me about the Internet Archive’s continued database of Classics Illustrated comics. I hate to admit it, but it’s a good resource to get a peek at famed items I know only by name, like Silas Marner and Lorna Doone.  You know, for information you ought to know in case you get chosen to play on Jeopardy.

I’m still impressed by the artwork, layout and ‘filmic direction’ of the Classics Illustrated The War of the Worlds comic . . . which we read countless times as a kid. It did send me to the book at age 8, encouraging me to start reading on my own. I somehow didn’t know that WOTW had been made into a movie until I caught up with the ’53 version in 1965, co-billed with Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors.

And this got me, even though it’s not exactly new either. Ten years ago a certain ‘Quizno’ posted a 3-minute clip of Yojimbo fan-edited with appropriate Morricone cues from A Fistful of Dollars.

Hence the accurate YouTube title Yojimbo re-dubbed with A Fistful of Dollars Score.  Somebody (Christopher Frayling?) wrote that Sergio Leone actually had a Movieola with a print of Yojimbo on the set of his movie. That’s maybe possible. As much as we admire Leone’s talent, that kind of filmic plagiarism is pretty dishonorable. He’s lucky that the Japanese didn’t make the Italian producers burn the negative.

Ethics in the movie business?  In the grand scheme of things, was it just a minor infraction?  It did result in a great movie. A longer comparison with cross-cut music is at a YouTube entry called A Fistful of Yojimbo.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson