'A Christmas Carol'. Dutch-language version.
Michael Cole was a late 20th-century British children's writer and illustrator, best-known for his 1985 comic book version of Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol', published by Pagoda Books. He should not be confused with British children's writer and animator Michael Cole (1933-2001).
Life and career
Almost nothing is known about Michael Cole's life and career. According to the foreword of his book 'A Christmas Carol', he lived in Norton Saint Philip, a town close to Somerset, in the South West region of England.
A Christmas Carol
In 1985, Cole released a comic book version of Charles Dickens' classic holiday story 'A Christmas Carol', published by Pagoda Books. In the United States, the book was distributed by Woodbury N.Y., Barron's. The book is a combination of a balloon comic and a text comic. The narration is presented in blocks of text, while the dialogues are visualized in panels, with characters using speech balloons. The atmospheric, hyperrealistic artwork is strongly influenced by 19th-century Punch cartoonists. Cole paid direct homage to the very first illustrator of the first edition of Dickens' masterpiece: John Leech, loosely mimicking his style. Some images in the book are directly lifted from Leech's illustrations. In the scene where Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Future roam through the slums of London, a crippled man in the background references Leech's iconic cartoon 'Capitalism and Labour'.
Cole modelled most of the characters after local people in his hometown who were willing to pose for him. He gave himself a guest role as the Ghost of Christmas Present.
Diary of a Victorian Mouse
Cole is also the author of the book 'Diary of a Victorian Mouse' (Michael O'Mara Books, 1991), illustrated by Ángel Domínguez.