1993: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST COMIC BOOK HOUSE AD (Innovation)

From March 1993: An Innovation Comics house ad hailing the launch of their impressive (but ultimately short-lived... the company went bust at the end of the year, sinking several pretty good media tie-ins) BEAUTY AND THE BEAST monthly comic book, based on the defunct CBS drama (shown erratically by ITV in the UK) with a strong cult (and mostly female) following.

1987: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (TV)

I watched the pilot episode of CW's new revival of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST the other night.  Whilst its not a bad show in its own right (I'd need to watch a few more episodes before I made a definitive judgement on that score), I was struck by how much LESS risk-taking it was compared with the 1987 original.  

The new Catherine Chandler has none of the dignity and grace of Linda Hamilton but - more importantly - her Vincent is just a good-looking bloke with a bit of a facial scar.  Maybe a man dressed as a lion is a little cheesy for the CW's teen audience but - really - they could have done a bit better than that.  And the unfortunate subtext is: minor facial deformity = beast!  

This is a nicely assembled compilation of original series clips put to the show's memorable title music.

1989: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST AT MARVEL UK

As a follow-up to Slow Robot's coverage of comic book adaptations of the CBS TV series BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, here's Marvel UK's house ad for the UK edition of PORTRAIT OF LOVE, originally published in the United States by First Comics.  The advert appeared in M-UK titles around November 1989.

1989: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST IN COMICS

This issue of COMICS INTERVIEW, published in 1989, featured a lengthy interview with Wendy (ELFQUEST) Pini discussing the first, of two, graphic novels based on the BEAUTY AND THE BEAST TV show.

The CBS drama ran for three seasons (1987-90) although the last series was drastically retooled, dispensing with co-star Linda Hamilton (Catherine).  Ron Pearlman (Vincent) appeared throughout.

Portrait of Love was published, as a bookshelf format (aka "Dark Knight" format) one-shot in 1989.  A UK edition was published under license by Marvel UK and the strip was also serialised in their girls weekly BEA.

Pini followed-up with a second one-shot, Night of Beauty, in 1990.  There was no UK edition.

Innovation Comics acquired the license for a six issue run in 1993 before the publisher folded.

COMICS INTERVIEW

ISSUE 73

1989

FIRST COMICS:

INNOVATION COMICS