Frost and Fire: DC Science Fiction Graphic Novel

Frost and Fire
by Ray Bradbury
adaptation by Klaus Johnson
DC Science Fiction Graphic Novel No. 3
1985

For its third 'Science Fiction Graphic Novel', DC Comics adapted a 1946 short story, originally titled 'The Creatures that Time Forgot', by Ray Bradbury. 

Klaus Johnson was assigned to write and illustrate the graphic novel.

Without disclosing any spoilers, the premise of Bradbury's story is that a colony of Terrans has become stranded on a planet where time is speeded up and the human lifespan is only eight days in length. Winter and Summer - the Frost and Fire of the title - come as quickly as dawn and night.

Red-haired Sim grows up questioning this state of affairs, and the passivity of his tribe in the face of an ecology that renders them little better off than the flowers that bloom and die within the space of a single day. 

When he reaches adulthood, Sim - accompanied by his friend Lyte - sets off on a race against time to discover the truth behind rumors of possible salvation..........salvation in the badlands where the cliff-dwellers rain stones on interlopers, and from where no one ever has returned.............

This is not one of the better Science Fiction Graphic Novels released by DC. Johnson's artwork has a sketchy, hasty quality that fails to hold up well under the murky color separations in use back in 1985 comics printings.

As far as the story is concerned: as with most (all ?) of Bradbury's sci-fi tales, the scientific rationale underpinning the narrative is an afterthought, a simplistic fulcrum around which the story's drama unfolds. Readers hoping for a 'hard' sf narrative along the lines of a Hal Clement adventure will not find it in 'Frost and Fire'.

The verdict ? While some of the DC Science Fiction Graphic Novels are worth searching out, this one is not. It's strictly for those interested in completing their collections.