THE TRIPODS

The Boy Scouts of America Version

The entire trilogy was serialised in comic strip form in the monthly magazine Boy's Life, one page per month in the journal of the Boy Scouts of America, running from May 1984. This was an independent adaptation, in which the boys are younger (fitting the needs of the Boy Scouts rather than the BBC schedules). The narration can be plodding -- Will thinks "Julius looks old and tired", in a little speech balloon, whereas you might have thought a picture of Julius looking old and tired would have done -- but is very faithful to the books. Here, an authentically red-haired Ozymandias meets the young Will:

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[from "The White Mountains" chapter 3]

The Tripods themselves stand on rather thin stilts, and have just one tentacle:

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The City is closer to John Christopher's original description than the television version, while still basically rectangular and orderly, which is the reverse of his intentions:

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[from "The City of Gold and Lead" chapter 9]

Boy scouts all: left to right Henry, Julius, Beanpole and Will. (Note the family resemblance between the two Parkers.)

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["The Pool of Fire" chapter 26]

For the full pages from which these examples are cut, turn to Stuart Wyss's Tripods Page. Alternatively, here is a sample page, in black and white: "The White Mountains" chapter 2.


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