here can't be many people left who still subscribe to the old notion that comics are just for children.

Perhaps those that do are put off by the very word "comics" - maybe they'd prefer the more grown-up "graphic novel" or even "sequential art".

Whatever, comics have earned their place in popular culture - not only for the tights-and-capes brigade like Batman, Superman and Spider-Man, but for the material that has had a major impact on the world, especially Hollywood, which includes John Constantine, Ghost World, From Hell, The Road to Perdition and Sin City.

There's also been a healthy tradition in the comics world of adapting classic literature to the form, beginning with the old Classics Illustrated which, legend has it, got many an American schoolboy through their English Literature exams in the Fifties and Sixties.

Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights has been adapted at least three times previously, but not for a very long time, so this brand new production is both intriguing and welcome.

Produced under the auspices of the Bradford Council-led Illuminate festival, it employs the services of local poet and playwright Adam Strickson to re-map Emily's classic story to the comic book format and artist Siku on the art duties, better known for his depictions of futuristic cop Judge Dredd in the classic and long-running British sci-fi comic 2000AD.

The danger with this type of project is that it falls between two stools. Such adaptations are generally seen to be of limited interest to comic fans, because they are often done without reference to the modern fashions in the graphic novel world, and thrown together by people who believe it's simply a case of drawing some pretty pictures with huge chunks of narrative and dialogue pasted on to them.

And fans of the original source material will often consider that the book has been dumbed down to fit into the comic book format.

Happily - and largely thanks to the foresight of getting fan-favourite Siku aboard - this latest effort manages to avoid these pitfalls.

Siku's stylised, sometimes murky art is perfectly suited to the dark, gothic flavour of the story. And Strickson, while admitting he's not particularly a comic book fan, has made a very good stab at re-pacing what can actually be a fairly slow story and keeping the action moving while remaining as true as is possible to the source material.

To market this to "young people" as a way to get them into the original book would be a mistake, I think.

Just like a film adaptation of a book stands alone as a new way of re-telling the story, so should this handsome volume be regarded as a different beast from the Bronte book it is based upon.

The graphic novel will stand or fall on its ability to convey a dramatic story with convincing characters that absorbs the reader, not as a "soft" pathway to what is considered a higher artform.

And, I'm happy to report, it is by and large a success. For someone with no comic book experience, Strickson has managed to grasp the intricacies of the medium pretty well - as a playwright he'll already be used to moving a story along through action and dialogue, and the comic form is not a million miles from those principles.

Siku's art is at turns shadowy and creepy and highly dramatic, and his images of the doomed lovers Heathcliff and Cathy deserve to become iconic ones.

It doesn't work perfectly every time - occasionally the shifts between timescales seem a little abrupt and there is perhaps more reliance on explanatory captions than is fashionable in current comics, but by and large this is a worthy addition to the Bronte canon and a rattling good read in its own right.

lWuthering Heights: The Graphic Novel, by Adam Strickson and Siku, priced £10, was due to be launched today at Waterstone's at 11am, with the writer and artist in attendance. It will be on sale throughout Bradford. Siku will also be hosting a graphic art workshop at the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford on September 23. Places are free, but it is advisable to book on 0870 7010200.