I love that "Jack and the Good Helpers" story (although I have to say, that title is new to me.) It's one of my favourites, and I can think of probably 20 versions of the top of my head. I always thought it would be interesting to do a graphic novel version of it with modern superheroes--like The Flash as the Fast man and Superman as the Strong man and Batman as...somebody. But I don't know what you'd do about the Hungry guy and the Thirsty guy!

I always loved the version with the guy whose eyesight is so keen that he has to wear a bandage around his eyes or else he splits things in two. Sounds like one of the X-Men.

Freda, I LOVE George MacDonald. I found The Princess and the Goblin in a book sale when I was like 8, and it's one of my favourite books ever.