Movie to Comic Book Adaptations
bralinator
Posts: 5,967
Over the last couple of decades, we've all become accustomed to the growing trend of turning graphic novels and comic book properties into motion pictures. As a fanboy myself, I have been both thrilled and bitterly disappointed in the inconsistent results. For every Superman there's been a Howard the Duck, for every Spider-Man, a Green Lantern, V is for Vendetta to Tank Girl, for every Swamp Thing there's a Barb Wire, Spawn, Blade, etc... you get my point.
I don't want to get bogged down discussing the worthiness of any of those films. It's been done ad nauseam in these forums before, but I am curious if any of you have a favorite issue, limited series, or graphic novel that was an adaptation that followed the movie. The "Star Wars Special" editions #1 & #2 come to mind, as does the two-shot "Blade Runner", the "Robocop" series, and three-part "Raiders of the Lost Ark" adaptations - coincidentally all from Marvel. Does anyone here have any books that have been adaptations of a movie property that are to your liking?
Comments
If that's the only one you owned, I can see why you owned no others...
I remember having that. Nine years old and head over heels in love with fantasy stories.
This one had a lot of us kids asking, "Doctor who!?" The movie was only just beginning to appear and none of us had ever heard of James Bond at that time. We usually tossed this book aside and lamented the fact there was no Atom or Cave Carson to read that month.
I had to settle for the comic at the time since my parents had no interest in taking me to see the movie. Still one of my favorites, despite some of the wonky science. I still get chills at the thought of the sky catching fire. And the story was drawn by Sam Glanzman, too.
This movie had three things going for it: 1) an original and unusual sci-fi angle, that of shrinking to the size of a microbe and submarining through a human body; 2) Raquel Welch; and 3) a comic adaptation drawn by Dan Adkins and Wally Wood. (In fact, for years I'd thought it was a Wood solo effort.)
And, still one of my favorites...
"I've got a 'ole in me pocket."
There are a couple Beatles books I'd love to get my hands on. The Beatles Story and Batman 222 (my holy grail). And now this is added to that list.
Dell and Gold Key really set the bar high on adaptations too.
I recently picked up the last of the Dark Horse trades collecting the original Marvel Star Wars series ("A Long Time Ago...") and I'm planning to set aside time to read the shit out of them. :)
DC's venerable Strange Adventures title began a long, fabled run with an adaptation of George Pal's classic SF pic, Destination Moon...
DC must have lost the license for reprinting the story, though, as it has bounced through the doors of a number of other publishers over the years, including Charlton. I have a copy put out by a small indy publisher back in the 90's, though I forget at the moment who that was.
During the 70's, Disney put a lot of their animated feature adaptations, as well as some of their movies, into their Disney Showcase title (through Gold Key), including this rather notorious bomb...
Yes, in space... no one can hear the audience scream.
Marvel did a lion's share of movie adaptations in the 70's as well, though some were, oddly, many years after the film's release. Happily, this worked in their favor as their artists actually saw the movies in question and did some stunning work on the books. To wit: Jack Kirby on 2001: A Space Odyssey...
...and Mike Ploog on Planet Of The Apes...
(Cover by Bob Larkin).
(On the other hand, Marvel also adapted Krull...)
Finally, another favorite of mine, the Don Bluth animated feature, The Secret Of NIMH...
Published by Western Publications during the early 80's. Not nearly as cool looking as the movie was, but a game try all the same.
I had no idea Ploog was the POTA artist. Wow...
As far as Krull goes, it proves that no matter how good the adaptation it can't improve much on the movie it adapted, and frankly Krull stunk. Marvel was likely committed to the adaptation well before the film was finished, as was standard protocol. An interesting point by @Torchsong on that For Your Eyes Only extra scene at his wife's grave. It seems that since Marvel would get the script or see an early edit to work from, occasionally an unused scene would appear in the comics that wasn't in the finished film. I think that also happened with Blade Runner. Kinda cool when that happened. Clearly that sort of thing happened in their adaptation of Empire Strikes Back.
Al Williamson’s interpretation of Yoda was based on the early concept sketches from Ralph McQuarrie. As the comic was in production at the same time as the movie and Yoda’s look was still being developed, Marvel's version ended up being very different from the Yoda we all know and love.
Williamson later went back and fixed the artwork for Marvel. Consequently, although Yoda was purple in issues #42 and #43 of the main Star Wars ongoing series, he was actually redrawn and re-colored green when the same adaptation was reprinted in the paperback-sized Marvel Comics Illustrated Version Of The Empire Strikes Back. Wacky!
Marvel's adaptation of Logan's Run was better than the movie. Perez & Janson did the interiors. I think Bill Mantlo wrote it, but don't hold me to that. I did a quick search for the creative team and came up goose egg.
The run actually took the characters a little past the movie. However, it's been years since I've read the books and don't remember much from it. Just that it was better then the movie.
Another adaptation that was better then the movie. The best part of the story is ... Vince Colletta's art!
I KNOW!
Colletta did a great job with this book. Beautiful, painterly, style that's just gorgeous.
I stand corrected on both of the previous posts. And as I recall the original Marvel run on Battlestar Galactica was pretty great too, especially Walt Simonson's work...
I’d have to include Marvel’s adaptation of Hook if only because of the gorgeous Charles Vess covers. There was some decent interior art as well, and Vess wrote the script.
And Innovation did a pretty good adaptation of Forbidden Planet back in the early ’90s with painted art by Daerick Gross.
My favorite, followed by the Marvel Planet of the Apes magazines.
Some random interiors I was able to Google...
The less said about the AvP movies the better...
I remember this one quite fondly. It was a 2 issue limited series, published in 1984 by Marvel Comics, written by J. M. DeMatteis and drawn by artists Joe Barney, Larry Hama and Tom Palmer. A good adaption of a fine movie.