Kirby also did a Black Hole adaptation, which was initially only printed in Europe...
Although Disney Adventures started reprinting it, when the movie was released on DVD years ago, with new coloring and obviously a bit of creative editing...
Along with the Gold Key Black Hole adaptation (drawn by the incredible Dan Speigel), they published the adaptation of Clash of the Titans, also with Speigel artwork...
I really enjoyed the predator and alien series from darkhorse. The Predators/Aliens were both tough and lethal. I even enjoy the Alien vs. Predator series. Darkhorse nailed thier licensed properties back then (they still do).
The less said about the AvP movies the better...
A perfect example of when the comics out do the movies, although in DH favor, their stories were far better than either of the AvP films...
Kirby also did a Black Hole adaptation, which was initially only printed in Europe...
Although Disney Adventures started reprinting it, when the movie was released on DVD years ago, with new coloring and obviously a bit of creative editing...
@Chuck_Melville are these from the Gold Key Black Hole issue?
Along with the Gold Key Black Hole adaptation (drawn by the incredible Dan Speigel), they published the adaptation of Clash of the Titans, also with Speigel artwork...
So does that mean the Black Hole got TWO adaptations?
Kirby also did a Black Hole adaptation, which was initially only printed in Europe...
Although Disney Adventures started reprinting it, when the movie was released on DVD years ago, with new coloring and obviously a bit of creative editing...
I'm pretty sure Kirby only drew it as a newspaper strip, and the French album and subsequent Disney Adventures reprinting is just a reformatted reprinting of that original strip series.
Edit: Okay, I’ve been able to confirm my memory. Disney hired Kirby to draw a newspaper strip adaptation of the movie—26 Sunday strips in total. He was actually hired on the recommendation of Mike Royer (Kirby’s inker on much of the Fourth World material), who was on staff at Disney at the time. It only ran in about 50 or so papers nationwide, and later it was reformatted by a French publisher in an album format, which Disney then reused (after recoloring) in Disney’s Comic Zone digest.
It had art by Kyle Baker, and was accompanied by a limited series of original Baker drawn stories.
Yes! This was a really good mini-series. Kyle had all kinds of problems with Beatty’s likeness approvals though. And he got worse as the project went along. It put Kyle so far behind schedule he started making photostats of previously approved heads and pasting them onto the pages he was working on. He and five assistants turned around the third issue—64 pages (!)—in one week in order to make the deadline.
Here's an adaptation for a movie that was never released nationwide, as planned.
It was basically a fumetti book, made up of stills from the animated movie, with word balloons pasted over. Very slick presentation, though.
Wasn't it released? I recall seeing this at the theater. (I was also pretty disappointed by it; I'd liked Nelvana's earlier TV specials, like The Devil And Daniel Mouse, but I didn't see the same spark in R&R.)
I knew one of the animators, who later went on to do a lot of work at WB; we were in the same APA together and, at one point, he was working on a proposal for the indy I was working for. Unfortunately, it didn't come together. Sadly, he just passed away last week from cancer.
Along with the Gold Key Black Hole adaptation (drawn by the incredible Dan Speigel), they published the adaptation of Clash of the Titans, also with Speigel artwork...
I read the hell out this. I did everything I could to keep the pages together as it started to break apart.
One more I can’t believe I forgot: Chris Moeller’s fully painted adaptation of the 1949 Republic movie serial King of the Rocket Men. Talk about the comic elevating the source material, I’ve seen the serial, and while it’s fun and had good f/x for the time, the comic is pretty awesome. In fact, I’d put it just a shade behind the Goodwin/Simonson Alien adaptation. It’s well worth tracking down.
I bought issue 2 at the Mile High Flea Market when I was about 11 and I was mesmerized. It was my first exposure to fully painted artwork in a comic book! It sat in my collection for the longest time; I never could bring myself to get rid of it (unfortunately, I think I eventually did, I'll have to check). I never thought that I would ever see or find the other issues. I picked it up because it reminded me of Disney's The Rocketeer film (which I also adore).
Here's an adaptation for a movie that was never released nationwide, as planned.
It was basically a fumetti book, made up of stills from the animated movie, with word balloons pasted over. Very slick presentation, though.
Wasn't it released? I recall seeing this at the theater. (I was also pretty disappointed by it; I'd liked Nelvana's earlier TV specials, like The Devil And Daniel Mouse, but I didn't see the same spark in R&R.)
I knew one of the animators, who later went on to do a lot of work at WB; we were in the same APA together and, at one point, he was working on a proposal for the indy I was working for. Unfortunately, it didn't come together. Sadly, he just passed away last week from cancer.
It was never released on a nationwide release, as was planned. It only was released to a few theaters. According to Box Office Mojo, it only grossed $30,000 to date. Wikipedia says the studio became skittish about releasing it, because of sexuality, drug use, and devil-worship. They released it to the contractually minimum number of theaters.
Along with the Gold Key Black Hole adaptation (drawn by the incredible Dan Speigel), they published the adaptation of Clash of the Titans, also with Speigel artwork...
I read the hell out this. I did everything I could to keep the pages together as it started to break apart.
Yeah... me too!! AND, I found one a few years ago, mint condition, at a library book sale, for a quarter!
Holy cow @Chuck_Melville I'd like to flip through that Black Hole adaptation issue. I think I recall reading it sometime in the early 80s. As for the Star Wars issues, I actually became a subscriber to that Marvel Comics ongoing series after being given the over-sized Special Edition mags for Christmas - some of them were quite good. Walt Simonson's work was stunning. Others we not...
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!
That Yoda example is really cool... I had the adaptation back in 81 and had already seen commercials with Yoda's final appearance, and wondered why he looked like that. Years later, I got a hold of a ESB sketchbook, and BAM, there he was, little shriveled Gnome Yoda, EXACTLY like your scan, same pose and all... then I realized how far ahead they had to start working on these things... only sketches of him existed when Williamson was drawing it!
A little more recent than some of the books being discussed, and file under unnecessary adaptation if you want, but Dark Horse published four-part manga digests of the Star Wars: Episodes IV-VI (and later a two-part Episode I) that were shot-for-shot manga versions of the films. I'm not well versed in manga and so I'm very picky about the manga I get (usually favor art over story), but these were amazing and worth every cent.
Some random interiors I was able to Google...
On a related note, Dark Horse also released Star Wars Infinities, (along with ESB and ROTJ infinities), each one adapting the movie, only changing small things that have a profound affect on the story, so that the stories turn out differently. They are pretty interesting, and pretty creative.
Topps struck gold not just with an adaptation of the popular Jurassic Park movie, but with a few sequel mini-series as well; Gil Kane drew the movie adaptation, Armando Gil drew the sequels. (I guess you could say we were up to our 'Gils' in dinosaurs...)
DC managed to snag a couple of movies to adapt while Marvel was looking elsewhere. The first is a particular favorite of mine, which later went on to be a short-lived TV show...
The next one became a kind of icon for awhile... but, really? A time-traveling phone booth? Psht. That will never catch on.
But Marvel came back with an adaptation to one of my favorite animated features...
...a sequel that was so much better and funnier (and far less treacly) than the first film. (And starred John Cleese as the villain, and featured Jimmy Stewart in what was probably his last role.)
Marvel’s adaptation—that is to say Evan Dorkin’s adaptation—of the second Bill & Ted movie is far superior. And Dorkin’s contributions to the ongoing series are a lot of fun too.
Marvel’s adaptation—that is to say Evan Dorkin’s adaptation—of the second Bill & Ted movie is far superior. And Dorkin’s contributions to the ongoing series are a lot of fun too.
I recently looked through an issue of Raiders of the Lost Ark. I figured the team of Simonson and John Buscema would be amazing, but apparently Buscema drew the thing in two days, or in a snit, or something. It looked dreadful.
I recently looked through an issue of Raiders of the Lost Ark. I figured the team of Simonson and John Buscema would be amazing, but apparently Buscema drew the thing in two days, or in a snit, or something. It looked dreadful.
A 'snit' might have been possible. While I don't know what went on behind the scenes of that particular adaptation, I do recall that when Marvel got the license to do a regular Indiana Jones series, they tagged John Byrne to do it, and Byrne was only too pleased to get the assignment -- but almost immediately after his initial story dropped the book like a hot potato. His claim was that the overseers from Paramount were entirely too difficult to work with, and, in one instance, upon seeing the finished artwork for one issue, informed the editor that they had loved the inks, but weren't as happy with the pencils, and wasn't there someway they could put those inks on another artist's pencils instead?
I recently looked through an issue of Raiders of the Lost Ark. I figured the team of Simonson and John Buscema would be amazing, but apparently Buscema drew the thing in two days, or in a snit, or something. It looked dreadful.
Well, to be fair to Big John, he was only doing breakdowns, not full pencils, so he was very much at the mercy of his inker. In this case that would be Klaus Janson, a fine inker, but not the necessarily the first person I would think of to ink Buscema. Still, I’ve seen a few pages of the original art, and it looks okay to me, except for the figures feeling a bit stiff. I imagine that came from sticking too closely to whatever photo reference they had.
Plus, you never know how much time they had available. A lot of artists hate doing movie adaptations because more often than not they have to do a ton of redrawing of faces, or sometimes whole pages, because of likeness approvals and/or script changes.
DC, in its early days, had a short-lived series that featured nothing but movie adaptations. It was called, appropriately enough, Movie Classics, and ran for six issues in 1939. The first couple of issues ran abridged adaptations of film classics like Gunga Din...
...and Stagecoach.
Plus a few other movies in each issue. 64 pages in Natural Color. Not bad for a dime.
In 1991, Neal Adams and the late Ray Zone foresaw the future of movie trends with their adaptation of a retro hero, presenting a 3D comic for the Rocketman film.
And Dark Horse adapted one of the most underated superhero films, Mystery Men.
I've never been a huge fan of Westerns, but Howard Hawk's El Dorado has been a favorite since its original release; you can't go wrong with Robert Mitchum and John Wayne... plus James Caan in an early role. Dell gave us the adaptation.
Dell also gave us the first American comic adaptation of Doctor Who, giving us the comic book version of the first movie... which got just about everything so wrong, wrong, wrong... even Peter Cushing as the Doctor didn't help.
Dell was never afraid to adapt movies, though, and here are two classic films you might never have imagined that anyone would have even bothered to adapt. First, a classic teen musical...
...and a Christmas classic that will never be forgotten by children everywhere...
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.
My own recollection was that David Kraft did the adaptation. ...and a quick check bears that out. Gerry Conway wrote the first issue, but the bulk of the rest of the run was written by David Anthony Kraft, with some assistance from John Warner.
And I forgot to note that the Doctor Who And The Daleks adaptation I posted above was drawn by Dick Giordano and Sal Trapani.
Topps struck gold not just with an adaptation of the popular Jurassic Park movie, but with a few sequel mini-series as well; Gil Kane drew the movie adaptation, Armando Gil drew the sequels. (I guess you could say we were up to our 'Gils' in dinosaurs...)
There is no "groan" button for this, so let this reply serve in its stead. X_X;)
Robot 6 has been trolling our forums for saturdays 6x6 column
Wow! I never knew Steranko did an Outland adaptation. Unbelievable that it has never been collected in one volume. Heavy Metal must have screwed up the rights or something... I read there may be a French version out there...
Comments
It was basically a fumetti book, made up of stills from the animated movie, with word balloons pasted over. Very slick presentation, though.
It had art by Kyle Baker, and was accompanied by a limited series of original Baker drawn stories.
Although Disney Adventures started reprinting it, when the movie was released on DVD years ago, with new coloring and obviously a bit of creative editing...
With art by Bill Sienkiewicz...
@Chuck_Melville are these from the Gold Key Black Hole issue?
Oh, wait, just saw this... So does that mean the Black Hole got TWO adaptations?
Edit: Okay, I’ve been able to confirm my memory. Disney hired Kirby to draw a newspaper strip adaptation of the movie—26 Sunday strips in total. He was actually hired on the recommendation of Mike Royer (Kirby’s inker on much of the Fourth World material), who was on staff at Disney at the time. It only ran in about 50 or so papers nationwide, and later it was reformatted by a French publisher in an album format, which Disney then reused (after recoloring) in Disney’s Comic Zone digest.
I knew one of the animators, who later went on to do a lot of work at WB; we were in the same APA together and, at one point, he was working on a proposal for the indy I was working for. Unfortunately, it didn't come together. Sadly, he just passed away last week from cancer.
DC managed to snag a couple of movies to adapt while Marvel was looking elsewhere. The first is a particular favorite of mine, which later went on to be a short-lived TV show...
The next one became a kind of icon for awhile... but, really? A time-traveling phone booth? Psht. That will never catch on.
But Marvel came back with an adaptation to one of my favorite animated features...
...a sequel that was so much better and funnier (and far less treacly) than the first film. (And starred John Cleese as the villain, and featured Jimmy Stewart in what was probably his last role.)
Yes
Are you a tank?
I love Bill and Ted
I recently looked through an issue of Raiders of the Lost Ark. I figured the team of Simonson and John Buscema would be amazing, but apparently Buscema drew the thing in two days, or in a snit, or something. It looked dreadful.
(Insert sound of artists' brains exploding here.)
I recently looked through an issue of Raiders of the Lost Ark. I figured the team of Simonson and John Buscema would be amazing, but apparently Buscema drew the thing in two days, or in a snit, or something. It looked dreadful.
Well, to be fair to Big John, he was only doing breakdowns, not full pencils, so he was very much at the mercy of his inker. In this case that would be Klaus Janson, a fine inker, but not the necessarily the first person I would think of to ink Buscema. Still, I’ve seen a few pages of the original art, and it looks okay to me, except for the figures feeling a bit stiff. I imagine that came from sticking too closely to whatever photo reference they had.
Plus, you never know how much time they had available. A lot of artists hate doing movie adaptations because more often than not they have to do a ton of redrawing of faces, or sometimes whole pages, because of likeness approvals and/or script changes.
DC, in its early days, had a short-lived series that featured nothing but movie adaptations. It was called, appropriately enough, Movie Classics, and ran for six issues in 1939. The first couple of issues ran abridged adaptations of film classics like Gunga Din...
...and Stagecoach.
Plus a few other movies in each issue. 64 pages in Natural Color. Not bad for a dime.
In 1991, Neal Adams and the late Ray Zone foresaw the future of movie trends with their adaptation of a retro hero, presenting a 3D comic for the Rocketman film.
And Dark Horse adapted one of the most underated superhero films, Mystery Men.
I've never been a huge fan of Westerns, but Howard Hawk's El Dorado has been a favorite since its original release; you can't go wrong with Robert Mitchum and John Wayne... plus James Caan in an early role. Dell gave us the adaptation.
Dell also gave us the first American comic adaptation of Doctor Who, giving us the comic book version of the first movie... which got just about everything so wrong, wrong, wrong... even Peter Cushing as the Doctor didn't help.
Dell was never afraid to adapt movies, though, and here are two classic films you might never have imagined that anyone would have even bothered to adapt. First, a classic teen musical...
...and a Christmas classic that will never be forgotten by children everywhere...
I know these aren't adaptations... but they were in the movies...!
And I forgot to note that the Doctor Who And The Daleks adaptation I posted above was drawn by Dick Giordano and Sal Trapani.