Chris Ryall on a type of comic we don’t see much of, anymore:
Adaptations are kind of a weird thing now. When I was a kid and I was reading adaptations, that was the only way to revisit something like “Empire Strikes Back,” because there were no video tapes, there was no ability to watch things over and over. So an adaptation was this cool thing where you could replay and relive the story. But now, I don’t know that fans care about straight adaptations in these cases as much as they care about new content that expands or enhances the story.
When I was a kid, I loved movie adaptation comics. I’m trying to think when they seemed to become weirdly out of synch with pop culture in general – Dark Horse’s Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace mini, maybe…? But when movie adaptations are good – See the Goodwin/Simonson Alien, for example – then they’re a different-but-equal experience to the movie, not a second-best-or-maybe-third replacement. Maybe what movie adaptations need in order to work as comics are creators who’ll work on translating the movie instead of trying to recreate it? Now I want to see Brandon Graham adapt the next big blockbuster movie with a free rein to do whatever he thinks is necessary, just to see what happens…
May 30th, 2012 at 6:44 pm
Here here! I remember having all the Batman film adaptions from Burton thru Clooney. I distinctly remember reading a scene of Carrey Riddler and Jones Two Face getting high together that was not in the flick.
The last one I remember buying was Superman Returns. I actually read that before seeing the movie. It’s worth noting that the adaptation completely omitted the Super kid twist, so that was a shock when I saw it in the theatre.
Good quirky times, those adaptations.
May 30th, 2012 at 6:46 pm
Seems like an adaptation of Avengers and its prequel films done digital for the iPad would do gangbusters for reaching new audiences.
June 6th, 2012 at 10:04 pm
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