Comic book movies -- the other discussion

[newman]

So, over in his LJ my friend Justin raised the question "What comic book(s) do you think would make a good movie? Feel free to assume that it's a competent adaptation, not a hatchet job, but assume that it has to fit into the usual constraints of a movie: about two hours, and has to be able to make enough money to be worth its budget".

In terms of adaptations, novels often make poor source material for films. Even a long movie has trouble fitting in all of the elements that make a novel appealing. Short stories and novellas work pretty well, as do plays, which are already about move-length. Comic books are often serialized novels, taking months or years of issues to complete a story arc. While individual issues (or short collections of issues) might make good films, there are some that just shouldn't be done — either because of reasons of length, or because a good comic book is more than just a storyboard.

Wanted is a prime example of this. It was a fine movie, but it had nothing to do with the comic book. The comic book was a dark, loving, homage to the two great houses in the comic book world, and, if it had been translated to screen accurately, most of America would have said "huh?". Better to have left it on the comic book page — or do what they did, which is the equivalent of never having attempted an adaptation.

There's been a great interest in a Sandman movie or a Watchman movie. I'd happily pass a law declaring these sources off-limits to Hollywood. The adaptation isn't going to to do the inspiration justice.

What comics are simply better as comic books? What comics don't want to be adapted to the big screen? Most of the ones I can think of are comics about comics (Wanted, for example -- but I can think of others). Thoughts?

Comments

[peregrinning.livejournal.com]

The following are better as comics (web comics or comic books), and would need to be quite different to be adapted to the big screen:
- Gunnerkrigg Court (www.gunnerkrigg.com): Lots of great short stories, character development over time, and an overall story arc that clearly seems to be going somewhere. Movie adaptation might be along the lines of the Harry Potter Septology, but I don't see the return on investment being high enough to allow ongoing creative control to keep an even tone and style to do justice to the work.

- Wapsi Square (www.wapsisquare.com): The combination of snippets of daily life and a world-changing story arc would make a difficult transition to the big screen, especially if done before the (by me) predicted big-story conclusion that will happen some time in the year 2012.

- Girl Genius (www.girlgeniusonline.com): I could see this as a multi-season TV show, similar to Hercules/Xena. I can't see it as a movie, or as a series of movies coming out once every few years. It would work better in a "Perils of Pauline" format, with a good solid cliffhanger each night... or each commercial break...

- Rex Libris (no online version): See "The Librarian: Quest for the Spear" for what happens when you try to mix a librarian-adventurer and mystic artifacts in a two-hour movie format. I prefer it in the "text-and-serial images" combination of comics, rather than the "live action-and-verbal dialogue" combination of film. I could see some of the adventures as half-hour episodes similar to Samurai Jack, but I think they would need to move the plot at the speed of a Simpson's episode to avoid getting bogged down...

[new-man.livejournal.com]

I'm embarrased to say I'm not familiar with most of those (and I know of GG, but have never read it).

They're doing another "Librarian" movie; my friend marrus did the storyboards.

[peregrinning.livejournal.com]

Blessings on marrus. I think my main trouble with the series (I believe this would be their third) is that the main character is still depicted as naiive. Incredibly intelligent, and incredibly naiive. If he's worked there for a year, why hasn't he gotten a clue yet about the complexity of a world where all the mystical artifacts really exist? He should be able to walk through that library and interact with his artifact-colleagues with ease and familiarity. Not with "oh, how strange, this is new" naivety.

[peregrinning.livejournal.com]

I find Girl Genius fun to read and to look at. I frequently revisit some of what I consider the best artistic moments (such as the central pages of the coffee machine arc). I can't say everyone will like the intricacies of the plot, but I'm hooked, so there we are.

I recommend Gunnerkrigg Court. The combination of odd, fun, and savvy is a treat. Each Chapter is an individual story: they build on each other over time, but they also stand alone.

Wapsi Square is an acquired taste. Starting from the beginning, it feels like a fluff piece. Starting anywhere other than the beginning, and you may miss some of the background and important facts about the major story arcs. I started in the middle back when I first came upon it, and was confused until I went back to read the whole thing. I'm still confused, but only related to what will happen next.

[dreda.livejournal.com]

Love Wapsi Square!! (Thank you for the original pointer to it.)

(And yes, start at the beginning.)

[peregrinning.livejournal.com]

You're welcome.

New_Man, Wapsi is a horizontal comic, so may be easier to navigate. Alas, GC and GG are both tied to comic book page dimensions, and thus make you scroll, roll or shrink to see the full page.

[peregrinning.livejournal.com]

By the way, I didn't expect you would have heard of any of these other than Girl Genius. They are Web comics or obscure comic books, they started fairly recently, and it takes a while for word of mouth to get around about such things.

I chose to talk about my favorites, rather than attempt to choose what would be big enough to actually get noticed by movie producers.

[new-man.livejournal.com]

I don't love reading webcomics. In a lot of cases, the pages aren't designed to fit on my screen, so I'm scrolling all over the place to get the entire page (GG does this). There's something about holding the physical object that I'm reading that makes a difference to me.

I realize this is likely to get me lynched by many of my friends, but my reaction to Phil Foglio is generally lukewarm.

[peregrinning.livejournal.com]

The first school year of Gunnerkrigg Court recently came out in print. I need to buy a few copies. I'm trying to decide when I get to introduce N. to the series...

Wapsi Square is also available in print: seems to be both in series and as a collection of the first four years.

Agreed that many comics still stick to comic book dimensions even though they are displayed on landscape screens. I like what Zuda Comics is doing to counteract this: they have a competition going, where people produce eight pages of a comic, in an extremely rigid format, to fit in their display window. Their expanded window fits my screen perfectly, and you just click on the right side of the screen to move to the next page. The winners get a place on Zuda's main page, and probably other benefits I don't yet know about. The Night Owls is the one I've been following so far, but there are other good ones.

[new-man.livejournal.com]

I've read a lot of the Zuda stuff (enjoyed some of it too!). The fact that it's being created to be read on a computer goes a long way to ameliorate my problems with the formatting on many webcomics.

[brush-rat.livejournal.com]

I'm tying the noose now. Philistine. Girl Genius is free online and if you must read them in book form, they are available. I think the over the top mad steampunk scientist setting might appeal to you more than his other stuff.