This post is going to be short, for a couple of reasons. One, there is this little thing called the Grey Cup going on. It’s the championship game of the Canadian Football League, and my beloved Saskatchewan Roughriders are playing in it. Go Riders! Secondly, out of all the different media types I’ve talked about (video games, TV, books), I have the least experience with comics. I’ve just never gotten into them. Yeah, I like comic strips (who doesn’t like Calvin and Hobbes, or The Far Side?) and there are some Star Wars comics I’ve read (Twin Engines of Destruction follows Boba Fett dealing with an imposter), and there’s even a graphic novel adaptation of the unfilmed final episode of a tragically cancelled TV show called The Middleman that I want to get a hold of. But by and large, I just can’t get into them.
Also, don’t get in my face about comic books and graphic novels. Graphic novels are what we call them these days because they’ve gained legitimacy now that the readers have grown up. But I’ll refer to them as comic books because that’s what they’ve been since the 30’s when they came out. If you want to feel superior, go ahead. And finally, there are two main comic publishers – Marvel and DC. If you’re wondering why Superman never meets the X-men, it’s because they’re owned by two different companies. They’re like the Coke and Pepsi of the Comic Book world. Like Mac and PC, except one doesn’t cost twice as much with half the (admittedly good) content (Booyah).
Out of all the types of media, comic books are the easiest to turn into movies. For one thing, they’re very short. And while one issue won’t wrap up a plot, three or four (sometimes six) will wrap up the main plot, take down the main villain, and save the world (again). Because they’re so short, not much of the plot, character development, dialogue, or other stuff needs to be cut to put it into the film.
Secondly, because comics have been around for decades, there’s a plethora of both plots and characters to choose from. Need a movie about the Dazzler? No problem. Luke Cage? Sure. She-Hulk? Go for it! Or not - some of the ideas suck. Be prudent, pick the right plot, and you can have a hit on your hands.
Thirdly, the movies come pre-storyboarded. Storyboarding is part of the pre-production of the film (before filming) where people sit down and visualize how each scene of the movie will go, and then draw pictures of that. Because comic books already come with those pictures, it’s really easy to adapt them to storyboarding, shortening up the production process and making it cheaper than it could be. I’ve heard that for 300, Zach Snyder just used the comic written by Frank Miller as the storyboard, not even bothering to do his own. And it was AWESOME!
Of course, there are problems. As with books, comic books have thoughts depicted that have to be conveyed somehow. Secondly, comic book heroes have an origin story of some sort, which is often adapted for the first movie of a planned franchise. Because so many comic books have been around for a while, the origin stories have to be updated to today’s world, meaning diehard fans of the original are going to be mad. And the movie company is depending on them to see the movie, so if they decide not to go, the movie might die a quick death at the box office.
To be honest, I have no idea about turning a movie into a comic book. Presumably, an author and illustrator is given the script (one of the problems with this, as pointed out by Ian in the comment section, is that they’re often given the first draft of the script, meaning any revisions aren’t going to be adapted. This is a problem with turning a movie into anything. Changes late in the production cycle are going to be missed) and then they draw a comic book from it. Whee. Actually, it can get interesting in some cases. Star Wars was adapted to comic books twice. Once when it was released, by Marvel. Because it was available to everyone, they had to tone down a lot of the violence (for instance, Luke getting his hand chopped off by Darth Vader had to be cleverly edited). A while later, it was adapted as a Manga (the definition of which is beyond me, besides it being of Japanese origins) which could show everything. So Luke getting his hand chopped off was shown in all its gruesome glory, complete with spray of blood (never mind that lightsabers cauterise wounds). So it was considered much better, because it wasn’t for kiddies. Just like Star Wars is supposed to be.
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