Joss Whedon’s having a lot of success with the BUFFY and FIREFLY comics, ain’t he? Why, the trade of SERENITY: BETTER DAYS debuted at #3 on the New York Times’ best-selling “paperback graphic books” this past week.
Bethany Larson at Flavorwire recently posted a wish list of canceled TV shows she’d like to see continued as comics and the list got me thinking. Seeing your favorite show canceled before it’s gotten to say everything it needed to say is, of course, tremendously frustrating. You really, really, really want to see what happens next, even if it’s in a form totally different from what you’ve been getting.
Obviously, a lot of this comes down to comics having a lot lower overhead to keep a story going and there are a lot of examples of titles whose comic adaptations have made a lot more of a lasting mark. Of the top of my head, I’m thinking, of course, of Carl Barks’ UNCLE SCROOGE and related duck saga, as well as Archie’s SONIC THE HEDGEHOG comics, which have lasted a lot longer than either of the cartoons based on the Sega game have.
Then again, you’ll notice that both of those are about funny animals. Personally, I’m not sure how often this sort of thing works outside of fantasy and sci-fi. I’ve seen comic versions of CSI and THE SHIELD over the years, but haven’t read them, and I’m skeptical about how well they worked. A big reason (the biggest reason, dare I say) you watch, say... HOUSE MD is to see Hugh Laurie do his thing every week. Take that away in the comic (and you might not even get rights to his likeness, either) and how much of what you liked about the show in the first place is left?
Regardless, this kind of thing’s going to be happening more often, like the PUSHING DAISES comic announced last year. But it’s not important what I think. What’s important is what you think, Comic Vine community! So… what do you think?
-- Tom Pinchuk is the writer of UNIMAGINABLE for Arcana Comics and HYBRID BASTARDS! for Archaia Comics. Watch out for the HYBRID BASTARDS! hardcover collection this March - - available for pre-order now on Amazon.com.
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