I may have done my answer to Alistair last time a slight disservice. But first, let me get out of the way that my light joshing of the length of Alistair’s question was not intended as a critique, but more a way of poking a little fun at my own predilection for excessive typing — a gag that perhaps may have fallen flat. But I think anyone who’s read my site for any length of time knows that there was no danger of me not outstripping the word count of Alistair’s query.
But at any rate, Alistair had asked about comic books based on licensed properties, and my favorites thereof, and my answers at the end were mostly adaptations of specific films (like Close Encounters of the Third Kind) rather than ongoing series with continuing adventures based on various licenses (like Marvel’s initial Star Wars, which I’d mentioned).
Now I know I’m splitting hairs here that maybe only I can see, but given that Alistair’s initial question was about the faithfulness of (inferred) ongoing series based on said properties, I think I should have focused more on those ongoing series versus the direct film/TV show adaptations. Faithfulness in a specific translation of a film/episode to a comic should be slightly more expected, but the real trick is when the creators of the comics go off on their own taking inspiration from the licenses.
As such, let me note a couple of comic book series based on licensed properties that I enjoyed.
DC’s Star Trek, right from where they first got the rights in the ’80s, and up almost through the end in the ’90s. I got a little burnt out on these comics as their conclusion loomed, and while I did like the Next Generation comics too, I can happily skip over the introductory mini for it.
But likenesses were generally good, stories where very much in line with what you could potentially see in Trek live action (if said TV/movie Trek had an unlimited budget). About ten years ago I did write a bit about DC’s first Star Trek series about a decade ago, talking about how the comic cleverly dealt with Spock’s status quo between films III and IV.
Now there were plenty of Trek comics before and since…I never read much of the original Marvel run, or any of the Marvel books when they got the license back post-DC, and the original Gold Key comics I have read here and there, and it can be a real mixed bag. Every once in a while I’ll dip into IDW’s current Trek line if a story sounds interested, but the only one I read consistently is Lower Decks, which is of course great.
But those DC Treks…those are still some of my favorites. They absolutely felt like part of the same universe (most of the time, there’s a clunker or two). If you haven’t read them, they’re well worth tracking down.
DC’s Welcome Back, Kotter series had solid, easily-identifiable caricatures of the cast, stories that…well, were maybe a little outside the range of what you’d see on the show (I mean, there’s an elephant in this story), but Mark Evanier, who also worked on the show, was a contributing writer here as well. And hey, putting the characters in situations you wouldn’t necessarily see the actual actors do onscreen could have been a good selling point!
I’m cheating with this one a little, but I’ve unfortunately only read a very few of these Marvel mags, long ago, so I can’t say as to how well the human characters from the films translated to the page, if any did at all. But by golly, and the apes, chimpanzees, and orangutans looked the way they should, and that was good enough for me.
Oh, wait, I forgot I talked about Marvel’s color Apes comic, which reprinted from these magazines. It may have been short on exact likenesses, but it was definitely long on butts.
Now I haven’t cracked a cover on one of these since the comic ended, but I read ’em all so I must have liked them. Carmine Infantino (of Star Wars and probably some other comics fame) drew these, and as such everyone looked like Infantino characters…which isn’t a bad thing, don’t get me wrong! You knew who everyone was supposed to be, like I said about his work on Star Wars last time, and therefore he worked out fine.
I do not remember the timing of the comics vis-à-vis the mini-series or the TV series, so I don’t know how closely they tied in to events in those shows. None of these comics were direct adaptations of any of the live-action releases that I recall. I do want to direct you to the Comics Database so you can see how DC handled having a giant “V” on the front cover of each issue. Actually looks pretty striking.
Now my list here just covered comics based on live-action properties. I didn’t cover the translations-to-page of toys, cartoons, that sort of thing. The matter of “faithfulness” applies here as well, though one wonders if you can really just how closely the Team America or ROM Space Knight comics hew to their origins, and if any points of departure actually matter.
Plus, I do recall one early comic in the Simpsons line that was just barely on the wrong side of having a professional art job, and being just that little bit off was enough to make the whole thing unreadable. So, you know, there’s probably room for discussion here too.
But not in this entry…perhaps more on Friday? See, Alistair, by comparison to my answers, your question isn’t long at all!
It mystifies me that IDW has done nothing with the old DC series. You’d think they’d collect them in a couple of thick paperbacks or something.
I remember DC Comics promoting ‘V’ with an illustration of a tearful boy beating himself on the head with a rolled-up copy of ‘X-Men’ — at least, as obvious an issue of the X-Men as DC’s lawyers allowed — unhappy to have bought X instead of V. An amusingly less-than-likely situation!
It’s a shame that Hickman was too young to write V so we weren’t able to see the revelation that the “V” actually stood for the numeral 5.
The Topps X-Files series from the 1990s was another favourite of mine. It was a fun series. It would have been a good counter-point to the Buffy discussion in the prior article. The series in the early-‘90s initially sold crazy amounts of issues, even though it wasn’t considered an “official” tie-in with the TV show. It did feature faithful representations of characters and themes from the source material though, so that aspect is always important. Then, Wild Storm attempted a revival series which was supposed to tie more closely to the (now-cancelled) show’s “mythology”, with Frank Spotnitz even writing some arcs, but it was cancelled almost immediately. The later “season” format published by IDW certainly sold better than the Wild Storm series but nowhere close to how well the ‘90s comic performed. I enjoyed the “seasons” version also, but the Topps published comics would be my first choice to recommend the X-Files in comic form.
Granted, there are possible alternative explanations for why this is the case. The X-Files was simply more popular in the 1990s, while the original TV show was airing new episodes. Even the revival TV “mini-series” were considered a major disappointment. The comic book market in the early-‘90s was in a far different place than when IDW picked up the license. The X-Files franchise had wore out its welcome by the end of the TV series, so Wild Storm picked a horrible time to attempt to cash in on X-Files nostalgia (there wasn’t a lot that soon after the final episode).
Mike, how do you think the DC Star Trek books would work for someone who’s not really into Star Trek? I’ve always been kind of vaguely interested in them because of the talent involved.
(My experience of ST is I’ve seen the first four movies and First Contact. If I’ve seen an episode of TOS I was too young to remember it. I’ve seen one episode of TNG, one of Voyager and one of Discovery.)
Chris G: Biggest frustration to me is that IDW did their “Stardate Collection” in their nice oversized hardcover format they use, which was planned to be all the ST in chronological order. but they only did two volumes – was just a bunch of random Alien one shots and the Marvel Early Voyages. It would have been rendered pretty moot with Discovery and Strange New Worlds eventually, but they looked good and would have been comprehensive up to that point. I have the majority of the Eaglemoss Star Trek collection, which collects almost EVERYTHING (with some errors, tragically) but I’m still missing a couple dozen volumes and they’re getting harder and harder to find.
Chris v: I liked IDW’s take on X-Files. I liked the stories from Topps but the art was…well, he got better by Walking Dead at least. Although the episode adaptions were really nice looking, I have to admit. But I did like IDW even though the last two seasons pretty much torpedoed the continuity (the Lone Gunman have been hiding out in a secret graveyard headquarters the whole time?!?) But I have to admit I get a kick out of the Crossovers with Turtles and Transformers!
It’s been a while since I looked at them — and I’m sure he *did* get better — but I remember thinking at the time that Charlie Adlard’s work on the X-Files comics was my gold standard of art of a comic based on a live-action TV show. Unlike a lot of comics with crisper art — like the Tom Sutton Star Trek cover Mike presents above — Adlard’s likenesses didn’t seem based on headshots and stills from the set, but somehow in his cartooning he captured the essence of Scully and Mulder for me. It was a shadowy show, and a shadowy book, so maybe that helped. I just remember being really impressed, as someone was drawing a licensed comic like I’d never seen one drawn before.
“DC Treks”
OH< I highly recommend the 2 parter by Dianne Duane, a story with space lizards and SPACE CATS having a very inept war with each other.
"Marvel’s color Apes comic, which reprinted from these magazines. It may have been short on exact likenesses, but it was definitely long on butts"
Well, you've sold me on that one! And I already collect V!
"ROM Space Knight comics hew to their origins"
I think Marvel's people gave him ALL of his mythology. He was literally one large sized action figure with no opponents or separately-sold accessories.