Always kinda liked the trade paperback GN adaptation of Stephen King's Creepshow, with its Bernie Wrightson art and Kamen cover . . .
Bill Sherman | Email | Homepage | 04.03.06 - 4:15 am | #

I really liked Dark Horse's TERMINATOR and ALIENS series. ALIENS BOOK ONE featuring the excellent team of Mark Verheiden and Mark Nelson is highly recommended.
Chaz Ervin | 04.03.06 - 5:25 am | #

Buckaroo Goddamn Banzai. My favorite Marvel comic of all time.
M. A. Masterson | Email | Homepage | 04.03.06 - 6:32 am | #

I'll second Dark Horse's Terminator comics, but only when James Robinson was writing them (and for all I know he's the only guy who did write them). Same principle with Star Trek comics, but different writer: Peter David.
Greg Judson | 04.03.06 - 6:39 am | #

The Marvel adaptations of the original Star Wars movies stand out; especially Empire with the Al Williamson art, but Also Star Wars with Howard Chaykin.

And Hisao Tamaki's Star Wars adaptation was pretty keen too.
Dave Carter | Email | Homepage | 04.03.06 - 7:37 am | #

Kyle Baker's adaptation of "Howard the Duck." Better than the movie.
stavner | Email | Homepage | 04.03.06 - 8:00 am | #

I just picked up the TIME BANDITS book a week back since it was on my radar after your previous mention. Haven't had a chance to read it yet, but the Lloyd art looks nice.

Jack Kirby's 2001:A SPACE ODYSSEY adaptation and continuation was both bizarre and wonderful on so many levels.
Bob | 04.03.06 - 8:08 am | #

"the infamous adaptation of Steven Spielberg's 1941 by Steve Bissette and Rick Veitch"

WHAT!? How do I not own this? I'm going to start looking for this one.

I've never seen any of the Alien movies but I have enjoyed some of Dark Horse's spin-off books. The one by Jim Woodring and Killian Plunkett was wonderfully creepy and ghastly.
Ian Brill | Email | Homepage | 04.03.06 - 8:26 am | #

Evan Dorkin's "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey," plus the run of Bill & Ted spin-offs he did afterwards.
Ron | Email | Homepage | 04.03.06 - 9:12 am | #

The Dark Horse SHADOW comics Mike Kaluta wrote and sometimes drew are pretty great, like his adaptation of the movie and the Gianni-drawn original series that didn't make a lick of sense the first time you read them.

I haven't seen it in years and years, but I remember liking Bissette's take on the first GOJIRA movie.

Kirby's 2001 was far and away the best thing he did at Marvel in the '70s.
milo | Homepage | 04.03.06 - 9:15 am | #

When I was a kid I had a giant sized adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back that I was fond of. I had it for a long time and it was very beaten up with the cover barely clinging to it (but still rare and in mint condition), but I don't know where it is now. I may need to ransack my parents' house looking for it.
Aaron | 04.03.06 - 9:20 am | #

What *isn't* better than the Howard the Duck movie?

Spain's "Shock Corridor" is pretty great.

Okay, that doesn't exist.

I liked Dance Me Outside by Nick Craine better than the movie, which I couldn't get through.
Tom Spurgeon | Email | 04.03.06 - 10:06 am | #

I quite enjoyed the various Kevin Smith movie spin-offs, but I'm with everyone who's going for Kirby's brilliant 2001 Treasury Edition. Kinda like Toth's Zorro, too, though I'm not sure how much if any of it is movie rather than TV.
Mark S | Email | 04.03.06 - 10:09 am | #

Marvel's adaptation of Dune was nice to look at, thanks to Bill Sienkiewicz' fantastic artwork.
craig | 04.03.06 - 10:14 am | #

I have a soft spot for Gold Key's attempt to follow-up their Black Hole adaptation with the continuing adventures of the crew on the other side of the black hole. I've never seen the fourth (and last) issue, but I'd really love to read it. I mean, dinosaurs!
C. Elam | Homepage | 04.03.06 - 12:23 pm | #

Bill - I forgot about the Creepshow book...that is a great one!

Greg - I always thought most of DC's Star Trek books were pretty good...the earliest stuff, by Mike Barr and Tom Sutton, was quite well done. David's work was probably the peak of those runs.

Ron - Oh, right, Bill 'n' Ted. Those were good...it's a shame it didn't last longer than it did.
Mikester | Homepage | 04.03.06 - 1:01 pm | #

The adaptaion of Empire ran in Marvel's regular Star Wars book, right? I remember picking up issues of that at the corner store. Good times.

I really enjoyed the Marvel adaptation of The Last Starfighter at the time. I seem to recall thinking Dragonslayer was pretty cool, too.
Bill Doughty | Email | Homepage | 04.03.06 - 1:36 pm | #

Bill D. - The pocketbook version of ESB Marvel released prior to those stories appearing in the SW comic book series featured the early production designs of Yoda (who looked quite different from the final product). It was fixed later for the comics, though I don't recall how he looked in the Marvel Super Special.

And since everyone keeps bringing up those '80s Marvel adaptations, I should note that I have a fondness for the Dark Crystal two-parter.
Mikester | Homepage | 04.03.06 - 1:45 pm | #

Also, Al Williamson's adaptation of the 1980 Flash Gordon film (for Golden Books). There's you some pretty art. Between that and Empire, Williamson was the king of sci-fi movie adaptations in 1980.

Golden Books also did an adaptation of The Black Hole, with art by Dan Spiegle (I believe--there's no artist credit anywhere in the book). I freaked me out when I was a kid because a mustached character from the movie is consistantly depicted as clean-shaven, while a clean-shaven characted is depicted with a mustache.
Dave Carter | Email | Homepage | 04.03.06 - 3:01 pm | #

The Topps Jurassic Park series was better than the sequels, that's for sure. And, while there's no denying the joy of Empire Strikes Back, my vote for best adaptation goes to Mike Mignola's Dracula adaptation.

Hell, even the X-Files series had its moments...
ArizonaTeach | Email | 04.03.06 - 4:42 pm | #

Kyle Baker's Dick Tracy was wacky fun, too.
Also, when you know the story of his problems with Warren Beatty over his likeness and seeing Kyle's solutions on the printed page (I think in the 3rd issue especially) it just adds to the wackiness of it.
Peace.
Gary Esposito | Email | 04.03.06 - 4:48 pm | #

I thought it was very bizarre and interesting to see what Jim Woodring did as a writer with the Aliens franchise and Jabba the Hutt, for Dark Horse, I think. Can't say I enjoyed the first one, but it was certainly gloppy, which is good Woodring.
Jack Ruttan | Email | Homepage | 04.03.06 - 4:55 pm | #

What makes the 1941 adaptation "infamous?"
David C | Email | 04.03.06 - 4:59 pm | #

Seconding the Jurassic Park comics from Topps. Not only was the adaptation solid, but the continuations were pretty fascinating too, especially to those who have read the novel.
xu | Email | 04.03.06 - 7:09 pm | #

Wasn't there an adaptation of OUTLAND by Steranko?
RJM | Email | Homepage | 04.03.06 - 9:49 pm | #

Arizona Teach - The Mignola Dracula was a fine adaptation...very underrated, and probably better than the film.

Gary E. - Yeah, I've read about Baker's troubles with having to use Beatty's likeness...those Dick Tracy comics are a lot of fun, once you get around the incongruous Beatty paste-ins!

David C. - Have you read it? It's one of the most insane things I've ever seen...here's a good quote about it from a Veitch interview in Comics Journal #175:

"Do you know if Spielberg ever saw it?

VEITCH: Yeah he saw it - and was completely pissed off. He wrote a letter to our editor [...] saying that 'Bissette and Veitch are savagely talented but demented.' [laughs]"

RJM - I remember Steranko's Outland was serialized in Heavy Metal, and presumably it was collected somewhere.
Mikester | Homepage | 04.03.06 - 10:24 pm | #

Did anyone ever read Ape Nation? The Newcomer ships from Alien Nation arrive on the Planet of the Apes instead of the near-future Earth.

Fun!
Chris Griswold | Email | Homepage | 04.04.06 - 12:39 am | #

A while back, Fred Hembeck discussed a Dell or Gold Key adaptation of The Man With The X-Ray Eyes with art by Frank Thorne. I've never seen the whole thing but on the basis of the stuff Fred showed, it's got to be one of the best movie adaptations.
Mark S | Email | 04.04.06 - 6:55 am | #

I was at Comic Relief once and a friend of a friend pointed out to me two differences between Marvel's adaption of Star Wars and the film version:

1) Darth Vader drinks coffee in the book (he levitates the cup actually)

2) the first appearance of Jabba the Hutt has him as a skinny yellow guy

Much like when novelizations has deleted scenes of the film in the narrative, this is what happens when the authors work off of an earlier draft of a film.
Ian Brill | Email | Homepage | 04.04.06 - 10:18 am | #

See, I thought someone would mention the Blade Runner adaptation. I had the Super Special version or somesuch, many many years before I was able to see the movie. Al Williamson art? Hell, now I'm sad and want it back. Not that it was great or anything, but even so.
And my older boy (7) loved Dark Horse's Incredibles and King King comics.
Chuck T. | Email | 04.04.06 - 10:21 am | #

I seem to remember various adaptions, like Caliber's adaption of Moontrap, the film where Walter Koening and Bruce Campbell go to the moon to fight killer robots and the Eternity adaption of Charles Band's Trancers. It would be interesting to count how many smaller publishers printed adaptions of movies that weren't exactly big-budget affairs filling screens across the nation. I'm talking strictly adaptions here, not new-story tie-in comics, which there were plenty of, like those way pre-remake Planet of the Apes comics or the Alien Nation comics from Adventure, or those awful movie inspired Stargate books from Entity.
Thorpe | 04.04.06 - 1:33 pm | #

I still like the Ty Templeton portions of Mad-Dog, the comics spinoff of the Bob Newhart show "Bob." I take good care of those issues, because I know they will never, ever be collected.
Tom Bondurant | Email | Homepage | 04.04.06 - 1:55 pm | #

Oh, God, the one where he wards off the alien race of cat-like beings with vaseline is hilarious.
Ron | Email | Homepage | 04.04.06 - 2:08 pm | #

Whereas the movie Dune stripped away pieces of the book Dune until it no longer made sense, the comic book stripped away pieces of the movie until it made sense again. And Sienkiewicz was well-suited to the piece.

Disappointment I hold for Caliber's Rocky Horror Picture Show adaptation - Kevin Van Hook was a good artist, and would have been suited to most movie adaptations, but that movie really called for an undergroundy take, not a reproduced-movie-stills version.

I'm a sucker for the Williamson art - Blade Runner, Flash Gordon, Empire Strikes Back. (And beyond that, Marvel's Star Wars had some real high points. Goodwin&Williamons, Michelinie&Simonson, Golden, etc.)

But I can't believe we've gotten this far with no one mentioning the Robocop vs. Terminator (or was it the other way 'round?) miniseries. Miller writing, Simonson drawing. What more could you ask for?

--Nat (whose original art collection leans surprisingly largely to movie adaptations. Jaws II - laugh, monkeyboy, until you realize it's Colan and Palmer teamed up the way G-d meant them to be - Close Encounters by Simonson, Battlestar Galactica also by Simonson, Dragonslayer by Marie Severin... I've even got a page from Marvel's unpublished adaptation of the movie Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band.)
Nat's TV | Email | Homepage | 04.04.06 - 3:14 pm | #

Unless I missed it, I'm surprised that no one brought up Marvel's LOGAN'S RUN adaption. I think they ran it over 5 (maybe 6) issues.

Because it wasn't crammed into one Giant Sized issue they didn't have to cram scenes and were even able to use the occasional large to full page panels.

And if memory is correct, the art was done by a young George Perez.
RJM | Email | Homepage | 04.04.06 - 6:42 pm | #

I don't have it in front of me, but I recall that Disney did a very handsome prestige format adaptation of the Rocketeer movie with spiff art by Russ Heath. I'm not sure how accurate it was but it sure looked good. Holy Crap, I just remembered I wrote an adaptation of Disney's The Prince and the Pauper and I'm pretty sure it was just about the bestest, most-true-to-the-source-material comic book adaptation anyone has ever done. Honest.
Scott Saavedra | 04.04.06 - 8:56 pm | #

Chris G. - I think I'm still in shock that they ever actually did Ape Nation.

Thorpe - Don't forget I Come in Peace...a small press company adapted that, and I think Blackthorne was responsible for the Red Heat comic. Egads.

Tom B. - I'm glad I'm not the only person who bought Mad Dog. Did anyone ever actually read the non-Templeton half of those books?

Nat - The RHPS comic is mostly good for selling on the eBay, rather than actually reading. Very disappointing. And I have the Close Encounters treasury...no likeness rights, apparently, but an impressive adapatation nonetheless, particularly on those big, big pages!

Scott - If we can't get Dave Stevens Rocketeer, Russ Heath will just have to do.

RJM - I did like those Logan's Run comics...they didn't get too far into the "adventures after the movie" stuff, unfortunately.
Mikester | Homepage | 04.04.06 - 11:55 pm | #