I have the novelization of Queen Kong. And still, after reading it, I saw the movie. The time spent is now lost forever. Forever.
Joshua | Email | 06.12.08 - 2:39 am | #

I read the novelization of Burton's Batman film and thought it was superior to the movie.

A number of scenes in the movie that did not make sense such as Joker's "long-barrelled" gun disabling the Batman plane were explained in the book.
Also in the book was conversatoin between Alfred and Batman while he was in the batplane. Again, this explained the action better.

I thought the film would have been better if it followed the novelization more.

Alan
jettblackberryx | Email | 06.12.08 - 3:38 am | #

Fred Saberhagen did the novelisation of Bram Stoker's Dracula and fought hard to get the commission to write the novelisation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, just so he could have on the cover: "from the writer of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein".
Martin Wisse | Email | Homepage | 06.12.08 - 3:42 am | #

There's also direct novelisations of comic books stories. I've got and read the Death and Life of Superman one (by Roger Stern) which was pretty good. Though I'm not sure how faithful the story was because I never bought the comics.

There are other comic book novelizations as well (Crisis, Kingdom Come, erm others?). Unlike the Wild Cards series of course, which started out as novels and were then adapted into comic books.
Nimbus | Email | 06.12.08 - 3:46 am | #

I still own that first Wild Cards paperback too.
I bought the series for years but at some point I lost interest even though I was still getting the books!

I had all the Blish Star Treks too.
My mom worked for Baker&Taylor book distributors and I had 1st edition paperbacks for the Blish Star Treks (cover on the first book was different than later editions).
I know longer have the Star Treks. A Broken water pipe destroyed them.
jettblackberryx | Email | 06.12.08 - 3:51 am | #

Happy to hear the Google Reader images will start working - not that I mind checking the site, but I can't always access it at work.
Jacob | Email | Homepage | 06.12.08 - 3:59 am | #

How did the Joker's gun disable the Batwing?
Madeley | Email | Homepage | 06.12.08 - 5:03 am | #

I have the novelization of Romero's Dawn of the Dead, which is pretty darn weird. It's not that bad, though.
CW | 06.12.08 - 5:12 am | #

I've got the Batman novelization, too, but I don't remember the Batwing/gun explanation. Of course, I haven't read it for a couple of decades.
Old Bull Lee | 06.12.08 - 5:16 am | #

How did the Joker's gun disable the Batwing?

I don't recall the specifics (I may have to find the book and re-read it) but my memory seems to say that the gun fired not a regular bullet but an explosive charge of some kind that did more damage than say a .45 slug would.
I recall the dialogue in the book where Batman explains to Alfred the damage to the Batwing.
In the movie the scene was laughable.
jettblackberryx | Email | 06.12.08 - 5:16 am | #

In the movie the scene was laughable.

Unlike the rest of that highly-realistic, well-made cinematic masterpiece, of course.
Kevin Church | Email | Homepage | 06.12.08 - 5:23 am | #

I'll second the defense of Effinger's The Zork Chronicles; I thought the Wishbringer novelization was pretty good, too. I am fond of all things Infocom and delcare that we should set a time to have an all-internet Infocom blogaround week later this summer.
Professor Fury | Email | Homepage | 06.12.08 - 5:39 am | #

"Unlike the rest of that highly-realistic, well-made cinematic masterpiece, of course."

Touche! Mr. Church.

Some scenes are more laughable than others!

I should have been more succint.
a lot of the movie was laughable.
at the time I liked it, but with every viewing it rates lower and lower. True to be labeled a flawed masterpiece by future generations.
[can't believe I said that]

Alan
[says that Batman Returns is pretty crap too. Hated that film from the minute it was over]
jettblackberryx | Email | 06.12.08 - 5:48 am | #

Day of the Animals... man, that was a crappy movie. I was 11 when I saw it and still thought it sucked rocks.

...but I thought The Food of the Gods from just the year before was, like, the best movie EVER!

Ah, the capricious taste of the preadolescent...

I remember absolutely LOVING the comic adaptation of The Land That Time Forgot (I think my parents wouldn't let me see the movie at the time).
jeff wood | Email | 06.12.08 - 6:04 am | #

As a kid, I had several of the Star Trek "photonovels" (basically Star Trek fumetti in book form) and loved them. I remember reading "A Piece of the Action" and "The Devil in the Dark" until pages started falling out. In addition to the story, each book had a few pages of fun filler material. The "A Piece of the Action" book even had the rules for Fizzbin, the card game Kirk and Spock made up to fool the gangsters.
Polite Scott | Email | Homepage | 06.12.08 - 6:09 am | #

I have the novelization for the Dick Tracy film signed by Max Alan Collins. He lived in the same little Iowa town with my HS girlfriend's grandparents. She got it for me one summer.
Aaron | 06.12.08 - 6:27 am | #

I remember finding the Trek Fotonovels at the library. As a young comic fan and Trekker who hadn't seen many episodes on TV, they were fun to read and an interesting concept.

Of course, a lot of things were pretty cool before every thing in the world was available on DVD.
Old Bull Lee | 06.12.08 - 6:43 am | #

Wanted to add: "A Piece of the Action" inspired me to get fizzbin games going with my little brother. I remember getting "Amok Time" too.
Old Bull Lee | 06.12.08 - 6:44 am | #

I bought the novelization of 52 because I loved the comics so much. Greg Cox's prose really didn't do it for me. I especially didn't like that the Ralph Dibney plot was excised.
De | Email | Homepage | 06.12.08 - 6:58 am | #

I'll, uh, loan you Pete's copy of the Cat from Outer Space DVD, if you like...
Dorian | Email | Homepage | 06.12.08 - 6:59 am | #

I have early printings of two of the three Brian Daley Han Solo books and a copy of one of the Lando Calrissian books, plus reprints of each that collected the trilogies in single editions. They're both completely fun.

Lando's pre-Cloud City adventures (back when he owned the Falcon) got really existential and weird.

Of course, the avalanche of Star Wars books that have come since have pretty much invalidated them. Still, if you want a different take on the Star Wars universe I'd recommend reading the Alan Dean Foster novelization of the original movie, the three Han books, the three Lando books and "Splinter of the Mind's Eye" (which takes place in between Star Wars and Empire and in which Luke and Leia are clearly not meant to be related).

Wacky fun stuff.
Mchael | Email | Homepage | 06.12.08 - 7:50 am | #

I've always wanted to see the novelizations of REPTILICUS, GORGO, and KONGA, which were notable as novelizations of kid-friendly monster movies... which inserted gratuitous, fairly explicit, sex scenes between the characters (though not, alas, the monsters.)

That raises another kid/young adult "subgenre" of sorts: the apparently-innocuous book that includes "secret" explicitly sexy stuff (or at least explicit when you're about 12.)

My school bookstore had a rack of "reading for pleasure" paperback books clearly aimed at the middle-school/high-school boys' market... and a pretty darned good selection. I particularly liked a couple anthologies of hard-boiled detective stories. Lots of Alistair MacLean, who seems nearly forgotten today. My favorite "secret sexy" writer on that rack (though I didn't read him *for* that, exactly) was Clive Cussler, while many were partial to Ken Follett (who I never read for whatever reason.)
suedenim | Email | Homepage | 06.12.08 - 8:19 am | #

I always wonder whether those explanations in movie novelizations were made up by the novel writer saying, "This scene makes no goddamn sense at all," or if it was stuff in the script that was communicated very badly on screen. Or, at least, I did back while I was reading movie novelizations.

I'm late to the party, but I did own the novelization for Clash of the Titans, and remember it had a few of those explanatory moments. Still, the best part of it (as with many movie novelizations) was the little color insert in the middle of the book with pictures from the movie. Do they still do those? Nowadays, it seems like you can get all the pictures and more you want over the Internet, and those things were always the first things to fall out of the binding.

I had a real soft spot for those Brian Daley Han Solo novels when I was younger as well, although I can't say I understood most of what was happening in them. The one thing I remember clearly was Han Solo's advice that, "If slowing down won't help, pour it on!" which sounds like something Harrison Ford would say back when he knew how to smile.

The suggestions I can come up with for the title that don't involve coming out of it or that crappy Kirstie Allie sitcom are, "Mike Sterling's Closet of the Damned," "The Curse of Mike Sterling's Closet," "Mike Sterling and the Closet of the Crystal Skull," or "Dude, Where's Mike Sterling's Closet?"
Edward Liu | Email | Homepage | 06.12.08 - 8:36 am | #

Oh, forgot to include this link to Tony Isabella posting about those monster-movie novelizations:

http:// www.worldfamouscomics.com...k20060224.shtml
suedenim | Email | Homepage | 06.12.08 - 8:36 am | #

Has anyone read the novelization of one of my favorite films "Escape From New York?" I heard it's good and offers a lot of background information about hat happened to all of America in the film, not just New York.
Ian Brill | Email | Homepage | 06.12.08 - 8:46 am | #

Michael beat me to mentioning "Splinter of the Mind's Eye," the Star Wars book that was definitely written before Mr. Lucas told anyone how things really worked in the Skywalker family. Besides the troubling Luke/Leia action, I seem to remember Darth Vader losing an arm.

You should take Dorian up on his offer to watch "Cat from Outer Space." I loved that movie as a child. I think I might Nextflix it and see if it holds up. Condorman, too, if it's out on DVD. Disney made some really fun live-action movies back in the day.
david z. | Email | 06.12.08 - 8:47 am | #

The only movie adaptation novel that sticks in my memory was for a movie I never saw: Condorman, some sort of Disney live-action adventure movie. The hero was a comic book creator who had all of the gear of his eponymous hero, because, as a dedicated artist, he had to make sure it worked in real life. He gets into some kind of generic trouble and, shocker, has to play Condorman for real.

I bought it from one of those school book order forms, and upon reading it, was torn. The high concept was straight out of my elementary school daydreams, but the story was crap. Alas. A friend of mine who did see the movie as a young'un vouches for its awfulness.

True fact: the Buckaroo Banzai movie adaptation was reprinted recently. I bought me a copy. Along with a Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems t-shirt. "A Growing Excited Company!" Hell yeah!
Harvey Jerkwater | Email | 06.12.08 - 9:09 am | #

There were two versions of the Superman III adaptation, something I didn't know until I picked up a copy in a used bookstore. Presumably, one was for the younger set, though reading it as a 9-year-old, I didn't see anything objectionable.

The one line I had memorized that was missing from the expurgated version was a bit of dialogue from the bank robbery during the whole "Hilarity in Metropolis" opening of the movie:

"I'm froze, buddy, like a plastic turd, okay?"

I immediately checked out any other Kotzwinkle books I could get my hands on. The man can turn a phrase.
Jeff Sparkman | Email | Homepage | 06.12.08 - 9:36 am | #

To my surprise, there's actually a new V novel out there--I saw the author signing copies at Book Expo America. It's called V: The Second Generation. I think he's trying to pitch a sequel TV series, too.

In other comments, I fondly remember Max Allan Collins's Dick Tracy adaptation, and remember being unable to stop myself from reading the novelization for The Empire Strikes Back before seeing the movie (the book was released first, I believe).

Oh, and I remember the Star Trek II adaptation being particularly good and having some back story (the young ensign who was killed early on was Scotty's nephew in the book, IIRC) that was interesting to me at the time.
Rob | Email | Homepage | 06.12.08 - 9:46 am | #

I love love love the Daley Han Solo books, and was just about to sit down and reread them this week (haven't read them in a few years). I loved that Daley found grist for the mill everywhere--even in the stripe that ran down the side of Han's pants, and how he wore his guns. Fantastic.
gorjus | Email | Homepage | 06.12.08 - 9:52 am | #

Batman came out the summer before 8th grade, so I was old enough for PG-13 to not be an issue with my parents, but an R rating was nearly inviolate to them... it had to be either very educational (like Glory) or not really all that bad (Stand By Me, Good Morning Vietnam) to get them to let me see something with an R rating. So, you don't have to feel *that* old. Just a little old.

I had copies of the Han Solo books, and Splinter of the Mind's Eye, too, but I never did get around to reading them.

Anyone ever read any of the novels based on The Prisoner? They basically come right out and say that #6 was John Drake from Danger Man, despite everything Patrick McGoohan has always said to the contrary.
Bill D. | Email | Homepage | 06.12.08 - 10:19 am | #

Lois Lane says a dirty word in Miracle Monday. I saw that as the start of the Grim 'n' Gritty style of comics.
Sleestak | Email | Homepage | 06.12.08 - 10:27 am | #

Rob: The author of V: The Second Generation is none other than V's creator Kenneth Johnson.
De | Email | Homepage | 06.12.08 - 11:51 am | #

Maggin's Last Son of Krypton and Miracle Monday are two of the three best Superman stories of all time -- the third, of course, being Superman vs. Muhammad Ali.

I was going to specify the best Bronze Age Superman stories, but, hell, I can't think of any before or since that really match them.

Except, possibly "The K-Metal from Krypton!"
Your Obedient Serpent | Email | 06.12.08 - 12:05 pm | #

Your Obedient Serpent - That there was never a Superman Vs. Muhammad Ali movie is one of modern culture's greatest disappointments.
Mikester | Homepage | 06.12.08 - 12:50 pm | #

Kotzwinkle is awesome! I hope you've read The Bear Went Over the Mountain, which is truly wonderful, and The Midnight Examiner, which is one of the funniest books I've read in my life, brilliant screwball/slapstick throughout.

Regarding weird Grease adaptations -- I used to own the fumetti version. When I was, like, nine! Lots of strange sexual innuendo for a kid of that age to try to dope out. The chicks'll... what??

I too had the Unidentified Flying Oddball novelization. Even more obscure: I had the Condorman novelization, too! At least I saw Oddball; I have never seen, and likely never will see, Condorman. I have a strangely specific memory of reading part of this book while at the Baskin Robbins in Ventura, eating pink bubblegum ice cream.
Tom the Dog | Email | Homepage | 06.12.08 - 1:33 pm | #

Condorman is a personal favorite of mine. I was five years old when it came out, so I wasn't bothered by the overwhelming cheesiness of the lead actor. It is the Disney equivalent of a Roger Moore era gadget-laden Bond film (i.e. Moonraker, also a big one for kid Fnord), without all the sex, of course.

The only Kozwinkle book I ever read was the Fan Man. I didn't know he also wrote novelizations. I'll keep an eye out for them at the used book store, along with the Blade Runner sequels by the excellent and underexposed K. W. Jeter.
Fnord Serious | Email | 06.12.08 - 1:54 pm | #

I sincerely hope, if there WAS an ALIEN novelization meant for younger readers, that it wasn't the one I read, because that book scared the living crap out of me when I read it in seventh grade.
BRD | Email | 06.12.08 - 2:00 pm | #

weird. I actually have most of the books mentioned in this post on my bookshelf at home. I bring out the Maggin Superman books every now and again, but haven't read any of the others since the 80's. I'm going to have to see if they hold up.
R Miller | 06.12.08 - 3:41 pm | #

"I sincerely hope, if there WAS an ALIEN novelization meant for younger readers, that it wasn't the one I read, because that book scared the living crap out of me when I read it in seventh grade."


The novelization of ALIEN scared me and I was 19!
Ironically, the scene that scared me the most were NOT in the original film. (It was deleted scene!)

I don't think there was a "kiddie version" novel.
Robert Alan Bryan | Email | 06.12.08 - 4:38 pm | #

No one's mentioned the Star Trek: The Motion Picture adaptation by Gene Roddenberry, which frequently uses italics AND exclamation points in the narrative to let you know how mind-blowingly awesome something is supposed to be.

I read the local library's copy of Miracle Monday so ragged that eventually the librarian just gave it to me. A few years later my younger brother got me a pristine new copy through his middle school's book fair. My brother is awesome.

The V novelization was notorious at my junior high for its one out-of-nowhere explicit sex scene. I may or may not have been the cause of this notoriety.

The Kingdom Come novel by Elliot S! Maggin is quite good and expands on lots of stuff only hinted at in the comics and has lots of new scenes and background as well.
Matter-Eater Lad | Email | Homepage | 06.12.08 - 4:42 pm | #

I think it ironic that Laan Dean Foster also Ghost Wrote the novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture...
Dougals | Email | Homepage | 06.12.08 - 5:21 pm | #

Holy typos, Batman!

But, you get the point, misplaced "L" or not...

*sigh*
Dougals | Email | Homepage | 06.12.08 - 5:22 pm | #

"I am fond of all things Infocom and delcare that we should set a time to have an all-internet Infocom blogaround week later this summer."

I'm in!

The mention of Saberhagen's Bram Stoker's Dracula reminds me of another entry in the "novelization of a movie based on a novel" category: I'm pretty sure I used to have a couple of James Bond books that were novelizations instead of Ian Fleming originals. But I can't remember which ones, so it doesn't make much of an anecdote.
Monty Ashley | Email | Homepage | 06.12.08 - 6:25 pm | #

Battle for the Planet of the Apes! I forgot the Battle for the Planet of the Apes novelization I got from Scholastic in fourth or fifth grade. Loved that.

Wasn't the 2001: A Space Odyssey novel based on the movie? I read that one a few times when I was a kid. Never understood it.
Mag | Email | Homepage | 06.12.08 - 7:47 pm | #

I concur that the Alien novelization scared the poop out of me (I was working midnights as Security in a precious metals plant and each corridor had an Alien in them.)

I liked those Mars Attacks novels that came out. I think you got a trading card with them.

My recent pride & joy purchase has been 2 Dirty Harry & a Bionic Woman novelization found over here in Japan, in a store that sold NO foreign books apart from those 3!
Michael Sensei | Email | Homepage | 06.12.08 - 8:15 pm | #

Monty,
There was a Moonraker adaptation that I had, and I believe the same writer did an earlier The Spy Who Loved Me novelization. Actually made a fair amount of sense for those two films in particular, as those movies had almost nothing (Moonraker) or literally nothing whatsoever (TSWLM) to do with Fleming's novels.

One thing I'm realizing about these threads is that I read a heck of a lot of novelizations as a kid, more than I would've thought.

The Star Trek movie novelizations, as noted by others, often had some interesting bits. Even the Star Trek V adaptation, which I remember having an explicit undercurrent of "So, Vulcan society is actually more f'ed up than they let on, huh?"

For more oddities, I had the Supergirl novelization, which I believe might have come out many months before the movie itself (which had big distribution problems). I don't think I actually saw the movie until several years later.
suedenim | Email | 06.12.08 - 8:27 pm | #

re: The Grease novel with lyrics. Haven't read that, but I did glance through the Dreamgirls novel in a Borders, and it had lyrics included in the prose. Very odd.
Tosy and Cosh | Email | Homepage | 06.13.08 - 11:37 am | #

"Anyone ever read any of the novels based on The Prisoner? They basically come right out and say that #6 was John Drake from Danger Man"

Thomas Disch's Prisoner novel certainly doesn't. Number Six isn't even in it, if I recall correctly.
JET | Email | 06.14.08 - 4:34 am | #

Hell if I remember anything about the Superman IV novel. I *think* there was just the one Nuclear-y dude.

Beats me on the deleted scenes-- it's been years and years since I read the book, and even longer since I've seen the movie.
Bill Reed | Email | Homepage | 06.16.08 - 7:30 pm | #