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Thursday, February 25, 2010

Books Comic Book Review: The Boom! Adaptations

Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, Feb 25, 2010 at 2:32 PM

Comic book adaptations of movies and TV shows are tough. For the most part, they're just some slagged-off work-for-hire product thrown together to fulfill a contract. Boom! Studios is a fledgling comic company that seems to be sticking around for the long run—a rarity for the field, where long-lasting major publishers only seem to erupt once every two decades or so—and they've succeeded so far, for the most part, on the backs of their adaptations. Here's what I think of them:

The best part of the film 28 Days Later was its kinetic energy, the way the monsters and the protagonists were always moving. Obviously, that's not the ideal situation for a comic book. And the first couple of issues of the 28 Days Later comic do have that kind of setup—someone says something like "Look! They're coming right at us!" and then there's a drawing of a running zombie. But eventually, the writer and artist find their own way through the material, and by the end of the first 28 Days Later collection, the book has developed its own unique flavor: It's a comic book about survival and grief, with flashbacks and treachery and enormous explosions. Kirkman's Walking Dead is still the best zombie comic around, but I'm pleased to report that there's room for two distinct post-zombocalypse comics.

Boom! also holds the license for continuations of Pixar movies. I was disappointed by both the Finding Nemo comic and the Incredibles comic because I enjoyed the movies so much. They're solid comics for kids—although Nemo especially loses a lot in the transition from movies to comics; it's just page after page of fish-like shapes floating in the middle of a field of blue—but they're not really anything more than that. They don't hold up on re-reading, and they're of virtually no interest for adults.

The best adaptation Boom! puts out—and I've said this before—is Roger Langridge's Muppet Show book, which is now in its third collected volume. Langridge holds true to the characters—I never thought anyone could make a funny Swedish Chef gag strip, but I was wrong—and he optimizes the experience for the comic book page. Every other page is a song-and-dance routine set to verse or a daredevil act, and it actually improves on re-reading. If you have kids, you should get them this comic book immediately, and if you love the Muppets, you'll love this comic, too.

Comments (3) RSS

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The Muppet Show comic book is terrific. It's very, very muppety.

Posted by Monty on February 25, 2010 at 8:12 PM

Yes, Boom! has some great titles, but they've completely ruined the mainstay Disney books - Mickey Mouse, Uncle Scrooge, Walt Disney's Comics & Stories, etc. They're either super-dumbed down (even for kids) European reprints, or modernized ripoffs of things kids like, like Harry Potter. I've bought every Disney title since Gladstone revitalized the line in the 80s, but I can't make myself spend three bucks a title for this shit.

The covers are often nice, though.

Posted by Chris in Kansas on February 26, 2010 at 8:13 AM

People keep recommending The Walking Dead to me. I keep asking, "Is it still about the zombiepocalypse? Yeah, no thanks." This idea was done to death, with very rare exceptions, with Night of the Living Dead. 28 Days Later was another sleepy zombie movie. The comic would have to far exceed it, to the point of completely reimagining it, to be good.

The Muppet Show looks fun though.

Posted by Tremodian on February 26, 2010 at 3:40 PM