This issue: The Major Spoilers Crew discuss what television shows would make a great comic book.
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16 Comments
I thought I should chime in while I download the podcast.
“Lost” would be a good show, get Lindelof to write it, he did good on Hulk/Wolverine(when it came out), just so we could have more Dharma Times; “Madmen”, have a rotating stable of writers and artists doing arcs dealing with the guys and dolls selling products and them selves, get Ed Brubaker, and Alan Davis to do Joan and Don a great service.
Thanks yall for doing such a great podcast.
When you were talking about video game characters being put into comics, I would have to say that it generally doesn’t work. I remember owning a Nintendo comic when I was a kid. There was a comic in it involving the characters from the GameBoy game Super Mario Word. It was awful. The characters shot out of the GameBoy and took over a space shuttle (no joke). NASA panics and then Mario saves the day. THE END.
that’s like saying superhero movies don’t work because of Steel. http://www.majorspoilers.com/archives/35544.htm/
Just because it’s been done poorly in the past doesn’t mean it won’t work ever.
No, it’s more like watching Super Mario Bros. the Movie, Sonic the Hedgehog the Movie, the Resident Evil films, Dungeons and Dragons the Movie, BloodRayne, House of the Dead, Mortal Kombat (1 and 2), Street Fighter, and then deciding that video games don’t make good films.
The reason is because the games tell their stories well enough on their own.
So do comics, and Spider-Man was still a good movie. If everyone looked at the previous failures and decided ‘oh well, this probably just won’t work’ we wouldn’t have airplanes. It’s defeatist. The way to look at it is “What would it take to make a good video game movie?” And then follow that train of thought.
You are wrong. Video games do not work and will never work as a comic book. The history of horrible video game based comics, novels, and films all prove this. By saying “Just because it hasn’t worked in the past doesn’t mean it will never work” is merely grasping at straws. The reason they will always fail is because the story and the game play are both intertwined. Take out being able to play as Dante in “Devil May Cry” and all you have is a thin storyline with little character exploration. The same reasoning applies to the Final Fantasy games. The game play has been the key to the series’ success. Take out the player interactivity and you have a thin, very cliche story with disconnected and incoherent character development.
You are wrong. Video games do not work and will never work as a comic book.
Absolutes are a very good way to make me stop listening to even the most well-reasoned argument…
Yay! I argument is well reasoned!
Yay! I argument is well reasoned!
I even agree with a lot of it… :) I made similar points during the podcast about translating video games to comics. But saying that something will never work is self-defeating. It’s like saying that no one will ever run a 4 minute mile, something that was scientifically proven to be impossible at one time.
Honestly, I spent my entire childhood hoping that each video game crossover would be awesome, falling for the hype surrounding it. And each time I was disappointed–every single time. Since then I vowed never to expect anything good to ever come from media related to a video game or video game franchise. And since that moment I have been right every single time. So yeah, I’m not changing my mind on this anytime soon. No more false hope for me, thank you!
Wow i was just expecting like a list tagged onto one of the feedback podcasts but instead got a whole Saturday show YAY! I liked your points and definitely think that over the top soaps would fit the bill perfectly. I still think that Scrubs would work. The characterisms (thats not a word) in Doc Horrible and The Guild make them awesome and they ported over to comics well. Imagine Sarah Chalk on a comic book cover…droool!
While I’m not sure of the logic of saying that a show like Scrubs wouldn’t work as a comic book because it’s a character drama, but soaps would work, I think you may not exactly be wrong. As the World Turns is probably not the best choice because it’s very character based… something more like Days of Our Lives that is more plot oriented would be an interesting property.
I also cracked up on the subway when Matthew got dangerously close to suggesting that maybe digital comics might be a not horrible idea… I could just picture the grin appearing on Steven’s face. :)
I think it would play better as ‘The Young Golden Girls’.
I always thought Iron Maiden’s mascot Eddie would be great in a comic, with a rich visual history that could be built into a bizarre continuity of sorts. Perhaps he’d work well as a horror host for an anthology series with Maiden songs as inspiration for the tales.
To answer Rodrigo’s question there is a legend of zelda manga just search amazon under books and you’ll find them. They are actually pretty good.
The game Infamous would make a great comic book but that was because the game was supposed to be like a comic book.
First I want to say that Legend of Zelda was turned into a comic in the pages of Nintendo Power in the early 90’s. I believe it made it to about 12 issues and was rather entertaining.
Video games that made the jump to comics that I know of are:
Street Fighter
Darkstalkers
Tomb Raider
God of War
Doom
Mortal Kombat
Space Ace/Dragon’s Lair
Worlds of Warcraft
Gears of War
Halo
Castlevania
Gon (not sure if the manga or Tekken was first)
Legend of Zelda (in Nintendo Power)
Star Fox (in Nintendo Power)
Battletoads
Double Dragon
Shinobi
Sonic the Hedgehog
Well, I liked the Mortal Kombat movie. So much for my carreer as an amateur movie reviewer. :D I’ll just have to settle for listening to the Dexter102 talking with his voice.