lol, you're harsh on outland like I am on allred  , since the film attempted to be 1950's film noire in space, but yes, i believe it was collected into a graphic novel

My childhood best friend back in the early '80s had this! We used to love reading it. Recently, I've been eyeing copies on eBay and been thinking of pulling the trigger. Judging from your post, it still holds up pretty well to adult eyes, yes?

Although, come to think of it, it was pretty adult anyway. Isn't there a huge full page splash of a woman flashing her boobies? That seems to stick in my memory.

I've always enjoyed Outland, the film.  It's High Noon, mixed with a few other things; but, it's a pretty realistic depiction of what a mining colony would probably be like.  Some excellent work from Peter Boyle and Frances Sternhagen, also James B Sikking and Stephen Berkoff.  Connery is a little overly low  key, in many scenes.  Felt like one he did for the money, which has never resulted in a great performance from him.  Peter Hyams also did 2010 and he had a feel for realistic future technology.

The Steranko adaptation has been collected in Europe and elsewhere, but not the US.  Steranko also repeated that kind of layout/storytelling device in the Superman story he did for Superman #400



Not quite as complex, here, but of the same vein.

Speaking of adaptations, you can't forget some of the ones that came years after the film, like Mike Kaluta's illustrated version of Metropolis (with Thea von Harbour's novel and Fritz Lang's images) and John J Muth's adaptation of Fritz Lang's M, at Eclipse.

Don't forget about the comic book adaptation of Superman IV Quest for Peace. The comic had the weird Frankenstein monster type clone at the dance night club and Lex Luthor was bald and way different than the Gene Hackman Lex Luthor

Great thread! In many cases, I actually read these comic adaptations long before actually seeing the film itself (this was especially true for the films that were rated R).  These were almost the de-facto "movies on VHS tape" before I had a VCR.

I felt the The '79 Alien adaptation (w/art by Walt Simonson) was stellar, and in some ways better than the film itself.  I also appreciated that this included some scenes that were cut from the final film.  This was reprinted back in 2012.

However, most of these Marvel Super Specials have never been reprinted. Here are some of these 1980's comic book movie adaptations I would like to see again:

Blade Runner by Goodwin/Williamson: Stellar, and definitely one of the most memorable from this time period. Anything drawn by Williamson was great anyway, but combine that with an adaptation of one of the best sci-fi films all time and you have a real winner.

For Your Eyes Only: Excellent, and IIRC this is one of the few James Bond films that was actually adapted as a comic.

Dragonslayer: Really enjoy '80's fantasies, and IMHO this was one of the best movies & adaptations.

Outland:  Amazing art by Steranko.  This adaptation rivals the film itself.

Dune: Amazing art by the iconic Bill Sienciewicz, this may have actually been superior to the film...

The Conan the Barbarian movie adaptation (1982): I liked the movie & also enjoyed this comic back in the day. IIRC, at one time I had the two-issue limited series. I liked that the the art was by Conan regular John Buscema, and because of this it seemed like the type of story that would fit into the regular Conan comics @ the time (CTB & SSOC), continuity issues notwithstanding. Would like to see this reprinted at some point, though it seems as if it's too short to justify even reprinting in a small TPB.

Here's a link with info./covers on all of the Marvel Super Specials from back in the day:

marvel.wikia.com/Marvel_Comics_Super_Special_Vol_1

Bond was adapted in the British comic strip; but, those were based more on the novels.  The DC adaptation of Dr No was actually a reprint of a British comic.  Marvel also did Octopussy, in Marvel Super Special, and Eclipse di License to Kill, with Mike Grell and Tom Yeates.

DC was never very big on them, until the 80s, especially after getting the Star Trek license.  They seemed to take the view of "Why split profit with the owner?"  They didn't adapt Superman I or II; just did a "making of" treasury.  They seemed to prefer doing the celebrity licensed comic, like Bob Hope and Jerry Lewis, as well as tv, like Isis and Welcome Back Kotter.  The earlier ones did far better than the later ones.

Western (Dell/Gold Key/Western/Whitman) had the advantage, since they were on the West Coast, and had the Hollywood conections, putting out licensed comics based on tv and movie properties (Disney being the biggest license).