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Post by foxley on Dec 16, 2018 17:32:03 GMT -5
9. James Bond 007: Serpent's Tooth #1 - 3 (Dark Horse, 1992) I am a big fan of James Bond (both Fleming's novels and the movies, although I regard them as two completely separate entities), but I have always found the comic adaptations of the films to be somewhat underwhelming. For some reason, the action displayed on the big screen does not transfer well to the comics page. This miniseries is essentially a Bond movie designed for the comics page. It contains all of the action, exotic locales, creepy bad guys, sexy women, etc. associated with a Bond film, but structured in such a way that it plays out perfectly within the limitations of the panels, gutters, and pages of a comic. In fact, I think this story would not work on the big screen, as it so perfectly constructed to be a comic book. But, to my mind, it is a near perfect melding of the two media. And if ever there was a book that Paul Gulacy was born to illustrate, it's this one.
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Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
Making comics!
Posts: 3,958 
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Post by Crimebuster on Dec 16, 2018 18:11:48 GMT -5
9. Glenn Scarpelli in Hollywood
9. Rom #40-41(Marvel, 1983) Rom has a lot of great things hidden in its pages. Initially a take on Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the shape-shifting Dire Wraiths took on a whole new dark dimension of evil partway through the series when the White Wraiths, a sub-species that had harnessed the power of black sorcery, were introduced. In Rom #40, a strange Pied Piper shows up, leading the children of humanity to their doom. Rom discovers the Piper is actually a White Wraith witch in disguise; the wraiths are sacrificing humanity's children to an ancient evil beyond the realm of time and space in order to summon him to Earth. An ancient terror called... The Dweller on the Threshhold!  Created by Edward Bulwer-Lytton in his 1842 novel Zanoni, The Dweller on the Threshhold attempts to enter Earth's realm to devour humanity's children. In order to stop him, Rom jumps through the portal and faces him in the space between realms. Their battle then catches the attention of Doctor Strange.  By the time it's all done, the Living Tribunal has intervened, Doctor Strange has faced off against the IN-Betweener, and Rom has once again banished the Dweller from whence he came... for now!! For what it's worth, the era of Rom boasts what I consider to be the best work of Sal Buscema's career, thanks to the inking team of Ian Akin and Brian Garvey. Akin & Garvey really elevate Buscema's work here, as you can see from the samples I've provided. Really great stuff! |
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Post by hondobrode on Dec 16, 2018 19:41:16 GMT -5
9. Tales From the Bully Pulpit (Image 2004)  An absurdist one-shot from Image of Teddy Roosevelt utilizing H.G. Wells’ time machine and reaching out to the ghost of Thomas Edison. The team then advances into the future to find Hitler’s descendent, Jorge Hitler, in Argentina ( you know, where Hitler went after WW II ), allying himself with the green Martians to overthrow Mars by suppressing the blue martians. There are guest appearances by Herr Gerbils, Julius Caesar, Chairman Mao, Chairman Meow, Golaith of Gath, Saddam Hussein, Theseus, Marcus Tullius Cicero, Paul Bunyan, Ben Franklin, and Abraham Lincoln.  Can’t believe there hasn’t been a sequel or a movie. |
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Post by Phil Maurice on Dec 16, 2018 19:50:24 GMT -5
9. The Three Stooges (St. John, 1949)
Spread out! This one I hope needs little in the way of explanation. Everyone knows The Three Stooges, even those poor, misguided souls who despise them ("Where's your dignity?"). Since the late 1940s, the trio have appeared in scores of comics, but we will focus our attention on the 1949 series from St. John, which ran for two issues. Writer and artist Norman Maurer was the son-in-law of Moe Howard, having married Howard's daughter Joan in 1947. Thus began his lifelong association with the Stooges, and this is his first attempt to translate their comedy to the comic book form. Setting this series apart from many later ones is the fact that Maurer directly adapts several of the classic short films that the Stooges made for Columbia Pictures, such as "Uncivil Warriors," "Three Missing Links" and the delightful "Hoi Polloi." Working from the scripts of the films, he is able to keep the Stooges mostly "on-model." Everything we love about the Stooges is here represented, the insane premises, the appalled upper classes, the eye-poking violence, and. . . Curly! Though health concerns had caused him to step away from the team four years earlier, Jerome Howard is hale and hearty in these stories, at least until Moe gets his mitts on him (Shemp would replace him in St. John's second series in 1953). Maurer's cartoony style suits the material, and his love of the team and their hi-jinks shows through. Most important of all, it's funny. And if you need another reason to track these down, Maurer got a cartoonist friend to contribute some non-Stooges material, a guy named Joe Kubert. |
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Post by Farrar on Dec 16, 2018 20:04:34 GMT -5
#9 A Date With Judy National (DC), 1947 series  A Date with Judy was an extremely popular radio show (1941-1950) that was spun off into other media such as film and television. But before the 1948 film and the 1951-3 TV series, there was Judy the comic book, published by good old National. The Judy comic lasted from 1948 to 1961, 79 issues in all. Most of the covers and art is credited to Graham Place, and later on it seems that Bob Oksner did some of the later covers and interior art. The stories I've read seem fairly teen-romantic-comedy formulaic. So why is this series a favorite adaptation of mine? For nostalgic reasons. Thanks to The Untouchables reruns, as a teen I became a huge Robert Stack fan and so I sought out his movies wherever I could. One of those movies was A Date With Judy on late night TV , starring then-teenagers Elizabeth Taylor and Jane Powell (as Judy) and 28-year old Robert Stack as the object of their affections. When I was older I became curious about other versions of this material, which led me to the comic. 
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Dec 16, 2018 20:33:26 GMT -5
Phil Maurice and Farrer should not be allowed to post next too each other. I get confused by the old-school Namor.
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Post by DubipR on Dec 16, 2018 20:51:35 GMT -5
#9- SUPERMAN: WAR OF THE WORLDS1998 Written by: Roy Thomas Drawn by: Michael Lark Adapted from: War of the Worlds by HG Wells  HG Well's science fiction classic comes to the DCU circa 1938 when an alien invasion crashes into Metropolis. As the citizens are running for their lives, one of the death rays hits reporter Clark Kent, who doesn't disintegrate like all the other citizens. The Man of Steel versus Well's monsters for the battle of the earth. Roy Thomas weaves Wells' legendary tale into something that's truly a great Golden Age Superman story. No major powered Kal-El, just flight and super strength to battle the martians. What's so good about this one-shot is Thomas tweaking but leaving the story pretty much the same; names and faces are different but the rest is all Wells ala Thomas. Michael Lark's pencils and inks are stellar, recreating the golden age look only he knows how to.
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Post by Phil Maurice on Dec 16, 2018 21:03:24 GMT -5
Phil Maurice and Farrar should not be allowed to post next to each other. I get confused by the old-school Namor. A lot of people say they can't tell us apart, but we really couldn't be more different. Farrar's had his appendix out, and I'm left-handed. Hope that helps.  |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Dec 16, 2018 21:50:49 GMT -5
On the Fourth Day of Christmas, Santa brought unto me the holy spear once wielded by Longinus... Parsifal adapted by P. Craig Russell and Patrick C. Mason; Star* Reach; 1978 (originally serialized in Star *Reach #8 and #10 (1977)  Based on the second act of Wagner’s Parsifal, in turn based on the poem by Wolfram Eschenbach, in turn based on the grail romances by Chretien de Troyes  At university, I took a course on Myth, Saga and Romance in which I first read Eschenbach and Chretien de Troyes (and the Nibelungenlied to complete the Wagner/PCR connection), which is right around the time I got my first taste of operatic comics with the Thomas/Kane adaptation published by DC the same year. It was later I discovered PCR’s operatic adaptations, and his Ring cycle and Parsifal vie neck and neck for my favorite of these, and I knew the Ring was going to get some love here based on past experiences, so I chose Parsifal to make my final 12. I have always been fond of grail stories, and the Arthurian cycle in particular, but also of the Fisher King, and the spear of Longinus and the Wandering Jew myth are two of my favorite elements of folklore, and all of these are represented in Parsifal (though in this case the Wandering Jew elements are in the form of the witch Kundry). Mason’s adaptation is skillful and adept, and Russell is reaching the early part of the peak of his career, his illustrations, layouts and storytelling are superb, and he is just beginning to experiment with color in his overall artistic package, which brings another level of enjoyment to this work. -M I...need...this!! I second this! Damn, how did I not know about this? |
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 16, 2018 22:39:25 GMT -5
I talked about it in my other Guys thread; that's what happens when you don't do the required reading!
Eclipse reprinted it in their Star*Reach Classics, which reprinted stories fro Star*Reach, Imagine, and Quack.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Dec 16, 2018 22:45:15 GMT -5
On the fourth day of Christmas I present to thee Star Wars: Splinter of the Mind's Eye1996 What kid didn't love Star Wars growing up? I know I did, and the novel Splinter of the Mind's Eye by Alan Dean Forester was one of the first novels I read and I loved how it expanded the universe I loved. In 1996 that love got larger as Terry Austin and Chris Sprouse adapted the novel into an amazingly faithful comic that made me feel like I was seeing the book on the big screen at last. While I've read hundreds of Star Wars comics since, I revisit this one the most and the reason is simple, I love how it continues to inspire elements of Star Wars even after all these years later. Everytime I reread it I see something like Leia's powers or Kyber crystals and love looking at how those ideas have changed over time.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 17, 2018 0:07:44 GMT -5
#9- SUPERMAN: WAR OF THE WORLDS1998 Written by: Roy Thomas Drawn by: Michael Lark Adapted from: War of the Worlds by HG Wells HG Well's science fiction classic comes to the DCU circa 1938 when an alien invasion crashes into Metropolis. As the citizens are running for their lives, one of the death rays hits reporter Clark Kent, who doesn't disintegrate like all the other citizens. The Man of Steel versus Well's monsters for the battle of the earth. Roy Thomas weaves Wells' legendary tale into something that's truly a great Golden Age Superman story. No major powered Kal-El, just flight and super strength to battle the martians. What's so good about this one-shot is Thomas tweaking but leaving the story pretty much the same; names and faces are different but the rest is all Wells ala Thomas. Michael Lark's pencils and inks are stellar, recreating the golden age look only he knows how to. This was on the initial list of titles I was considering for this event, but got edged out by the sheer volume of stuff I wanted to include, so I am glad to see someone bringing attention to it. Lark's work on this is magnificent. -M |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Dec 17, 2018 5:53:18 GMT -5
I talked about it in my other Guys thread; that's what happens when you don't do the required reading! Eclipse reprinted it in their Star*Reach Classics, which reprinted stories fro Star*Reach, Imagine, and Quack. It can also be found in the P. Craig Russell library of opera adaptations vol. 2, from NBM publishing. |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Dec 17, 2018 6:06:24 GMT -5
Star Wars: Splinter of the Mind's Eye
This is one I'd really love to eventually read; back in the day, in the years just after Star Wars came out, I was a huge fan and ate up anything and everything Star Wars, so I bought the novel and devoured it (I recall there being some buzz for a while that the story would even be adapted into the sequel rather than Empire). I'm nowhere as big a Star Wars fan now (I'm basically Team Trek), but I still have soft spot in my heart for Splinter of the Mind's Eye. |
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Post by brutalis on Dec 17, 2018 8:44:01 GMT -5
9. Richard Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung adapted by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane. 1989-1990Taking the grand Operatic theme of Nordic mythology artist Gil Kane puts pencil to paper in this frenetic adaptation. the Ring Cycle has never been grander and more majestic than this. Thomas writing is spot on for the flow and rhythm of capturing the essence of this fantasy opera. These 4 issues create the mythical world many have only heard and created within their own dreams to life with Kane's incredible artwork. It is a visceral work that was amazing and stupendous reading when it came out.
Put on your Ring Cycle opera recording and ride along with the Valkyries as Siegfrid and his love Brunhild struggle against Odin, Fafnir and life itself... |
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