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  1. #1
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    Default Marvel Adaptations (TV and Beyond)

    Ok, so I bought some comics today and they put a free Marvel Preview in my bag. One part was of a Stephen King Dark Tower thing and the other was related to the TV show Revenge. Now...personally, I've watched that show once and can barely remember what it was about, but that's besides the point. I know Marvel has also done comics related to Dexter and Castle. And I think this in principle is a good thing. Not everyone is into superheroes and if you want to bring new fans into the comics industry, you've got to give them a variety of content.

    My "problem" is that I don't think these things get anywhere near the same amount of promotion as their superhero events. Whether it's these TV tie ins, the OZ books, the Anita Blake stuff...it's like I go into the store and by accident see them. Now, maybe it's me and I'm not going to the right websites or whatever, but I think they could do more to hype these things. Back in the 70's-mid 80's Marvel did all kinds of adaptations from Raiders of the Lost Ark to The Muppets Movie to Xanadu, but that's back when random people would see comics at the corner drug store or 7-11 and just pick them up if they caught their eye. Today it's different, folks aren't going to just go into a comics store unless that have a good reason.


    So anyway, I was wondering what other people thought. Has anyone one read the Dexter and Castle comics? Are there any adaptations new or old that you like? Should Marvel (and DC) do more of these? What could be good adaptations that might attract non-fans? More importantly...How could they promote these thing better?

  2. #2
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    They usually promote these adaptations when the TV shows are still running weekly. For example, the Castle book by Bendis appeared in one of the episode because it was released at the right time, and Castle wasn't a stranger to these type of promotions. Also, the Castle book was actually a comic adaptation of the Derrick Storm novel series, which was a series written by the character, Richard Castle, before the story in the show started, so it worked just as well as the Nikki Heat novel series.

    The Dark Tower comic series was hyped to hell back when it was first announced. There were plenty of interviews, and they continued by adapting another book by Stephen King called "N". Those were proper adaptation, however, not TV tie-ins, like the Heroes comics were.

    Revenge, Castle and Once Upon A Time are all shows that are airing on Disney's ABC channel, so aside from the fact that it's easier to deal with the licensing, I would suppose that there are promotions via TV ads. Or at the very least, ads on their respective websites. Besides, the fans of the shows, who are definitely the target audience, would be aware of any kind of comic adaptations.

    Dexter is not a usual adaptation, in the sense that it was written by the series's original author, and thus the book took place in the novel's continuum, not the TV show's.

    Personally, I feel that there is no benefit to doing a comic adaptation while the TV show is still running, unless your main intention is to promote the TV show. They are usually mini-series with only a handful of issues, and their messages are always, "if you wanna see more of these characters, check out the TV show". The only exception might be Doctor Who, which is always an ongoing series. Also, you will encounter tons of problems, ranging from continuity problems to not getting the character's voices right to having the comics be plot heavy with minimum character development. The only ones that were done right are the Buffy comics that was produced and written by Joss Whedon, the creator of the TV series, and the Smallville comic, which is written by Bryan Miller, who worked on the Smallville TV series. Both of these examples are actually continuation of the TV series after their series finale, and were/are written by their original writers, so they were/are easy to accept, even desired, by fans.

    If you really don't want to read comics of the superheroes genre, there are plenty of other comics out there besides Marvel and DC. Seconds by Bryan Lee O'Malley just came out this month. Check with your comic store. If you want something that's more similar to what you find on TV, The Walking Dead is a good bet. You might spoil your TV experience, though. Fox's Sleepy Hollow is also getting a comic adaptation from BOOM! Studios, but I'm afraid it might read like a fan-fic. Technically, cartoons comics are also TV series adaptation, so I would recommend Avatar: The Last Airbender from Dark Horse comics, which is again written by the creators, and read just as well as the TV series was. Marvel has also announced 3 Star Wars series at the recent comic-con, whose writers include Jason Aaron, Kieron Gillen, and Mark Waid. Look forward to that.

    tl;dr
    Comic adaptation of TV series are just tie-ins. They are there to add to the lore of the TV series and usually, also to promote the TV show to comic fans, not to stand on their own. There are exceptions, like when the TV series has clearly ended. In those cases, the comic series are written with the TV show fans in mind.
    Last edited by Dusk; 07-31-2014 at 03:37 AM.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dusk View Post
    They usually promote these adaptations when the TV shows are still running weekly. For example, the Castle book by Bendis appeared in one of the episode because it was released at the right time, and Castle wasn't a stranger to these type of promotions. Also, the Castle book was actually a comic adaptation of the Derrick Storm novel series, which was a series written by the character, Richard Castle, before the story in the show started, so it worked just as well as the Nikki Heat novel series.

    The Dark Tower comic series was hyped to hell back when it was first announced. There were plenty of interviews, and they continued by adapting another book by Stephen King called "N". Those were proper adaptation, however, not TV tie-ins, like the Heroes comics were.

    Revenge, Castle and Once Upon A Time are all shows that are airing on Disney's ABC channel, so aside from the fact that it's easier to deal with the licensing, I would suppose that there are promotions via TV ads. Or at the very least, ads on their respective websites. Besides, the fans of the shows, who are definitely the target audience, would be aware of any kind of comic adaptations.

    Dexter is not a usual adaptation, in the sense that it was written by the series's original author, and thus the book took place in the novel's continuum, not the TV show's.

    Personally, I feel that there is no benefit to doing a comic adaptation while the TV show is still running, unless your main intention is to promote the TV show. They are usually mini-series with only a handful of issues, and their messages are always, "if you wanna see more of these characters, check out the TV show". The only exception might be Doctor Who, which is always an ongoing series. Also, you will encounter tons of problems, ranging from continuity problems to not getting the character's voices right to having the comics be plot heavy with minimum character development. The only ones that were done right are the Buffy comics that was produced and written by Joss Whedon, the creator of the TV series, and the Smallville comic, which is written by Bryan Miller, who worked on the Smallville TV series. Both of these examples are actually continuation of the TV series after their series finale, and were/are written by their original writers, so they were/are easy to accept, even desired, by fans.

    If you really don't want to read comics of the superheroes genre, there are plenty of other comics out there besides Marvel and DC. Seconds by Bryan Lee O'Malley just came out this month. Check with your comic store. If you want something that's more similar to what you find on TV, The Walking Dead is a good bet. You might spoil your TV experience, though. Fox's Sleepy Hollow is also getting a comic adaptation from BOOM! Studios, but I'm afraid it might read like a fan-fic. Technically, cartoons comics are also TV series adaptation, so I would recommend Avatar: The Last Airbender from Dark Horse comics, which is again written by the creators, and read just as well as the TV series was. Marvel has also announced 3 Star Wars series at the recent comic-con, whose writers include Jason Aaron, Kieron Gillen, and Mark Waid. Look forward to that.

    tl;dr
    Comic adaptation of TV series are just tie-ins. They are there to add to the lore of the TV series and usually, also to promote the TV show to comic fans, not to stand on their own. There are exceptions, like when the TV series has clearly ended. In those cases, the comic series are written with the TV show fans in mind.


    Oh sure, I remember seeing the Stephen King adaptions on sale at Borders and other promotions. So yeah, they were definitely hyped.


    I guess I'm imagining some scenario where a potential new reader is in a retail store and sees, "Hannibal comic book? That's nuts, maybe I'll buy it." Or "Hey, honey..I know you love that Once Upon a Time TV show, look they made a comic out of it!" But how will that happen if the fans don't know they're out there? I guess I'm thinking there should just be more proactive promotions. Like, at the end of these shows a 10 second spot or voice over mentioning that there's a comic book spin-off. Or maybe next time the actors are on a talk show have them say, "The shows doing great! We even have a comic, go online at www.blah,blah,blah..and check it out!"

  4. #4
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    What kind of fans are you talking about, though? The comic book fans who hasn't heard of the show before would check out the show and the book if it strikes their interest after reading the free Marvel Preview book. The TV show fans would probably know about any kind of tie-ins via the TV show's website or fan-sites (my best best would be fan-sites), or via the pop-ups on the bottom of the screen during the episode. I've seen this happen a lot for shows like Heroes, back before it was over-hyped. Also, Twitter is a thing now for TV shows, so an official tweet from the official TV show account would be far easier and reach out to more people. Also, who else besides me actually keep watching past the credits these days? Or even check out the interviews? =D

    Frankly, I don't think it matters whichever way it goes. Whether it sells well or not, it's still a limited mini-series with a couple of issues, not an ongoing. They might do more mini-series if it's well-received, but selling well doesn't mean the story is any good. People will find out if it's good enough though word-of-mouth, just like what happened for Castle's Nikki Heat novels, which has been consistently good for the last couple of years. Any TV fans who wants the tie-in comics would probably get the TPB off Amazon when they're browsing the site for other products. At least, that's the way it is for me.

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