julieandrews (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
julieandrews) wrote2008-04-20 11:40 am
julieandrews) wrote2008-04-20 11:40 am
Entry tags:
Thoughts on Graphic Novels
According to Publishers Weekly, Ender's Game Comics Coming From Marvel.
I was excited about the idea that Ender's Game might be a movie, but this news just leaves me flat. I like manga, I've read some of Sandman, and one of these days I'll get the Buffy season and Wil Wheaton's Trek. I also read a bunch of different Trek comics when I was a kid -- that was a lot of comics to keep up with! 'Spensive too.
So I'm certainly not against comics and graphic novels. But for this, I can't see myself buying them.
I've already read the stories.
I attended a local convention a couple years ago that had a panel about kids and science fiction. No one under 40 on the panel. No teens or kids in the audience. It amounted to basically 'kids these days' with their vidya games and their MTV. They want everything to be visual, apparently. You heard it there first, folks.
I don't play video games because they're visual. I don't read manga because it's visual. I don't watch most TV because it's visual -- oftentimes I'm doing something else and just listening to it. Do I go to movies because they're visual? Yea, some of them, with their big budget special effects that are best seen on a big screen... BUT there's also a strong audio component to those. Don't discount audio.
I read manga and graphic novels for the story. Oftentimes, it's a type of story you can't get anywhere else. Yes, some of the characters are pretty -- CLAMP ones in particular. But the only extent to which I read a manga based on prettiness is that the style of artwork is a strong indication to the type of story. The pictures, for me, are there to serve the story. They're not an end in itself.
So, in short, why read Ender's Game: The Comic/Graphic Novel? I've already read the story. What's new? Pictures?
Yet I'd love to see Ender's Game or Ender's Shadow as a movie. Even though I know the story, it's another thing altogether to see it acted out with cool special effects. I'd even love to see it as an animated movie. Because, again, acted out, though not so much with the cool special effects.
Even so, I don't like movies that stick too strongly to the book they're based on. The first Harry Potter movie suffered that problem. So I guess it's not enough for actors, sets, costumes, makeup, special effects. I want a slightly different take on things. I want new scenes, new lines, maybe even a theme I hadn't noticed woven into the thread of the movie.
I want something new.
So, prove to me that these graphic novels will bring something new to the story. Other than just pictures and a cinematic style.
And there is potential there. Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow are parallel novels. Run them simultaneously as parallel comics and you can have all sorts of interesting things going on and injokes. Rather like Buffy and Angel running on TV at the same time. Rather like Torchwood and Dr. Who running on TV not exactly at the same time.
That would make it a new story. A new experience.
That might make it worth spending money on.
I was excited about the idea that Ender's Game might be a movie, but this news just leaves me flat. I like manga, I've read some of Sandman, and one of these days I'll get the Buffy season and Wil Wheaton's Trek. I also read a bunch of different Trek comics when I was a kid -- that was a lot of comics to keep up with! 'Spensive too.
So I'm certainly not against comics and graphic novels. But for this, I can't see myself buying them.
I've already read the stories.
I attended a local convention a couple years ago that had a panel about kids and science fiction. No one under 40 on the panel. No teens or kids in the audience. It amounted to basically 'kids these days' with their vidya games and their MTV. They want everything to be visual, apparently. You heard it there first, folks.
I don't play video games because they're visual. I don't read manga because it's visual. I don't watch most TV because it's visual -- oftentimes I'm doing something else and just listening to it. Do I go to movies because they're visual? Yea, some of them, with their big budget special effects that are best seen on a big screen... BUT there's also a strong audio component to those. Don't discount audio.
I read manga and graphic novels for the story. Oftentimes, it's a type of story you can't get anywhere else. Yes, some of the characters are pretty -- CLAMP ones in particular. But the only extent to which I read a manga based on prettiness is that the style of artwork is a strong indication to the type of story. The pictures, for me, are there to serve the story. They're not an end in itself.
So, in short, why read Ender's Game: The Comic/Graphic Novel? I've already read the story. What's new? Pictures?
Yet I'd love to see Ender's Game or Ender's Shadow as a movie. Even though I know the story, it's another thing altogether to see it acted out with cool special effects. I'd even love to see it as an animated movie. Because, again, acted out, though not so much with the cool special effects.
Even so, I don't like movies that stick too strongly to the book they're based on. The first Harry Potter movie suffered that problem. So I guess it's not enough for actors, sets, costumes, makeup, special effects. I want a slightly different take on things. I want new scenes, new lines, maybe even a theme I hadn't noticed woven into the thread of the movie.
I want something new.
So, prove to me that these graphic novels will bring something new to the story. Other than just pictures and a cinematic style.
And there is potential there. Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow are parallel novels. Run them simultaneously as parallel comics and you can have all sorts of interesting things going on and injokes. Rather like Buffy and Angel running on TV at the same time. Rather like Torchwood and Dr. Who running on TV not exactly at the same time.
That would make it a new story. A new experience.
That might make it worth spending money on.