Films based on comic books is one of the hottest trends in Hollywood this year—and graphic novel tie-ins are having a banner year as well. Previously, both the Ghost World and Road to Perdition graphic novels have been successful in the bookstore market, with the original comics version of Perdition by Max Allan Collins performing better than his own prose novelization.
This year, Marvel is leading the pack with its triple threat of Daredevil, X-Men 2 and the upcoming Ang Lee-—directed Hulk. Movie tie-ins are definitely driving Marvel's sales in the bookstore market, according to Marvel executive v-p of operations Gui Karyo. "We've been seeing double-digit growth and the sell-through has been fantastic." Although in the past, movie success hasn't always led to increased sales for graphic novels outside of the existing comics fan base, this time they're attracting waves of new readers.
"Movie tie-ins are a growth area in comics," said Rory Root, owner of Comic Relief in Berkeley, Calif. "Daredevil and X-Men 2 have helped sell very large numbers of graphic novels for us. Hulk is looking massive right now, with a great deal of interest in his comics roots; and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is flying off the shelves."
According to Marvel marketing manager Michael Doran, Marvel's movie-tie-ins do amazingly well. "The months surrounding the release of movies always see a tremendous rise in sales for new trade paperbacks involving characters from the movies, [as well as] evergreen trade paperbacks like Origin for X2 and, currently, Return of the Monster for Hulk," he said.
But with, in some cases, 40 years of stories to draw from, finding a "definitive" version isn't always possible or effective. In the case of the X-Men, for instance, the movie contains elements of various stories written over a 20-year period. To address this, Marvel has released several different kinds of trades for all three franchises. All three movies have direct movie tie-in paperbacks that offer conventional movie adaptations in comics form, as well as reprints of recent stories to showcase the character.
However, the classic '60s stories by comics greats Stan Lee and Jack Kirby are available in the Marvel Masterworks series, a Barnes & Noble exclusive. (Comics specialty stores criticized Marvel for making these exclusive to the chain, so the publisher is offering deluxe hardcover versions to comics shops.) Black-and-white reprints of the stories are available in the Marvel Essentials series—over 500 pages in each volume. Finally, contemporary Hulk stories are available in Hulk Vol. 1: The Return of the Monster.
Blind crime-fighter Daredevil has an even more comprehensive array. In addition to the movie adaptation, a Masterworks and an Essentials, there's Daredevil Visionaries: Frank Miller, a three-volume trade paperback series that collects Miller's entire acclaimed run. This story inspired much of the recent movie. Daredevil Visionaries: Kevin Smith reprints the equally well-received story written by movie director Smith, which will reportedly form the basis of the next Daredevil film.
For the X-Men, the continuity of what's official is unbelievably arcane and requires the diligence of a scholar. (An online FAQ for the mutants runs to 25,000 words.) The adaptation X-Men II: The Movie is available, but the graphic novel God Loves, Man Kills by Chris Claremont and Brent Anderson (originally published in the '80s) provided some of the elements of the hit film. In addition, Origin, which tells how the ultra-popular Wolverine discovered his powers, has been a perennial on Bookscan's backlist bestseller list. Ultimate X-Men Vol. 1, a new-reader-friendly version of the characters, is also a steady seller. Also, trade publisher Newmarket Press is releasing The Art of X-2 in paper and hardcover featuring three different covers.
Luckily, Marvel has come up with a way to help keep all of this straight: the Marvel Encyclopedia series. Volumes covering the X-Men and the Hulk have just been released. These are hardcover reference works—the X-Men edition includes histories and statistics for more than 300 characters, while the Hulk book takes a more diverse approach, with chapters on the many media presentations of the Hulk over the years, including the new movie.
In contrast to this tangled web, over at DC Comics, their movie offering this year has a single product. The League, starring Sean Connery, is based on The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill, a fiendishly clever story that teams various Victorian fictional characters in a plot that ties in everything from H.G. Wells to Sherlock Holmes to Jules Verne to James Bond. The graphic novel version is another perennial seller, currently ranked around #343 on Amazon.com's sales chart.
August's American Splendor movie is expected to fill this year's indie comics hit movie niche—based on the long-running series by real-life filing clerk Harvey Pekar, the film won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance this year, and the International Critics prize at Cannes. Both the movie and the comic celebrate the dignity of ordinary life. Indie house Four Walls Eight Windows will offer a new printing of Pekar's 1994 Our Cancer Year, which figures prominently in the film, in addition to the 1996 Bob and Harv's Comics, a collection of collaborations by Pekar and R. Crumb, probably his most gifted visual interpreter. There are also reports that two of Pekar's out-of-print American Splendor book collections, originally published by Doubleday, will be brought back into print by a new and as-yet-unnamed publisher in time for the film's premiere. Dark Horse will offer a collection of the latest American Splendor stories, Unsung Hero.
Although 2003 will probably go down as the year of the superhero, with Spider-man 2, Punisher and Hellboy all on the slate for release to theaters next year, 2004 should see another bumper crop of graphic novel tie ins.
