As everyone who has read a fair amount of comics is surely aware of, comics based on stories previously presented in other arts, like novels or films, doesn't exactly always imply a good reading experience. More often than not, comics based on other media have been uninspired at the best. Still, if you have a true artist, deciding to actually tell a good story, using comics for what it is good at (and not just transporting a story from one media to another) as was the case with Karasik's and Mazzucchelli's comic version of Paul Auster's City of Glass, the results can be breathtaking.
No matter the quality, sales will always be higher, if there is a connection to a successful film or book. In an article in The New York Times, it is disclosed that the print run of the first graphic novel based on the incredibly popular franchise Twilight, will have an initial print run of a staggering 350 000 copies. This is not the first, and certainly not the last we will see in this vein, as I am sure many publishers across the world is right now looking into transforming their best-sellers into comics. Let's just hope they work with artists with a lot of integrity, who will be able to withstand the inevitable demands of the publisher to stay as true as possible to the original, and make new and interesting works of art out of their assignments.
Thanks to Lotten Peterson, for the tip.
