Why don't we have more direct comic book adaption series?

K

Kozar

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Why don't we here in the west, have a direct adaptions of comic book series? Like they do in Japan, with animes having as close as possible direct adaption of manga series.

We have many comic book based cartoons, and they use a lot of storylines from the comics. But there aren't many animated series that directly copies form the comic book series and have everything happen in the same order as in the comics. Filler episodes and arcs not withstanding.

Is it because americans don't want to watch a direct repeat of something they read recently in a comic book, and thus know exactly what exactly is going to happen? When they are in canon mode and not doing a filler, anime fans watch anime series knowing exactly what is going to happen because they read the manga, and they are not bothered by that.
 
Well its mostly because most mangas don't ususally last more then a decade. Where as a lot of US comics have anywhere from 20-70 Years of Stories to go off of, so making a series close to the comic is a big undertaking. Thats why most US based comic toons just take the Main Ideas & elemnts of the comic and do there own thing, because its easier, faster & cheaper for the Animators. A direct adaption of any series older then a decade would just be too much for todays lazy Penny pinching animition studio!:p:sweat::evil:

Personally though I would love to see marvel Commsion a Runaways or Deadpool Series!
& I would'nt mind seeing another Sonic Cartoon Based on the Archie comic either.
 
Much of it is for legal reasons. Some comics storylines may involve characters or crossovers with other comic book characters whom the TV studios don't have the merchandising rights to or whatever, so the story lines need to be altered so's not to include them. Add to this, that most comic books series have been going on for years and have ongoing plots and story lines. TV shows simply can't keep up with the comics, considering how long it takes to make just 1 episode of an animated TV series.

Also, just so you know, manga isn't immune to this practice either. Not every manga to anime adaptation has been made without change.
 
I know that. Not ever manga based anime is directly the same. Ever anime makes changes to the manga, by adding minor things to fill a half hour, but the overal stories are the same when not a filler. But there are some, that makes major changes that completely changes the story.

I guess the real problem is the lack of fresh new comic book ideas. No one wants to create complete original characters.

I am disappointed that Static Shock didn't completely follow the comic book, since it was a reasonbly new comic book series.
 
Because Marvel/DC comics don't really play out the same way as most Japanese comics do. There's no real planned ending, only a middle. They revolved around keeping things in status quo (unless they need to boost sales, then they'll do something shocking, but usually end upretconning it back to normal later) and reusing the same characters and plots over and over again. It would be pretty much impossible to make a direct adaption. Even long-running series like One Piece and Dragonball give off the illusion that they're progressing a story and towards an ending, Batman and Spider-Man don't.

The only ones that would work are the titles not done by DC/Marvel, such as Y The Last Man or Walking Dead, and the explicit content and their non-popularity pretty much prevents anyone from trying.
 
Well, there are some changed that WB made to Static Shock: TAS that i understand why they made them. IIRC, Rubberband Man was something of a pimp in the original comics, so obviously WB wasn't going to depict such a character on a kids' cartoon. Also, Francis/Hotstreak was a bigot in the comics, and the TV version of Richie was an amalgam of 2 characters from the comics: Richie Foley and Rick Stone (who was gay), so those changes I can understand why they made them.

Other network imposed changes to the show--Frieda being downgraded to a would be love interest for Virgil in the shows' 1st season when in the comics she had Richie's role as the only other person who knew Virgil's secret, and making Virgil's mother Jean dead for the cartoon when in the comics she was alive and well--I don't understand at all.
 
I guess that is why comic books and manga have audiances in both regions, because lots of people want something different.

Like here in the west, they are people that like a series that has an conclution in mind, have character and story developments, and not have a status quo, thus they read manga. Just like I assume they are people in the east, that like a series that has just a middle and have a status quo, of no major changes.
 
Time, standards & practices and licensing restrictions are all major contributing factors to why no comic book series can ever receive a straight TV adaptation.

Take X-Men, to name just one example. Right from the start, any TV producer wanting to do an X-Men series would first be faced with the task of trying to squeeze 30+ years of comic book continuity into 3 or 4 TV seasons. No easy task.

Then they'd have to factor in how Wolverine in the comics has been known to kill people with those adamantium pig-stickers of his, or how Cable is Cyclops' son but not Jean Grey's, and those 2 are usually represented as the X-universe's clean-cut Love Couple, or how Magneto is a Jew and was a victim of Nazi brutality, or how Graydon Creed is the love child of Sabretooth and Mystique, things like that which they couldn't get past S&P without MAJOR overhauls or complete omissions.

Then there are the crossovers with Hulk or The Avengers or Spider-Man or The Punisher or the Fantastic Four; if said TV producer's X-Men show is airing on Nicktoons Network and simultaneously the Fantastic Four have a show running on Cartoon Network, then Mr. Producer can't use the FF for the TV adaptation of that particular story. Or what if Thor has a movie coming out with a licensing deal with Taco Bell, then he has to be written out of his big crossover story with the X-Men because Mr. Producer has inked a tie-in deal with McDonald's for his X-Men show.

So while a verbatim comic-to-TV transition is nice dream, it's next to impossible to pull off.
 
The 90s Tintin series was very close to the comics - the only stories it didn't adapt were the first two (disowned by the creator, Herge) and the last one (left unfinished at his death). Wouldn't surprise me if there were other European comics that got the same treatment.
 
Thats an awesome answer Blackstar, I would have figured it to be something like this too, but not in such detail. I like the fact that the animated versions of these heroes don't follow the comic books too closely because if you read the comics then you already know the story, they can mix it up a little bit with the animated series.
 
It's mostly because a good number of these stories have been going on for more than thirty years, with multiple interpretations and the like. It's just much easier to for a TV show adapation to make their own interpretation. B: TAS, The Batman, and Batman: The Brave and The Bold are good examples of this.
 
This isn't always a bad thing though, sometimes cartoons can take dull or hardly used characters from a comic and make them more interesting (like Mr. freeze) and ditch a bunch of continuity that no one liked.

The best comic book movies are the ones that take the best elements of various comic books stories and ditches the bad stuff. There is no reason why a cartoon shouldn't do the same thing, that's what sells. I have already read the comics, I don't want see the exact same thing.
 
Considering the amount of people who dislike Iron Man: Armored Adventures for the sole reason it changed some things around, despite improving things from the comic, I'm inclined to disagree.
 
Jumping to the end of the thread ...

With the condition of comics these days, you couldn't do anything resembling a 'direct' translation to a cartoon because you'd never be able to air it. Marvel and DC are both too busy racking up body counts and blood splatters to tell any decent stories these days.
 
I thought that the reason why there weren't direct comic book adaptation was because so many comic books have decades worth of materials and how many popular characters, such as Superman, Batman, Spider-Man and the X-Men, have different universes, or different writers' interpretation of the characters and their world. It would be really hard to get all of that down to a few seasons, not to mention all of the legal issues and money it would take for any kind of guest appearances by famous people or other superhero characters.
 
Yeah, but do the kids like it? That's what really matters. These cartoons are aimed at kids, not fanboys and that's not a bad thing. Plus I have seen people on Iron Man message boards who like that cartoon, a lot of them don't like the current direction of the iron man comics and kinda like a new take on the character.

I don't like all the changes in that toon, but I like some of them. I think they have improved some of the B-list villains.
 
If you want to see a very direct comic book adaptation, check out the The Maxx series which aired on MTV. It's basically the comic book put on the screen, which does mean the animation is a little limited because Sam Keith's drawings are so intricate, but it's more than a voice-acted storybook, too. The only major differences are that it doesn't use some of the crossover characters from the Image universe that appeared in the early issues and, well, it has an ending even though it only adapts the first handful of issues, an ending that as far as I know differs from the comics a lot.

Another pretty faithful series was the HBO version of Spawn. Because of where it aired it was able to keep the dark feel and violence of the show.
 
It's times like those where I wished there was an animated adaptation of Watchmen. It could work and be like Spawn series, limited episodes, mostly just like 12 or so like the comic series itself. The motion comic doesn't count for me, since it used one guy voicing everyone else and they just animated certain panels. Maybe something more like the side story, Tales of the Black Freighter, fully animated, not this panel stuff. But however, I don't see it airing anywhere now. Too bad it has that "holy grail" and "must never be touched" stamp.
 
Actually, I think the reason has a lot to do with the fact that, in Japan, comics are far more popular than they are in America. In the United States, reading comic books is really a pretty fringe thing. However, if what I've read is true, comics make up something like 70% of all books and magazines published in Japan. Even at their highest points, American comics have never come anywhere close to that.

What this means is that, when America turns a comic book into a cartoon, fans of the original comic actually make up a pretty small percentage of the viewing audience. That's probably not so true in Japan.
 
Exactly. I feel sorry for anyone who decides to read DC's Teen Titans based off of enjoying the animated series. They'll be in for quite a rude awakening.

Robin nearly getting gutted by the Clock King; Wendy & Marvin getting mauled by Wonder Dog (Marvin's death was really grotesque); Ravager's not so subtle attempts at seducing Robin, Kid Devil, & Blue Beetle, the list goes on.
 
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