comic books

The movie Total Recall never really got much respect from critics, but it was certainly a hit with the public and is a guilty pleasure for a lot of science fiction fans. It was 20 years ago that the movie came out and SciFi Wire looks back to come up with 10 reasons why we still love the film.

There's talk of a remake next year, but how can you top the original? There's also news that someone's acquired the rights to the story to make a comic book version. I'm surprised one hasn't been done before now.

As you know, the original inspiration for the film was Philip K. Dick's short story We Can Remember it for you Wholesale. Prior to that, the other big Dick adaptation was Blade Runner from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. I like Dick's titles better, but they'd never work as movie titles.

I mention this because another comic book adaptation of a movie adaptation of a Dick story is in the works. This one is a comic book version of Blade Runner. Actually, it's a prequel to the original movie so at least it will be a somewhat original story.

I have a feeling that the comic book industry is seeing the same trend as the movie industry. People are "re-imagining" comic books that have been done before.

Another example of a comic book adapted from a movie which was adapted from a book is a new graphic version of Logan's Run. That movie is also being remade. When does the remake insanity end? A;tjough, the good news about this adaptation is that the original book author is collaborating with the comic book creators.

I don't have any statistics to back me up, but I have a feeling that comic book companies make a lot more money licensing their characters for movies than they do with comic books. That doesn't mean that comic books are dead, but they are certainly a niche medium, at least in North America.

That might change with the advent of the e-book. While comic books might not look so great on a mobile phone, some are betting that the mythical Apple tablet would revive comic books to their former glory thanks to the larger screen that this imagined device would have.

E-books certainly have the power to disrupt the publishing business as we know it. Margins are thin enough that even a small erosion of sales caused by the early adoption of electronic book readers that the disruption could come sooner rather than later.

One company which is working toward the new digital future is Harlequin. I've written earlier about their plans to create an electronic-only imprint that would publish across many genres, but the SFWA has oposed the move, saying that it is nothing more than a vanity press.

While you're waiting for the Apple Tablet's arrival on which to read your favourite science fiction comic books, study this list of the top 10 science fiction graphic novels that you'll want to load up on yours after you buy one. If you want something even older, consider the Science Fiction Classics comic book anthologies.

When you are reading everything electronically, you can get rid of your old comic books by turning them into nifty wallets like this one.