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A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS…

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

By Mike Carlin

…But a thousand words ain’t too shabby, either!

Don’t get me wrong… words AND pictures are where it’s at fer me… but reading ANYTHING these days puts us all in a very, very elite club. But if you find yourself liking the work of the writers– nay, AUTHORS– who pen DC Comics these days, there is a veritable library of OTHER material available to you these days written by the very same people.

Used ta be that a comic book writer “escaped” the four-color and “pulp” ghetto and went on to become Mickey Spillane or Mario Puzo… and never looked back (except maybe to write a SUPERMAN movie or two, I guess… ).

Nowadays we have novelists (and television and screen writers, for that matter—but that’s another blog) coming to comics to DO comics. Because they LOVE comics!

Brad Meltzer’s one fellow who’s had plenty of success BEFORE he wrote some GREEN ARROW comics and JLA comics and IDENTITY CRISIS for us! Check out his “Book of Lies” for a nice literary world meets comic book history mash-up!

You’ve also probably read Greg Rucka’s work for DC and Oni Press on series like 52, GOTHAM CENTRAL and DETECTIVE COMICS and White Out… but you really should get a look at one of Greg’s coolest creations– Atticus Kodiak– in one of the seven novels Greg’s written that chronicle the adventures of this hard-as-nails BG (body guard). Start with “Keeper” and don’t stop!

Jodi Picoult, author of “Nineteen Minutes”, “Change of Heart” and thirteen other novels did a nice run on WONDER WOMAN (collected in WONDER WOMAN: LOVE & MURDER thank you very much). Hope she’ll do more someday.

And we’ve even got people doing both comics and prose at the same time! Working with Matthew Sturges and Bill Willingham on JSA titles currently sets me up for reading their recent novels. Matt’s started a series for Pyr titled “Midwinter” and it’s an excellent fantasy set in an intriguing world that’s ripe for sequels for sure. And Bill W.’s just seen “Peter & Max: A Fables Novel” published—this is an all new all original story set in Vertigo’s FABLES Universe… not a novelization (though we’ve seen our share of those over the years and Marvel’s still working with Stephen King on his “Dark Tower” series)!

And willya look at THIS?! Bill’s novel was published BY Vertigo! Way to go “funny” book publisher!

And outside of our universe, writers like “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay” author Michael Chabon have seen their characters come to new life in comic books for Dark Horse even… Peter David still works in both media… and scores of other examples of the back and forth between words & pictures and just words are out there… as I run out of room here.

Anyone you’d like to see us hunt down? I know I’d love to see the Batman villain “Fight Club”’s Chuck Palahniuk has in him.

Great time to be reading… anything!

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This entry was posted on Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 at 12:00 pm and is filed under From the Editors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

11 Responses to “A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS…”

  1. vinniebartilucci says on October 22nd, 2009 at 12:17 pm :

    Shame on Mike for not including Joe R. Lansdale in that list. Joe did some killer Jonah Hex work for DC back in the day. Of course, there’s been a LOT of authors who’ve graced the pages of DC. Larry Niven did some Green Lantern work, including creating Ganthet, the Guardian who has played more than a few big roles in GL work since. Max Allan Collins has straddled the shores of mystery comics and mystery novels for years.

    While his Destroyer novels got adapted a couple of times, I’d like to see what Warren Murphy could do with some of DC’s more intriguey characters like Checkmate or Amanda Waller.

  2. meisterlegion says on October 22nd, 2009 at 12:33 pm :

    I just went to ereader.com and downloaded Brad’s BOOK OF LIES onto my iPhone. It was only $7 off the eBooks site - little more than a comic. It sounds like from the description that it’s a good read.

  3. glmax says on October 22nd, 2009 at 12:33 pm :

    It might be a stretch, but if you got Richard Matheson to write a comic book you guys would dominate, through I have no idea how realistic that would be. Though his take on any of Batman’s Rouges or a Blackest Night one-shot would be amazing.

    I’m reading through old-school Peter David Hulk right now, if you got him back I would definitely be interested in anything he would do too.

    Tom Clancy on Checkmate? John Grisham on Manhunter? Cormac McCarthy on Jonah Hex? heck, I could probably go on all day. The only thing that gets me about high-acclaimed writers coming into comics is how they get carté blanche with pretty much any character they want only to have all the things they do eradicated away as soon as they’re gone.

  4. madamerogue says on October 22nd, 2009 at 12:39 pm :

    Wonder Woman, by Janet Evanovich.

  5. theray says on October 22nd, 2009 at 1:16 pm :

    Erik Larson (’Devil In The White City’ author)
    Seth Grahame-Smith (’Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’ co-author)

  6. querldox says on October 22nd, 2009 at 2:03 pm :

    I’ve liked the idea of the comics Marvel has been doing adapting novels like Pride and Prejudice and The Iliad. The execution has been…iffy. I’m an English student so I don’t have time to do much fun reading. Saussure and Marx fill my reading hours. I am reading something fun for my thesis though. The changing face of mythology using King Arthur as reference. I’m hoping to use stuff like Camelot 3000, Shining Kight, Prince Valiant and Captain Britain/Wisdom in my final paper along with the usual Malory/Troyes/Monmouth/White etc. Lets open some academic minds!

  7. mechagamera says on October 22nd, 2009 at 2:06 pm :

    I think it would be great if you could get Dan Simmons to write a series or miniseries. His science fiction (Hyperion, Olympus) is first-rate and action-packed, his mysteries are pretty good, and (while I am not the biggest horror fan), I was impressed by the Song of Kali.

  8. dietel says on October 22nd, 2009 at 7:38 pm :

    I’ve never read the Da Vinci Code, but based on what I’ve heard, Dan Brown might be an awesome fit for Wonder Woman. Working the Greek Mythology and action-adventure, and his shocking twists could work well in a monthly comic format.

    Sounds cool to me.

  9. Ricardo says on October 22nd, 2009 at 11:37 pm :

    He has also forgotten Jonathan Ames and Ian Rankin… I’d love to see some Diablo Cody and Dave Eggers here…

  10. emmet says on October 23rd, 2009 at 3:21 pm :

    Carl Hiaasen on a Green Arrow miniseries. Ollie meets Skink, come on!

  11. westwallywest says on October 24th, 2009 at 10:59 am :

    Demon by Dr. Seuss.

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