BookExpo America, the largest industry convention for publishers, booksellers, librarians, and other folks in the industry, runs at the Javits Center in New York this week. It’s often used as a stalking ground for movie and TV studios to snap up properties for adaptations, so one wonders– what books should be adapted into comics form, and by who?

There have been a number of interesting translations over the years. The biggest success story of the past few years have included Darwyn Cooke’s adaptations of Richard Stark’s [[[The Hunter]]] and [[[The Outfit]]] and Marvel’s adaptations of Stephen King’s [[[The Dark Tower]]] by Peter David and Jae Lee, but there have been many others, from the recent adaptations of Ayn Rand’s [[[Anthem]]], Marvel’s [[[Wizard of Oz]]] and [[[Ender’s Game]]], Dynamite’s adaptations of Robert Jordan’s [[[The Wheel Of Time]]], BOOM!’s [[[Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep]]], longevity champion [[[Conan The Barbarian]]] which has been adapted and extended for over forty years, and reaching all the way back to [[[Classics Illustrated]]], which was your parents’ version of Cliffs Notes and Sesame Street.

More tantalizing are the versions that haven’t been made yet. Phil Foglio and Matt Howarth did their own version of the introduction to Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s [[[Good Omens]]], and Phil had already adapted the first book of [[[Myth Adventures]]] by Robert Asprin. Now we have Kevin Colden ([[[Fishtown]]]) showing his proof-of-concept for his version of Anthony Burgess’s [[[A Clockwork Orange]]]. Click through to see the first few pages.

What adaptations would you like to see? And by who? [[[American Psycho]]] by Bill Sienkiewicz, or maybe Howard Chaykin? [[[Catcher In The Rye]]] by Dean Haspiel or Evan Dorkin? [[[The Great Gatsby]]] by P. Craig Russell? John Ostrander writing [[[The Thin Man]]], or Mike W. Barr writing [[[Ellery Queen]]]? Personally, I’d love to see Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely take a crack at [[[Brave New World]]]…

A young boy from another world is raised on in the mid-west to use his special abilities for the good of all. He struggles to fit in at high school, constantly hiding his true nature under the watchful eye of his mentor. After Smallville, one would have thought the writing team of Alfred Gough and Miles Millar would have been comfortable with the subject matter much as Marti Noxon could have used her experiences from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to add some snark and fun to the high school life. Instead, the three combined to pen a middling, ineffective script adaptation of [[[I Am Number Four]]]. The movie, made for just under $60 million earned barely $90 million worldwide and extinguished much hope of a film series to follow the projected six book franchise. Now out from Walt Disney Home Entertainment, the movie is so incredibly devoid of personality and charm, it feels instead that it was constructed by the numbers.

Nine infants were smuggled off the war-torn world of Lorien and brought to Earth to be raised in anonymity by their watchers, er, guardians. Each were descended from a line of powerful inhabitants and born with gifts that would manifest at some time during adolescence. Until they were ready to return and free Lorien from the marauding Mogadorians, they lived apart. A squad (or more, it’s never clear) of Mogadorians are on Earth, hunting the nine. As each one is found and killed, the others are made painfully aware as a tattoo on their legs burns to life. Number Four is a teen living with Henri, who is obsessed with figuring out where the others are and banding them together before more are lost.

Four, or John, refuses to just live in hiding and insists on attending high school, this time in Paradise, Ohio. He tries to fit in but of course, that’s when his special abilities flare to life, and make him a target for the Mogadorians. John falls for Sarah, complicating things, as her ex-boyfriend has it in for the newcomer while the Mogadorians come to town. (more…)

Far too films hold up to the test of time, their iconic nature re-evaluated through a modern prism and found wanting. Memorable performances or screen characters suddenly look one-dimensional or wanting. Then there are those that grew in stature through the years as audiences and critics catch up to the creators’ vision. Those are the ones that are hailed in retrospectives, make it to the National Film Registry and get the deluxe treatment when released on home video. The Hustler, the 1961 film about pool and people, is one such film and is this week making its Blu-ray debut courtesy of 20^th Century Home Entertainment.

It used to be, pool sharks could tour the country, play high stakes games and eke out a living of sorts. Legendary pool players had a word-of-mouth reputation every bit as powerful as celebrities made famous by ESPN. The great novelist Walter Tevis captured these players and their world in his 1959 novel, prompting Robert Rosen and Sidney Carroll to adapt it to the big screen.

“Fast Eddie” Felson is the wandering pool player, with no roots, no life beyond the end of his cue stick. He arrives in the small, dark town of Ames specifically to challenge the legendary Minnesota Fats – and loses. What happens next propels the rest of the film and becomes a study of pool players, friends, and lost souls searching for a better way.

Felson is a brilliant player but empty inside, yearning for something more but not sure what that is or how to get it. All he knows is he’s the best and wants to prove it time and again so being humbled by Fats rankles. And while he’s lost, he discovers there are others who don’t know just how lost they are, a point made when he meets the drunken Sarah Packard. (more…)