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Comic-Book Adaptation - TV Tropes
"We're off to see the wizard, now in comic form!"
Movies and TV shows are often adapted into comic book form. Comics have certain advantages over other media: they are much easier and cheaper to produce than TV shows, and since the reader isn't restricted to experiencing the story at a particular time each day, the creators are more free to write longer-running, more complex stories.
Such adaptations tend to take three forms:
- The comic retells the story of the original work.
- The comic takes the characters and setting of the original, but tells a different series of stories.
- The comic continues where the original left off, or fills in the backstory.
In cases where the comic is intended to be released right from the start, it sometimes appears before the work from which it is adapted.
Comic book adaptations of movies were fairly common in the 1970's and 1980's, before home videos became common. In those days, a comic book was the easiest way to re-experience a movie no longer playing in theatres. But because of Production Lead Time the comics were often written and drawn based on earlier scripts than the final draft, and before the movie was edited, which could result in scenes appearing in the comic adaptation that were never in the movie.
Another phenomenon is a comic strip series based on a famous celebrity. These comics are usually cheaply produced and part of the Cash Cow Merchandise around the media star himself. Sometimes the original celebrity is involved in the creation, but often it happens without his knowledge or approval. As soon as the fad around the star dies out these comics usually die a quick death.
They are sometimes contained in Television Tie-In Magazines.
See also Anime First. For comics adapted into other media, see Live-Action Adaptation, Animated Adaptation, and Licensed Game. Sometimes, the end product will actually be called Name: The Comic Book.
Example subpages:
Other examples (by original medium):
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Anime
- Lyrical Nanoha The Comics. Covers the quiet moments not shown in the anime before, during, and after the season that it supplements.
- The Vision of Escaflowne was adapted into two different, simultaneously published mangas. One was aimed at boys, and focused on the fighting at the expense of the Love Dodecahedron. The other was aimed at girls, and went into much more detail of the love story while downplaying the fighting aspect. Both are considered inferior to the anime.
- While the Pokémon mainline franchise has a few notable game-derived manga in their own rights, The Electric Tale of Pikachu is set in a verse heavily influenced by the first two seasons of the anime. Later seasons and the movies also got their own manga adaptations. Anime adaptations (including Electric Tale) are Type 2, the movie adaptations are Type 1.
- The two Tenchi Muyo! manga, No Need for Tenchi and The All-New Tenchi Muyo! (Tenchi Muyo! and Shin Tenchi Muyo! in Japan) is this. It was initially just a two volume story set in the OVA-verse, but when it proved popular, it kept going for an impressive 22-volume run, greatly expanding on the universe (even if it was just for that canon) and the characters living there.
- A manga of The Big O was released.
- The Case Closed movies have manga adaptations... well, at least some of them. The Raven Chaser is the latest one to get a manga adaption as of far. They're type 1.
- DARLING in the FRANXX has two: A Type 1 manga illustrated by Kentaro Yabuki, and a Type 2 gag series illustrated by Mato.
- Both Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT received "Animanga" comics that took screengrabs of the anime and added speech bubbles. Considering that the original Dragon Ball manga exists alongside a full-color edition, this has been labeled as "Redundantly Redundant" by fans, albeit a bit less for GT since that wasn't based on a manga.
- Despite starting as a manga, the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise moved to an Anime First model for its sequels, with the manga adaptations following a type 2 structure.
- Vampire Hunter D had a very impressive American comic book adaptation...that only lasted one issue, reportedly due to being a crowdfunding scam.
- A one-shot adaptation of Mobile Suit Gundam Wing that covered its first episode was released online to promote the Gundam Universe toy line. It can be legally read at the Tamashi Nations website here.
- Voltron has had numerous adaptations, primarily based on variants of the original series.
- Back in 1985, Modern Comics (A division of Charlton Comics), produced a three-issue series based on Lion Voltron. It was notable as being one of the last things Charlton did before DC Comics purchased them, and the only appearance of Gladiator Voltron in official media.
- In 2002, Devil's Due comics began a Voltron comic loosely based on the original series. After a five-issue miniseries, an ongoing lasted for 11 issues before being discontinued due to low sales. However, strong reprint sales led to a second five-issue miniseries being made. The original miniseries and first arc of the ongoing were later collected as motion comics.
- 2011 saw Dynamite Comics acquire the license to Voltron and made a 12-issue ongoing series, a 6 issue miniseries called Voltron - Year One and a second 6 issue miniseries called Voltron - From the Ashes. These comics became primarily known for cover art done by Alex Ross.
- The Top Cow Productions adaptation of Battle of the Planets was an awkward attempt at Canon Welding between it and the original Science Ninja Team Gatchaman that was eventually discontinued due to low sales. Its main legacy was getting Alex Ross (a confessed fan of Planets) to draw cover art that was considered so spectacular they were reused for ADV's Gatchaman DVD releases (while ADV also commissioned Ross to draw new artwork for the collector's boxsets), and again when Sentai Filmworks released the series on Blu-Ray.
Asian Animation
Comic Books
Comic Strips
- Little Lulu: Brazil began publishing a next-generation manga in 2009, featuring the grandchildren of the original Little Lulu characters from The Saturday Evening Post, using the same names and some of the same traits as the original characters.
- Many newspaper strips have had comic book adaptations, with longer stories involving the characters. These include:
- Peanuts (Dell, 1960-62; Gold Key, 1962-64; KaBoom, 2011-present). Schulz only drew the first issue; the rest were done by assistants.
- Nancy (Dell, 1960-62)
- Dennis the Menace (US) (Fawcett, 1959-79; Marvel 1981-82)
- Heathcliff (Marvel, 1985-91)
- Blondie (1930) (Charlton, 1969-76)
- Beetle Bailey (1956-80, through Dell, Gold Key, King Comics, and Charlton)
- Popeye (1948-84 through Dell, Gold Key, King Comics, Charlton, and Whitman; 1993-94 through Harvey; 2012-present through IDW)
- Garfield (KaBoom, 2012-15).
Celebrities
- Many film comedians have had Comic Strips based on them: Charlie Chaplin, Harry Langdon and Laurel and Hardy, for instance.
- Urbanus: This long-running comic strip series is based on the popular Flemish comedian Urbanus. He is directly involved in the creative process and writes all the scripts. Since he is popular in both Flanders and the Netherlands the comics sell extraordinarily well.
- Woody Allen: Yes! Even he had his own newspaper comic strip, drawn by Stuart Hample.
- Dennis P. Eichhorn drew a comic strip about Wild Man Fischer once.
- The comic strip "Sjef Van Oekel" (called "Léon la Terreur" in French and "Leo, der Terrorist" in German.) by Theo Van Den Boogaard and Wim T. Schippers was based on a comedic character created by Dolf Brouwers. Since Schippers already wrote Brouwers' monologues he worked along with the comic strip scripts as well. Despite being a very popular comic strip Brouwers eventually took Schippers and Van Den Boogaard to court because his character was continuously shown in very vulgar and obscene situations. This ended the comic strip series effectively.
- Bassie & Adriaan: Had a comic strip based on them drawn by Frans Verschoor, and direct involvement from one of the comedians themselves: Aad van Toor (who played Adriaan).
- The closest modern example: Tyler "Ninja" Blevins, a popular video game livestreamer, has his own graphic novel series, simply titled Ninja, authored by him and Justin Jordan and drawn by Felipe Magaña. The series has him and his friends transported into and going on adventures in the virtual universe of a Fortnite-like game.
Fan Works
Films — Animation
- Disney Animated Canon:
- Several Disney movies have some, which either end up in their own special promotional comic book/mini-series, or simply in the pages of Walt Disney's Comics and Stories. Sometimes both.
- The Lion King has numerous, predominantly European exclusive, comics based on the first film. Many introduce new characters.
- Bambi has a manga created by Osamu Tezuka.
- Yellow Submarine had two, the first to coincide with the film's original release by Gold Key Comics, which is notable for featuring many unused ideas and characters including The Beatles visiting Penny Lane, John getting kidnapped by a mermaid, a fire breathing dinosaur, and "Lovely Rita" the meter maid! This is because the creators of the comic were given an earlier draft of the script and started working on it before the real film was actually finished. In 2018, for the film's 50th anniversary, Titan Comics published a new adaptation that was more faithful to the final film and recycled from a scrapped comic adaptation by Dark Horse Comics in the 1990's.
- Marvel Comics did a An American Tail: Fievel Goes West comic. It's Off-Model. Very off model.◊
- The Twelve Tasks of Asterix was adapted into the unofficial comic book story Asterix Conquers Rome.
- The Lucky Luke films Daisy Town and Ballad of the Daltons were later adapted as official albums in the comic book canon. Ballad of the Daltons also got a 1978 tie-in in the form of a picture book with stills from the film.
- Tintin and the Lake of Sharks has been adapted to a comic strip too, though this is not officially part of the Tintin canon and it's more or less a collection of screenshots from the film with text balloons added.
- The Transformers: The Movie had two adaptations:
- Original 1986 adaptation by Ralph Macchio (no, not that one) for Marvel Comics. Notable in that not only was it based on an earlier form of the script, but artist Don Perlin had to rely on earlier character models as well.
- 20th Anniversary adaptation, titled Transformers: The Animated Movie, by Bob Budiansky for IDW Publishing. Notable for attempting to fix a few errors and Plot Holes from the film.
- As a sort of Recursive Adaptation, Smurfs: The Lost Village had a related tie-in comic book album called Smurfs: The Village Behind The Wall consisting of five stories that take place within that movie's universe.
- Ralph Bakshi's adaptation of The Lord of the Rings was adapted into comics by Spanish artist Luis Bermejo Rojo (thus "El Señor de los Anillos") and translated into many European languages - but never English for licensing reasons. It adds more dialogue and details from the book trilogy the movie left out, but stops at the same point, in the middle of the second book.
- Atlantic Books published a Waltz with Bashir graphic novel, a year after the movie came out.
- Groundwood Books released a graphic novel based on The Breadwinner in 2018.
- IDW Publishing did a four issue adaptation of the 2007 Beowulf movie.
- Harold Whitaker adapted Animal Farm (1954) into a newspaper comic strip.
- Monsters, Inc. had two comic adaptations. One was a one-shot adapting the events of the film published by Dark Horse Comics, the other was a four-issue miniseries published by Boom! Studios that was titled Laugh Factory and took place after the events of the film.
- The Addams Family (2019) received a one-shot comic tie-in called The Addams Family: The Bodies Issue, published by IDW Publishing in November 2019.
- Mad Monster Party? has had two comic book adaptations. The first was a one-shot by Dell Comics that was published only a few months after the film's original release, the second being a four-issue miniseries published in 1999 by Black Bear Press.
- The DC Animated Universe films Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero and Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker each received a one-shot adapting the animated film into a comic book format.
- The Lord of the Rings is a three-shot comic that specifically adapts the animated movie made by Ralph Bakshi.
- Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night had a one-shot comic book released by Marvel Comics around the same time the film came out.
- Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return had a tie-in comic in a miniseries titled Dorothy of Oz: Prequel, which was released a while before the actual film came out and served to explain the details of how the Jester took over Oz and what the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Lion went through before they began to summon Dorothy back to Oz.
Films — Live-Action
- Our Miss Brooks: The live-action movie had its own comic book adaptation. Meaning, Our Miss Brooks was on the radio, television, the big screen... and in the comics!
- Star Wars has a number of comics among its Expanded Universe titles.
- In the 70s and 80s, quite a few top-tier talents contributed to adaptations of films at Marvel and DC.
- Marvel Super Special was a magazine-formatted comic series released by Marvel Comics from 1977 to 1986. While many of its early issues were dedicated to original stories featuring KISS, Conan the Barbarian, Star-Lord, and Doug Moench's Weirdworld, film adaptations had been interspersed (the aforementioned Close Encounters adaptation was issue 3), and became the sole focus of the series with issue 14. One exception was a Tarzan story released to cash in on the film Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, without being a straight adaptation.
- In several cases, the Marvel Super Special adaptations were collected from limited series adaptations printed in the traditional comic book format. In a couple of cases, such as Star Trek: The Motion Picture and The Empire Strikes Back, the adaptations appeared as part of their franchises' ongoing series.
- Labyrinth's adaptation notably draws heavily upon the film's novelization. Justified, seeing as it would be hard to put the musical numbers into a comic book.
- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978)'s adaptation never got published in America due to the movie's poor performance, but was published in France, with the issue numbers skipping from 6 to 8 everywhere else.
- Its final issue was the adaptation of the infamous Howard the Duck film.
- There was a comic adaptation of Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Because it had a Comics Code seal, it suffered from Bowdlerisation, and compressed the dialogue very badly. The artwork isn't bad, though, if you can find a copy.
- Cloverfield has a manga sidestory.
- The soundtrack of 28 Days Later came with a prequel comic that explained the spread of the virus.
- A comic strip published in 2000 promoting Shaun of the Dead, titled "There's Something About Mary" explained how Mary, the zombie girl who Shaun and Ed find in their garden, and other side-characters became zombies. The story now appears on the film's DVD as an extra feature.
- The Wizard of Oz, with versions by DC and Marvel. The first Marvel/DC collaboration was an oversized edition of MGM's Marvelous Wizard of Oz, based on the 1939 film. Marvel had almost completed its adaptation when they discovered that DC was working on their own adaptation and held the actual rights.
- Graphic novels based on Clive Barker's Hellraiser were more like anthologies of short illustrated stories that invited writers and artists to contribute their own interpretations to the continuity. Adaptations of the movies were made later, and Pinhead had his own (brief) regular title with Marvel.
- The 2010 The A-Team had two four-issue series released just prior to the film.
- Inception had a one-shot comic, The Cobol Job, which recounts the events immediately leading up to the movie. A motion comic version is included in the Blu-ray release of the film.
- An especially interesting example of these was Harvey's adaptation of The Flintstones. It presented the film's story in two forms — one drawn in the live-action style, the other drawn in the cartoon's style.
- A comic adaptation of Ghostbusters II was published, with the characters drawn in their cartoon designs.
- In addition to adaptations of the first two movies, Bill & Ted's Excellent Comic Book was a continuation of the Bill & Ted series, starting after the second film. It was written by Evan Dorkin, published by Marvel Comics, and ran for twelve issues.
- The now-defunct publishers Dell Comics and Gold Key Comics published many standalone adaptations of movies from the 1950s through the 1970s, including many Walt Disney titles. Dell published many of these under its Four Color anthology title. For example this is Dell's adaptation of Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. And they did a direct comic adaptation of X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes.
- Pacific Rim: Tales From Year Zero which was written by the film's screenwriter Travis Beacham. The comic acts as a prequel to the film covering the events of the first Kaiju attack, how the Jaegers were created and goes into detail about the backstories of characters such as Stacker Pentecost and Mako Mori.
- Both 80's Conan the Barbarian movies, by the same Marvel that published Conan comics.
- Alien was adapted on Heavy Metal in what would later be republished as Alien: The Illustrated Story, years before Dark Horse Comics published lots of Aliens comics.
- The first three Indiana Jones movies were adapted by Marvel, who also published the ongoing title The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones.
- Out of the 10+ Friday the 13th films, only Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday got a comic book adaptation.
- Elm Street series' sort-of finale Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare got a three-issue adaptation by Innovation Publishing, which also made two prequel series' to the film.
- The Rocky Horror Picture Show had a condensed three-part comic book adaptation that also included a section of popular (at the time) callbacks used in Audience Participation screenings.
- All three films in the original RoboCop trilogy got comic adaptations. Marvel Comics, who also did a separate licensed series based on the franchise, released the ones based on RoboCop (1987) and RoboCop 2 and Dark Horse Comics, who picked up the license next, did the one based on RoboCop 3.
- The first TRON film had a comic book adaptation by Marvel Comics released around the time of TRON: Legacy.
- Back to the Future, which was an interquel series based on the movie trilogy.
- Space Goat Publishing has published a number of comic continuations of horror films including Evil Dead 2 and The Howling.
- While Star Trek has had many comics based on the various TV series (see Live-Action Television below), nine of the films have been adapted into comic book form, and four series simply titled Star Trek continued their stories from the most recent film at the time of each series' premierenote Marvel, Star Trek: The Motion Picture; DC vol. 1, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan; DC vol. 2, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier; IDW, Star Trek (2009). In addition, IDW has published several tie-ins to the reboot films, and their current ongoing, Star Trek: Boldly Go, is set after most of the events of Star Trek Beyond, explaining what the crew did while waiting for the completion of the Enterprise-A at the end of the film.
- Trick 'r Treat had two comic book tie-ins.
- WildStorm created a four-issue miniseries that was originally supposed to be published weekly in October 2007 to coincide with the film's theatrical release. Instead, it ended up published as a graphic novel in 2009 around the same time the film was released directly to DVD.
- Legendary Comics published a graphic novel containing new stories called Trick 'r Treat: Days of the Dead.
- Both Little Shop of Horrors movies had adaptations.
- DC adapted the 1986 Little Shop of Horrors into a one-shot notably omitting the songs and making the characters look completely different.
- Roger Corman's Cosmic comics made a three-issue adaptation to the original movie in 1995 titled Welcome To The Little Shop Of Horrors. Each issue also includes a 2-page "Behind the Scenes" feature, as well as a comedic single-page original story chronicling the further exploits of the characters.
- Freaked was adapted into a 32-page one-shot published by Hamilton Comics.
- The Transformers Film Series had several comic book tie-ins, most of them by IDW Publishing.
- Transformers (2007) had several miniseries that served as prequels to the films, a miniseries that adapted the actual film and a sequel miniseries titled The Reign of Starscream.
- Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen had a prequel miniseries titled Transformers: Destiny, another miniseries adaptation of the actual film, a miniseries titled Tales of the Fallen that told stories from the perspective of several characters in the film and a follow-up to Tales of the Fallen called Transformers: Nefarious, which also served as a continuation of the aforementioned The Reign of Starscream.
- Transformers: Dark of the Moon had three prequel miniseries (titled Sector 7, Rising Storm and Foundation) and yet another miniseries adapting the actual film.
- Transformers: The Last Knight had a comic book prequel titled Mission to Cybertron, which was exclusive to a Toys R Us Blu-ray/DVD bundle of the film.
- Titan Magazines published a comic book series based on the film series that ran for about seven years, which also included material based on Transformers: Animated and Transformers: Prime.
- Bumblebee had a prequel miniseries that homaged the James Bond films by having Bumblebee working with British spies during the Cold War, complete with the ending caption of "Bumblebee will return". Ironically, the miniseries is incompatible with the film's continuity due to the discrepancy of the actual movie eschewing the original draft's premise of Bumblebee having prior adventures on Earth.
- Batman Film Series:
- Longtime Batman writer and editor Dennis O'Neil wrote comic book adaptations of Batman (1989), Batman Returns, Batman Forever, and Batman & Robin; they would include scenes that don't appear in the movies themselves, as they would be based on earlier screenplays. They would be collected in the 1997 trade paperback, Batman: The Movies.
- Batman '89 is a comic book continuation of the films that takes place after the events of Batman Returns while ignoring Batman Forever and Batman & Robin.
- Batman Begins had a comic book adaptation written by Scott Beatty.
- Supergirl (1984) got a comic-book adaptation which expands on some elements of the film as writing other stuff -as a superfluous scene where two truckers attempted to harass Supergirl- off.
- James Bond had adaptations of Dr. No (UK's Classics Illustrated, republished in the US by DC), For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy (both Marvel), Licence to Kill (Acme Press) and one for GoldenEye by Topps that only released one issue of the planned three.
- Re-Animator was adapted into a three-issue mini-series by Malibu Comics with several scenes added or re-arranged...also a manga...no really
- Black Dynamite was adapted in 2011 into a comic of the same name.
- Swamp Thing (1982): The film received a comic adaptation in the first Annual issue of the 1982 volume of the comic book.
Literature
By Author:
By Work:
- All You Need Is Kill
- Animorphs was adapted into a series of graphic novels starting in 2020.
- Anne of Green Gables has the following:
- Anne: An Adaptation of Anne of Green Gables (of Sort) is a 2022 retelling set in the present day by Kathleen Gros.
- Anne Of Green Gables 2017 is an abridged but otherwise faithful graphic novel of the first book.
- Anne of West Philly is a Race Lifted version of the first book, set in West Philly with Anne as a black foster child and Marilla and Matthew as a black brother and sister.
- The first four Artemis Fowl books. They retell the plot accurately and well, the art is quite eye-catching, and the graphic novels are pretty well-liked among casual fans, but the character designs have been criticized. A lot. Among the criticisms are characters who pass as human in the books looking like they couldn't pass for Rubber-Forehead Aliens, Foaly the centaur appearing to have the top half of a baboon rather than a human, and just plain contradictions with the originals — Artemis' eyes not being blue is comparatively minor, but a pet peeve for his fangirls. Captain Holly Short, the heroine, is arguably recognizable only by her role in the story, as other than being female and attractive, the drawings have nothing in common with the descriptions — among other things, her hair is an ash-brown bob instead of an auburn crew cut, and her skin colour has changed from coffee-brown to almost exactly the same shade as Artemis'.
- The same people also adapted Colfer's The Supernaturalist.
- Disney have announced a second adaptation of the original Artemis Fowl novel to coincide with the movie.
- The Baby-Sitters Club is a series of adaptations of the novels of the same name.
- Battle Royale has had a manga made. The manga series differs from the novel in three areas. It is far more graphic (not surprising, considering it's in a visual format), spends much more time on developing the whole cast of characters, and ramps up the action as it approaches the conclusion.
- The Beast Player: Itoe Takemoto faithfully adapted the original novel into a manga series.
- Beautiful Creatures received a manga adaptation entitled Beautiful Creatures: The Manga, in February 2013 shortly before The Film of the Book was released.
- The Bible. Several in fact. Robert Crumb did a faithful adaptation of the entire Book of Genesis.
- Billy Bunter has been adapted into a successful comic strip series too. In the Netherlands, he is probably better known as a comic strip character than as a literary figure.
- The Black Arrow has been adapted into comic-book several times. In the Classics Illustrated collection it was told in issue #31.
- The Book of the Named has an adaptation planned for its first novel (Ratha's Creature), successfully funded on Kickstarter.
- The Books of Ember: The City of Ember received a Graphic Novel adaptation in 2012.
- The Camp Half-Blood Series: All books of Percy Jackson and the Olympians have been adapted in graphic novel form. The first two books of The Heroes of Olympus have recieved adaptations too, but not the rest of the series (as of now).
- A Certain Magical Index
- Classics Illustrated printed comic versions of classic literature, such as Moby-Dick, for 20 years.
- Though a few comic book adaptations of the novels of Jane Austen existed prior to 2009, they were mostly small press, low profile works, such as the Graphic Classics inclusion of a short, black-and-white Northanger Abbey in their "Gothic Classics" anthology. However, in 2009, Marvel Comics revamped the "Marvel Illustrated" line and started adapting the novels. So far, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma have been adapted, with Hugo Petrus, Sonny Liew, and Janet Lee on art, respectively, and Nancy Butler on scripting. Northanger Abbey is scheduled to start shipping November 2011, with art again by Lee.
- The Dark Tower currently has an ongoing comic adaptation being published by Marvel, both adapting portions of the novels and introducing new material.
- For a while, DC Comics had a line of graphic novels called DC Science Fiction Graphic Novel that adapted well-known works of science fiction. A total of seven issues were published, and they were:
- Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody
- Deltora Quest has a manga adaptation to go along with its anime and Video Game counterparts, which mostly follow the original story but with a few changes (hair color changes, changes in story sequences, more battles...). Most of which have yet to come out of Japan.
- Some of the Discworld novels — The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Mort, and Guards! Guards! — have been adapted into graphic novels.
- Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks?
- A comic-book serial adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula ran in the pages of Marvel Comics' Dracula Lives!. After the book was cancelled, the remaining chapter was released in Legion of Monsters.
- The first three issues of The Frankenstein Monster adapt Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in a form of flashbacks. It's also been adapted into a full graphic novel by the illustrator Gris Grimly as well as one by Jason Cobley.
- Goblin Slayer
- Golden Time
- Goosebumps first had Goosebumps Graphix which consisted of straight-forward adaptations of certain books by different artists. Then in 2017 IDW Publishing began publishing a series that are original stories featuring certain established villains.
- Haruhi Suzumiya is an interesting example. The first manga adaptation was based on the original light novels; however, it was poorly received, and when the anime was released, the artist actually disowned his manga out of shame, and instead gave way for another, much better manga adaptation, this time based on the anime.
- The first two novels in the His Dark Materials received graphic novel adaptations, which were written and illustrated by French artists. The first one, which adapted Northern Lights was released in 2017, while the one adapting The Subtle Knife was released in 2020. Only time will tell if the third novel in the series is adapted, although it seems unlikely.
- The first three books in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy were adapted by DC Comics.
- The Hobbit was adapted by Chuck Dixon and illustrated by David Wenzel in 1989. A revised and expanded edition came out in 2006.
- Richard Matheson's seminal vampire novel I Am Legend (responsible for inspiring both Charlton Heston's The Ωmega Man and George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968)) was put in graphic novel form a few years ago. It is a great work, all black and white art, and contains virtually all of the original's text. Anyone reading it before reading the original novel could be forgiven for assuming it was a word for word transcription!
- All three books in The Infernal Devices trilogy have received manga adaptations.
- James Bond:
- All fourteen original Bond books by Ian Fleming received adaptations in comic strip form. This also goes for Colonel Sun, the first non-Fleming novel.
- SilverFin, the first book in the Young Bond spin-off series, was adapted into a graphic novel and released by Disney Publishing in 2008.
- From 2015 on, Dynamite Comics has produced several James Bond miniseries by different creators telling original stories, as well as a graphic novel adaptation of the novel version of Casino Royale and Live and Let Die.
- Juni Taisen: Zodiac War
- Kämpfer
- The Land of Oz books have had a fair number of comic adaptations.
- The fifth issue of Dell Junior Treasury consisted of an adaptation of the first book that was more or less a straightforward retelling of the original story, albeit with some details truncated to fit the limit of 36 pages.
- Classics Illustrated Junior had the February 1957 issue consist of another condensed adaptation of the first book, the most notable discrepancy to the source material being that the Wicked Witch of the East was omitted with the Wicked Witch of the West being the owner of the silver slippers before Dorothy kills her.
- After Marvel Comics did a comic adaptation of the 1939 film as a joint venture with DC Comics, they continued with an adaptation of The Marvelous Land of Oz without DC's involvement and initially planned to continue further with an adaptation of Ozma of Oz, but were forced to cancel the plans because of legal issues.
- Oz Squad, a Darker and Edgier reimagining that featured an adult Dorothy going on adventures with the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion years after the events of the original books.
- Oz (Caliber), a series similar to Oz Squad in that it also consisted of a darker take on the mythos and featured an older Dorothy.
- Oz (Marvel Comics) by Eric Shanower and Skottie Young adapts the first six books. While they originally intended to adapt all 14 books written by L. Frank Baum, the series instead ended with the adaptation of The Emerald City of Oz due to declining sales.
- The Last Unicorn ended up receiving one in 2018, a six-issue series which included material which the film had omitted, such as Hagsgate and the prophecy surrounding it, and is overall Truer to the Text than the film ever was.
- De Leeuw Van Vlaanderen ("The Lion of Flanders") by Belgian author Hendrik Conscience was adapted in comic book format by Bob De Moor. The quality of this adaptation is outstanding!
- The comic version of Left Behind. Unfortunately only the first book of the series and Tribulation Force were adapted.
- Little Women has the following:
- Lockwood & Co. was announced in 2023 to receive a graphic novel adaptation illustrated by fan artist Rachel Raka. However, it appears to be trapped in Development Hell or cancelled.
- Manga Classics is a series of comics that adapt works such as Great Expectations, The Scarlet Letter, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer into an animesque form.
- Maria Watches Over Us
- Maximum Ride:
- The Midnight Library: In 2008, Goma Books published a series that adapts the stories into short Manga, which weren't published in English. Notably, several stories have a cute Bishoujo style that contrasts to the disturbing and dark nature of the stories.
- The first book of Robert Asprin's Myth Adventures series was adapted into comic form by him and Phil Foglio; the adaptation was mostly faithful, but there were some noticeable differences, mostly to do with the motivations and ultimate fate of the Big Bad.
- Nansō Satomi Hakkenden (1814-1842)
- The goukan series Setsubai Koutan: Inu no Soushi (1848-1881) is a more or less faithful retelling with minor changes such as the spelling of the protagonists' names.
- Hakkenden: Eight Dogs of the East (2005) is a Shoujo manga which retells the story more loosely, including a Setting Update from the 15th to early 20th century.
- Overlord (2012) received a manga adaptation.
- Raggedy Ann: Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy received several comics adapted from Johnny Gruelle's books. These comic appearances consists of 44 issues of New Funnies, two issues of Walter Lantz New Funnies, 10 issues of Four Color Comics, several series by Dell (a 1946 series that lasted 39 issues, a 1955 Giant, an adaptation of Raggedy Ann and Andy and the Camel with the Wrinkled Knees and a 1964 series that lasted four issues) and a 1971 series by Gold Key Comics that lasted six issues.
- Rivers of London, in 2015, got its own comic book, co-written by Ben Aaronovitch, author of the novels, and Andrew Cartmel, published by Titan Comics. The comics tell stories not in the books, and although reading the comics is not necessary to understand the books, the stories are fully canon and have been referenced in the novels.
- The Saga of Darren Shan has a very faithful manga adaptation.
- The Saga of Tanya the Evil
- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind was adapted into a Franco-Belgian Comics series titled Sapiens: A Graphic History, co-written by Yuval Noah Harari and David Vandermeulen and drawn by Daniel Casanave.
- The Secret Garden has two adaptations:
- Seeker Bears has two animesque manga side-stories.
- Shimoneta
- So I'm a Spider, So What?
- A Song of Ice and Fire: Subverted. Around the same time as the start of the TV series, Dynamite Comics launched their own adaptation of the novel A Game of Thrones, to the confusion of some fans. As of 2014, the comics are still adapting the first book while the TV series has reached parts of the fourth and fifth.
- Sound! Euphonium has a manga adaptation that is separate from its anime adaptation.
- Spice and Wolf
- The Spook's Apprentice, the first novel in The Wardstone Chronicles series, was adapted into a graphic novel in 2023, a year after the author's death. It was written by Pierre Oertel and illustrated by Benjamin Bachelor. It has yet to be published in English, however.
- Sci-fi author Harry Harrison saw two of The Stainless Steel Rat novels adapted into comic form for British serial comic 2000 AD. The two strips were later released in Graphic Novel format.
- Sword Art Online (includes Progressive)
- Tantei Team KZ Jiken Note has its first novel, The Missing Bike Knows, adopted into manga and serialized in Nakayoshi.
- Till Eulenspiegel was adapted into two comic book stories by Willy Vandersteen. The first one followed the original novel and stories closely. The second one was totally new.
- The Uglies series has a graphic novel trilogy, showing the events of each book from Shay's point of view.
- The Warrior Cats series started with various side adventures in manga format, as well as a manga epilogue chapter in the Super Editions. The first series later got a direct graphic novel adaptation.
- When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace
- Wings of Fire has a series of graphic novel adaptations as part of Scholastic's Graphix line.
- Wonder Woman: Warbringer is a 2017 young adult novel, with a 2020 comic-book adaptation.
Live-Action TV
- Babylon Berlin has a comic book adaptation by French publisher Glénat.
- The Babylon 5 comic is fully "in continuity", covering early events only mentioned in passing in the TV show.
- Batman (1966): In 2013 DC Comics launched an actual comic book version of the TV series, titled Batman '66, as well as releasing a trade paperback of the original issues that episodes were based on.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel both have sequel comics continuing on from where their shows ended currently being published.
- Angel also has comic adaptations of some of the TV series' stories.
- Both also had Type 2 comics while the shows were on the air.
- The Prisoner (1967) was given a sequel in the four-issue comic miniseries "Shattered Visage" (books A through D), later collected, of course, in one volume. Patrick McGoohan read it and said he didn't hate it.
- There's 50+ years' worth of Doctor Who comics across various publishers. The style of later (1990s to present) comics have strongly influenced the 2005 television revival; Russell T Davies is an avowed fan of the comics, even writing into Doctor Who Magazine to praise a particular character development.
- There are two Firefly comic miniseries, Those Left Behind and Better Days, which fill in events between the series and the movie.
- The first Star Trek comic started in 1967. Since then, the license has jumped between various publishers; currently, it's held by IDW, who publish stories based on the TV series and the movie reboot.
- Pushing Daisies will have a 12-issue series from DC Comics to close out loose ends and unresolved plots from the series, written by Bryan Fuller. At least it has been announced.
- Even Married... with Children had a few years' worth of original comics based on it.
- Charmed has a season 9 in comic book form. This was later extended to season 10, which acts as the Grand Finale. The creative team notably took advantage of the change in medium to bring Prue back and explore what happens when all four sisters are together.
- In addition to the above, it should be noted that the now-defunct publishers Dell Comics, Gold Key Comics, and Charlton Comics published dozens upon dozens of comic books based upon TV series of the day, from westerns and sci-fi, to straight dramas. Many ran for only one or two issues. One of the best examples of "keeping it alive" was a comic based upon a short-lived Boris Karloff series entitled Thriller. After the series was cancelled after one season, Gold Key, rather than cancelling the comic book version, renamed it Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery and kept it going for 20 years after the series ended and more than 10 years after Karloff himself died.
- In Great Britain there have been numerous long-running publications featuring licensed comic strips based upon TV series. TV Comic ran for some 1,700 issues starting in 1952, and there was also TV Action,note with the likes of Cannon and Hawaii Five-O getting the comic treatment Countdown, TV Century 21 (aka TV 21) - based on Gerry Anderson's puppet series primarily - Look-In, Beeb and Fast Forward (which in addition to strips based on EastEnders, 'Allo 'Allo! and Grange Hill had a comedy strip about celebs hanging out at TV Centre) as well as a handful of series-specific publications such as Doctor Who Magazine (formerly Doctor Who Weekly/Doctor Who Monthly) which has featured an original comic strip based upon the TV series since 1979.
- Apparently, there's a manga adaptation of Bones on the way. It's rumored to be a prequel of the show but there's not much info at the moment.
- There have been a number of attempts to create comics based on Power Rangers. Gladstone did two mini-series based off of season 2. Marvel did an adaptation of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Movie along with two series based off of season 3, one of them with back-up stories featuring VR Troopers. Image attempted to do one for Power Rangers Zeo, but it ended up ceasing after its first issue. Acclaim Comics released a few comics based on Power Rangers Turbo, including a crossover with the Beetleborgs. Tokyopop did a series of Cine-Manga for Power Rangers: Dino Thunder and Disney Adventures did a series of comics based off of Power Rangers S.P.D. With the exception of the movie and the SPD series, they were all Type 2s.
- Marvel Comics published an adaptation of the original Battlestar Galactica TV movie, and then (unusually for most comics based on TV series) went on to adapt some of the early episodes as well before branching into original stories (the comic ran for nearly two years, outliving the TV series). Maximum Press published a short-lived Galactica series drawn by Rob Liefeld in the mid-90's. Dynamite Comics later published comics based on the classic series alongside its adaptations of the remake.
- Due to what can charitably be called a case of "getting totally shafted in favor of Battlestar Galactica", Farscape got a comic spin-off a few years after the miniseries finale, which was a truncated version of the show's promised fifth season. The comic series gave the show's executive producer a chance to further some languishing plot threads like Rygel's quest for his throne, which is the very first story arc.
- There was a newspaper comic strip based on Dallas that ran from 1981 to 1984.
- In a recursive example Arrow (itself based on the comic book Green Arrow) has a comic book adaptation published by DC Comics (the same company that publishes Green Arrow). The comic fills in parts of the backstory, and deals with what happens between episodes of the TV series. The Flash adaptation comic starts before the series, as "Season Zero" (the Arrow comics are "Season x.5").
- The Ultra Series has numerous. A large number of Type 1 and Type 2 manga adaptations exist, but there's also a Type 3 manga series based on the original Ultraman notable for being much Darker and Edgier than the original material and following its own continuity that ignores all other shows. And uniquely for a largely Japan-based franchise, the little-known Australia-produced Ultraman: Towards the Future had comics produced for western audiences during its brief time on air.
- Grimm has a comic book adaptation from Dynamite Comics telling new stories. It is supposedly set in the same continuity as the TV series, although it has yet to be seen how well the two mesh.
- Samson En Gert was adapted as a successful children's comic book series by Wim Swerts and Jean-Pol.
- Smallville now has its "season 11" comics.
- FC De Kampioenen has also been made into a successful children's comic book series whose success has in fact surpassed many other comic strips in Flanders and even the length of the original TV sitcom it was based on.
- '60s British TV series The Avengers has received a few adaptations, typically under the title Steed and Mrs Peel, to avoid confusion with the other Avengers.
- Another recursive example comes from Marvel in the form of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2014), which is adapted from the MCU series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. The comic is a loose adaptation of the first season's format (but not plot) and introduces most of the show's main original characters into the comics universe.
- Masked Rider had a comic adaptation by Marvel Comics that only lasted one issue and crossed over with Marvel's comic adaptation of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.
- The Twilight Zone (1959):
- Dell Comics published two issues in 1962, after which Gold Key picked up the ball and continued publishing a Twilight Zone-based comic book until 1982. Now Comics published a Twilight Zone comic in the 1990s, and in the last few years Walker & Co. has published several graphic novels adapting specific episodes of the original series, updated to today in some cases. The Gold Key title ramped up the creepiness factor by continuing to feature a cartoon version of Rod Serling introducing each story, even years after the real Serling died.
- "Walking Distance", "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street", "The Big Tall Wish", "The After Hours", "The Odyssey of Flight 33", "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?", "Deaths-Head Revisited" and "The Midnight Sun" were all adapted as graphic novels by Walker Paperback from 2008 to 2009.
- The Twilight Zone (1985): "Crazy as a Soup Sandwich" was adapted for the first issue of NOW Comics' short-lived Twilight Zone series in 1991.
- There were plans at Dark Horse Comics for a Millennium (1996) tie-in comic while the show was running. While they never came to fruition, IDW would eventually publish a sequel comic set well after 2000.
- Red Dwarf had a comic strip released by Fleetway Comics. It ran for 20 issues between 1992 and 1994 and is most notable for its incorporation of the Development Gag of having hologrammatic characters being in greyscale.
- Saved by the Bell had two comic series, a five-issue series from Harvey Comics published from 1992 to 1993 when the show was on the air, and a 2015 digital comic series from Lion's Forge comics well after the show was canceled (but before the sequel was announced). The latter series was eventually collected in a trade paperback titled Saved By The Bell: Freshman Year and included all eight issues plus a one-shot story titled Bayside Warriors, a mashup of Bell and The Warriors.
- The Greatest American Hero received a three-issue miniseries from Arcana Studios in 2008 that served as an updated version of the original plot (such as the FBI knowing about the suit and giving Ralph a cover story of it being a prototype military weapon).
- Kamen Rider Zero-One has a four-issue comic book scheduled for release in November 23, 2022. Featuring a new villain called Ragnarok, it is shaping up to be either a Type 2 or Type 3.
- Torchwood has had several comic strips, including a strip contained in the official magazine, a short miniseries by Titan Publishing that serves as a Sequel in Another Medium, and two comics that were exclusively online.
Music
Professional Wrestling
- CMLL and the other Mexican promotions they worked for helped put out comic books for Fray Tormenta, Místico and Dark Angel. And of course the most famous of Luchador to become a comic book character was El Santo.
- There was a comic book of The Undertaker during his 90s run in the WWF. He later got his own graphic novel published by Boom! Studios, Undertaker: Rise of the Deadman, in 2018, which covers his kayfabe life story from childhood to WrestleMania 34.
- The Ultimate Warrior adapted himself into a comic book. It's at least as insane as you'd expect.
- World Championship Wrestling had a 12 issue ongoing published by Marvel Comics that served as an exaggerated adaptation of numerous storylines occurring at the time on television. Interestingly, the sudden cancellation caused it to end in a rather awkward place, with Vader utterly destroying Sting in a one-sided squash match as it began building up Ron Simmons to challenge him.
Puppet Shows
- The Muppet Show has been turned into a comic book, The Muppet Show Comic Book. While it doesn't have guest stars (for obvious reasons), it does well on focusing on characters and manages to get a lot of the show's regular sketches in. The Muppets Take Manhattan received a 68-page comic book adaptation in the 32nd issue of Marvel Super Special, which was subsequently reprinted as a three-issue miniseries by the defunct Marvel Comics subsidiary Star Comics.
- Sesame Street finally got a comic book adaptation in the second quarter of 2013.
- Fraggle Rock had a comic adaptation from Marvel in the eighties, and a 2010 comic from Archaia Press in the same nonstandard 8x8" format as Mouse Guard.
Tabletop Games
Theatre
- The Cirque du Soleil show KÀ, one of the few Cirque shows with a solid storyline (one drawing upon Wuxia at that), received a three-issue miniseries courtesy of no less than Marvel Comics. Notably, as in the show there is no dialogue, only descriptive text.
- The Phantom of the Opera received a hardcover graphic novel adaptation in 2021 to mark the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical's 35th anniversary. It's extremely faithful to the show and its traditional stage "look", with virtually all the dialogue and lyrics pulled straight from the libretto, though it does make a few tweaks (most obviously, the confrontation in the graveyard has the Phantom attack Raoul with a sword as in the 2004 film adaptation).
- Most of William Shakespeare's plays, including but not limited to Macbeth, Hamlet, As You Like It, and King Lear; naturally, the text is usually abridged.
- Snow White Zombie Apocalypse began as a stage play in New York City.
Toys
- Marvel Comics started adapting toy lines with no previous associated fiction into comic books in The '70s, and ended up working directly with Hasbro on some of their properties in The '80s.
- Micronauts began the trend, thanks to Bill Mantlo, who had been inspired by the toys he'd purchased for his son, and convinced Jim Shooter to get the license to produce a comic. The series helped define the Microverse, an alternate dimension adjacent to the Marvel Universe that is typically accessed through mass displacement via shrinking. While the license has long expired, the concepts (and many of the characters) created for this series remain a part of the greater Marvel Universe.
- Rom: Spaceknight was another adaptation by Bill Mantlo, this time based on a single action figure rather than a full toy line. Like Micronauts, ROM was also a part of the Marvel Universe. While this license has also expired, the only thing they can't use is Rom himself - specifically, his name and Spaceknight body. But, since Rom retired at the end of his series and returned to human form, he's made a few unnamed cameos.
- US-1 was an adaptation of a line of slot-racing eighteen-wheeler trucks. The comic was about a trucker who received cybernetic implants and a tricked-out truck after a horrible accident. Years after the series, the character was brought back as a Space Trucker under a slightly different name.
- Hasbro approached Marvel to help create a backstory for their reimagining of the G.I. Joe franchise. Larry Hama had, at that time, made a pitch to Marvel for a series called Fury Force, which would've pit a counter-terrorist team led by the son of Nick Fury against Hydra, and he was able to rework that concept into G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero. Notably, it was the first comic book to receive a television commercial, which would later spawn a cartoon series.
- Transformers:
- Hasbro came back to Marvel to pull together the various transforming toys they'd licensed from Japan (mostly from Takara's Diaclone and Micro Change lines) into one coherent storyline. The comic and cartoon were developed simultaneously, with the latter changing a few details from the former and creating its own continuity (much as had happened with G.I. Joe). In spite of being a completely different continuity from the cartoon, one issue of the comic was an adaptation of the cartoon episode "The Big Broadcast of 2006", which was regarded as non-canon by both the US and UK versions of the comic.
- The Transformers comic license has gone through several companies since, as well as various manga adaptations in Japan (though those are usually closely tied to their related anime series). Dreamwave revived the Generation 1 franchise and provided its own adaptation of the Unicron Trilogy, at least until the company went bankrupt. IDW Publishing held the license from 2005 to 2022, creating two G1-based universes, as well as tie-ins to the live-action film series, Animated, and the Aligned Universe. Parallel to that, Fun Publications, who ran the official fan club from 2005 to 2016, produced comics based on the Collector's Club and BotCon exclusive toys, alongside stories based on Beast Wars, Beast Machines, and Animated. Skybound Entertainment picked up the license in 2023, and immediately established a Shared Universe between their Transformers and G.I. Joe comics.
- Some of Hasbro's other 80s properties were also given comics by Marvel under their younger-reader Star Comics imprint (and usually tied in more directly with an Animated Adaptation if there was one): Inhumanoids, Visionaries, and Air Raiders.
- Throughout the full span of its run, BIONICLE was accompanied by a comic series published by DC Comics. It was initially virtually the sole storytelling source for the series, and arguably remained the primary one throughout its run. Its successor line, Hero Factory, also has one; however, its distribution is limited to LEGO's magazine and the internet, instead of being a standalone comic book. Other LEGO lines have received smaller, lower-key comic adaptations on occasion as well, such as LEGO Exo-Force.
- The Madballs had their own comic book adaptation published from 1986 to 1988 and had them depicted as ordinary rubber balls mutated into grotesque but friendly beings who frequently thwarted the plans of Mad Scientist Dr. Frankenbeans and his assistant Snivelitch.
- The Monster in My Pocket line of figurines had a comic book adaptation by Harvey Comics that lasted four issues and was written by Dwayne McDuffie. The comic's premise established that there was a team of good monsters led by Vampire and a team of evil monsters led by Warlock, with both factions ending up shrunk to pocket size by a magic spell gone awry, leading to the good monsters allying with a human teenager named Jack Miles to try and prevent Warlock and his band of evil monsters from causing any trouble.
- Mr. Potato Head was adapted into a short-lived daily comic strip in the early 2000's by Jim Davis of Garfield and U.S. Acres fame.
- My Little Pony has had numerous comics over the years, including a UK comic based on G1 and another comic based on G3.
- The Tamagotchi digital pets got a manga in the 90's called Manga de Hakken! Tamagotchi. The comic is a 4-panel yonkoma manga showing the lives of the Tamagotchis on Earth.
- Teddy Scares had a series of graphic novels published by Ape Entertainment.
Video Games
- Action 52: The game included a comic book featuring the game's signature characters, The Cheetahmen. The book is the most detailed way to learn the story of the Cheetahmen characters.
- Akanesasu Sekai de Kimi to Utau: A manga adaptation was released in April 2018.
- Assassin's Creed: The series has adaptations ranging from the Roman Empire to the Russian Revolution.
- Breath of Fire: The series has a whole series, including a separate set of Shoujo and Shonen comics for I, a side-story/continuation for II, and a complete "graphic novelisation" for IV. The one for IV is especially notable as it fell under the Fleeting Demographic Rule and the final volume is to be released just in time for the 10th anniversary of IV's release (lending to fan speculation that the manga was meant as Capcom's way of doing an acknowledgement of the anniversary). It is also the sole Breath of Fire-related Comic Book Adaptation that isn't Japan-only, having officially licensed Chinese and French versions.
- Cult of the Lamb: The game received a retelling of the story called Cult of the Lamb: The First Verse.
- Double Dragon: The series has Double Dragon (1991), published by Marvel Comics.
- Dragalia Lost: The game has a... strange variation. The game itself comes with a Webcomic called Dragalia Life, which, while mostly comedic in nature, are used to help flesh out the game’s world and characters.
- Dragon Quest: Dragon Quest: Tenkuu Monogatari is a 12 Volume manga adaption of Dragon Quest V, released in 1997, centered on Bianca and The Hero's children, named Sora (Sky) and Ten (Heaven) in this adaptation, adding a Theme Naming for the Heavenly Bride title of the original game. It serves more as an Adaptation Expansion for the children, since they venture through many original adventures not present in none of the games while their parents are Demoted to Extra. Unfortunately, Tenkuu Monogatari (Sky Tales) was not released outside Japan, and has no Fan Translation to boot.
- Dragon's Lair: Beginning in 2003, CrossGen Publishing produced a comic-book miniseries adapting the game, with elements from the animated series included.
- Final Fantasy: Final Fantasy XII has a manga adaptation, and the story started a few times later in the game.
- Gotham City Impostors: The game has one in the form of Batman: Impostors. Due to the rather plot-less nature of the original videogame it's closest to being a Type 2.
- Hitman: The series has Agent 47: Birth of the Hitman; which shows us what Diana, 47 and Subject 6 were up to before they met. While it's a prequel to the whole game series, it's more specifically tied into the semi-reboot "World of Assassination" trilogy, starting with Hitman (2016) making some minor references to this series (which released the following year), and events were later referenced in full in Hitman 2.
- The iDOLM@STER: The game has spawned a number of manga adaptations, some original, some not.
- Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis was adapted into a four part comic book series by Dark Horse Comics.
- KanColle: The game received six different manga adaptations in its first year, all telling different stories. Then again, it has a large cast, and only the vaguest semblance of a plot in the game itself.
- Killer7: Devil's Due is publishing a comic adaption, presumably to explain what the game is about.
- Kingdom Hearts: The series had a manga adaptation.
- The Legend of Zelda:
- The writer/artist duo known collectively as Akira Himegawa has made official manga based off of several The Legend of Zelda titles: Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Oracle of Seasons, Oracle of Ages, Four Swords Adventures, A Link to the Past, The Minish Cap, Twilight Princess, and Phantom Hourglass. They usually follow the major plot points closely, but nevertheless always feature a good deal of Adaptation Expansion as well.
- There have been other Zelda manga adaptations as well, including The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1992) by Shotaro Ishinomori that was featured in Nintendo Power and The Legend of Zelda by Yuu Mishouzaki.
- The Legend of Zelda: There are at least three adaptations: The Legend of Zelda, another manga work, and the Valiant Comics series, authorized by Nintendo and based on this and Zelda II.
- Mega Man:
- Mega Man (Classic) was supposed to be adapted into a comic by Dreamwave — but it came out at around the time Dreamwave was in the toilet, so to speak, and thus only three issues were released, with the fourth delayed for months and leaving a few plot threads hanging. If nothing else, the artwork was great, and the plot for the first three issues was all right.
- Although that definitely can't be said of the Rival Schools adaptation...
- However, the series finally got an adaptation by Archie Comics, the same company that adapted the Sonic series.
- There have also been several Manga adaptations of the games. Mega Man Megamix is one of the more notable ones.
- There was also a Brazilian comic known as Novas Aventuras de Megaman. This one was trying to go for a Darker and Edgier, Hotter and Sexier vibe, but perhaps it tried a little too hard.
- Mercenaries: The game was turned into a three-issue comic book miniseries by Dynamite Entertainment in anticipation of the second game (Brian Reed wrote both the comic and Game Script). It features the mercenaries fighting in war between China and Taiwan, and gives Jennifer Mui two brothers on opposite sides of the conflict, Chris Jacobs trying (and failing) a fake defection, and Mattias Nilsson getting intel by drinking half the People's Liberation Army under the table.
- Metal Gear Solid: The game and its sequel were turned into comic book form by IDW, with art by Ashley Wood. The first series was adapted into a PlayStation Portable game titled Digital Graphic Novel; essentially it was a digital version of the comic with limited interactive functions.
- Metroid: The series has a manga series that depicts the events before the games. Reveals, among other things, how Samus and Ridley first met, Samus' time with the Chozo, and the history of Mother Brain and the Metroids.
- Mortal Kombat:
- Neverending Nightmares: The game got one in the form of a Type 1 manga.
- Ninja Gaiden: When Nintendo Power created a strategy guide for Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos, in between the actually game strategy portions, they retold the entirety of the story as a fully detailed comic book.
- Nintendo: Back in the NES days, Nintendo authorized Valiant Comics to write Nintendo Comics System, comics based on a number of their most popular video game titles, including Super Mario Bros. and Metroid. The Zelda comics based on The Legend of Zelda are set in the world of the original NES Zelda games (the first two in the series), although rather than retelling the stories of those games as the manga do, they focus on the continuing adventures of Link and Zelda.
- Persona: The series has a comic for each game, with the exception of Persona 2, which has at least three. They also provide the near-universally accepted names for the protagonists in each. Persona 2 is again exempt because the protagonists for those games already have Canon Names.
- Pocket God: Pocket God is an adaptation of the video game of the same name. It started out as a four-issue miniseries, but was so well-received that it became an ongoing series.
- Pokémon: The franchise has several adaptations, the most prominent of which are Pokémon Adventures (Pokémon Special in Japan) and Pocket Monsters. These are usually a combination of types 1 and 2, loosely retelling the games (challenging the gyms, fighting an evil Team) but adding subplots and character interactions that have no game basis.
- Ratchet & Clank: The Ratchet & Clank (Comic) fills the gap between A Crack in Time and All 4 One. Penned by series writer TJ Fixman, it tells of an adventure where Ratchet comes to terms with his loss from A Crack in Time as well as how Captain Qwark managed to become President of Polaris. The latter is presented in All 4 One without explanation, while the former is introduced and concluded in the same game.
- Resident Evil:
- 2002 saw a Korean manhwa adaptation of Code Veronica which is slavishly accurate to the game.
- WildStorm, which also published the aforementioned manhwa in the US, released a couple of short-lived Resident Evil series in the late '90s, the latter of which managed to make STARS into an angst-laden version of G. I. Joe, even including a half-zombie member with Zombie Sense and a disgruntled convict who was given the choice of joining STARS or life in prison. They blow up a Mexican Day of the Dead celebration and circus. The first series uses the RE 1 and RE 2 characters, but in situations that featured things such a walking Fish Tyrant.
- The 2009 series begins with zombies in space and a main character named... Holiday Sugarman.
- Sakura Wars: The series has had two manga adaptations so far. The first one, which was illustrated by Ikku Masa, adapts the original game. The second was based on Sakura Wars (2019) and has been published in Shueisha's Weekly Young Jump since 2019.
- Sonic the Hedgehog:
- Splatoon: The Nintendo third-person shooter series has several, all of them being comedy manga, with the longest-running and most popular being the Sankichi Hinodeya manga of the same name.
- Star Fox: Writer/artist Benimaru Itoh made an official comic based on the original Star Fox game than ran in Nintendo Power for several issues. It was released before the game was available anywhere in the world, making it the first introduction to the Lylat System, ever. It follows the game's plot exactly, even going so far as using the hidden elements in the game as plot devices, and introduced many elements that were later altered and used in the franchise reboot, Star Fox 64.
- Story of Seasons: The series has short 4-koma manga for some of the games.
- Street Fighter:
- Super Mario Bros.:
- Touken Ranbu: KanColle's brother series is no slouch either; multiple manga adaptations, some of which are outright Alternate Universe stories, have been released since its launch in 2015. Due to the game's lack of plot, however, they tend to be Type 2.
- Ultima: The game had four manga adaptations when it was translated into Japanese in order to build interest. The plots range from quite divergent to completely original.
- Wild ARMs: The comic Wild ARMs: Flower Thieves is set in Filgaia, but with different characters and a different continuity. There are also manga adaptations of the games themselves.
- Yo-kai Watch: The series has several manga, including Yo-kai Watch and Yo-kai Watch: Wakuwaku Nyanderful Days. It also had a short American comic by IDW.
- Yume Nikki: The game got an official manga adaptation in February 2013, created by Hitoshi Tomizawa of Alien Nine fame, which expanded on and explained somewhat the utter Mind Screw of a game.
Visual Novels
Web Original
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