Kevin Holmes brings us the second of his two-part feature on film adaptations of graphic novels
 The trend in British comics to be more sci-fi based rather than just your friendly neighbourhood superhero is something that can be traced all the way back to Frank Hampson and his innovative and groundbreaking comic strip Dan
Dare, Pilot of the Future (using the great Arthur C Clarke as technical consultant) in The Eagle way back in 1950. It was a tradition that was followed by TV21 in the 1960’s, with it’s Stingray and Thunderbirds strips and a mantle taken up by another innovative sci-fi comic, also, like the optimistic sci-fi of Dan Dare, a product of it’s time, 2000AD. First printed in 1977, it reflected a Britain that was going through social and political unrest; its innovative take on sci-fi was to inject it with a rebellious spirit reflecting the Punk attitude that was sweeping and terrifying the nation at the time. This attitude was captured perfectly in the violent, aggressively humorous and ironic stories that the comic ran. It was aimed at the adolescent market who liked their sci-fi, but also the older, young adults who would have grown up reading comics in the 1960’s. It was also, in its heyday of 1978-1985, and to a lesser extent I suppose still is, a place for future comic marvels to cut their teeth and develop, helping as it did, to produce and nurture some great talent – Pat
Mills, Kevin O’Neill, Alan Moore, Alan Grant, Carlos
Ezquerra, Dave Gibbons, Simon Bisley and more, along with some memorable characters, Judge
Dredd, Rogue Trooper, A.B.C. Warriors, Halo Jones, etc.
 One of its most famous creations, Judge Dredd, has already had a lukewarm movie adaptation made, Judge
Dredd (1995) and while not many other characters have managed to convince Hollywood to follow suit, Alan Moore, perhaps 2000AD’s most famous and greatest graduate, has seen quite a lot of interest from those famous Californian hills. Due for release on 17th March is the adaptation of his 1989 graphic novel, V for Vendetta. Set in 1997, it sees Britain in the grip of a nuclear winter and turning to a fascist totalitarian leadership to survive. Our only hope, a masked avenger with a Crowleyian philosophy of personal freedom (Do what thou wilt), it’s a fantastic graphic novel and a nightmarish vision brought into acrid life by artist David Lloyds. It’s anti-establishment like all Moore’s work and it’ll be interesting to see what Hollywood does with it, the screenplay being written by the Wachowski Bros and it being the director, James McTeigue’s, first feature. Mostly, Hollywood has toned down Moore’s complex, unnerving yet highly enjoyable graphic novels. It’s already adapted From
Hell and The League of Extraordinary
Gentlemen, both causing controversy among the fans and not least, Moore himself. They seem to take his literary graphic novels and take out everything that made them just that, leaving a watered down, empty, action-based hole. Moore was one of the first to herald the age of comics for the ‘mature reader’ with his graphic novel, Watchmen (1987). It’s a brilliant, immense and complicated work, the Citizen Kane of graphic novels centring around a group of retired super heroes, it’s a reflection on the genre itself and asks awkward questions both of the form and of the politics of the time (or anytime). So many attempts have been made to adapt it, the last being director Paul Greengrass’ aborted attempt last year. It’s a shame as it’s a great work of art, but also has a lot of expectations riding on it and a film version needs to do it justice.
 Moore is never one to take a hand in the film productions of his graphic novels, he sells them on and lets Hollywood barbarise the rest. Perhaps he should take a leaf out of his friend and fellow Brit’s book and write his own screenplays, which is precisely what Neil Gaiman has done with comic book artist Dave McKean for their new film Mirrormask. Currently on release, it’s not based on a comic but is an original idea centring on a young girl and her awakening journey into adolescence. It’s produced by the same people that brought us the excellent Labyrinth (1986) The Jim Henson Company and is set in a typical Gaimanian universe of strange lands and even stranger creatures, with Dave McKean adding his rich, dreamlike visuals to the mix as director. Perhaps not as unique as the rest of Gaiman’s work, it’ll still be a treat for fans and fantasists alike.
 Gaiman, while perhaps best known for his comic work has also written novels, plays, TV programmes and obviously film scripts. He was persuaded to try his hand at comics by friend Alan Moore and his first publication was Black
Orchid for DC/Vertigo (Vertigo being the adult strain of DC) comics. This won some notable applause, but it was what he did next which was to have a massive impact on the comic world and help shift the public’s and critic’s continued and misguided dumbing-down of the form. The comic he created was Sandman and, in 1991, Sandman #19 won the World Fantasy Award for best short story, the first time a comic book had ever done so. Along with this it was also championed by literary heavy-weight Norman Mailer, saying, ‘Along with all else, Sandman is a comic strip for intellectuals, and I say it’s about time.’ Gaiman drew heavily on his religious upbringing for the comic using Judeo-Christian theology to create the Sandman’s world and with David McKean’s sub-conscious filled, dreamlike covers, it drew a massive cult following. The first issue came out in the year following Moore’s Watchmen and along with that and Frank Miller’s The
Dark Knight Returns (1986) it brought about a new dawn for the comic book/graphic novel and with it a new mature readership. None of these comics or graphic novels has been adapted for the silver screen, so far, and it’ll be interesting to see if any of them actually do. Perhaps they’re too dark and complicated for Hollywood, although last years Sin
City and the sequel out this year show there’s a market and a respect there. What I can say is that for the talented Mr Gaiman, next in line is Beowulf (he wrote the script) which began filming late last year and is to star Angeline Jolie and Anthony Hopkins, so maybe a future in Hollywood for these mavericks isn’t such a crazy idea, after all.
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