Comic book adaptations are all the rage in film and television. Superheroes dominate the box office and are now a regular staple on various networks like The CW, HBO Max, Disney+, and more. While most audiences might assume that comics are just synonymous with superheroes, comic books are a rich art form that can tell many different types of stories that range from gothic horror to crime noirs and even deeply personal character studies. Not all comics are aimed at kids, and there are plenty of stories that tackle mature themes aimed at an older audience.
Many film and television studios have already tapped into the mature comics market. Adult-oriented comics have served as the basis for popular television series like The Walking Dead, Umbrella Academy, and Paper Girls and for feature films like A History of Violence, Persepolis, and Ghost World. This is only the tip of the iceberg. These are seven adult-oriented graphic novels that would make great films or television series.
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Fables
Vertigo / DC Comics
Created by Bill Willingham, Fables was first published in 2002 and ran until 2015, focusing on a variety of folklore and fairy tale characters who have formed a community named Fabletown in New York City after their homeland was conquered by a mysterious enemy. The series features the reimagining of classic characters like The Big Bad Wolf, Snow White, Prince Charming, Rose Red, and many more. The comic series digs into the personal lives of these characters and was one of the most popular titles in the DC adult-oriented comic line Vertigo for years.
Fables have almost been adapted numerous times. ABC was originally developing Fables as a TV series before landing on an ‘original’ idea, Once Upon a Time, which featured many similarities to Fables including fairy tale characters in the real world. In 2015, Warner Bros. began development on a live-action series with Harry Potter producer David Heyman attached and a script from Jeremy Slater (Umbrella Academy) and Jane Goldman (X-Men: First Class), but the project was canceled. With 156 issues and over ten spin-off titles, Fables seems ideally suited for a streaming series that could run for years and support a multimedia franchise.
American Vampire
American Vampire is a comic series created by famed Batman writer Scott Snyder and artist Rafael Albuquerque. The series imagines vampires as a population made up of many different species and charts the inner species conflict throughout history as well as major moments in the species’ evolution. The primary story takes place in the American west in the 19th century following the emergence of a new vampire breed. The series reimagines many popular vampire troupes from franchises like Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, True Blood, and Blade just to name a few.
The comic was created in 2010, at the height of the vampire renaissance with franchises like Twilight, Vampire Diaries, and True Blood dominating pop culture. With a new sense of nostalgia for the vampire trend of the early 2010s and the popularity of What We Do in the Shadows and AMC’s Interview with the Vampire, it may now be the perfect time for an American Vampire television series or feature film.
Bitch Planet
Image Comics
Bitch Planet is a ten-issue comic series created by writer Kelly Sue DeConnick (who famously relaunched Carol Danvers as Captain Marvel in 2012) and artist Valentine De Landro. Described by many as a science fiction riff on Orange is the New Black, the series takes place on an off-planet prison that is meant to house non-compliant women.
The comic is a feminist reimagining of the exploitation genre and features a lot of potential as a television show. Due to the short nature of the title, it could also be easier to adapt into a feature film (or brief miniseries) than many of the longer running titles on this list.
Sex Criminals
The aforementioned Kelly Sue DeConnick is part of a comics powerhouse marriage with writer Matt Fraction, and Fraction has his own comic at Image titled Sex Criminals. Created alongside artist Chip Zdarsky, Sex Criminals has been a critically acclaimed comic since its first issue was released in 2013 and has been nominated for multiple awards. The series follows a librarian named Suzie and an actor named John who, after sleeping together, discover that they share the ability to freeze time.
Suzie and John begin a relationship, discover their sexual history, and decide to rob a bank to make extra money. The series is comedic, poignant, and deeply human, and has the potential to become a breakout hit with mainstream audiences. Universal Television purchased the rights to develop it into a television series, yet no word has been made since 2015. The title might be the perfect series to help boost subscribers for Peacock.
100 Bullets
100 Bullets was first published in 1999 and was created by Brain Azzarello and Eduardo Risso, who based it on noir and crime stories. The stories revolve around a mysterious figure named Agent Graves approaching someone and providing them a chance for revenge by offering them a handgun alongside 100 bullets that are untraceable, along with the knowledge that any investigation into the murder will cease.
The series is built on an ethical thought experiment, the idea of exploring if people will act on violent revenge if given the means and lack of consequences. What began as a series of very loosely linked stand-alone stories quickly morphed into a vast mythology where all the stories and characters would intersect with one another. These storylines automatically lend themselves to the episodic structure of a television series, with each being stand-alone and culminating in a season finale.
The series was almost adapted into a television series by Batman Begins screenwriter David S. Goyer in 2011. 100 Bullets was set up at Showtime, but was scrapped in 2013 due to the number of mass shootings in the news. In 2015, Tom Hardy signed on as a producer for a film adaptation with the possibility of him starring. The project was set up at New Line Cinemas, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. which owns DC Comics and Vertigo (which published 100 Bullets). No news has been made on the project, but it certainly would make for a great HBO television series.
Saga
Saga is one of the most critically acclaimed graphic novels of the 2010s. Created by artist Fiona Staples and writer Brian K. Vaughn (Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina, Runaways, and the recently adapted Paper Girls). The series focuses on a husband and wife, Alana and Marko.
Alana and Marko are from long-warring extraterrestrial races, fleeing authorities from both sides of a galactic war as they struggle to care for their daughter, Hazel, whose birth kicks off the series in issue one. Saga is an intergalactic epic and romance that has been favorably compared to Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and Game of Thrones. The series has received multiple awards and has been praised for its writing on ethnicity, war, sexuality, and gender.
Saga has the potential to be a massive television series for anyone who gets the rights, although there is a chance it may never be adapted. The series is an Image Comic, meaning it is owned by its creator, Brian K. Vaughn. While Vaughn is open to the possibility of an adaptation, he has made it clear it isn’t a priority and part of the point of the comic was to do things that could never be imagined on film or television. However, he has been open to adaptations in the past with Paper Girls and Y: The Last Man, but both of those were sadly cancelled after one season. It might be a long time until Saga is adapted, as the series is still running, but if and when the day comes it will be a highly anticipated event.
Love and Rockets
Fantagraphics
Love and Rockets is one of the most influential comics of all time, and it’s strange to think that it has never been adapted. Created by the Hernandez Brothers in the 1980s, the series is split between two primary stories. One follows a cast of characters in the fictional Central American village of Palomar that tend to feature elements of magical realism. The other is a separate unrelated story about a social group in Los Angeles and is one of the most accurate depictions of the punk scene in LA during the 1980s and 1990s.
Both stories would make the basis for a great film or television series and feature richly detailed characters to draw from. Love and Rockets would be the perfect alternative to many of the superhero adaptations that have dominated the market and show just how rich the format of comics really is.
