Ian – what’s coming through to me in your comments is that you aren’t criticising Veronica Mars, but you are selling the comic medium short. It’s an increadibly versatile medium – although possibly not used to it’s fullest potential most of the time (which, granted, this probably wouldn’t either). The emphasis on ‘comicky’ things like ‘superheroes’ and ‘action’ are stereotypes – comics can and have subverted those stereotypes abd gone beyond such limiting genre boundaries. What comics produce that other mediums don’t is the relationship between text and image – which I would think, as adapting from a filmic medium, would be a better transition from just prose (if done right.)

“A comic about Veronica Mars would be a bunch of talking heads would it not?” That depends if it’s done well or done badly. If it’s done badly, then you’re right it would be talking heads. that’s almost entirely down to the creative direction. In his book ‘Graphic Storytelling’ Eisner warns against large amounts of dialogue resulting in talking heads if the artist doesn’t circumvent it through doing interesting things with the images too (i.e telling a complimentary or contradictary narrative through the art). Have you ever read the Anita Blake books or comic? If not I’ll summerize – the books are basically an adult Buffy; she kills vampires it fulfils a lot of the criteria you mention for a Buffy comic. They did it as a straight adaptation of the first book and it added nothing because they didn’t adapt to the medium. Consequently it basically was just…talking heads and very dialogue heavy – but it didn’t have to be. It was just done badly.

“One of the reasons Veronica worked so well AS a mystery show was because of the incredibly clever foreshadowing and conscientious fair-play attitude it always had towards constructing a mystery, and because it took its time to let the story unfold…a show that for most of its existence was telling stories that took weeks to unfold, that was doing mystery and contemporary urban drama and social criticism and even a kind of gothic suspense, all at once, and boiling it down to a monthly 22-page comic book.”

Greg – you have a point. That said, once of the advantages *of* comics is conveying a lot of information in a short space. In terms of foreshadowing and constructing a mystery and letting the story unfold it might work better as a graphic novel (or collecting the monthly 22 page comic books into a bigger edition(s) at the end).

Ha. I’ve just noticed the date on this. 2008 and no Veronica Mars Comic Book I guess it’s not going to happen.

*posts anyway*

Schindler’s List and Weekend at Bernie’s are both film. Same medium, drastically different results.

There is no reason a Veronica book couldn’t work, they just need to be creative. Many times I’ve seen writers from other disciplines (novelists, TV writers) add in a page or two of prose to make sure the got everything they needed “into” the 22 pages.

I’d like to see the dangling plot lines resolved, so I’d buy pretty much anything, a novel, a comic book, Broadway musical…

Pessimism I understand, but your position sounds more like defeatism, which I don’t understand (at least from you, that is).

Some things sound like bad ideas from the get-go. I’d rather have no Veronica Mars than bad Veronica Mars. You are missing my main point, which is not “licensed comics are inferior,” or “mystery comics are hard.” I love a lot of licensed books. If somebody was just pitching a comic book about a teenage girl solving mysteries to DC, I’d be first in line to cheer them on.

This is not the case here. We’re talking about continuing a story from a show with three years’ worth of dense continuity, a show that for most of its existence was telling stories that took weeks to unfold, that was doing mystery and contemporary urban drama and social criticism and even a kind of gothic suspense, all at once, and boiling it down to a monthly 22-page comic book. I think that’s the wrong format for Veronica Mars and that it will be inherent in the format for an attempt at a comics version to be unsatisfying to those of us that really enjoyed the show. If we’re to have a continuation or conclusion, this is a story that would work better as a novel, like Max Collins did with Dark Angel.

Oddly enough, on the other hand, I think Dark Angel would make a hell of a fun comic. I’m not a grinch about the concept as a whole. That was a show where it makes perfect sense to keep going in comic-book form. Veronica Mars, on the other hand… not so much.

And speaking of being a big mean grinch about this particular DC project, I didn’t even get to the part about the history of Big Name Hollywood People when it comes to getting a comic book out on time, or even finishing one. It’s not “defeatism” to look at the record of comics in cases like this, assess the odds on a new project, and suggest that probably it won’t go well. It’s skepticism, maybe pessimism…. and if I’m a pessimist, I have cause.

Don’t get me wrong you can do a comic without action, but if you don’t have some other reason for making it a comic, why not just write a novel.

Some good non-action comicbooks: American Elf, Goodbye Chunky Rice, American Splendor, and many more. The art adds somemthing to the comic.

A comic about Veronica Mars would be a bunch of talking heads would it not? It kind of seems like doing a comic about Friends or Law and Order. Wouldn’t prose be a better medium?

(I’d like to point out that I have absoultley nothing against Veronica Mars and have no animosity towards its fans. Additionally, I have no particular love for Buffy)

If there had never been a good mystery comic book, then I guess I could understand, but there have been – it’s just difficult to achieve.

And “it will be hard to do, so I hope they don’t try” just seems like an odd position to take, especially as this is, as others have mentioned, a nice way to bring newer readers into comic book stores – something you’ve been quite supportive of, right?

Pessimism I understand, but your position sounds more like defeatism, which I don’t understand (at least from you, that is).

Mysteries are notoriously difficult to do in comics by themselves. Add all the layered nuance and so on to what one would expect from a Veronica Mars-style mystery and I think the comic will fail on several different levels… none of which are about “action.” Raymond Chandler doesn’t translate well to comics either.

And on top of all that, is there anyone out there who can say with a straight face that Buffy the comic is equal to Buffy the TV show? That they are equivalent storytelling experiences? Buffy season 8, the comic, works mostly because it’s the only game in town for an audience that’s starved for it. If the story was being televised, fans would be screaming bloody murder about how it’s not a patch on seasons 2 and 3.

Does the medium of comics really require a lot of action?

Not at all. Check out Maus sometime for a brilliant character-driven comic.

I’ve never seen Veronica Mars, so I have no idea if that is relevant. But I do get tired of the idea that only action-oriented (and preferably super-hero) stories can be told in comics. I love action packed stories, and I love super-hero stories. But the medium is capable of so many other things.

But that’s okay. Does the medium of comics really require a lot of action? I wouldn’t have thought so. If they can capture the tone and feel of the show, with good stories, it could be good. There are a few reasons why such a comic might fail but no reason that it has to fail.

I haven’t really watched Veronica Mars, but is the show really that bloody?

(Not that I think 100B has been any good for the last five years…but plenty of people do.)

The comparison doesn’t work very well. I guess there are some straight up crime/mystery books in comics, but they usually have a fantastic or super-hero element to them. The most popular in recent memory (Sleeper, Gotham Central, Powers, Alias, Sam and Twitch) all had those elements. What will be the point of Veronica Mars?

…seriously, I like Veronica Mars a great deal. Nancy Drew in Raymond Chandler’s world. It’s smart and funny and layered and generally a terrific show.

That said, I really, REALLY hope it doesn’t become a DC comic. I don’t think it would translate well at all. Novels maybe. Comics just wouldn’t work.