Which Comic Books Deserve a TV Show?

I’m Steve Gustafson and thanks for stopping by. Don’t forget to check out 411mania’s Comic Book Review Roundtable, every Thursday! Read up on the best reviews and let us know what you’re reading as well. Click to read the latest Comic Book Review Roundtable! 411’s Comic Reviews: Batman: Damned #3, Doom Patrol: Weight of the Worlds #1 and more!

On with the show!

Last week we discussed our Favorite Vertigo Series of All Time. Here’s what some of you had to say:

King Slender: “Sandman Mystery Theater was a great, and very underrated, Vertigo title”.

D2Kvirus: “I know it’s probably the most obvious answer there is, but Preacher’s the main reason I still read comics to this day

HMs for Y: The Last Man, Coffin Hill, The Invisibles and The Filth”

Gil: “My brother bought a bunch of Fables trades and I couldn’t stop reading. So, Fables for me.”

Ken Wood: “I honestly haven’t read much from them which is sad considering Neil Gaiman wrote two of my favorite books but I haven’t read Sandman. I recently got a graphic novel of the Last Man but haven’t had a chance to read it yet.”

Andrew: ““American Vampire” was another excellent comic published by the Vertigo imprint. The imprint, and the dark, complex, and nuanced brand of storytelling it specialized in, will be missed.”

Double J: “It’s not a complex or unexpected answer, my favorites are Preacher, with SandMan coming in a close second. I never really cared for Transmetropolitan because I couldn’t find anything I personally liked about the characters, but everything else u listed from Vertigo is pure gold.”

professorrev: “Even if they did nothing else, I’d always have a soft spot for Vertigo for giving Garth Ennis a home. The fact that they not only commissioned, but put out things like Operation Bollock, is a testament to their editiorial policy.

But that wasn’t all they did. They did Sandman and 100 Bullets and Transmet and Hellblazer and Fables and probably dozens of other things that immediately slip the mind…

Basically, it will be missed”

To read all of last week’s comments go HERE! As always, thanks for the input!

This week we discuss…

Comic Books That Deserve a TV Show

Last week we learned that FX’s upcoming live-action take on Brian K. Vaughan’s Y: The Last Man has found its new showrunner.

Eliza Clark, who you may know from Animal Kingdom, The Killing and, Extant, got the nod to take over for original showrunners Aida Croal and Michael Green. Y remains on track for an anticipated 2020 debut.

You also might remember that it was over a year ago that Netflix bought the film rights to Rob Liefeld’s Extreme Universe comics in a massive, seven-figure deal. The deal gives Netflix movie rights to six of Liefeld’s titles: Brigade, Bloodstrike, Cybrid, Re-Gex, Bloodwulf, and Kaboom.

And lest we forget that before that Mark Millar made deal in late 2017 with Netflix to buy his company, Millarworld, and create original comics, TV show and movies for the streaming service.

With Hollywood enjoying huge box office receipts thanks to comic book movies, you’d think television would be more aggressive in getting some of that green. Yes, Watchmen is coming to HBO and the DC Universe is sort of giving us some worthy series, but with so much great source material, we could have more.

So let’s fantasy book some TV shows!

For me, Matt Wagner’s Grendel or Mage are no-brainers. Either would be awesome to see as a series thanks to rich characters that would translate well on the small screen.

My heart says Grendel could be the real breakout though. Hunter Rose, a successful author who also works as an assassin before taking control of New York City’s organized crime…c’mon! Plus, his costume could become iconic.

I saw some updates recently about Vin Diesel’s sci-fi action flick Bloodshot, which is adapted from the Valiant comic book series. Valiant is pushing hard to crossover to increase their mainstream appeal and they have a number of books that would do well on television.

I think given the technology we have, bringing the Savage Dragon to life would be an interesting challenge. An ultra-violent cop show about a green guy with a fin on his head that takes on supervillains has plenty of meat on the bone for audiences to get behind.

Someone once asked why Groo the Wanderer has never gotten any sort of love. I agree. An animated series is another one of those things that seems like it would have been done by now. I vaguely remember a supposed sample video of a cartoon series about Groo making the rounds but can’t remember if that was legit or not .Regardless, Groo deserves a show!

Right behind Groo is Bone. The Bone cousins seem like a good fit for a trilogy of movies or animated show. The rumors of something happening have made the rounds for decades, the latest being from November 2016 when it was reported that Mark Osborne had been hired to direct the animated adaptation for Warner Animation Group. Osborne, along with Adam Kline, are set to write the film, which would be the first in a planned trilogy. Time will tell.

Transmetropolian is a natural for HBO and today’s current social culture. For this to slip through the cracks is mind-boggling.

Astro City is one book that I would absolutely love to find a home with someone who would give it the proper budget and attention. The anthology comic series could translate into an anthology TV series, with its large cast of characters, with small cameo roles that come back to take center stage in later episodes.

What about you? What comic would you like to see on TV?

That’s all the time I have. Check out our Comic Book Reviews tomorrow and see you next week!