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Comic-Book Adaptation - TV Tropes

  • ️Sat Aug 02 2008

Comic-Book Adaptation (trope)

"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:

  1. The comic retells the story of the original work.
  2. The comic takes the characters and setting of the original, but tells a different series of stories.
  3. 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 

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 

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 . 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:

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  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):
  • 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 one released by Fleetway Comics. It ran for 20 issues between 1992 and 1994 and is most notable for it's 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.

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 

Visual Novels 

Web Original