I'm going to try something new here, just for the [curse word] of
it - a series of short reviews of Moby Dick Adaptations / sequels /
interpertations / all of the above / none of the above works from various
mediums. I hope this will create an intellectual discussion, stimulate the
classroom and bolster my score (as unlikely as it sounds). Without Farther
ado...
When transferring a story from one
medium to another the best a creator can do is to work to the strength of the
adaptive media, the worst is to simply tell the story as it is sticking to the
source material even when it becomes extremely unsuitable. This is true
especially in cases such as Moby Dick: A lot of the features of that
novel cannot be carried to non-book formats – it is nigh-impossible to make the
long philosophical/biological/nautical digressions work in less wordy formats
(film, play, comic book); so most adaptations simply throw them out leaving
just the bare bones of the story – finding nothing else to replace them.
Case in point – the
2009 Marvel Illustrated: Moby Dick a six issue comic book series. A part
of the Marvel Illustrated line of comics each series takes six issues to do a
comics-version of a classic novel – from Last of the Mohicans to Pride
and Prejudice. This particular series (reviews here in its collected form)
was done by Writer Roy Thomas and Penciler Pascal Alexie. And if we were to sum
it up we would do it with one word: passable. Imagine, if you will, narrowing
down Moby Dick to a series of story beats – Introducing Ishmael, Meeting
Queequeg, meeting the crew, setting up to see, killing some whales, finding
Moby Dick, sinking. And with those you have the "story" of Moby
Dick, which is not the whole of Moby Dick (some would say it is less
than half of it). Now take those point and provide them with decent
illustrations which would interperate the text in the most conservative way
possible – draw Queequeg as he appeared in countless illustrations and film
versions, make the whale into the version you would find on most covers of the
book etc… and there you have it, the Marvel Illustrated: Moby Dick a
work whose inoffensiveness can only be matched by its un-necessity.
That
is to be expected – this is the work of Roy Thomas after all: A man who has
been part of the mainstream comics scene since the mid-60's whose work always
tended to be workmanlike: he can tell a story properly but no to do much beside
it; his prose is decent but never fanciful (thankfully he mostly sticks to the
original text, and when his own words are used they never clash with the tone),
his used of page layout is never innovative (this can also be blamed on the
artist but considering his seniority and the fact that this is "his
project", at least based on the written forward I lay it to his feet). He
is thoroughly average.
You
can imagine a lot worse being done to Moby Dick (and a lot worse have
been done), but you can also imagine a lot better – if only the creative team
had the courage to be more bold, to establish it their own style over the
familiar story (one cannot help but compare it to far more successful Wizard
of Oz from the same line – this also
follow the story slavishly but it charming cartoonish artwork that quickly
establish identity very much its own).
Whenever an adaptation
is made the question that must be asked is "what is your purpose?" it's not to familiarize the kids with Moby
Dick – because if they wanted Moby Dick light they would read an abridged
version; it is not to help some kid know the story for class – this is the
internet age, they can always Google it; it is not something parents would buy
for their in hoping to get them educated – because sales figures tell us the
parents hardly by comics for their kids; it is not to give some new angel on a
familiar story – this project is editorially mandated, the art team did it
because Marvel Comics told them to. This a purposeless project – it exists
simply as curio, a trivia for Moby dick fans ("What non-film adaptation of
the story was done in the late 200's?") or to Roy Thomas fans ("what
was the name of his forth project to the Marvel Illustrated line?)
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