Tag: Adaptation

A Day at the Races with Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog Movie Poster As Sonic the Hedgehog stays ahead in dominating the box office, this movie has everything video game aficionados of the Sega game expect to see. There are fun moments of him jumping around, dodging drones, and saving his friends all while searching for mystic rings that can help him teleport to new worlds. This real world setting may well hint at the next game–should look like if developers want to create Sonic Maximum 3D Overdrive.

The blue speedster is a kid who wants genuine friendships. When he’s a unique creature others want to exploit, to know who are his allies and enemies require him to stay ahead of the game. Ben Schwartz is excellent in the role, and when the plot focuses on how to build trust, that’s a terrific start. This first film is more than just a mere introduction.  While stuck on Earth, Sonic has to find someone to trust, and eventually comes to believe small-town sheriff Tom Wachowski (James Marsden) and his veterinarian wife, Maddie (Tika Sumpter) can help him.

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Dark Horse Comics is At the Mountains of Madness June 26th!

Mountains of Madness
Pre-order on AmazonMountains of Madness

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Publication Date: June 26, 2019
Dark Horse Comics

Go Tanabe’s adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft‘s At The Mountains of Madness is the greatest thing since sliced bread. When considering not many attempts to convert this novella to a consumer-friendly form exists–be it a movie (a comic book and two radio plays were made in the past)–I believe the first half of the tale is not too difficult. Filmmakers or storytellers most likely may borrow from John Carpenter’s The Thing to set the tone. To make the remainder wholly different is where the challenge lays.

This artist is no stranger to this author’s work either. In 2017, Dark Horse Comics published his adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s The Hound And Other Stories TPB (Amazon LinkMountains of Madness).

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The Ring of Nibelung is on a Dark Horse Re-Release!

Mountains of Madness
Available to pre-order on AmazonMountains of Madness

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Release Date: January 02, 2019
Click hereMountains of Madness to preorder

Richard Wagner’s The Ring of Nibelung has seen countless adaptations into other forms of media over many years. The opera truly must be seen as it was this composer’s intention. To read a comic book adaptation may seem like a bad idea, but in what I enjoyed in Roy Thomas version is that it helped reignite my interest in the Nordic sagas. The art by Gil Kane was inspiring. This work was published by DC Comics in the 90s; to find it now means chancing upon a collection while at a comic book show.

In 2012, Dark Horse Comics released their own version in 2012 with P. Craig Russell handling the chores of not only the writer but also the artist. This edition has its own gentile style and modestly introduces the sagas without being too extravagant in the presentation. It collects all the single issue covers and production notes (on how he turned the opera into an illustrative work) into a 450-page book! His pencil sketches are worth noting more than the finished work–and I’m only scratching the surface. Reading this work is just as enchanting. To compress it (which can clock in at 5 hours, or 15 to detail the entire four-part saga) to a 448-page work is just as impressive.

The live performance can be daunting for the newcomer. Not everyone is into opera. To read this work in illustrative form is a great way to become familiar with the story before tackling the stage show. No matter which version I’m looking at, I feel that when I’m done, there’s no need to watch Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings again, for a while. Both share the one ring ideology and borrow from similar sources, and that’s all there is.