I'll take "useless" for $2000, Alex

[yendi]

Yes, it's just what you've always wanted: The novelization of the film adaptation of V for Vendetta!

The best part, of course, is that it's written by a guy named Steve Moore. Wonder if they figured a few Alan Moore fanboys wouldn't be paying attention, and plop down the dinero?

Of course, it's not the most pointless novelization ever. But it's up there.

Comments

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

Dude, I actually remember there was a mid-'80s novelization of frickin' Charles in Charge. No, that doesn't beat your choice, but still...

[yendi]

Oh, all of the tv shows back then had books. Granted, there are books for many shows nowadays, but I don't get writing novels based on sitcoms.

[hangingfire.livejournal.com]

You know what would be even better?

If DC released a one-off comic book adaptation of the film.

[yendi]

Written by Denny O'Neil.

[robyn-ma.livejournal.com]

With art by Tony Tallarico.

[dougals.livejournal.com]

You know, I always loved that the novelization for that film was "Bram Stoker's Dracula, by Fred Saberhagen". ::shakes head::

[yendi]

That was the first warning sign I had that the movie had no intention of living up to the title.

[dougals.livejournal.com]

Agreed.

[phantom_wolfboy]

That was your first warning?

[stevietee.livejournal.com]

I was working at a bookstore when Fellowship of the Ring came out, and we had it out on display near the entrance to the store. As a guy and his young son walked by, the kid pointed to it and said, "Wow, there's a book version now, too??" The dad shrugged and mumbled, "I guess" or something similarly inane.

[marlowe1.livejournal.com]

You forgot about this one. (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/074347676X/qid=1139939048/sr=1-9/ref=sr_1_9/104-0655782-4727956?s=books&v=glance&n=283155)

Although I always wondered if Alan Moore could have ghost written the novelization complete with all his bad feelings about the movie. Descriptions of Alan Quartermaine stumbling around like a confused Scot, Mina look very very old and Tom Sawyer trying to fight Dorian Gray for most boring pointless character.

[fings.livejournal.com]

You know, these pointless novelizations remind me of a giant media game of Eat Poop You Cat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eat_Poop_You_Cat).

[robyn-ma.livejournal.com]

'The best part, of course, is that it's written by a guy named Steve Moore.'

That would be Alan's ne'er-do-well brother Steve, who has consistently tried to ride Alan's coattails. Among Steve's other works are Clockmen, Swamp Object, and his acknowledged masterpiece From Heck.

[yendi]

That would explain that issue of Dr. and Winch I found in a $.25 bin.

[kradical.livejournal.com]

I don't see the book as any more or less "useless" than any other film novelization. It's not like the source material is a book, it's a comic book. This novelization is just like any other novelization: the film in a different medium.

BTW, did you raise this same objection when novelizations of Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, Fantastic Four, X-Men, X2, Constantine, Elektra, etc., came out?

Now the Saberhagen -- as well as the novelization of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein -- those, I grant you are useless, and pretty much gave the lie to both movie's titles, but this makes perfect sense.

[yendi]

I had no problem with those other novelizations (and own the first three you mention, in fact), but I do see this as something of an apples and oranges situation.

The other movies you cite are adaptations of a character and concept. Sure, they're all informed by specific story arcs, but they don't set out to retell a specific graphic novel. So an adaptation seems a lot more valid. V for Vendetta wasn't just a fun world with anarchists running around in it, or the 300-issue long saga of a young kidnap victim and her faceless captor; it was a very specific story, and the film is, in theory, attempting to adapt that storyline. So attempting to move it into a novelization strikes me as, instead of something likely to expand on the movie's concepts and characters (something that novelizations are good for), something that is likely to accomplish little to nothing.

That said, I'm trying to think of any analogous movies other than the last two Moore flicks, and I can't think of one, which makes it harder to say for certain if it's destined to fail. The closest example I can come up with is the Marv Wolfman novelization of Crisis (basically skipping the in-between step of the movie), and I don't think it's truly analogous.

[corwinok.livejournal.com]

I lost a lot of respect for Saberhagen on that one.

[gladstone.livejournal.com]

They should have had Sue Grafton write it.

[lordrexfear.livejournal.com]

That guy above making the joke about Steve Moore being related to Alan isn't funny. Why you ask?

Steve Moore has been writing comics long before Alan was, he actually helped Alan Moore get in the business. They aren't related.

Steve Moore is also known as Pedro Henry.

He writes a lot of stuff for Alan these days and was propbably Alan's choice for a novelization if one HAD to happen. Alan likes to make his friend's money if he can.

If V For Vendetta does well, David Lloyd will be sitting pretty.

[dandelion-diva.livejournal.com]

Though, this one (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312963033/qid=1140213073/sr=1-18/ref=sr_1_18/103-1445484-8466257?s=books&v=glance&n=283155) ties for pointless novelization.

It does have the distinction of probably being the only edition of a book with both a naked person and Charles Dickens name on the cover.

Gessi

[yendi]

Oy. That may be the winner.