Webcomics to Film - What will be first?

[MatthewC]

Over the years, a lot of newspaper comic strips have been brought over to both the big and the small screen.

Peanuts, The Phantom, Dilbert, Heathcliff, Dick Tracy....

And it's no secret that webcomics are the next big thing in sequential art entertainment read by a wide public audience. And filmmakers love to option an existing idea rather than take a chance on something with unproven appeal.

Conclusion: At some time in the next half decade or so, the first webcomic will be made into a television or film project.

Which of the currently popular webcomics do you think it will be? Can you name a storyline you think will be adapted, or will they come up with something new using the existing characters?

[GozertheGozarian]

Penny Arcade, especially if CTS is involved.

Would love to see an 8-bit theatre, OoTS, and Megatokyo TV shows.

[Captain Sarcasm]

Sluggy Freelance.

Penny Arcade is popular, but it doesn't lend itself to film. If they made animated versions of the strips with no attempt at tying them together into a coherent storyline, then it could work.

Sluggy Freelance, OTOH, has a great mix of storyline and gags. I think it'd fit in perfectly as an Adult Swim Comedy show. You could probably cover almost a year of comics per season, with proper pacing.

Megatokyo might be good, but the plot moves too slowly, and sprite comics are pretty much out of the question. Order of the Stick could also work... they'd be saving money on the animation so they could get some fairly big names to voice the characters.

[MatthewC]

Sluggy Freelance.

Penny Arcade is popular, but it doesn't lend itself to film. If they made animated versions of the strips with no attempt at tying them together into a coherent storyline, then it could work.

Sluggy Freelance, OTOH, has a great mix of storyline and gags. I think it'd fit in perfectly as an Adult Swim Comedy show. You could probably cover almost a year of comics per season, with proper pacing.

Megatokyo might be good, but the plot moves too slowly, and sprite comics are pretty much out of the question. Order of the Stick could also work... they'd be saving money on the animation so they could get some fairly big names to voice the characters.

Sluggy Freelance and Megatokyo were two I had in mind, though I wanted to see if anyone would name them first.

I don't think Megatokyo's pacing would be a problem because they could simply speed it up for an on-screen adaptation. Though that might mean there's only enough plot for a single movie.

Order of the Stick has the big problem that they'd have to license from Wizards of the Coast as well as the guy who does the webcomic.... which might lead to Wizards suing the guy who does the webcomic. The whole thing is D&D 3.5 all the way through, and I don't think Open Gaming License extends to film.

Actually, that's a problem for a _lot_ of webcomics. If they draw too heavily off intellectual property owned by someone else- to the extent you can't excise said source material- then it's a no-go.

I think MegaTokyo could get away with transforming all references to real videogame companies and games to references to fictional game companies and games.

[Captain Sarcasm]

I don't think Megatokyo's pacing would be a problem because they could simply speed it up for an on-screen adaptation. Though that might mean there's only enough plot for a single movie.

I think MegaTokyo could get away with transforming all references to real videogame companies and games to references to fictional game companies and games.

I was actually thinking of an animated TV series for Megatokyo. I doubt that it or even something like Sluggy or Penny Arcade has the kind of readers nessecary to justify a movie. Not to mention the importance of the art style to the overall effect of the comic.

I'm not sure what the rules about references are, but they could probably get away with it.

[Stretch Dude]

Sluggy's definitely the most likely candidate for "opening the floodgates," the term I use to describe what will happen once webcomics really hit the mainstream. And if not Sluggy, then most likely a Keenspot comic, or maybe even PCC.

Although, I think that if one of Aaron Farber's comics were made into a movie, it would be the next Monty Python & the Holy Grail in terms of outright hilarity.

[MatthewC]

I was actually thinking of an animated TV series for Megatokyo. I doubt that it or even something like Sluggy or Penny Arcade has the kind of readers nessecary to justify a movie. Not to mention the importance of the art style to the overall effect of the comic.

Split the difference and call it a TV movie.

[Captain Sarcasm]

Split the difference and call it a TV movie.

Well, we'd have to wait a while for it to finish and have a proper resolution before someone could make a good movie out of it.

[Spiff]

VG Cats would make for excellent animated shorts, or perhaps a South Park-esque show.

PVP is very accessible to most anyone, despite its gaming bent, compared to, say, VGCats or Penny-Arcade.

I second Nodwick, if for no other reason than to have Aaron Williams break out in a big way. The man deserves more credit than he's given.

I'd love to see a Megatokyo show/movie where the creator gives up halfway through and then complains about how hard it is to make a webcomic and threaten to quit.

[MatthewC]

Well, we'd have to wait a while for it to finish and have a proper resolution before someone could make a good movie out of it.

Nah. In Japan, they make animes out of mangas that aren't finished all the time. I think it's partially that a manga is at the height of its popularity while its ongoing. If you wait till it's wrapped up, the fan base may have moved on and you lost your push.

Same could apply to webcomics.

[Captain Sarcasm]

Nah. In Japan, they make animes out of mangas that aren't finished all the time. I think it's partially that a manga is at the height of its popularity while its ongoing. If you wait till it's wrapped up, the fan base may have moved on and you lost your push.

Same could apply to webcomics.

Well yeah, but an animated series is different than an animated movie. In a series, you can tell lots of little stories or you can tell one really big story, and there doesn't have to be a big, huge resolution at the end of each episode, or even each season.

With a movie, you have to tell the story in one go. Piro & Largo show up in Japan, meet some girls...and then it pretty much trickles off. It's perfectly okay to do that in a series, but it doesn't work too well in movies.

[Pepsigirl]

Scary Go Round (http://www.scarygoround.com/), while it isn't very popular, would translate really well to film.

[Copper]

Wasn't Undercover Brother a webcomic that got made into a film?

[Captain Sarcasm]

Wasn't Undercover Brother a webcomic that got made into a film?

Technically a series of web cartoons.

But it totally failed to even break even.

[stealthwise]

It's Walky! would make a great animated series, if not some sort of coherent movie. :)

[Stretch Dude]

It's Walky! would make a great animated series, if not some sort of coherent movie. :)

I don't think a movie or even a series of movies would be able to accurate play out the story. I think a TV series would definitely be the way to go. Hour-long episodes would help a bit as well.

[stealthwise]

I don't think a movie or even a series of movies would be able to accurate play out the story. I think a TV series would definitely be the way to go. Hour-long episodes would help a bit as well.

I thought that the comic had a lot of filler arcs in it though. You could easily distill a lot of the comic's energy into an animated film I think, as the characters are mostly caricatures (or start out that way) that the audience could easily recognize, saving time. Also, you'd obviously ignore almost all of Roomies.

[Stretch Dude]

I thought that the comic had a lot of filler arcs in it though.

Most of those filler arcs were little, yet still important, pieces of the story.

You could easily distill a lot of the comic's energy into an animated film I think, as the characters are mostly caricatures (or start out that way) that the audience could easily recognize, saving time.

Yes, maybe, but I still don't think a movie would work. Most of the story arcs that could conceivably be made into movies end in ways that would leave most of the audience scratching their heads in confusion, and the overall storyline is just too big. A series of movies might work, but it would be as interconnected as the LOTR trilogy, and I don't think the wait time between movies (seeing as they'd have to be animated one by one rather than filmed all at the same, as LOTR was) would help matters.

Also, you'd obviously ignore almost all of Roomies.

Yes, let's ignore the period that sets up a good-sized chunk of IW!

[Copper]

Well, I'd say this has a good chance:

http://www.ninjai.com/

[BlairH]

if ctrlaltdel makes it to the big screen, I shall demand royalties seeing as the comic in question is based on my life. I am a composite character, both Lucas and Ethan ARE me.

[stealthwise]

Most of those filler arcs were little, yet still important, pieces of the story.

Just take what you need from them and move ahead. That's what adapting is all about. I don't think we need a recap of the "nachitos" storyline.

Yes, maybe, but I still don't think a movie would work. Most of the story arcs that could conceivably be made into movies end in ways that would leave most of the audience scratching their heads in confusion, and the overall storyline is just too big. A series of movies might work, but it would be as interconnected as the LOTR trilogy, and I don't think the wait time between movies (seeing as they'd have to be animated one by one rather than filmed all at the same, as LOTR was) would help matters.

I don't think so at all. Just ignore the big picture story and really focus on the interesting characters and concepts that the comic came up with. It's really not as hard as you think, unless you want EVERYTHING included.

Yes, let's ignore the period that sets up a good-sized chunk of IW!

It's not that hard. All you get from it is an idea of who Joe, Danny and Sal are really. You can get that across with a five-minute flashback scene.

[Inkthinker]

Goats would play well in the Adult Swim Sunday lineup.

I don't think the webcomic that would work well in film has been made yet... but I agree, it's probably a matter of time.