The Non-Love for Wizard and Alice, or Multiple Adaptations of Known Works...

[BronteJD]

THE LOOKING GLASS WARS: HATTER M is a riff on ALICE IN WONDERLAND and not WIZARD OF OZ. We're still getting too many of the latter, but this isn't one of them.


I couldn't find the quote from your previous column, so I had to go with the correction from the recent one. ;)

Seriously, Augie. Please explicate your dislike of the classics. :)

Yes, there's alot of different versions of both ALICE and WIZARD OF OZ out, but is there anything wrong with that?? Maybe it might actually get some people/kids to get out there and read the originals instead of relying so heavily on the cinematic versions?

Or is it a case of something simply being too popular and too pervasive, to the point that all people know IS the new "hip" version and not the original??

I'm honestly curious as to which is motivating you here. :)

I find myself torn sometimes when something that I've always enjoyed/known suddenly becomes cool and trendy, but people don 't bother looking for or learning about the original version. But I'd rather it be out there for people to find than not at all.

Just a wonderment. How do the rest of you guys feel about this?? Is it the same as when a comic book gets made into a movie and then suddenly every one is talking about the comic book and the movie as the exact same thing? And is that a good thing or a bad thing?? Is it irritating when someone claims to "be a Batman fan" but has never read a comic book?? (I think Peter David had something about that in a recent But I Digress column).

We live in a world of adaptations and malleable versions of stories, so I'm wondering how people feel about/perceive them.

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

I just find it weird when there's a sudden plethora of stories on the same topic, particularly one with such a narrow focus. Zombies, pirates, Dorothies, etc. I'd point them all out and laugh. Doesn't mean they're all bad, of course, but the oversaturation tests my patience.

Now, someone out there is bound to say, "There's no difference between that and countless variations of the same superhero themes."

They're probably right, but given my reading habits lately, I think I'm growing more and more immune to that criticism.

THAT SAID, I think I'm going to whore myself out this month and make Pipeline Previews exclusively about the X-Men, just for the hits I'll get.

-Augie

[pmpknface]

It's Alan Moore's theory on "ideaspace." You guys ever hear of it? I think Ellis brought it up in a Come in Alone column once. Basiclly, all ideas come from a place - the ideaspace - and you see books, movies, novels, tv shows, etc... with the same theme coming out at the same time because their ideas all come from the same place at the same time.

Freaky, and Im sure I'm not explaining it as well as I could, but it's cool...

Oh, and no I don't mind the deluge of pirates, Oz's, zombies, etc... With all this variety eventually some creative team finds something that REALLY works and it not only reinvigorates that particular theme in comics, but it becomes a classic for doing so. :D

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

The other thing that so often bothers me about this outbreaks of similar titles is that it's so often a case of one being a big success and everyone else trying to copy it to carve out their own bit of business. I don't think that's necessarily true with Oz books, but it accounts for some others.

-Augie

[pmpknface]

...here: (http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com/ambi/103160344722932.htm)

According to Warren Ellis’ Bad Signal e-mail newsletter, “Alan Moore has this notion that inspiration lives in an ethereal morphogenic field he terms “ideaspace”, and that we all have access to it. The field has its own weather, and predominant conditions in the field affect the culture. This is why bunches of similar ideas appear at the same time—it’s the weather of ideaspace.”

[BronteJD]

The other thing that so often bothers me about this outbreaks of similar titles is that it's so often a case of one being a big success and everyone else trying to copy it to carve out their own bit of business. I don't think that's necessarily true with Oz books, but it accounts for some others.

-Augie

Oh, I agree. Why else do we get those horrible Disney knockoffs of the same fairy tales as soon as one is released in theatres or on DVD?? Like these other studios just HAPPENED to think of doing Pocahontas or the Hunchback of Notre Dame at the same time?? :)