Films or Moving Comic Books?: An Essay

I've been looking through a bunch of old papers for my Senior Seminar class lately (as I have to have five distinctly different papers for my final portfolio and two complete revisions). In the process, I have been reading some of my old papers for Intro to Film and Literature and Film. I'm actually pretty fond of some of these papers and feel like I did a pretty decent job of analyzing various film related topics. One of my favorite papers was on Ghost World and the idea of what makes a perfect film adaptation of a piece of literature (particularly a graphic novel). In this essay, I compare Ghost World to Sin City and try to figure out just what makes the ideal adaptation for this kind of source material. The concept of an ideal or perfect adaptation has been one I've been struggling with for the past year or so. My Final Senior Seminar paper deals with the concept, my Final Group Project dealt with it, and my Honors paper is going to be dealing with it as well. I see this essay as really the first time I began to really think about this problem and struggle with it as a whole. I do not think that there is an ideal answer to the question but I still enjoy attacking the subject from all areas.

Anyways, below I present you one of my essays. I hope that you enjoy it.

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Ghost World and Other Graphic Novel Adaptations: Films or Moving Comic Books?

An Essay By:

Wesley Caldwell

In 2001, Terry Zwigoff, director of the acclaimed 1994 independent film documentary Crumb, released Ghost World. The film was based on Daniel Clowes’s cult graphic novel of the same name, following the misadventures of Enid and her lack of connection with the world around her. Although the film adaptation was highly successful among critics, it did not make its budget back through the box office and was considered a failure. However, as the years have gone by, the film has become immensely successful on DVD and has found its audience. With its release in 2001, Ghost World became a precursor to an influx of graphic novel adaptations to film. The trend began to take off with the movie that I, as an avid graphic novel reader, had been looking forward to: Robert Rodriguez’s successful 2005 adaptation of Frank Miller’s noir graphic novel saga, Sin City. In 2007, director Zack Snyder’s testosterone-filled adaptation of another Frank Miller graphic novel called 300 hit box office gold with $70 million in the bank on its first weekend alone. As graphic novel adaptations continue to become more popular in Hollywood, the method of filming them is advancing and changing quite drastically. Unlike Zwigoff’s Ghost World or Sam Mendes’ 2003 adaptation of Road to Perdition, these newer graphic novel adaptations are being filmed as frame-by-frame adaptations. The result is something that feels like an actual moving comic book. With this new dedication to the style of the original graphic novels, film adaptations of these works are becoming less like traditional films. There could be a downside to this type of filmmaking. Despite newer, stylistic graphic novel adaptations being incredibly faithful to their source material, they are becoming less like flowing, cinematic pieces such as Ghost World and more like artificial, moving comic books in the vein of Sin City.

Unlike the more recent graphic novel adaptations, Zwigoff’s Ghost World feels like the average movie going experience. There is nothing unusual about Affonso Beato’s cinematography or the way that Zwigoff chooses to shoot his sequences or set his framing. Average moviegoers could watch it, identify with its story, and not even know that it was a graphic novel adaptation (of course, this is if they do not read the credit at the beginning of the film stating this). Nothing about the colorful visual style of the film echoes Clowes’ original minimalist black and white artwork. Nothing in the film makes it stand out as a moving comic book. Most of the focus of the film is not even in the original graphic novel. While it may be surprising to the unsuspecting viewer, Enid never even has a relationship (as a friend or lover) with Seymour in the graphic novel. Still, despite a lack of faithfulness to the original style and plot of the graphic novel, Zwigoff still manages to make a film that captures the heart and feel of its source material. It’s still Ghost World. It is still awkward, offbeat, and filled with a serious contemplation on how someone fits into a world that they cannot identify with. 

Much of this can be recognized in many sequences in the film. One sequence that particularly stands out is when Enid visits Rebecca as she works in Starbucks. The scene starts with a close up on Enid’s face, which is covered with a Batgirl-like mask from Anthony’s sex shop. Just this image alone incites laughter from the audience and gives a sense of the graphic novel’s quirky and obscure humor. This type of humor is expanded upon with annoying customers such as the strange, trivia game player in the wheel chair and the woman who refuses to have anything with her coffee. Zwigoff also manages to get the serious nature of the film across in this scene by having a jaded Rebecca ask Enid when she is going to get a job. Enid’s vague responses to this question begin to point the fact that she is not going to get one.  This scene seems to begin to point out the rift that is beginning to form in Enid and Rebecca’s relationship. This is evident not only with this conversation but also with their positioning in the frame. Enid stands wearing her Batgirl mask on the customer side of the counter as Rebecca wears her Starbucks uniform on the worker’s side of the counter. They are already separated and living in two worlds: Enid in her quirky, slacker world and Rebecca in the real world of working for a living.

On the other side of the spectrum, Robert Rodriguez’s adaptation of Frank Miller’s Sin City was anything but the average movie going experience. The entire film was shot in front of a green screen background in the garage of Rodriguez’s Austin, Texas home. Due to this, the cinematic experience involves the viewer in a completely digital world. It literally feels as if the viewer was shot directly into the pages of one of Miller’s graphic novels. By filming completely against a green screen background, Rodriguez is able to devote his mise en scene completely to the original pages of Miller’s graphic novel. When looking at the film and then the original source, one can see how the film is literary a frame-by-frame adaptation. Unlike like Zwigoff’s film of Ghost World where Clowes’ original black and white style was ignored, Rodriguez embraces Miller’s stark black and white artwork, enhancing it and making it as surreal as it appears in the graphic novel. He manages to create a completely digital world devoted to the original source material, making the film going experience feel like the viewer is watching a moving comic book. However, unlike Zwigoff’s adaptation of Ghost World, this may come with problems. Although he sacrificed many plot and style elements of the original novel, Zwigoff was still able to get across the heart, soul, and feel of the story. Rodriguez’s adaptation definitely maintains the feel of Miller’s original graphic novel, but it managed to leave some filmgoers cold. Many critics stated that Rodriguez’s commitment to Miller’s surreal graphic novel world and a lack of a strong human factor made it hard to be pulled into the story emotionally. Also, with the absolute commitment to the original graphic novel format, much of the movie does not flow like a typical film, causing a further feeling of detachment from the work. Some of the transitions between shots seem awkward and clumsy, something that is not the same when one reads them on a graphic novel page.

An example of the perks and flaws of this type of filmmaking is obvious in the first scene of the film. Based on a short Sin City yarn entitled The Customer is Always Right, the scene displays Josh Harnett as a hit man hired by a troubled woman to give her a good evening before ending her life. The scene is shot frame-by-frame from the original short graphic novel story. However, Rodriguez uses color as a weapon, giving the woman a vibrant red dress and lipstick against the dreary black and white surroundings. As Hartnett’s character lights the woman’s cigarette, he describes her beautiful eyes. When he does this and lights her up, her black and white eyes spring to life, giving off a gorgeous, haunting green glow. As the two characters share a kiss, their figures become a completely white silhouette against the dark city skyline while white rain falls around them. The mise en scene of this shot is that completely of the original graphic novel frame. As the two characters break from their kiss, they are black and white again, no longer a completely white silhouette. The transition between the two shots does not make sense in the traditional film sense. It is not smooth or completely logical. However, in a graphic novel world, it makes perfect sense. Still, one could see how this type of filmmaking could be jarring and isolating to certain viewers not familiar with the original work. To fans of the graphic novels, however, it can appear to be cinematic bliss.

What is the best way for a graphic novel to be adapted into film? Should a film be a separate entity that maintains the heart and feel of its original source but not necessarily all the story elements and style? Each of these methods has their advantages. While Zwigoff sacrificed much of Clowes’ original story and style, he still managed to create a powerful and heartfelt film that captured the atmosphere of the original source material. On the other hand, Rodriguez created a completely faithful adaptation of Miller’s original story and created a completely revolutionary and unique film experience that isolated many viewers in various ways. Zack Synder’s 2007 adaptation of Miller’s 300 was made in similar ways and caught much of the same, if not stronger, criticism. In the end, there may not be a right answer to this question. However, if a talented, well-meaning director is behind the project, the method usually matters very little. It will be a great film.