SIX MOVIES YOU DIDN’T KNOW WERE COMICS FIRST

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With movies raking in millions and billions of dollars, one would think that the writers in Hollywood are supremely talented. But with all the comic book movies shattering records left and right, its plain to see that there are fewer and fewer original stories out there. And this isn’t something new to the industry. Here are 6 movies that are actually based on comic books (among the dozens and dozens of comic book movies)

1. Richie Rich

Richie Rich, a 1994 movie starring young Macaulay Culkin still riding his Home Alone success played “The poor little rich boy.”  But before he appeared on the silver screen, Richie Rich first appeared nearly 40 years earlier in 1953 as a part of the third best comic book universe behind Marvel and DC. The Harvey Universe, comprised of characters such as Casper the Friendly Ghost, Baby Huey and others by Alfred Harvey and was anchored by Richie Rich. The young wealthy main character was created by Alfred Harvey and Warren Kremer and a cool million dollars made someone rich in the 50s, now it takes billions.

2. Hercules

Muscle mountain Dwayne” the Rock” Johnson, starred as the well storied hero in Hercules (2014) which was based on the Graphic Novel Hercules: The Thracian Wars from publisher Radical Comics, a five part mini-series in 2008. The inspirational graphic novel and its follow up were written and illustrated by Steve Moor and Cris Bolsin respectively. Of course the first actual comic of Hercules came from Disney back in 1997 ( or more accurately the Greeks in about 1200BC)

3. The Mask

Early 90s comedy classic, The Mask, with star Jim Carey was a fun cartoonish live action family movie.  But not many people know it was based on the more chaotic and ultra-violent comic series from Dark Horse Presents (Dark Horse Comics) with the same name. The Mask was created by the team of Mike Richardson, Mark Badger, John Arcudi and Doug Mahnke.

4. The Rocketeer

This action adventure period piece film pitting the charismatic stunt pilot against the perpetual villainous Nazi, The Rocketeer was set in the late 1930s. Before the 1991  jetpack soaring hero first flew across the screens of Hollywood, Cliff Secord first graced the pages of Starslayer #1, a Pacific Comics publication. The Dave Stevens created hero later gains his own installments, and then the hero jetpacked from publisher to publisher, most recently with he landed with IDW comics.

5. Surrogates

Bruce Willis’s futuristic crime thriller, The Surrogates, was based on the limited series from Top Shelf Productions of the same name. The Surrogates movie stuck fairly close to the original source material written by Robery Venditti and drawn by Brett Weldele, even down to the FBI agent’s own wife (spoiler) offing herself in the end because she couldn’t live without the much more beautiful android replica.

6. Men In Black

One of the hottest songs was performed by one of the hottest actors from a movie holding the same name as the title. Men In Black was a blockbuster movie and catchy pop song performed in 1997 by Will Smith (not Tommy Lee Jones) that even to this day I can still hear the song from the opening sci-ency intro. But the movie, its two sequels and cartoon series all got their inspiration from the Men in Black comic written and created by Lowell Cunningham and illustrated by Sandy Carruthers. The series was published by Aircel Comics in 1990 and later bought out by Malibu Comics, eventually being bought to and published by Marvel comics. Which begs the question after all the spin-offs and one-shot-tie ins, when will we see Men in Black in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?