2001 A comic book odessy

This blog entry obviously owes a big thanks to Douglas who said:-

Oh, and consider this vote one for Kirby's 2001 adaptation, which should pose you a whole new set of problems! Thinking about it, it seems to me that Kirby would have been a better fit for Outland, and Steranko for 2001. Kirby's dynamism is entirely at odds with the cold aesthetics of Kubrick's movie. Sure, there's spectacle, but it's a spectacle that is very deliberately controlled (like the Steranko spreads)...


It's a interesting point of view, in fact the very same question was asked in the very same blog entry to made me decide to do Outland in the first place, by of course none other than the very talented Matt Seneca 


2001 and Outland

which also discusses Kirby's 2001 - this was what I meant by turning the whole thing round 360

anyway

My feeling is why it would be an interesting experiment for Steranko to have tried adapting 2001 in the same way he did Outland but I don't think it would have worked

I have absolutely no doubt there would be some killer cool imagery, but the thing with 2001 is to quite a lot of people it actually has no story - there is obviously no actual narrivate in the movie at all, all one has to do is look at other versions of the same story like the novel by Arthur C Clarke or 2010 the movie "sequel" (or any of the "sequel" books also by Arthur C Clarke) to see how everyone felt the need to have to explain what was going on when Kurbick clearly never intended to

I dont think Sterakno would have felt the need to explain everything , so it literally would have been page after page of static locked in massive drawings with almost absolutely no dialogue

The other thing is at least in my opinion Steranko works best with a deliberately over written story and characters, just look at any of his Marvel runs on Nick Fury, or Captain America and the story translates into the need to make those incredible drawings we love

In short i can't see Steranko wanting to draw a number of 2 page spreads on the prehistoric Landscape where all that happens for quiet a while is some apes gibbering or age after page of a space craft docking etc

Kirby obviously tries to grab what he can with both hands and tries to make it as exciting as he can and thats possibly the best anyone can do with 2001 as a comic

as 2001 is not a movie, certainly not in the traditional sense, its more like an experience and most particularly and importantly its an experience that is totally reliant on the person watching to understand and see what is unfolding and to be able accept it as an experience

You could possibly achieve the same effect with having selected photos from the movie projected onto a wall to the music from the 2001 soundtrack to a very large degree, the pacing of 2001 is beyond adaptation as it would be a 200 or 300 page comic, each page a full splash page with only occasional movement per page and dialogue only when it appears in the movie and absolutely no narrative captions at all

at least thats how i feel

As to why I am considering re creating Kirby's adaptation, in honesty it is more because i feel that it would interesting to talk about the subjects of 2001 itself like evolution, space travel, the future, artificial intelligence and the greatest questions of them all, who are we, where are we going to and when will we get there

But I am uncertain as to how entertaining anyone would actually find that - and the other thing is its a 72 page story, if i stick to a page a week thats nearly a year and a half from start to finish

What I am saying is would anyone actually be willing to read the blog for that long - even if i do stick to just proper and insightful blog entries, as will be a literal odyssey to complete the story

or would you prefer something else - the choice is yours please let me know - I will try and start on whatever gets the majority vote is just over a weeks time

Now Douglas is actually the second vote for 2001 - I will tell who made the first and pay a visit to the everglades on Monday...

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UPDATE - I did actually managed to do the inside cover of 2001 a little while back - here it is to give you an idea of at least what the drawing may look like

Douglas for making the suggestion, this piece of art is yours just email me and I will pop it in the post