 COMICS |  | Dean Koontz on his Comic Projects | | The best-selling author discusses his upcoming comic book adaptations | | | By Kevin Mahadeo | | Posted 5/27/08 | |  | | 
While Dean Koontz' name rings quite a number of bells among the literary community, his name is quickly becoming familiar to the comic crowd thanks to the upcoming adaptations of his numerous novels.
Koontz becomes the latest author to join the Dabel Brothers—who are adapting his Frankenstein and Christopher Snow series of books into comic format. Another of Koontz' series, Odd Thomas, is being adapted into manga by Del Rey.
Wizard talks with Koontz about his projects and the recent trend of novel-to-comic adaptations.
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Why did you decide to adapt your novels into the comic-book medium?
For a novelist, comic books have a tremendous advantage over other visual media: you don't have to deal with megalomaniacal film directors, insane studio executives and screenwriters whose sense of story structure makes "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" seem like a classic on a par with Shakespeare.
As a writer, how do you feel about this recent trend that moves away from traditional novels and toward graphic illustrations?
I don't worry about the death of the novel. When I began my career, everyone told me I was wasting my time because books were on the way out. After 40 years, I've sold over 350 million copies worldwide, and my sales have been on the rise lately, so it looks like novels will be around for a while. Given the near collapse of the music industry, a career as a rock-and-roll singer has more likely proved to be a dead end. The graphic novel is an exciting medium, a way to open up the printed page and expand the universe of a book or a character.
The Frankenstein series was originally made into a television pilot, but I read you pulled out over creative differences. Does the comic format allow you to approach the series visually with the creative direction you intended for the television series?
My two-hour screenplay brought a subversive kind of humor to the Frankenstein legend and juxtaposed the healthy relationship of the two police detectives with the deeply sick relationships that Victor has with everyone in his life. The cable network didn't have the guts to play the humor, to include a genuine love story in the mix, or to confront the serious issues of cloning, interspecies genetic recombination and other genetic experimentation based on utopian visions. They morphed the show into a grungy mess of horror clichés. Martin Scorsese was one of my co-producers, and on my desk I have a framed letter from him bemoaning what was done to the project and saying that my original script should have been shot exactly as written. I take some comfort in his kind words. The books were a way of showing what could have been, and the comics springing from the books will further explore that network-throttled potential.
The first comic in the Frankenstein series follows the PRODIGAL SON novel. Do the Christopher Snow comics follow the first book in that series as well? Will you be adapting the rest of the series into comics? How close will the comics follow the books?
Yes, the idea is to adapt both the Frankenstein and the Chris Snow books. To follow them slavishly would probably require hundreds of issues, so the key is to give the feel of the novels and a full sense of the story without keeping slavishly to the books. These are, after all, adaptations, just as films would be. They work, I think, because the writers and artists brought aboard by the Dabel Brothers are excellent.
As opposed to the other two books, Odd Thomas is being adapted into a manga. Why make that decision? What about the book makes a manga style of art and storytelling more appropriate than a comic series?
Some ineffable quality of manga just seems in sympathy with the character of Odd Thomas, especially the black and white format, which is in sync with Odd's clear-eyed view of good and evil.
Are you a fan of comics yourself? If so, what are some of your favorite comics or comic characters?
I have never been much of a superhero fan. Even as a kid, I didn't become excited by flying, steel-bending, train-lifting, asteroid- deflecting guys with monumental muscles and flamboyant costumes. And Wonder Woman scared the crap out of me. As a kid, my favorite comics involved Uncle Scrooge, Donald Duck's wealthy patron—and I still like those adventures involving the Beagle Boys and other nefarious types because the ducks were always clever in defeating their enemies. And I like some of the old really whacked, surreal stuff like Krazy Kat. I know so many people who write for contemporary comics that I hesitate to mention favorites for fear of unintentionally leaving a friend unnamed.
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