Ok, that's the hard sell, now to the reality--Hook was one of those really strange moments in movies where you had nothing but superb elements--great director (Steve Spielberg), great cast (Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, Julia Roberts) and a classic story (Peter Pan), leading the average moviegoer to think that, as they sat down in the theater and the lights dimmed, you were about to enjoy a bona-fide classic.
But that didn't happen.
No one knows how it didn't happen, exactly, but I remember seeing this movie with friends and we all left the theater kind of shaking our heads, kind of bewildered, and trying to convince ourselves we had, in fact, seen a very good movie (some of these same friends and I would repeat this, eight years later, for The Phantom Menace).
Anyway, one of my favorite sub-themes for this blog is bizarre movie adaptations, something Marvel in particular seemed to revel in. Whether it was Meteor, Jaws 2, or Sheena, Marvel had a knack for finding a film that was either a critical or financial disaster, and hitching their four-color star to it.
But like I said above, who could blame Marvel for thinking this would be a home run? And they certainly didn't skimp on the creative folks--on the inside cover, this book (reprinting the single-issue series Hook #s 1-4) boasts talents like John Ridgeway, Denis Rodier, Gray Morrow, Ray Lago, Anna-Maria Cool (great name!), Craig Hamilton, Charles Vess, Andrew Pepoy, Dan Panosian, Rick Bryant, John Lycas, and Kim DeMulder all contributing to the art! Wow!
The book gets off to a good start, with a tonally spot-on splash page:
...then we get to the boring, humdrum life of the now adult Peter, and the art is, well, pretty routine stuff. Not bad, but certainly nothing all that captivating.
But of course, that could've been the idea--make the scenes in "reality" look kind of drab and ordinary, to better contrast the scenes and moments in Never Never Land. Except, when Tinkerbell finally arrives:
But of course, that could've been the idea--make the scenes in "reality" look kind of drab and ordinary, to better contrast the scenes and moments in Never Never Land. Except, when Tinkerbell finally arrives:
...it all looks the same as everything else. Even when Hook and other fantastical elements show up in the story, there really aren't as major visual changes, like there were in the film:
Now, there are some really nice moments, but I can't quite make out who did what, among the large list of contributors, so I can't guess who to credit for atmospheric shots like this:
In fact, a lot of the stuff set on the water looks to me like it was drawn by Steve Bissette, one of the few comics pros not listed on the credits to this book! This moody page in particular reminds me of his work on Swamp Thing when it was inked by Alfredo Alcala:
But pages like that are few and far between. Near the end, the book gets even more slipshod looking, like this page featuring some panels that to my eye look barely professional grade:
But then there's another tonal shift, when at the very end we are treated to three pages by Craig Hamilton, my pal and master illustrator, who of course hits the exact right fanciful look for this subject matter:
But that's it--after Craig's great three pages, the story is over. We are treated to some nice looking pin-ups, like this one:
...but overall the book, like the movie, is kind of a mish-mash that doesn't really hold together.
I guess, given that the book had to be out in time for the movie (and we've all heard how nightmarish licensed properties can be, in terms of getting the thing through the fifteen layers of people who have to sign off on every little panel), it was unrealistic to turn the book over to just one artist--say, Craig or Charles Vess(who did the superb cover)--and letting them go to town on it, perhaps creating something truly memorable and a creative achievement in its own right, not just a merchandising tie-in to a movie. Oh well.
I guess, given that the book had to be out in time for the movie (and we've all heard how nightmarish licensed properties can be, in terms of getting the thing through the fifteen layers of people who have to sign off on every little panel), it was unrealistic to turn the book over to just one artist--say, Craig or Charles Vess(who did the superb cover)--and letting them go to town on it, perhaps creating something truly memorable and a creative achievement in its own right, not just a merchandising tie-in to a movie. Oh well.
2 comments:
I contributed to Hook! One panel! Find the shot of Big Ben. That’s me!
Back then, Denis Rodier and I collaborated on a number of projects. Sometimes, I’d pop over to his place and helped him beat deadlines on Superman in Action Comics. I’d ink some backgrounds, skyscrapers, cars, incidental stuff. When Hook came along, the whole thing had to be done in a panic and they split the script among countless artists. Denis got a couple of pages and he had to bat them out. I penciled some backgrounds in the London scenes around the characters he had drawn, and I penciled the one panel, the Big Ben shot, from a photograph.
This looks like another Marvel adaptarion where they could use the story, but weren't allowed to use the likenesses of the actors.
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