One of more improbable movie-to-comic adaptations imaginable, Xanadu was a notorious big budget flop when it was released in 1980. Of course, Marvel had no way of knowing that when it started work on this: Olivia Newton John was a big star, paired with the legendary Gene Kelly, what could go wrong? Still, you'd think of all movie genres, the Musical would be considered the most problematic when translated to a silent medium.
But Marvel gave it the old college try, putting an all-star team on it consisting of J.M. DeMatteis, Rich Buckler, Mike Nasser, Brent Anderson, Bill Sienkiewicz, and more. Here's a few sample pages:
I've never seen the movie, so I really can't speak to how well this works or doesn't. If there's anyone that could do a halfway decent job translating the ethereal, almost spiritual appeal of a musical to the comics page, it would be J.M. DeMatteis. And the book's pretty to look at!
The adaptation only fills up half the book, with the back half consisting of half a dozen behind-the-scenes features, like articles on the cast and crew, the special effects, the music, and the costumes:
I can only guess that this was one of Marvel Super Special's worst-selling issues, considering that it was promoting a movie no one saw. But who knows? This was still a time when comics were sold outside specialty stores, so maybe this hit its intended audience. As wrongheaded as the whole idea might seem, I still find it quite charming that comics companies tried stuff like this.
The adaptation only fills up half the book, with the back half consisting of half a dozen behind-the-scenes features, like articles on the cast and crew, the special effects, the music, and the costumes:
