Hello & welcome to Pt. 2 of my Halloween comics special. Last time, we took a look at the comic adaption of The Rocky Horror Picture Show from Caliber Comics and overall, I liked it. Today, we are looking at a comic adaption from DC Comics. I can't exactly recall how I learned about this comic but I think I saw it listed on a site talking about the strangest comic adaptions of movies. Comic Book Resources published an article about this particular adaption and weren't too kind towards it. My thoughts, it's... okay.
Cover
The first thing you'll notice about this comic is that DC did not get the likeness rights for Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, Steve Martin, or Vincent Gardenia. Admittedly, Mushnik and Audrey look the closest to their film counterparts but not by much. Ah, this stuff happens. Having said all that, I love this cover as it evokes the feeling of what Little Shop is. It's a better cover for this story than the last DVD release.
I'll stand by that. It's very reminiscent of the first Little Shop of Horrors poster that I remember seeing.
It's just so eerie and fun at the same time.
Staff
Adapted by Michael Fleisher
The adaption was handled rather well and unlike the Rocky Horror comic that we looked at, this comic adaption does not adapt the songs fully. They show up as lines of dialogue or thoughts of the characters but I think that works. This is something that we will touch upon in the plot section but this comic is too short.
Gene Colan & Dave Hunt - Art
The art is nothing special in this comic. It's fine but that's it really.
The Plot
Being an adaption of Little Shop of Horrors, that is the story that you'll get but it's paced way too fast as the story is greatly condensed as a lot of the big moments are cut down to one-two pages at best. An example of this is Orin's death, which yes wasn't a big part in the movie but it goes by really fast in the comic.
Maybe, that isn't exactly the case but it goes by so fast that it might as well be. Oh, and here's an example of what was mentioned with the song lyrics.
As we get Audrey's opening line from Somewhere That's Green here about her dating a semi-sadist. I guess I should talk about Audrey Two, Audrey Two looks great.
It's a good comic take on this character and while this issue's pacing is off a smidge, it does take a bit of time in showing Audrey Two getting bigger. Something else pretty cool I should bring up is something the Little Shop Wiki first brought to my attention is that while this comic includes the ending from the theatrical cut of the movie, but that was not the ending that was originally drawn.
The original ending of the film (which included Audrey's and Seymour's deaths and Audrey II's takeover of the world) was drawn, but the final few pages were revised before the book was published to mirror the new happy ending that was shot for the theatrical cut. This probably explains why the interior copyright date is 1986, but the front cover boasts a 1987 release.
Personally, I prefer the theatrical ending but I've come to accept the original ending. So, I wouldn't have been mad if this included that ending but I understand why they had to change the ending. Okay, there is one last thing I want to bring up. Crystal, Ronette, and Chiffon only show up on one page of this comic. If you don't remember who those three are, well here ya go.
Where do they show up, towards the end filming a commercial inside Mushnik's.
On the one hand, I get the issue here as they are harder characters to work into a comic book medium but they are important to the story. They relay the parable of what happens to the audience. Lest we forget.
Subsequent to the events you have just witnessed
They are there to warn the audience and yes, this is more the ending that this comic did not go with but I still think it is worth bringing this up because these three are key to the story because they comment on the story. Not exactly in a narrator way but highlight what should be taken away from the story. I'm of the opinion, that this cameo felt meaningless and the way, this comic was going, it would have been better if they were left out.
That's probably my biggest complaint with this adaption, it's not bad and I do enjoy it for what it is. Part of me wants to go in harder on this because of my love for the movie but then I understand that this was written as a tie-in to the movie and the team working on it probably didn't have a lot of resources accessible to make this a great comic adaption.
My Final Thoughts
It's not bad and like I said, it's a decent adaption of Little Shop. I do think that The Rocky Horror comic that we looked at is the better adaption but that shows a difference between the two as that came out after the movie and the team working on that comic had more access to make it look and feel like the movie. This one felt like the movie in parts but I don't know that it ever looked like the movie, if that makes sense. Even with this being 64 pages, this comic felt rushed and I wonder if maybe some other company could attempt adapting this movie into a more faithful adaption that is a miniseries of maybe 3-4 issues. Again, it's not bad but I think it could have been better. Peace!
