COMIC ISSUES - The Men In Black

I do way too many blogs to follow, so here's the posts best from them. 

The Obscure Comic Book Film Source Project:  A multi-blog look at lists of "Movies You Didn't Know Were Based On Comics" to see how true they really are.

The Men in Black were a pair of 3 issue mini-series by Aircel Comics, the first published in 1990, the second the following year.

Reading like a bad copy of The X-Files a couple of years before The X-Files came out (which is nothing new, Shadow Chasers and Something Is Out There were also bad copies of The X-Files that proceeded the show, and were hardly the first) The Men in Black takes the premise from the UFOlogy legend - that there are strange men in black suits who follow up UFO sightings and and then through the writer's own admitted lack of imagination throws out the UFO premise (almost entirely) and tells the story of an unlikable thug and his whiny sidekick and they as they "investigate" the strange and supernatural, although, the investigations can basically be summed up by the following:

No, it doesn't take a genius at all.  The banter between the two comes off more like a litany of misstold jokes.  The supernatural things are over-explained and the missions only mysterious because it's a mystery how anyone thought that the story made any sense in the first place.  The writer seems to just want to make fun of - and if possible have a character or creature kill - yokels, rednecks, roleplaying nerds and science fiction convention nerds.  All in the name of no fun at all.

The art is flat and although the artist has some ability it still looks like it is done by an amateur that need how to properly do comic book art.  Not only in terms of the art itself - and there are some serious issue there - but also the ability to structure a comic book page.  This shouldn't happen:

Having to fight the art and layout to understand the already poorly written (and at times misspelt) story makes the 6 issues of The Men in Black a thoroughly unenjoyable experience that I do not recommend.

After Malibu Comics purchased Aircel and Marvel purchased Malibu Men in Black was released as a film loosely based on the property in 1997.

Take the Films You Didn't Know Were Comics Challenge.

~ DUG.

The original version of this post is still available here.