The Big Idea: Nick Mamatas
Posted on May 6, 2014 Posted by John Scalzi 10 Comments
How do you turn a novel into a graphic novel — that is, capture the essence of what is cool and interesting about the original work, and bring it to another medium entirely? Especially when that novel is also the basis for an upcoming motion picture that features one of the biggest film stars on the planet? This was Nick Mamatas‘ task in adapting All You Need is Kill into graphic novel form. This is his story.
NICK MAMATAS:
There’s a new movie coming out. If you’ve seen the second—of three, Jesus!—Hobbit movies, you’ve likely already seen the trailer. It’s the one where Tom Cruise wakes up, tries to tell us that we’re all in grave danger, and then there he is, in battle armor, ready to save us all! Only, he’s also in grave danger. And then he dies…and comes back to life and falls in love with Emily Blunt at first sight, and first sight, and first sight…
That film, Edge of Tomorrow, is based on Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s novel All You Need Is Kill. But there are some key differences between the movie and the original book. The novel tells the story of an eighteen-year-old Japanese man named Keiji Kiriya drafted to fight in the war against the alien Mimics; the movie is about Billy Cage, a fortymumblesomething-year-old white American who ends up on the front lines due to, you know, spoilers.
Once you make that change, well, other changes are bound to follow.
All You Need Is Kill was the first novel published by Haikasoru, the imprint dedicated to Japanese science fiction in translation that I edit for VIZ Media. We had little to do with the film; at one point I wrote a two-page synopsis so that the interns of the assistants of important Hollywood people could hear a two-sentence verbal summary of the synopsis and decide whether to give the book a chance as a zillion-dollar motion picture. Eventually, Dante Harper wrote a spec script that sold to Warner Bros. for three million dollars, and then a director and a star were attached, the script rewritten by a number of writers, and finally there was Edge of Tomorrow.
But we had always been hoping for a visual experience closer to the actual novel. All You Need Is Kill is an action-packed military SF tale of armored soldiers taking on the violent and squishy alien Mimics. And there’s humor, a dash of philosophy, and even a dollop of romance. And we certainly didn’t want the female lead, “Full Metal Bitch” Rita Vrataski, to end up how women in movies and comics so often end up. So we decided to do the graphic novel ourselves, as Haikasoru’s first comic book project. Our company VIZ Media has immense experience with translation and localization of manga, but this was a whole new type of project.
We needed an artist and editor Joel Enos held several rounds of auditions. We got white Keijis—automatic failure. A few drew his fellow soldier Yonabaru with inhumanly tiny eyes—too manga. And one artist’s version of the Full Metal Bitch made her look like a steroid-addled version of Sting’s character from the movie version of Dune (that’s a miss). Finally, we found Lee Ferguson, who drew this:
A normal young woman, realistic yet telegenic enough for the in-story media to make a fuss over. Someone who you could believe had been an ordinary Midwestern girl who by necessity, not choice, became a soldier. Excellent.
I wrote the graphic novel’s script. I’ve done some comics work, and I’ve always wanted to write a graphic novel. “I’ve always wanted to write a graphic novel.” It’s the sort of thing you say if you don’t want to sound strange. I never wanted to write a graphic novel, even though I devoured comic books as a kid. Really, I didn’t even want to be Spider-Man when I was a nine-year-old reading comics in the same sort of dumpy apartment that Peter Parker lived in. I just wanted to open my window and swing across the street, then jump over to the Brooklyn Bridge and crawl on the cables to Manhattan, and hang out in the city all day. Never mind my acrophobia and vertigo.
But it was important that the scripted be handled in-house. We wanted to stay true to the vision of Hiroshi Sakurazaka. There were also other obligations. Imagine a freelance writer being part of an instructional conversation along these lines:
“Remember, this is an adaptation of All You Need Is Kill, not Edge of Tomorrow. So don’t make any changes to the story that might also be in the movie.”
Oh, do I get to read the shooting script for the movie then?
“Of course not, no.”
So…you want me to imagine what changes the filmmakers might make to the movie adaptation, guess correctly, and then just not make those changes?
“Yes, that’s it!”
We did end up getting to see some snippets of the movie, and to hear a producer describe scenes to us, complete with waving hands and descriptions like “And then he’s all like, ‘What the fuck!’” so we had something to work with. Lee, our great artist, created a retrofuture visual design for the battle armor, playing against both the original mangastyle mecha-suits of the novel and the grim’n’gritty look of the film. And when he handed in a cover in which the Full Metal Bitch was attacking the enemy butt-first in the now common female character pose, Joel sent it back and Ferguson cheerfully turned her around.
So we got what we aimed for—a graphic novel that is an adaptation of one of our favorite works of Japanese science fiction, and that is, perhaps, also an adaptation of the movie that could have been. And I can say that I’m a graphic novelist, and that Haikasoru is now in the comic book business.
PS: don’t send us your pitches for comic books.
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All You Need is Kill (graphic novel): Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Powell’s
Visit the author’s LiveJournal. Follow him on Twitter.
Thank you, sir.
“And when he handed in a cover in which the Full Metal Bitch was attacking the enemy butt-first in the now common female character pose, Joel sent it back and Ferguson cheerfully turned her around.”
I noted you didn’t make a comment on the movie adaptation with Cruise, or whether you have any expectations that this will be another “The Last Samurai” treatment of a good Japanese story. Not that I “expect” you to make a comment, mind you, just making an observation. ;)
This reads more like “the big implementation” than the big idea, and I loved it. Thanks for the behind-the-scenes!
You appear to have blurbed the novel novel. Was there a Big Idea on that that I missed?
Bonus trivia: The cover and interior illustrations in the Japanese novel were by Yoshitoshi ABe, best known for the character designs on the fantastic dystopian singularity anime Serial Experiments Lain and his doujinshi and anime series Haibane Renmei and NieA_7.
All You Need is Kill also has a manga adaptation by Takeshi Obata (Death Note) via Shonen Jump: http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2014/01/preview-takeshi-obatas-adaptation-of-all-you-need-is-kill/
Nick
I hope you realise the heavy burden on your shoulders; should I purchase your graphic novel I may have to deal with people chasing me around conventions demanding that I produce qualifications justifying my right to purchase a graphic novel, so that Geek purity can be upheld.
I have created a master plan to deal with this, complete with PowerPoint presentations, but it does require you being thrown to the wolves. Or, under the wheels of a ten ton truck if one conveniently presents itself.
For you will be the person shunned for actually agreeing that your publisher could sell graphic novels to women…
You realize by turning her around in the cover, you lost a big publicity opportunity, right? Now Jim Hines is never going to do your cover in his calendar.
He still could. It just won’t look as funny.
Ok, I bought it. It’s gulp it down in one go good.
And, vis a vis the depiction of women, there is a glorious page on which they got to have their cake and eat it too which made me laugh out loud.
I’m not sure how to express this on an Amazon UK review, but I expect I’ll think of something…
And this is my Amazon UK 5 star review;
“I loathe Tom Cruise but I’ve enjoyed Nick Mamatas’ novels so if I were going to take the plunge on seeing ‘All You Need Is Kill’ then the graphic novel seemed the best way of doing it.
I’m really glad that I did; the artwork is sensationally good and the writing is pitch perfect. There is even a wry tip of the hat to the ongoing war about the way women are portrayed in SF; all in all you can’t get better than this…’
I will concede that I’m not exactly noted for going all fan girl and squeeing; some may think that I am overly critical of just about everything, though I regard it as my personal affirmation of the immortal line in ‘Big Spender’
‘I don’t pop my cork for every man I see’
But even I can succumb to squeeing if the thing is good enough. And it’s not just good enough, it’s a remarkable achievement and I think people should buy it because you will love it.
Sadly I am not on commission…