Comic book film adaptations you have owned.

Last week's post about Marvel's stab at doing Close Encounters of the Third Kind made me realise that, as a youth, I had very few comics that adapted famous movies.

In fact, the only ones I can remember ever reading were Marvel's Planet of the Apes adaptations, one issue of their take on Logan's Run, their version of The Golden Voyage of Sinbad and their mighty adaptation of Battlestar Galactica.

Admittedly, some might claim Battlestar Galactica was a TV show, not a movie but I'm fairly sure I remember its first two episodes being stitched together and released in cinemas for the benefit of those who didn't know better.

From what I can recall, the Planet of the Apes adaptations were solid and The Golden Voyage of Sinbad was workmanlike, while the George Perez drawn Logan's Run was better than the movie.

The Battlestar Galactica adaptation lodged so strongly in my mind that, even having looked at several pages of it, on the internet, in the last twenty four hours, not one panel of those pages rings a single bell for me. Despite me having fond feelings for it, I take this as a worrying sign that it might not have been the most memorable thing ever published.

Yesterday, I discovered that Marvel at one point descended into total madness and did an adaptation of Robert Stigwood's Sgt Pepper movie.

I've previously argued that it was potentially unwise to do an adaptation of Close Encounters, what with it having a piece of music as its key moment. Bearing in mind that Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is a musical and basically has nothing at all going for it apart from music, how on Earth could it possibly have been made to work as a comic, when comics can't do music?

Clearly, it couldn't because it would appear that the whole project proved to be so disastrous that Marvel refused to even release the thing in America, thus robbing the English-speaking world of what is no doubt an act of magnificent madness. Seemingly, if you want to read it, you can only do so if you can read French or German.

Anyway, those are my heartwarming memories and thoughts on the matter. Which comic book adaptations of movies have you read? And which have been your favourites and not-so-favourites?

Sheffield's Most Wanted. Part 18: Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind. Marvel Super Special #3.

It's back! That legendary feature where I talk about comics I never had as a youth but always wanted.

And that means it's time to get cinematical!

How well I recall the adverts for Marvel Super Special #3. Then again, it's hard to forget them, as they seemed to be a regular feature on the backs of Marvel UK's mags for months - if not years - on end.

But, even without that, how could anyone have forgotten them, seeing as the book featured a movie close to the hearts of all of us who love to make mountains from mashed potatoes?

In retrospect, exactly why I wanted this adaptation, I'm not sure, bearing in mind that I'd already seen the film and it was therefore hardly likely to contain any surprises for me.

I suspect my interest was almost entirely down to Bob Larkin's thrillingly dramatic cover and the never-ending appeal of flying saucers and little grey men. Not to mention the flat-topped mountain whose shape so reminded me of the slag heaps of South Yorkshire and the North Midlands that I was so familiar with in my youth. You see? If Steven Spielberg had grown up where I did, that film would have had a whole lot less mystery and glamour.

Then again, if he'd grown up where I did, E.T. would have been called Ee! Tea! and been a much different experience.

All that aside, my critical faculties tell me there's an obvious problem with doing a comic book adaptation of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

And that's that the whole movie hinges on a piece of music.

Bearing in mind that the one thing that comics can't do is music, how could it possibly be viable to do a comic book adaptation of it?

I have no idea.

Given that I've still never seen a copy of the thing, I fear the matter will have to remain as great a mystery to me as the true motives of the alien visitors who kidnap me from my bed every night and subject me to their nightmarish experiments.

I wouldn't mind but they're experiments in comedy improv.

Reader, words cannot express the dread horror of it all.