by Eden
Posy Simmonds’ Tamara Drewe isn’t about its title character, at least not in the way one would expect. The story revolves around her, but she’s not the main character in her own story. Everyone else has made her the main character in theirs.
The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec (2010) is probably Luc Besson having the most fun I’ve seen him have as a director. His love for the source material is clear (he also wrote the adaptation) and he more or less made a children’s movie out of the comics but it works.
Making a Whiteout movie seems like it would’ve been easy. You have an actress who is skilled at both drama and action. You have an unusual environment to set a murder mystery in. You have two volumes of well-plotted source material to work from. How bad could it be? In this case, very bad.
You have a friend who had this book, even if they didn’t read comics regularly. They may have even had the edition where it was two volumes. For a very long time, Persepolis was the comic for people who didn’t read comics.
Moyoco Anno’s Sakuran follows a rebellious young woman, eventually named Kiyoha, as she rises up from being a maid in a brothel to a very popular courtesan and all the ups and downs involved. It’s not romanticizing this life but it’s not shaming any of the women involved, either.