The X-Files, Vol. 1 (X-Files) (X-Files (Checker Book))
Of course, there was anX Filescomic book! Happily, it's now being collected in graphic-novel format. Here are five original creations and two TV-episode adaptations first published as special issues. The originals would have made good TV episodes, especially the two-parter in which paranoid neo-Nazi survivalists capture Mulder and Scully. The writing in the five originals corresponds to the TV-script adaptations, though the latter seem a bit wordier. Five hands share principal artist duties. Of Charles Adlard's four stories, "One Player Only," with its photo-incorporating opening pages (by Miran Kim), is most striking; the others look square in comparison, as does Gordon Purcell's "Thin Air." The two adaptations are the most intricately rendered, perhaps because Val Mayerick's "Squeeze" (a sublime creep-out) and John Van Fleet's version of the TV pilot episode are based on frames from the shows. All the artists conjure the murk that Mulder and Scully swam through on TV. If only print could reproduce David Duchovny's permanently hungover vocal characterization of Mulder.Ray OlsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved