"Mary Me" webcomic is now a movie... any others?

[tomandtish]

So this is a first for me. The webcomic Mary Me (http://marryme.keenspot.com/) by Bobby Crosby is now a major motion picture starring Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson.

I read the comic several years ago and lost interest, but may have to start again given this news.

is anyone else aware of a webcomic that got a movie? Bonus points if it was a major release and not a straight to video.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

I know there was work on a Misfile movie; I even watched the trailer. Definitely straight to video, though.

[tomandtish]

I know there was work on a Misfile movie; I even watched the trailer. Definitely straight to video, though.

Yeah, I remember that one, but it was being produced by the creator(s) of the comic itself. I'm not sure how you count something that 1) wasn't even a video release. You could only get it from the site itself. 2) Day 1 (the first "movie") was only 23 minute long.

I think I'd argue that to count it has to be optioned and produced by someone not the creator (even if they are involved). I'd even accept production from a company as bad as The Asylum.

[theangelJean]

Lore Olympus is apparently going to be a Netflix series, does that count? But I think it's going to be animated in the artist's style.

[Dragonus45]

I know there was work on a Misfile movie; I even watched the trailer. Definitely straight to video, though.

That was more of a proof of concept thing from the Chris Hazelton himself, sadly it didn't really catch any interest from my understanding.

[TaRix]

I haven't seen either form myself, but Axe Cop was made into a cartoon show.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Lore Olympus is apparently going to be a Netflix series, does that count? But I think it's going to be animated in the artist's style.

If we're counting animes, then all three of the Webtoons Big 3 (God of Highschool, Tower of God, and Noblesse) are animes on Crunchyroll. Of them, only Noblesse was really catching my interest, despite liking all three of the webtoons.

[Dragonus45]

If we're counting animes, then all three of the Webtoons Big 3 (God of Highschool, Tower of God, and Noblesse) are animes on Crunchyroll. Of them, only Noblesse was really catching my interest, despite liking all three of the webtoons.

Tower of God turned out best in the long run I think purely out of having the right length beginning to fit comfortably at the start with minimum pacing troubles. God of Highschool tried to pack too much into too little and Noblesse just skipped the whole first arc and it hurt all around. WEBTOON seems to be doing just fine though when you look over at their live action Netflix catalog. Sweet Home got an adaptation with great buzz and while I haven’t seen it read it yet All of Us Are Dead just got adapted according to another thread in the media section of things.

[Willie the Duck]

is anyone else aware of a webcomic that got a movie?

Most webcomic premises work better as ongoing serials, so it's no surprise most go for tv/streaming series instead. Also animation is a great way to keep some part of a webcomic's identity. Marry Me is notable in that it always did seem like someone drawing out a screenplay they were writing (also, despite Eisu Mokhtar's clean art style being highly enjoyable in whatever he does, it really isn't integral to the comic, so swapping it for live action works).

I think people have brought up the ones I know that succeeded. I know Goblins is perennially trying to get an a proof of concept animation going. Looking for Group experimented with the idea. Girl Genius did some spec work and animation models for a potential cartoon, but that died on the vine over a decade ago.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Tower of God turned out best in the long run I think purely out of having the right length beginning to fit comfortably at the start with minimum pacing troubles. God of Highschool tried to pack too much into too little and Noblesse just skipped the whole first arc and it hurt all around. WEBTOON seems to be doing just fine though when you look over at their live action Netflix catalog. Sweet Home got an adaptation with great buzz and while I haven’t seen it read it yet All of Us Are Dead just got adapted according to another thread in the media section of things.

Noblesse skipped the first arc because there's already a canon OVA covering it. They probably should have linked to it or something in the first episode, though.

[Gez]

Lackadaisy (http://www.lackadaisy.com/) is getting an animated movie.

It's nice and all but it also means that the webcomic hasn't been updated since 2020. It never updated fast (which makes sense when you look at the art), but now it's ground to a complete halt.

[DavidSh]

Hetalia: Axis Powers started as a webcomic, and branched into a bunch of different media, including a full-length movie that I think had a theatrical release, at least in Japan.

[Celestia]

It doesn't have an adaptation, but Mage and Demon Queen should be turned into an anime.

[Rockphed]

I remember reading Marry Me years ago. And yes, the writer was definitely writing down a screenplay and publishing it as a web-comic. The promotional material I have seen about Marry Me (the film) has left me wondering if it is the same story as Marry Me (the webcomic).

[Vinyadan]

Zerocalcare had some of his work adapted in a movie, although I'm quite certain that it's a much smaller budget.

I also have a story that is something like the reverse of a film based on a webcomic: the famous movie The Martian was based on andy Weir's novel by the same name. Weir wrote the novel after trying his hand at a webcomic called Cheshire Crossing, which he abandoned and left unfinished (it should still be available online).
After the success of the book and the movie, publishing houses took an interest in Cheshire Crossing, which was completed, redrawn by a professional artist*, and published by Random House.
So, if you are a struggling webcomic artist, writing a successful sci-fi novel that is used as a base for a famous movie might help your comic, too :biggrin:

*Sarah Andersen, the author of Sarah's Scribbles

[tomandtish]

I remember reading Marry Me years ago. And yes, the writer was definitely writing down a screenplay and publishing it as a web-comic. The promotional material I have seen about Marry Me (the film) has left me wondering if it is the same story as Marry Me (the webcomic).

It seems to generally follow the same plot (at least as far as I read in the comic). I'm sure there will be some changes.


As for what counts, for me I'm looking for webcomics that went straight from comic to movie. But feel free to list those who went tv series, as that's still an indicator of some serious popularity.


Incidentally, Mary Me's budget was $23 million, and it has $8 million in box office so far for its opening weekend. It's definitely going to be hamstringed by 3 things...

1) It is a romcom during a pandemic. There's no big special effects to draw viewers into the theater.

2) It released on Peacock premium same day, so there was somewhere else to watch it than a theater.

3) It is Super Bowl weekend, and even though the game is on Sunday (today), movie viewership is traditionally down for the whole weekend.

So will be hard to judge how bad the release time makes it vs. how bad the movie actually is (if it is bad at all).

[webrunner]

popteamepic, Mob and One Punch Man were both webcomics Although again they werent movies. and like, i think webtoon/webcomic->anime or webtoon/webcomic->kdrama are fairly common in comparison.

There's a few webtoon movies like ReLife

Does Three Bare Bears count? There *is* a movie on that and the series was based on a webcomic.

I think MarryMe might be the first western webcomic live action movie, though?

There's also Polar but the movie is based on the graphic novel and not the webcomic

[Max_Killjoy]

Lackadaisy (http://www.lackadaisy.com/) is getting an animated movie.

It's nice and all but it also means that the webcomic hasn't been updated since 2020. It never updated fast (which makes sense when you look at the art), but now it's ground to a complete halt.

I miss that Lackadaisy.

[webrunner]

I miss that Lackadaisy.

you could say they've been lackadaisical with their updates

[tomaO2]

I remember reading Marry Me years ago. And yes, the writer was definitely writing down a screenplay and publishing it as a web-comic. The promotional material I have seen about Marry Me (the film) has left me wondering if it is the same story as Marry Me (the webcomic).


Yep, the webcomic was an alternative attempt to help get the script published after a few failures.

I also read this comic as it was being written. God. That was... 20 years ago? When was this comic first made? Looking for dates. Can't find them.

Copyright 2006. Yea, I guess that sounds about right. I know he was trying to get that script produced before doing the comic too. Wow, what a trip. That guy just kept plugging away at it for around 2 decades, and he managed it. I wonder how he finally got this greenlit?

Looking at the trailer. Looks... Generic. I guess if you give up on most of the unique stuff you loved about your story, you too can finally make it in Hollywood, which is about what I should have expected, I suppose. Like, the "marry me" meeting is still intact (although the circumstances leading up to it are different) but getting past that a LOT of the uniqueness of the story. Like, I can get that gay best friend being toned down, cause she was a bit much. A lot much, but there is a much different dynamic between the leads as well. Much older than in the comic, and their youth was important for the original story, especially for the girl (interesting that a lot of the youtube comments about the trailer really like that it's an older couple though). He's a single father too? Ehh. The sister seems to be gone. There is a guy names Colin. That seems to be the replacement, but more of a normal handler type. There is no way that this version will have them globetrotting in order to avoid her father and give themselves time to figure out what they actually want to commit to this marriage.

One memory I have, in particular of the comic was when the lead. What was his name again? Charlie? No. That's not right. Looking through the comic to get the actual name. Guy. Oh COME ON! They changed his name to Charlie? Actually, right, the trailer at least seems to have made a reference to that, at least. Still, the name of Guy was story relevant, for crying out loud. They kept the name of the female lead and the best friend though.

Anyway, a singular moment I had was when Parker attacked a guy she got pissed off at for being a jerk and he defended himself. Moment Parker got hit, Guy immediately backed her up. Why did he do that? Because "when your best friend gets in a fight, that means YOU get in a fight". Doesn't matter if the person deserves to get beat up, if that person is your true friend, then you have her back. I thought that was a really good moment to think about things. I'd bet that didn't get put into this.

The trailer doesn't really make me want to watch this. I mean, I guess it might be... fine... as another generic romance movie but it just looks like it will fall hard if I compare it to the comic it is based on. Maybe I can find a more detailed review of it...


In reply to the OP's question of western webcomics that have become successful... Are there any? Like, I'm not sure I would count this as as a good example, since it's another specific attempt to get it as a movie. Some people were pointing out Hazbin Hotel, but that wasn't a webcomic, it was an animation pilot that was designed specifically to become a series. Webcomics are the most underated story medium out there, which is beyond a shame, especially when we look at anime. Even if you are a crappy artist, you can get an amazing show, like One Punch Man, but where are the american stories? Not even Girl Genius, which is one of the few series that has actual books that I have seen in book stores has made it.

[TaiLiu]

Kipo was made into a TV show. I think the show is much better than the webcomic.

[Dragonus45]

So I have been thinking about this thread and Marry Me making it to the big times and now I'm thinking about what webcomics might make for a good movie or live action series and I would really love to see Punch an' Pie as a netflix drama.

[tomandtish]

So I have been thinking about this thread and Marry Me making it to the big times and now I'm thinking about what webcomics might make for a good movie or live action series and I would really love to see Punch an' Pie as a netflix drama.

I can agree with that.

I also see that Goblins was traying to get an animated going, but that seems to have died down for the time being.

[TaiLiu]

Oh, I just remembered. Diary of a Wimpy Kid started out as a webcomic and became a series of books. I remember there being a movie, too.

[Dragonus45]

So I've been rereading this, and rereading Punch and Pie and then Queen of Wands and going down a rabbit hole of old webcomics, add Pictures of You to "Things what need adapting right now, and wow the movie really feels like it stripped away so much of the actual character and tone of the comic.

[MDR]

"Knights of the Dinner Table" went through a lot of pains getting episodes created, including the guy in charge of producing the show running off with their money, but there are a couple episodes on Youtube. Entertaining and the actors do look how the characters should look. The acting itself could be a bit more 'punchy' and quick, but I like them :)


Oh, and as a note, there are several rough animated shorts of "Knights of the Dinner Table" on Youtube, which are good if you like the comic, but I'm talking about the few live action videos above