Movies That Actually Look Like Comic Books On Screen

Adapting a comic book into a movie can be quite challenging. While superheroes, mythical warriors, and manga characters may look great as two-dimensional drawings, directors typically try to ground their story in some sort of cinematic reality. This often means dressing characters in less outlandish costumes, toning down big personalities, and generally removing most of the fantastical elements from the original story.

Sometimes though, directors choose to lean heavily into the source material instead, marrying their vision with the original comic book art. Results vary, with some films resulting in confused, unfocused narratives. Other times, however, audiences get to enjoy jaw-dropping visuals embraced as genuine cinematic achievements. This was the case with "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" (2018), which won best animated feature award at the 91^st Academy Awards.

With hopes that "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse"  can replicate that success, here's a look back at some other films that attempted (and in some cases, succeeded) in slavishly translating the look of comic books to the big screen.

"Dick Tracy" (1990) wasn't the first movie adaptation of the comic strip detective. There were numerous Dick Tracy movie serials made during the 1930s, and RKO Radio Pictures released a whole series of "Dick Tracy" action films in the 1940s.

But 1990's "Dick Tracy" stands out since director Warren Beatty (who also plays the title role) wanted to make the film an homage to the 1930's newspaper comic strip. Beatty chose to limit the film's color palette to seven colors — including bright red, green, blue, and yellow — to mimic the look of an old-fashioned comic strip.

This meant A-list actors like Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, and Beatty spent the movie dressed in garish yellow, red, and blue suits or lit in dramatic silhouettes. This also meant that the sets were designed in primary colors, often appearing two dimensional in some scenes. Beatty's Dick Tracy even fought in a comic strip-like style — taking out multiple goons with one punch or causing a crook to backflip after taking a hit.

The makeup artists also based almost all their designs on the drawings of "Dick Tracy" creator Chester Gould. This was particularly true for the rogue's gallery, which included cartoonishly ugly characters like hitman Flattop (William Forsythe), deformed crime boss Pruneface (R.G. Armstrong), and The Brow (Chuck Hucks), a criminal with a huge wrinkled forehead. While some critics and audiences couldn't decide whether this new "Dick Tracy" film looked grand or silly, it's comic strip-style look was inarguably unforgettable.

The Shadow is a unique superhero since he has roots in multiple pop culture media. Originally the narrator of the 1930s radio program "Detective Story Hour," the Shadow became the star of his own radio drama series, pulp magazine, comic book, and multiple feature films. In 1994, "The Shadow" movie paid homage to many of these mediums.

Set in the late 1920s, the film follows former drug warlord Lamont Cranston (Alec Baldwin), who learns how to "cloud men's minds" in Tibet and uses his stealth skills to take down the New York City underworld. This causes him to come into conflict with Shiwan Khan (John Lone), who wants to take over the world using his own psychic abilities and an early atomic bomb.

The film's set design, lighting, and costumes mimic the look of The Shadow's vintage comic books, with many shots highlighting the character's distinctive silhouette. The Shadow's eerie voice and haunting laugh also resemble his classic radio drama voice. At one point, the filmmakers even included a reference to the sponsor ads radio dramas used to sneak into their scripts by having Shiwan Khan compliment Cranston on his Brooks Brothers tie and ask him where he got it.

While "The Shadow" was not a critical or commercial success, it has acquired a cult following and helped interest many people in the classic pulp heroes of the 1930s. There has even been talk of a reboot for "The Shadow" which, given the current popularity of comic book adaptations, could play much better today than in the 1990s.

"Scott Pilgrim" was originally a series of graphic novels by Canadian writer/artist Bryan Lee O'Malley. Influenced by the look of Japanese shonen-style manga comics, the story followed a Toronto slacker who falls in love with American delivery girl Ramona Flowers and must battle her seven evil exes to date her. The fights and Ramona's exes are intentionally cartoonish, particularly her ex-boyfriend Todd, who gained psychic powers by becoming a vegan.

The series was adapted by Edgar Wright into the 2010 romantic action-comedy film "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World," starring Michael Cera as Scott and Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona. The movie intentionally mimicked the look of manga comics, with flashback sequences shown as literal moving panels from the comic book. Words describing the impact of blows spontaneously appeared during fights, much like the 1960's "Batman" series. Actors posed like manga characters, pointing dramatically at their opponents and breaking into elaborate dances.

The movie also drew inspiration from classic 16-bit video games, with the words "K.O." appearing whenever Scott scored a win. One fight was even shot on a pyramid tower, resembling the one from "Super Mario Bros." To top it off, at the end of each fight, the defeated ex would burst into coins, which Scott could collect. Like some other slavishly-loyal comic book-style movies, "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" was a box office bomb, yet has acquired a cult following in people who appreciate its unique, creative look.

One year before "300," comic book writer and artist Frank Miller adapted several books from his graphic novel series "Sin City" alongside director and producer Robert Rodriguez. The film, which follows multiple criminals, prostitutes, mercenaries, police officers, and mob enforcers as they run amok through corrupt Basin City, was unlike anything audiences had seen before.

Much like "Dick Tracy" before it, "Sin City" stars an ensemble cast of well-known actors including Jessica Alba, Benicio del Toro, Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, Elijah Wood, and others. Unlike "Dick Tracy," the tone of "Sin City" is decidedly not cartoonish — although it does mimic the graphic novel's unique color scheme.

Rather than overwhelm the audience with bright colors, most of the film is rendered in black and white. However, it does retain or add color to selected objects, drawing the viewer's attention to key items like the flames of an explosion or the blood from a thug's wounds. Rodriquez was so adamant about staying faithful to the source material that no screenwriter is shown in the credits, instead the film is "Based on the graphic novels by Frank Miller." Only certain scenes showing nudity or excessive violence were edited from the original story, although many of these were re-edited into the Collectors DVD.

While some audiences were unnerved by the extreme violence in "Sin City," the movie's distinctive look reveals how films can successfully adapt other elements from graphic novels into movies. A decade later the film finally yielded a long-gestating, underwhelming sequel, "Sin City: A Dame to Kill For," although it was not as well received.

"The Crow" is perhaps best remembered today for its notorious place in dark Hollywood history; star Brandon Lee was accidentally shot and killed while filming one of its scenes. This caused the film to be rewritten on the fly, with Lee replaced by a stunt double and early digital effects employed to finish his performance.

However, at the time of the tragedy "The Crow" (and eventual "Dark City" director Alex Proyas) was already well on its way to establishing a unique, darkly haunting visual style that has influenced numerous films since. Using miniatures and lighting effects, the filmmakers constructed a grungy city for resurrected vigilante Eric Draven to make his stomping grounds, doling out his a harsh brand of justice to his killers. Much use is made of shadows and extreme-angle shots, similar to film noir-style comic books. The editing is extremely fast, evoking the quick pace of comic book action sequences (as well as music video-style storytelling).

The film has a washed out-quality that makes certain shots almost black-and-white (but not quite), mimicking the look of the original black-and-white graphic novel. The movie proved quite popular despite its unfortunate production; throughout the '90s and beyond, teens could be seen wearing "Crow" t-shirts and posters in dorm rooms. Subsequent attempts to continue that success (straight-to-DVD movies, a short-lived TV series) have never been able to recapture the magic — or the haunting aesthetic of the Proyas film.

While most of the movies on this list are live action films that use animation sparingly to enhance the look of their narratives, "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" is a completely computer-animated film that fully embraces its drawn narrative to depict a living comic book that follows Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) as he adjusts to being his dimension's new Spider-Man.

It works brilliantly. While comic book conventions like captions, animated sound effects, and moving panels can look jarring in live action, they register very differently in animation. Viewers are more accepting of an abstract filmmaking style, so when they see a giant "Look Out!" sound effect appear behind Miles to represent his spider-sense, it seems both natural and dramatic. The art style evokes both classic comic books and a graffiti-inspired look, so the bright vivid colors and lighting don't look as out-of-place as the color scheme in "Dick Tracy."

Special mention should also be made for the different Spider-Men (and women, and pigs) who get pulled out of their own dimensions to team-up with Miles. Since each character comes from their own dimension, filmmakers Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman chose to depict them in their own art style, including a manga-influenced "Peni Parker," (Kimiko Glenn), Looney Tune-esque "Spider-Ham" (John Mulaney), and black-and-white "Spider-Man Noir" (Nicolas Cage). Having so many art styles intentionally clashing with each other would normally look awkward; here, it just looks incredibly cool.

"American Splendor" occupies a unique space in comic books. Not only is it a non-superhero independent comic that depicts the drama of real life, it also tells the true tale of its creator Harvey Pekar, who even chronicles the story of his battle with lymphoma in its offshoot, "Our Cancer Year." The stories have been adapted into multiple theatrical productions and in 2003, documentary filmmakers Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini turned the comics into a movie starring Paul Giamatti as Pekar.

Not surprisingly, the film uses documentary segments where the real Pekar and his wife Joyce Brabner discuss their lives. However, the movie also includes comic book-style sequences, including moments where you see thought balloons appear over Pekar's head. Pekar's black-and-white comic book self also appears as an animated figure to goad his narrative self into action.

At other moments, a live action Pekar breaks the fourth wall while wandering through a drawn landscape made up to look like the images from his comic book. It's not quite "Deadpool," yet it shows how some comic book stories don't need to rely on flashy action sequences or bright costumes to engage, entertain and transcend its panel-dependent pages of origin.