Grease Fotonovel
Comic books for adults
LOS ANGELES, AAP- A heart-shaped caption balloon pops out of the head of singer Olivia Newton-John.
“He’s the best kisser in the world,” she thinks happily. to herself in the caption.
The man going the kissing is film star John Travolta. He murmurs to himself in his caption: 2I could kiss her forever if I didn’t have to breathe”.
Travolta and Miss Newton-John are two of the stars of the newest idea in the Hollywood craze for film packages росketsized books which tell the stories of hit films in colored photographs taken from the Dialogue is inserted In comic-balloons.
The Hollywood package craze sprang from the old formula that best-selling books can be turned into box office successes at the cinema.
Hollywood later turned this idea around and arranged for novels to be based on film scripts.
Then film producers began releasing albums of hit musicals such as “Grease” and “Saturday Night Fever”, to entice cinemagoers not only to see the film but to buy its music.
Actions films, such as the newly released “Superman The Movie”, are being marketed with their own line of gifts and souvenirs, such as Superman outfits for children.
The latest idea, called the fotonovel, is the brainchild of Herbert Stewart, a classical guitarist, and an aspiring Argentine actor Lazlo Papas.
Instead of using obscure scripts and models, as has been done overseas, for their comic book stories, the two men decided to try to persuade film studios to allow them to use successful films and television series for comic-type novels.
Fotonovel Publications was formed and, in their first venture, Paramount Studios gave the two men the right to all 78 episodes of the television “Star Trek” series, Columbia Studios then agreed to allow its hit film “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” to be turned Into a comic book.
Stewart later obtained the rights to his firm’s biggest success so far, “Grease,” starring Travolta and the British-born Miss Newton-John.
More than a million copies of the “Grease” fotonovel have been sold so far, Mr Stewart said.
The book, which sells in the United States for $US2.50 (K2) and is aimed at teenagers, was ninth in a list of national paperback best sellers this week.
The list was based on survey by Publishers Weekly and was issued by the Los Angeles Times.
The original dialogue of “Grease” is used whenever possible in the comic book version and noise effects come in large words.
“Vroom, scree, whoomp, burr and ackaka” help liven up a car race. A caption tells readers: “The good guys always drive white cars,”
On the front cover Travolta and Newton-John snuggle up to each other.
Their dialogue captures the mood of the story of teenage toughs in the fifties and the love affair of Danny and Sandy.
“Oh, Danny,” says Miss Newton-John.
“Oh, Sandy,” says Travolta.
And on the final page, as the couple drive away, there appears in pink letters: “A happy ending”.
The “Grease” book tries to keep to the spirit of the film, which is not to be taken too seriously.
Another comic novel of “Heaven Can Wait”, starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie, helps the story along with such background comments as “Extreme envy compounded by absolute greed” and simply: “Absolute confusion.”
Soon to come out are fotonovels of the latest Dracula film, “Love at First Bite - Invasion of the Body Snatchers” timed to coincide with the release of the film, and “Ice Castles,” which is described as a rock musical on ice.
Mr Stewart, 36, whose father was a film producer, said here he went into publishing after giving concerts for 12 years as a classical guitarist, “to see if I could work in the world of business”.
He has signed fotonovel contracts in Europe, Japan and Australia and expects his markets to grow.
Mr Stewart refused to say how much each fotonovel costs to produce, but said it was in the six-figure range in US dollars.
More books about Olivia.