Graphic Novels Become Movies

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n June 22 this year, a movie opened at your local cineplex. That movie was Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. If the title didn't inspire you to jump off your couch and go see it, not much else will, because it's gotten a solid 6.4 rating on IMDB.com and has garnered horrible reviews nearly across the board. But it's not the first movie that was originally a graphic novel, and thankfully, there's a few out there that are far better. Here are some of the better comics (is it okay to call them comics when they're novels?)-turned-films.

Graphic novels have been made into movies for a lot longer than 20 years. 

We'd be silly not to mention the Batman movies, most recently The Dark Knight. Although this one wasn't based on a single comic book or novel, two stories come to mind when thinking of this title: Frank Miller's Batman Year One and The Dark Knight Returns.

The Crow is another wildly-loved, cult-favorite movie. The 1994 flick earned $50 million, making it not a super-huge success, but almost 20 years later, people still talk about it.

Jim Carrey's The Mask was also based off a graphic novel, and weird as the movie was, people loved it—it pulled in $119 million at the box office.

But despite the aforementioned films, graphic novels have been made into movies for a lot longer than 20 years. One notable and obvious movie to point out is Superman, which was released in 1978 and earned $134 million. There have been plenty of reboots of this one, and we're sure to see more of them.

We'd also be foolish to ever omit the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles catalog. Beloved by those young and old, these sewer-dwellers along with faithful Splinter and the ever-menacing Shredder have eaten enough pizza over the years to earn a place in our hearts.

Another personal favorite of ours is Men In Black. It's campy, it has aliens, it's wholesome (thanks, Will Smith!) and it's just a fun, goofy movie.

Less campy but still highly-lauded was 2003's American Splendor, and again, we can't forget to point out all of our comic book faves, like Spider-Man, Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, and that whole gaggle.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World was also a critical hit, considering the books were about a boy fighting a girl's exes.

We're obviously forgetting about plenty, and our sights are set on the upcoming Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises, so you'll have to excuse our oversights. Which are on your list of essentials?