From my friend Scoob comes a bit of news that I should be happy about – but I’m not sure I am.

He sent me this article discussing how plans are afoot to bring my favorite comic strip, Lio, to the big screen.

(“But Faust,” I hear you cry, “I thought Calvin and Hobbes was your favorite strip!” Of course it is – I think it’s the best comic strip of all time. But alas, it is no longer in production. And of all the current crop of strips out there, Lio is my hands-down favorite, appealing directly to the part of my funny bone that loved Charles Addams and Gahan Wilson.)

While I’d love to see this happen and get the strip more exposure (none of the local papers here carry it, so I get it delivered daily to my inbox from here), I can’t help but think that this is a bad idea. True, the Addams Family movies were well done for being based on a series of spot comics, but there are some differences with Lio. First and foremost, it’s a pantomime strip. While there are onomotopaeic sound effects and the occasional label or sign, Lio is silent (although others have been known to talk). Those of you who don’t think this is a problem haven’t seen the first Mr. Bean movie, where they couldn’t make it through without having his Mostly Muteness talk (and shame on me, I haven’t seen the second film yet).

While the right director could make a go of this (I’m thinking Barry Sonnenfeld, who made the Addams family films, could pull it off – much less so Cinematical’s other candidate, Tim Burton, who is too uneven and heavy handed with his own vision), the odds of it being a bust are high. But I’m guessing the odds are even higher of it actually making it to actual production.

So while I hope that if it does get made, it’s great. If it’s not great, there’s still the strip to fall back on. What if it doesn’t get made? Eh. Thanks to Bill Watterson, there’ll never be a Calvin and Hobbes movie, and I’m fine with that, too. My advice to Lio’s creator, Mark Tatulli, is to take the advance and run. And I’m speaking from experience.

Filed under: Comics, Other Writers, Popular Culture Tagged: | Comics, Popular Culture, Writers