10 Obscure 90s Indie Comics That Netflix Should Turn Into TV Shows
Netflix turned the little-known 90s comic Warrior Nun Areala into a television show, which got us thinking about what other comics and graphic novels should be next.
The comics-to-TV pipeline has been pumping hard over the last few years, but it was still surprising to see Netflix pick up , a show based on a 1994 Antarctic Press series, Warrior Nun Areala. The 1990s were a wild time for black-and-white comic books, as the runaway success of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles opened the floodgates for small publishers all over the world to get their characters out there.
If Warrior Nun is a hit, we can only think that production companies are going to excavate that period in comics history for more. Let’s get them started with some other 90s indie books that could make for great shows.
The Tale of One Bad Rat
Bryan Talbot is one of the most fascinating creators to come out of the British scene in the 1980s, and his 1994 graphic novel The Tale Of One Bad Rat is more grounded than most of his early works. It’s the story of Helen, a teenage runaway living on the streets of London to get away from her abusive father. She hits the road, heading north and accompanied by a giant imaginary rat. It’s a richly told and sensitive story, handling tricky issues with aplomb, and if you like Netflix shows likeThe End Of The F***ing World, it would fit in perfectly on your watchlist.
Baker Street
The first issue of Gary Reed and Guy Davis’s Baker Street technically dropped in 1989, but it’s such a great forgotten series that I’m going to bend the rules a little bit. Set in an alternate universe where World War II never happened and England’s Victorian era continued to the present day, it stars a gender-swapped punk Sherlock Holmes and her crew as they attempt to hunt down a serial killer. Incredible atmosphere and a one-of-a-kind setting could really help this one stand out on streaming services, even if the plot isn’t anything terribly new.
Peepshow
Autobiographical cartoonist Joe Matt has flirted with Hollywood before, even moving to California during an unsuccessful attempt to get a show made with HBO. His Peep Show comic is an unflinching look at a guy who sabotages himself in myriad ways, including an overwhelming obsession with porn. The closest counterpart we can think of is Curb Your Enthusiasm, but at least Larry David is rich and successful on that show. Joe Matt is a penny-pinching, argumentative, and supremely irritating personality who the universe delights in punishing.
The Desert Peach
One of the best things about the ’90s black-and-white boom is how it inspired artists to take some truly wild risks. One of the most long-lived series from that era was Donna Barr’s The Desert Peach, a unique and charming take on World War II. The titular Peach is Manfred Pfirsch Marie Rommel, the fictional gay younger brother of the famous German general. An avowed pacifist, Pfirsch commands a troop of misfits and gets into all sorts of situations. It was so popular back in the day that there was a stage musical performed based on it!
Those Annoying Post Bros.
Matt Howarth is one of the truly forgotten cartoonists of his era, a wildly prolific creator who wrote and drew dozens of titles, even stopping in at DC for a cup of coffee and a few issues of Green Lantern. One of his most enduring concepts is Russ and Ron, the Post Brothers, a pair of malcontents from Bugtown who get into interdimensional hijinks, often accompanied by real-life electronic musicians. If you dig the reality-bending weirdness of stuff like Locke & Key or The Midnight Gospel, this series would be right up your alley.
Skin
One of the most insane industry stories of the 1990s was how Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman managed to burn through $14 million in just three years with his own publishing company, Tundra. That money did pay for some all-time classics, though, including Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics. A little-seen book from their UK line was Skin, by Peter Milligan, Brendan McCarthy, and Carol Swain. Set in the skinhead scene of 1970’s London, it starred a young man given short, flipper-like arms by the anti-nausea drug thalidomide, which was pulled off the market after it was found to cause birth defects when taken by pregnant women. It’s a harsh, challenging book that would translate incredibly to the screen.
Real Stuff
The world lost writer Dennis Eichhorn in 2015, but he left behind a legacy of tall tales that boggles the mind. In the pages of Real Stuff, Eichhorn recounted a life of bad decisions, excessive substance abuse, girl trouble, and random violence illustrated by a veritable Who’s Who of the best cartooning talent of the 1990s. This could be a great premise for an anthology series, checking in on Denny at the major phases of his life, from clueless kid to rebellious teen and drug-dealing adult.
Metropol
Originally published by Marvel’s Epic line before the rights reverted back to writer / artist Ted McKeever, this bizarre, surreal series is one of the most unique offerings of the 1990s. In an unnamed city, a mysterious plague mutates a handful of people into “angels,” tasked with leading the populace into a new and uncertain future. Religious symbolism meshes with body horror as our heroes find their flesh slowly replaced from within by metal and contend with dark forces intent on corrupting everything they touch in this dystopian masterpiece.
Leave It to Chance
Written by Starman writer James Robinson and drawn by Uncanny X-Men penciler Paul Smith, for a while in the late 1990s it looked like Leave It To Chance was going to be a huge breakthrough hit. But publisher shakeups led to the book being put on hiatus after a dozen issues, with only one following in 2003. That’s a shame, because it kicks ass. Protagonist Chance Falconer is a spunky teenage girl with a pet dragon who is trying to follow in the footsteps of her father, a famous paranormal investigator. Great, immersive world-building coupled with all-ages action and adventure makes this feel timeless, even today.
Dog
The late ‘80s and early ‘90s saw the rise of what has come to be dubbed “Outlaw Comics,” heavily rendered stories of graphic sex and violence that pushed the limits of taste. The Crow is a notable early example, but Joe Vigil’s three-issue Dog takes the themes of brutal revenge to someplace way darker. The titular character is a mohawked biker who rolls into town to dole out ass-whippings on people who have wronged him, but when interdimensional portals open up to disgorge massive, hungry tentacles, things get weird. You’d need a beefy effects budget, but what a ride this would be.
Originally published at https://www.pcmag.com.
