Written by Dan Watters

Drawn by Dev Pramanik

Titan Comics, out 25 October

Mysterious extra-terrestrial Thomas Jerome Newton falls to Earth on a mission to save his drought-ridden home.

This fully authorised graphic novel adaptation of Nicolas Roeg’s David Bowie-starring 1976 movie (which in turn was based on the 1963 novel by Walter Trevis) is a welcome alternative to the movie, and while my main question probably is ‘Why now?’, a good reply would probably be ‘Why not?’.

Dan Watters takes the key elements of the 140-minute movie and distils the dialogue to fit in this 100-page version, supported by some excellent artwork by Dev Pramanik, who perfectly captures Bowie’s Newton, replicating many of the frames of the movie. It’s not the most kinetic of movies, with many fairly static scenes of dialogue, but there’s enough momentum in the pages to keep pulling you through, and there’s no pulling of punches with the more adult material.

In addition to the story, there’s a new article on the making of the movie by Stephen Dalton illustrated with never-before-seen photos. There’s also features on the process of creating a comic, from script to page, cover concepts and character designs.

Verdict: If this has been adapted in 1976, it would have been a very different beast, certainly in its look and content. While we can only guess what the Marvel Movie Treasury might have looked like, this is a welcome, belated alternative. 9/10

Nick Joy