Francis Ford Coppola's biggest flop, Megalopolis being adapted to graphic novel form, reactions ranged from curiosity to confusion - why would fans want more of a panned movie? However, there's reason to believe that Chris Ryall and Jacob Phillips' Megalopolis graphic novel is heading for the success that the movie couldn't achieve.

The concept of a movie being adapted for the page is nothing new, but more often than not, faithful recreation is the name of the game. That's not the case for the comic. In fact, this adaptation has a unique chance to correct Megalopolis' cinematic failings in a medium that is far more suited to the project's overall vision.

Like film, comics are a specific medium with strengths and weaknesses compared to other forms of art. And in this case, Megalopolis has a lot to gain from a graphic novel reimagining.

A Megalopolis graphic novel sees Coppola's vision come home to the medium that can serve it best.

The Comic Book Medium is Perfect for Megalopolis

Megalopolis Makes More Sense as a Graphic Novel Than a Movie

Most of what turned fans away from Megalopolis was an issue of medium. Megalopolis, at its core, is visually ambitious. Ambition in the cinematic realm runs the risk of being restricted by the scope of a movie's budget. If the cost is too immense to bring a vision to life, then it often results in bad CGI, which Megalopolis suffers from - something which fans picked up on from the first trailers.

While realizing this kind of visual ambition isn't effortless in comics (it still takes a skillful artist), this issue of bad CGI isn't present - Coppola's world can be fully realized in graphic novel form. The striking visuals that Megalopolis could not manifest on the big screen, artist Jacob Phillips can create with his pen, as the Eisner winner has done masterfully with works like The Enfield Gang Massacre and That Texas Blood.

Megalopolis is also experimental in a way that turned off many audiences, including a famous fourth-wall break where Adam Driver's Cesar Catilina responds to an actor present in the real-life screening. This moment felt gimmicky in a cinema, but it's something that's at the core of comics, with iconic classics like Watchmen and The Sandman having this kind of experimentation stamped on their DNA. Experimenting with form is more common and mainstream in comics, suiting the way that the medium breaks down a story into s and pages. While movies enhance realism, comics complement stories where time and reality are malleable, partly because readers can approach such experimentation at their own pace, flipping back and forth at will.

Graphic novels are the ultimate medium for any story that matches ambitious visuals with an experimental approach, while cinema is more limiting. In many ways, a Megalopolis graphic novel sees Coppola's vision come home to the medium that can serve it best. However, in coming after such a well-known movie flop, the comic is in a unique position even as far as graphic novels go...

Megalopolis' New Adaptation Has the Scope to Do Something Unique

A New Take on the Movie's Core Ambitions

In most cases when adapting a movie into comic form, accurate recreation is the watchword. The graphic novel is a new way for fans of the movie to experience a story they already loved. However, Megalopolis is doing something different. In a press release discussing the new project, Coppola states that he wants the graphic novel to act as a "sibling" to the movie, even naming it Megalopolis: An Original Graphic Novel. Coppola states:

I was pleased to put the idea of a graphic novel in the competent hands of Chris Ryall with the idea that, although it was inspired by my film Megalopolis, it didn’t necessarily have to be limited by it.

I hoped the graphic novel would take its own flight, with its own artists and writer so that it would be a sibling of the film, rather than just an echo. That’s what I feel Chris, Jacob Phillips and the team at Abrams ComicArts have accomplished. It confirms my feeling that art can never be constrained, but rather always a parallel expression, and part of the bounty we can make available to our patrons, audiences and readers.

While Megalopolis' transition to comics is unique in of the approach Coppola and his collaborators are taking, there's reason to believe it can be a major success. One example is the Firefly franchise. The original TV show's cancellation prompted a big-screen sequel, Serenity, which sadly failed to inspire a live-action return. However, the franchise survives through graphic novel continuations. Prequel comics expand the lore of Firefly, while the sequels help sustain the franchise's fanbase, even gifting it a new protagonist in Captain Emma Washburne.

Firefly sequels like Brand New 'Verse and prequels like Firefly: Malcolm Reynolds Year One are available now from BOOM! Studios. In addition, Dark Horse Comics has its own Firefly expansive comics, like Leaves on the Wind and No Power in The 'Verse.

Firefly shows how comics can take an existing live-action property and not just recreate it, but build on its foundations to create something even more ambitious and long-lasting. However, even here, Megalopolis is unique. In the case of Firefly, the comics build on an existing fanbase who want more of what they love. In the case of Megalopolis, the promise is a new take on an original project that failed to live up to its promise.

If Megalopolis was simply boring, a second chance wouldn't mean much, but as an ambitious mess, there's a lot of things the graphic novel can 'fix' to exploit the project's potential.

Why Readers Should Be Excited about the Megalopolis Graphic Novel

It's a Unique Way to Fix a Flop

The Megalopolis graphic novel doesn't exist to give audiences more of what they love, but instead, to replace and fix a property that - by and large - they hated. Knowing what went wrong the first time, Ryall and Phillips have the opportunity to improve on- what looked atrocious onscreen. While Megalopolis wasn't received well, there's no denying that Francis Ford Coppola's concept is ambitious and creative. That means there's immense potential for a retelling that's free to approach the original's big ideas in its own way.

It's entirely to Francis Ford Coppola's credit that he wants the graphic novel to be its own thing. While Coppola is irably satisfied with the movie version, it's fascinating to see a work get a second life after being received so poorly. While it might go too far to call the graphic novel a second draft, its "sibling" status must unavoidably take into what worked and what didn't in the original. If Megalopolis was simply boring, a second chance wouldn't mean much, but as an ambitious mess, there's a lot of things the graphic novel can 'fix' to exploit the project's actual potential.

If the comic creates a more convincing world less beset by gimmicks and bloat, it could show fans and critics what Coppola was trying to do all along.

The Graphic Novel Could Improve Francis Ford Coppola's Legacy

Megalopolis is a Controversial Part of the Director's Career

Megalopolis, as a movie, is considered by many to be a stain on the legacy of Francis Ford Coppola. This is a man who produced classics like The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, The Conversation, and Bram Stoker's Dracula. With his most recent directorial effort becoming such a financial and critical point of contention, critics are questioning Megalopolis' place in Coppola's career. Some say that it hurts the Oscar winner's legacy, but a graphic novel adaptation offers its own kind of redemption.

Comics aren't as popular as films, and there's little chance of the Megalopolis graphic novel becoming a hit on par with a Francis Ford Coppola movie. However, the comic can showcase elements of Coppola's vision that didn't shine through on the screen. If the comic creates a more convincing world less beset by gimmicks and bloat, it could show fans and critics what Coppola was trying to do all along - knowledge which can't help but make its way into future discussions of such an iconic flop.

Megalopolis isn't just an opportunity to remake something that was widely panned, but to reimagine Megalopolis in a new way. The graphic novel could prove to be more than just a mere remake and could wind up being a reinterpretation that delivers on Francis Ford Coppola's vision for Megalopolis, changing the movie's terrible reputation into something more complex.

Megalopolis: An Original Graphic Novel will be available from Abrams Books starting October 2025.