The Mad Men Comic That Never Was

There have been plenty of TV-to-comics over the years, from Sergeant Bilko to Doctor Who. For some it became a licence to print money, such as X-Files or Buffy Season 8. Some, like Chuck, are more forgettable.

But wouldn’t you have picked up a copy of Mad Men?

Based on the AMC show set in a nineteen sixtioes advertising agency on Madison Avenue, revolving around the office lives and personal lives in a decade of social change, the television production team proposed a Mad Men comic book, taking individual episodes and adapting them in graphic-novel form.

Artistically led by Howard Chaykin, it would have featured a number of big name more naturalistic comic creators taking the original scripts to aired episodes and working them up into comic-book form.

However, with no new story material being offered, and doubt from publishers about spending money developing a project that just wasn’t built for the graphic-novel or comic-book media, the project fell apart.

I can see the point. But damn, I think I’d have also liked to have seen the comic.

Illustration by Jamie of What A Kerfuffle