IDW Publishing 2015
Adapted by Ted Adams
Illustrated by Mark Torres
Coloured by Tomi Varga
After being exposed to a strange mist, Scott Carey miraculously starts shrinking 1/7 of an inch each day. This mysterious ailment puts incredible strain on his relationship with his wife Lou, and he begins to question his manhood as the hopes of finding a cure shrink away along with him. Now, at 5/7 of an inch, trapped in his basement, Scott must get to a box of crackers perched on a mountainous fridge or he’ll starve.
I’m somewhat surprised by how much i’m enjoying this adaptation. Comics is a great medium for translating novels so long as you don’t try to cut out too much of it and are willing to tell the story till it’s over not confine it to a specific amount of issues. This way the internal dialogue of the character can be seen and their emotional state and everything we need to become invested in the story can be presented and Ted’s adaptation so far is beautifully done.
The hopelessness he feels now when he’s trapped in the basement at 5/7 inch high trying to find food and the crackers atop the fridge to the Black Widow spider lurking. An old newspaper draws his attention what he’s been through. Back to when he was at 42 inches high and barely able to see above the steering wheel of the car. I have to say though what happens when the car blows a tire and he has to walk and is picked up by a nice gentleman who well yeah he’s not such a gentleman.
The homoerotic undertones of this story for this era are pretty surprising to me and to see them so overtly displayed is both delightful and worrying. Scott keeps getting portrayed as prey to predators and you wonder when this man will stop feeling sorry for himself, grow a pair and really start to fight back and try to reclaim his life regardless of how small he gets or how bleak things look. That actually is part of what keeps you coming back to see when he has that emotion flip.
When Scott is mistaken for another kid who get bullied by the local kids and then it’s realized who he his and they want to pull his pants down and see if everything shrank it’s creepy. Seriously creepy and yet on some level you are wondering the same thing right wondering about his anatomy and thinking well is it all the same just smaller? He’s shied away from his wife and feels inadequate we know that much but to have put you in face this way by this bully and his friends who aren’t afraid to find out well it’s odd.
Mark and Tomi take this story to new heights and it’s incredibly interesting to see how they manage to keep him with the same dimensions while the world around him seems to grow ever larger. Then of course there’s the scenes with Scott facing off against the spider and being chased by the cat which are excellent it gives us that sense of danger, motion and drama to really keep you in the story.
This is a wonderful adaptation of a classic story and an old movie that’s worthy of your attention and a great way to be introduced to classic literature.