Clueless Comes to Comics

Clueless cover draft by Natacha Bustos

There are four main ways to sell corporate comics these days:

  1. legacy superheroes
  2. zombies
  3. kids’ cartoon adaptations
  4. and licensed properties, often with nostalgia attached.

The latest in the last category is this: Boom! has announced that they’ll be putting out a Clueless comic book.

But hey! There’s a long history of following young women’s social lives in humor comics, from Betty and Veronica to Millie the Model. Why not do something more in that genre, starting with some well-known characters, like those played by Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash, and Brittany Murphy in the 1995 Paramount film?

Clueless cover draft by Natacha Bustos

Clueless cover draft by Natacha Bustos

The graphic novel will be out in August and available to order in next month’s Diamond Previews catalog. It’s co-written by Sarah Kuhn and Amber Benson (best known as Tara on Buffy the Vampire Slayer but also an accomplished writer of film and comics) and illustrated by Siobhan Keenan. The story will continue from the film, exploring what the women want to do after their senior year of high school.

Benson is quoted as saying, “I was 17 when I auditioned for Clueless and, sadly, didn’t get a part. But I remember reading the script — tentatively titled As If — and thinking: If they do this right, they are going to kick some serious butt. So I wasn’t shocked when Clueless turned out to be a pop-culture phenomenon. All these years later, I am tickled that I finally get to be a part of its continuing legacy, and that I get to collaborate with two people I respect greatly: my co-writer Sarah Kuhn and our editor Shannon Watters.”

Kuhn continued, “Clueless is one of my favorite movies of all time — I love [director] Amy Heckerling’s whip-smart use of language, her clever take on [Jane] Austen, and the strong bonds she created between vibrant, awesome female characters. And I love that Cher Horowitz is a heroine who takes on every obstacle she faces with a unique combination of ingenuity, positivity, and the ability to pull off yellow tartan like nobody else. Getting to write these characters is both a total dream come true and an incredible challenge and I hope we’re doing Cher, Dionne, and Tai justice — we’re certainly having a ton of fun.”

As this sample page (not final) by Siobhan Keenan shows, the costumes are period, keeping to the mid-90s era. Maybe this means short plaid kilts will come back!

Sample art page by Siobhan Keenan



One comment

  • David Oakes

    You forgot “Legacy Cartoon Characters as Zombies”.

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