TV to Comic

The translation of television to comic doesn't always work too well. Whether it's a combination of character likenesses, licensing approvals or whatever else, the comics rarely feel like the TV shows.

In fact, it usually seems to work better when the TV shows are off the air.

The X-Files had a decent run through Topps comics in the 90s - and Topps also ran Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess books at the time, but where are Topps now? 

These days, licenses seem to be split between IDW (Angel, Spike, Doctor Who and Star Trek) and Dynamite (Battlestar Galactica, Xena, Highlander, Army of Darkness), with Dark Horse picking up Star Wars, Firefly/Serenity and Buffy (of course) and Wildstorm snagging the occasional one - like Supernatural, X-Files and the long-rumored but never-confirmed Veronica Mars.

Thing is, I can rarely get into them. I want to, because I like the shows that they're based on but they rarely feel 'real' to me. There's the sense that it doesn't really matter what happens in the comic because it will never, ever 'count'.

The exception to the rule seems to be Buffy and Angel - and that's probably helped by the fact that they involve the shows creators in them. But when you're reading Battlestar Galactica, it seems unlikely that anything there will ever carry over into the show.

By and large, I just can't get into them. Are they aimed at a different audience to regular comics readers? Does that audience ever cross into mainstream comics? Is there a way to get them too?