From static to motion pictures

'Based on a comic book', are words that immediately send caped heroes and nocturnal vigilantes Biff!, Zap! and Pow! across the silver screen of our minds. This superhero reflex, which has punters thinking Ghost Rider rather than Ghost World, has been created, in part, by Hollywood's efforts to give every character ever to don spandex the cinematic treatment. This inevitable but misleading association has prompted many, more grounded comic book adaptations such as From Hell, 300 and A History of Violence to adopt the more acceptable term 'Graphic Novel'.