'Legend' has a long history in the comics and film

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"I Am Legend," the new Will Smith movie currently topping the box office, was based on a '50s sci-fi novel, not a comic book. But it's a popular story with a long history in both comics and movies.Richard Matheson wrote the original novella in 1954, which was original in a number of ways.The plot by now is fairly familiar: A plague (this one by bacteria) turns everyone but the narrator (Californian Robert Neville) into a vampire. Neville spends his days researching the plague, building defenses against the undead -- and killing them. He spends his nights barricaded in his house, drinking heavily, as the bloodsuckers outside taunt him.Matheson tried to explain, through Neville's discoveries, scientific explanations for vampires (photosensitivity, etc.). Modern writers have beaten this idea to death, but it was fairly original for 1954. Also, Matheson explored the psychological impact of isolation on his protagonist, who becomes increasingly irrational. That, too, was fairly new for a Cold War era where basic American goodness triumphed in most stories, sci-fi and otherwise. Without giving too much away, the title is more morally ambiguous than it appears at first blush.Vincent Price first essayed the Neville role on screen (as Dr. Robert Morgan) in the 1964 film "The Last Man on Earth." It was a relatively faithful adaptation, although it's often criticized for Price's over-the-top performance and small budget. Matheson wrote the screenplay, but the producers made so many changes he had his name taken off the credits.Charlton Heston got the name right (Robert Neville) in 1971's "The Omega Man," but the "vampires" were very much alive. In this movie, a nuclear war between China and the USSR wiped out the majority of humanity, with much of the remainder suffering from some kind of radiation poisoning that made them light-sensitive albinos. (Neville is a government scientist who stumbled on a cure too late, but at least made himself immune.)So once again we have a Neville warring against night-stalkers in a deserted city (Los Angeles), but these "vampires" are dedicated to wiping out science, which they blame for all ills. But unlike the novella (or the first movie), Heston was a typical two-fisted, square-jawed hero. And "Omega Man" is as much 1970s social commentary as horror movie. The slang m Woodstock references and '60s debates don't age well, but it does have its memorable moments - some of which, like a heavily armed Heston tooling around in a babe-magnet car, are echoed in the latest movie.Speaking of which, Will Smith's new movie takes a lot of liberties with the original story -- substituting New York for L.A., for example, and "fast zombies" of the sort seen in "28 Days Later" instead of vampires. This Robert Neville's dilemma is man-made (a virus meant to cure cancer), but again we see the ravages of isolation and hopelessness on the human psyche (in a tour de force by Smith). Faithful to the book or not, "I Am Legend" gave my wife the heebie-jeebies, has terrific special effects and justly deserves its $76.5 million opening (a record for December).Comic books got into the act in 1991, when Steve Niles (later to gain fame for "30 Days of Night") and artist Elman Brown adapted the novel for a four-issue, square-bound miniseries for Eclipse Comics. This adaptation was so faithful, and so text-heavy, it was almost more book than comic book. IDW reprinted the series as a deluxe hardback in 2003, and announced a re-release this month (although I have yet to see it).What I have seen is five comics stories from DC's mature-reader imprint Vertigo -- online! These short stories, called collectively "I Am Legend: Awakening," are prequels to the movie, depicting vignettes from around the world as the virus spreads. (One is the "origin" of Ethan, the boy in the film.) The stories draw on the talents of Niles, Bill Sienkiewicz, Richard Christian Matheson (son of the author) and others, and can be found on iamlegend.warnerbros.com. Two have received rudimentary animation, and can be viewed at apple.com/trailers (among other places). Will these online "trailers" eventually be gathered in a graphic novel? Probably, although there's no word on that yet. Because it's evident that a story of the last man on Earth speaks to each generation, and I don't think we've seen the last of Robert Neville, or the genre he more or less created, yet.(Contact Andrew Smith of the Memphis Commercial Appeal at capncomics(at)aol.com or visit www.captaincomics.us.)