Scarface Lives Again -- in Comics

[wayshway]

The tagline says it all...
"Say hello to IDW's gun-toting, profanity-spewing, law-breaking, drug-peddling leeeetle friend. Tony Montana, is back, you stinking ****-a-roaches, in the savage sequel to the legendary '80s-era Miami gangster movie."


Yep, IDW Publishing is launching a comic book based on Scarface, the 1983 Universal film starring Al Pacino in a role that attained legendary status.
John Layman and Dave Crosland are the creative team on Scarface: Scarred for Live, which starts in December.
It's the latest licensed property from IDW, which has also published titles based on Transformers and other such TV shows as Angel, 24 and CSI.
But while the character's popularity has lingered, including an anniversary edition DVD, posters and an upcoming video game, why a Scarface comic?
"We try to take on properties that offer something unique, and beyond being a beloved movie from the '80s, the idea of a Scarface comic certainly had a uniqueness to it -- namely, the lead character was dead," IDW Publishing editor-in-chief Chris Ryall said. "Which one would think makes it tough to pull off a convincing sequel without resorting to 'the son he never knew seeks to avenge his bad name' or something equally trite.
"Luckily, the Scarface videogame in development went with the same central conceit that we had in mind -- namely, that he survived the end of the movie somehow. So we went with that premise, and took it from there."
C'mon, he survived? Tony Montana was a piece of Swiss cheese at the end of the movie.
"Now, sure, some could say, 'That's ridiculous, he took dozens of bullets to vital organs and ingested mounds of cocaine... he couldn't possibly be alive!'" Ryall said. "Those people should be doctors. Because comics -- and movie sequel -- fans know that the lead character can always come back. So that's our starting point -- yes, Scarface is alive. Not easily, and he's certainly in bad shape after the events in the movie, but he lived. Barely."
OK, OK, he's alive. Now what?
"By the time he's out of the hospital, Miami's completely changed," writer Layman said. "And now he has to kill his way back to the top."
The Scarred for Life mini-series, which runs five issues, looks at Tony's attempts to reclaim his former position, get revenge on the people who tried to kill him and generally just take down everyone who gets in his way.
"In some of the most gruesome, blackly comic ways I've ever seen in comics," Ryall noted.
Pacino fans should note there won't be strict photo likenesses of the actor employed in Crosland's art, but, based on the first cover, it certainly keeps the flavor of the character.
Layman, who promised lots and lots of R-rated content, has teamed with Crosland before on the Image Comics series Puffed. He said he was elated to be working with him again. "We're absolutely simpatico," he said.