Polar (2019): the film versus the graphic novel

What happens to a story that relies only on its images when we add voices to it? Polar asks the most radical question of this entire corpus. Source-by-source decryption.

As in each article in this series, only verified information (creators, distribution, dates, publishers) is stated; the comparative analysis is ours, without reproducing dialogue or protected images.

Polar (2012): a story without a single word

Polar was born in 2012 on the internet, in the form of a webcomic published by Víctor Santos, a Spanish author with a very identifiable graphic style. Its particularity is radical:the story contains no dialogue. No speech bubbles, no recitatives, no explanatory onomatopoeia — only images. Everything the reader understands, he deduces from the cutting, the looks, the gestures and the composition. It is a demanding formal challenge, achieved thanks to an absolutely readable design: solid black areas, cut-out silhouettes, red used as the only accent color.

The central character, Duncan Vizla – nicknamed the Black Kaiser – appeared in 2009 in another work by Santos before finding his definitive form here. An aging hitman, he is approaching retirement that his employer has no intention of financing: it is more economical to eliminate him. A hunt follows where the assassin becomes a target. Dark Horse spotted the webcomic and published it as an album in 2013 under the title Thriller: Came From the Cold— by adding, for the printed edition, a few bubbles missing from the online version. The success of the title gave rise to other volumes extending the character's adventures.

Adapting silence: an unparalleled challenge

All adaptations of this series face differences in medium. None confront this one. A silent comic cannot be “transposed” to cinema: talking cinema imposes voices, and the complete silence of a feature film would be an exercise in style. The film therefore had to invent everything that the comic strip had deliberately removed – the dialogues, the explanations, the verbal relationships between characters, the motivations expressed.

What Jonas Åkerlund, a director from music videos, draws from it is consistent with his career: a saturated image, nervous editing, an omnipresent soundtrack. The stylization is there, but it changes in nature - in Santos, it serves the economy of the story, by removing everything that is not essential; in Åkerlund, it serves the effect, by adding. The film accumulates where the comic subtracts. This inversion explains a good part of the harsh critical reception, which criticized the film for permanent escalation, strong humor and a plot filled with sub-narratives absent from the source. For the reader, the comparison is instructive beyond this title: it shows that an aesthetic is not a detachable covering. Santos' flat areas and his silence are the same decision; keep the first while removing the second produces something else.

What the film adds to last

Basically, the plot is preserved: Duncan Vizla, an elite killer close to retirement, is hunted down by the organization which employed him, which has every interest in never paying his pension. Mads Mikkelsen, whose performance relies heavily on gaze and restraint, was an apt choice for a character born mute, and his performance is the most praised aspect of the film. The team of eccentric killers sent after him also comes from the comics, where they appear as a gallery of memorable silhouettes.

The rest is added. The relationship with his neighbor, sketched on paper, becomes a major narrative thread and carries the emotional dimension of the story. The motivations of the organization are detailed, its leaders embodied, and a significant part of the footage takes place in office scenes without equivalent in the source material. Humor, finally - strong, often grating - is a color of the film and not of the comic strip, whose register is colder. These additions are legitimate in themselves: without them, there would be no feature film. But their accumulation shifts the center of gravity of a work which drew its strength from what it did not show.

The characters, from paper to screen

• Duncan Vizla— The Black Kaiser, aging killer, faithful to the comic.
• The neighbor— Sketched on paper, developed into a major narrative thread.
• The Killer Team— Gallery of silhouettes from comics.
• The leaders of the organization— Embodied and detailed by the film.
• The red— Santos' only accent color, drowned in on-screen saturation.

From webcomic to Dark Horse: a contemporary journey

The journey of Polar illustrates a path that has become common and rarely documented in this corpus: that of the webcomic spotted and then published. Unlike titles from the 1980s or 1990s, which had to find a publisher to exist, Polar existed first without publisher — published directly online by its author, free of charge, and discovered by its readership before Dark Horse took an interest in it. This is the exact opposite of the model that produced most of the works in this series of articles.

This genealogy has consequences for the collector. There is no such thing as a rare “first issue” to hunt: the original story was digital and free. The reference object is the Dark Horse album from 2013 , Thriller: Came From the Cold, in the first edition — especially since it differs from the online version by the addition of a few bubbles. The earlier comic from 2009 where the character appears for the first time constitutes the connoisseurs' piece, much more confidential. The following volumes in the series complete the set. It is a recent market, without established speculation, where prices remain modest — and where documentary value prevails over rarity. The webcomic remains searchable: a feature that makes Polar one of the rare works in this corpus whose original source is accessible without purchasing anything.

The webcomic, a separate editorial economy

Polar illustrates a change that collectors of classic comics often observe from afar. Publishing online removes the two historic barriers of the profession: finding a publisher and financing printing. The author publishes directly, page by page, and the readership is built up through sharing rather than distribution in stores. Víctor Santos thus built the audience that led Dark Horse to take an interest in his work — the publisher arriving as validation of an already acquired success, not as an initial bet.

This inversion has concrete effects on value. In the classic model, the first appearance of a character is a dated physical object, produced in a finite number of copies: this is what establishes rarity. In the online model, the first appearance is a web page, potentially always accessible and infinitely reproducible. Rarity can therefore no longer come from the origin: it moves to the printed edition that follows, which becomes a collector's item.a posteriori. For the reader, this means that a growing part of contemporary comics escapes traditional rating logic - and that the benchmarks inherited from comics from the 1960s to 1990s are largely ineffective.

Where to start reading

To discover the source, the album Thriller: Came From the Cold(2013, Dark Horse) can be read in an hour and is a unique experience: following a thriller plot without a word of explanation requires active reading that few comics require. The following volumes extend the character. Recommended reading before the film, precisely to gauge what it must have added.

Timeline to know

• 2009— First appearance of the character in an earlier work by Víctor Santos.
• 2012— The webcomic Polar appears online, entirely silent.
• 2013— Dark Horse releases Polar: Came From the Cold as an album.
• 2019— The Netflix film, with Mads Mikkelsen.

Collection side: what to aim for after the film

Polar is part of a recent and not very speculative market. L'Dark Horse album from 2013 in first edition is the reference piece — it differs from the online version by the addition of a few bubbles, which makes it an editorially distinct object. The comic of 2009 where the character appears for the first time is more confidential and interests connoisseurs. The following volumes in the series complete the collection at a low price. A rare feature in this corpus: the original webcomic remains available online, which allows you to discover the work without purchasing anything. As always, condition determines value; relying on real recent sales is strongly recommended.

Its place in the saga and for the collector

Polar will remain as the adaptation faced with the most radical challenge of this series: bringing to the screen a work whose principle was silence. The exercise was probably impossible, and the film chose the opposite path — accumulating where the source subtracted. Mads Mikkelsen brings the restraint that recalls the original character, but the whole thing moves away from the economy that made the webcomic valuable. For the collector, the work opens up a new segment, that of comics born online, where classic rarity codes do not apply. For the reader, it is the opportunity to have a rare experience: reading an entire thriller without a single word.

The verdict: the frame kept, the silence lost

• Loyalty: Duncan Vizla and his forced retirement, the employer who prefers to eliminate him, the team of killers, the graphic violence and the stylized aesthetic come from the comics.
• Freedoms: the silent story becomes talkative, the plot is fleshed out with sub-narratives, the neighbor developed into a narrative thread, dark humor added, and Santos' graphic economy replaced by a saturated image.
• To collect: the 2013 Dark Horse album in first edition, the 2009 comic.

Polar adapts a graphic novel whose particularity was to contain no dialogue – a challenge that talking cinema could not meet. The film maintains the plot and the character, but accumulates where Victor Santos subtracted. For the reader as for the collector, it is an invitation to discover an entirely silent thriller.

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