Condorman

by Joe Claro

Vintage movie tie-in paperback

Genres: Fiction, Superheroes, Comics, Childrens

126 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

Reviews

[Flew Flewelling · Rating 2 out of 5]

My wife picked this book up at a garage sale thinking I would like it. Little did she know I loved this movie as a kid. The writing isn't the best, but while reading it, all I could picture were the various scenes in the movie.
I wouldn't recommend the book to anyone unless they saw and loved the movie!

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

A brisk, fun novelisation that probably stands up better now than the film does (which, sadly, has aged really badly).

[Katya Michaeli · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5
I have no idea what happened here
The first two issues were just the plot of the movie, but more fast-paced, and with less filler (and less brownface). I was actually enjoying it. And then just when the plot ends and everyone's happy back home, it.. keeps going?
It also suddenly becomes very dumb.
I guess it's a good thing they never got to make that sequel.

[Collin J Wood · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun easy read, novelized from the Disney Comedy from the ‘80s.
Comic Book artist turned international super-spy. Reading this brought back all of the good memories of watching this as a kid.

[Paz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Divertido y sin pretensiones

[Kendal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun, lighthearted Cold War story. Could be a new Avenger!

[Noel Arnold · Rating 2 out of 5]

book #3 of 2023: Condorman (1981) by movie novelization author Joe Claro. so, traditionally I give myself a treat or a sweet at Christmas, which equates to something fun, light, offbeat, period, or otherwise out of the ordinary from my usual reading areas (mainly anthropology, evolutionary biology, ancient history, world literature, mythology from an anthropological lens, and philosophy, though there’s been a lot of occult content and such recently bcs desperate times…): this book was all of that, with a healthy dose of nostalgia to make it even more delicious. I’m a bit late this year bcs I was slogging through that dense political psych book, but I finally got there. when I was a kid, my mom would very occasionally drop me off at the used book store on our weekly trip to town (who knows what she was up to in the meantime bcs she dragged me to every everything 🤢, but not one to look a gift horse in the mouth), I would quickly peruse the fantasy adventure section (I would’ve loved to have known about Herodotus and Shakespeare then bcs that’s def more my speed and I would’ve def been into them even then, but I didn’t and was too scared to ask adults bcs every adult I knew was Christian and I already had waaaay too much of that in my life at the time). one used paperback I remember reading was the novelization of the movie Condorman. I did see the movie on tv, but I don’t know if I saw the movie or read the book first. I recall adoring the book and reading it several times (over and over) and ~recently it dawned on me that I could and might really enjoy taking a peek at what little me found so enthralling. I prob have it somewhere…but I put it on my used book alert list at www.powells.com and before you know it, it was mine. this less than 125-pg read was pretty faithful to the movie’s script: I watched clips after I finished reading it then finally found a link to the whole movie (at archive.org) which i just finished watching, but nonetheless, the book was still utterly charming, hilarious, suspenseful, fun, and didn’t feel like I was missing anything without visuals. interestingly, the book was sappier than the movie, but I think it’s precisely bcs the author had to convey things the movie could communicate visually and because his audience was specifically children, so he needed to spell out, to exaggerate the emotional content: an interesting study for me as someone who writes, but not for children. according to a review I watched, the movie, itself, was based on Robert Sheckley’s The Game of X (1980) and I wonder if that wasn’t a little inspired by Leslie Charteris’ Enter the Saint (1930), which I read a couple of years ago, though that relied a lot more on the protagonist’s wit than Condorman’s endless supply of fabulous cars, boats, hangliders, etc. so lots of action, adventure, comedy, and a bit of romance, immersed with a healthy amount of cheese and you have what may be the worst best 80s classic, well, aside from the unconquerably spectacular masterpiece that is…Highlander (other great 80s films that are somewhat less cheesy: Dark Crystal, Dune, Goonies, LadyHawke: and yes, I will fight you on Dune). I can absolutely see what drew little kid me into this light, fast, fun adventure over and over again - I was on a small farm with the bible and no mass transit or cable tv, so…. if anyone still cares about such things, it’s very child appropriate. while the writing is far from profound, it’s a lovely little romp i can recommend to kids of all ages.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ridiculous and fun. It's in the concept of a comic book writer, and an ordinary man testing out the creations of his imagination, and then becoming what he'd been pretending, that moral, that's at the heart of it.

[Carolyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not recommended unless you're bored and seriously love the movie (which is better).

[TK421 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pure uncut cotton-candy for the brain. Fun and zany!

[bluetyson]

isbn,original

[Bill Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just a lot of fun. Don't expect a lot out of this, and you should have a good time.