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Playback: A Graphic Novel
A heart-pounding tale of betrayal, blackmail, and murder that will take you to the edge of your seat.
120 pages, Hardcover
Published July 13, 2006
30 people are currently reading
100 people want to read
About the author
Ted Benoît
26 books2 followersTed Benoit, born Thierry Benoît (Niort, 1949 - Paris, 2016), was a French cartoonist, best known for his ligne claire art style.
Benoit studied at the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques ('Institute for Advanced Cinematographic Studies') in Paris and started his working career as a television assistant director.
His early comics have been published in a number of French magazines, such as Geranonymo, Métal hurlant, L'Écho des savanes, Libération and (À suivre).
Benoit's first comic album Hôpital received the best script award at the Angoulême comics festival in 1979. Among his other works are vers la Ligne Claire (1981), Bingo Bongo et son Combo Congolais (1987) and the three tomes of the noir pastiche series Ray Banana (1982, 1986, 2014). He also illustrated two volumes of the famous French comic series Blake et Mortimer by Jean Van Hamme.
Benoit studied at the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques ('Institute for Advanced Cinematographic Studies') in Paris and started his working career as a television assistant director.
His early comics have been published in a number of French magazines, such as Geranonymo, Métal hurlant, L'Écho des savanes, Libération and (À suivre).
Benoit's first comic album Hôpital received the best script award at the Angoulême comics festival in 1979. Among his other works are vers la Ligne Claire (1981), Bingo Bongo et son Combo Congolais (1987) and the three tomes of the noir pastiche series Ray Banana (1982, 1986, 2014). He also illustrated two volumes of the famous French comic series Blake et Mortimer by Jean Van Hamme.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
May 3, 2014
If I hadn't read the intro to this book, I might have given it three stars. But the intro put into perspective Chandler's travails in getting this story written — first as a screenplay for a film that never got made, then as a novel. As a graphic novel, perhaps this should be considered the Evelyn Wood Speed Reading version of Chandler. Everything is here — characters, plot twists, mis-directions, dialogue, suspense. But the book's 98 pages fly by, thanks to Ted Benoit's adaptation and Francois Ayroles' illustrations.
Chandler buffs, comics buffs, and anyone up for a quick mystery should give it a read.
Chandler buffs, comics buffs, and anyone up for a quick mystery should give it a read.
January 15, 2023
the story was such a drag and the art was just awful.
March 29, 2015
This story of deception and murder fits well in graphic form especially since the original story was meant as a screenplay. One can easily envision the illustrations as panels for story-boarding; they're dark, harsh and seedy - like Chandler's stories.
November 13, 2017
A great short, mystery graphic novel. It's a bit dated but still intriguing.
June 10, 2025
About halfway through writing the script, Raymond Chandler got bored. Some claim writer's block. Others suspect that the author realized he needed Philip Marlowe and the sunny skies of California to complete his story and that he stubbornly refused to rest on his laurels. Towards the end of his life, Chandler had stated in interviews that he felt that his most beloved character had come to their natural conclusion and the author had bemoaned that he never achieved his dream of writing a serious work that was important to literature. Regardless of what prolonged the completion of Playback, Chandler's delays doomed the film.
Chandler finally submitted the screenplay in the winter of 1948, after missing at least 2 deadlines. Universal called for several charges that the author felt were a step backwards for him. But it was too late. With film noir beginning to lose its luster and the British parliament imposing a major tax on American film productions, Universal cancelled many of its early development projects including Playback.
Never one to let a good idea die, Chandler retooled Playback into a novel. He willingly let Marlowe take the leading man role. Chandler's hometown of La Jolla, California was used as the inspiration for the fictional town of Esmeralda, USA. The roles of a couple of major characters were lessened and the plot centered more on the P.I. than the female lead. But otherwise, the main plot of the story remained the same. Released in 1958, first to British audiences, Playback was Chandler's final complete novel as the novelist died a year later.
Sometime prior to 2004, archivists at Universal discovered the lost screenplay. Immediate efforts were made by the production company and Raymond Chandler's estate to get the original vision of Playback to the adoring public. In 2004, Editions Denoël commissioned French comic creator Ted Benoit to adapt the recovered screenplay into a graphic novel. It's a story full of the usual Raymond Chandler formula deadly dames, cretinous secondary characters, red herrings and unexpected plot twists. Plus, it's got a Hollywood movie code twist ending that rivals any E.C. Comics classic. François Ayroles illustrated the black and white heavy brush artwork. Arcade Publishing released a hardcover English version of the graphic novel in 2006.
To this day, Playback remains the only Raymond Chandler work to have never been been adaptation into a live action film.
Chandler finally submitted the screenplay in the winter of 1948, after missing at least 2 deadlines. Universal called for several charges that the author felt were a step backwards for him. But it was too late. With film noir beginning to lose its luster and the British parliament imposing a major tax on American film productions, Universal cancelled many of its early development projects including Playback.
Never one to let a good idea die, Chandler retooled Playback into a novel. He willingly let Marlowe take the leading man role. Chandler's hometown of La Jolla, California was used as the inspiration for the fictional town of Esmeralda, USA. The roles of a couple of major characters were lessened and the plot centered more on the P.I. than the female lead. But otherwise, the main plot of the story remained the same. Released in 1958, first to British audiences, Playback was Chandler's final complete novel as the novelist died a year later.
Sometime prior to 2004, archivists at Universal discovered the lost screenplay. Immediate efforts were made by the production company and Raymond Chandler's estate to get the original vision of Playback to the adoring public. In 2004, Editions Denoël commissioned French comic creator Ted Benoit to adapt the recovered screenplay into a graphic novel. It's a story full of the usual Raymond Chandler formula deadly dames, cretinous secondary characters, red herrings and unexpected plot twists. Plus, it's got a Hollywood movie code twist ending that rivals any E.C. Comics classic. François Ayroles illustrated the black and white heavy brush artwork. Arcade Publishing released a hardcover English version of the graphic novel in 2006.
To this day, Playback remains the only Raymond Chandler work to have never been been adaptation into a live action film.
January 19, 2019
From May 2011—A graphic adaptation of Chandler's hardboiled novel about a dame seeking to make a fresh start after she's been acquitted from her husband's murder, while her father-in-law has sworn that she will be made to pay. On the train to Vancouver, she's accosted by a playboy who offers to put her up at the luxury hotel he's staying in. They attend a party at the penthouse suite where the playboy gets stinking drunk and makes inappropriate advances on our gal, who next finds his dead body on the terrace outside her room. It's an ok story, and while at first glance I thought the illustrations seemed interesting, I soon changed my mind when I found that most of them were average at best. Can't say I recommend this one.
June 3, 2022
No spoilers here, well, maybe one. Don't waste your money. This is truly a Graphic Novel done with pictures and voice bubbles, like comics. I'm a fan of this genre but you may not understand this when you buy it for your Kindle Reader. My reader does not allow expanding a photo, so I had to use my tablet or laptop to read it. As far as the story, it's not worth reading and is more a storyboard than a book or even an enjoyable novel. I don't recommend it at all.
OK, here is a spoiler alert:
If you want to read about why this screenplay never made it to the movie production phase and what a miserable soul R. Chandler was, then the introduction lasts 69% of the entire book, before the graphic storyboard starts.
OK, here is a spoiler alert:
If you want to read about why this screenplay never made it to the movie production phase and what a miserable soul R. Chandler was, then the introduction lasts 69% of the entire book, before the graphic storyboard starts.
August 28, 2020
Wow, not good in 1947, and has gotten worse with time.
Crude black and white artwork. The preface to the book takes up 2/3 of the book. If this had been his first story, he never would have had a second. The dialog is wooden. The characters look too much alike and lack personality. Read anything else by Chandler. Watch any movie by Chandler, though his movies aren't as good as the novels. Avoid contact with this.
Crude black and white artwork. The preface to the book takes up 2/3 of the book. If this had been his first story, he never would have had a second. The dialog is wooden. The characters look too much alike and lack personality. Read anything else by Chandler. Watch any movie by Chandler, though his movies aren't as good as the novels. Avoid contact with this.
November 27, 2020
A screenplay which was never filmed.
Not the same plot as the last Phillip Marlowe novel
(I consider this plot better, but that is faint praise).
Is this a comic? Well, it is more like a European graphic novel.
If it is a storyboard for an unfilmed movie, then why are all the characters so unglamorous?
As someone who likes both Chandler and comics, I guess I was doubly prepared to like this, and yet doubly disappointed? But it grew on me the second time I read it.
Not the same plot as the last Phillip Marlowe novel
(I consider this plot better, but that is faint praise).
Is this a comic? Well, it is more like a European graphic novel.
If it is a storyboard for an unfilmed movie, then why are all the characters so unglamorous?
As someone who likes both Chandler and comics, I guess I was doubly prepared to like this, and yet doubly disappointed? But it grew on me the second time I read it.
December 5, 2022
Nice story. Quintessential Chandler. This works pretty well as a story board for a film. Unfortunately the art work is minimal, and this doesn't emphasize the narrative at all.
* It might be fun to color in the flat illustrations with different artists pencils to keep those interactive souls some interest.
* It might be fun to color in the flat illustrations with different artists pencils to keep those interactive souls some interest.
December 16, 2017
I'm glad I read this graphic novel adapted from a screenplay by Raymond Chandler, but the story was a little ragged and hard to follow. And I didn't care for the illustration; I had a difficult time discerning the identities of the characters.
December 24, 2018
Badly drawn. Hard to tell the characters apart. Confusing - without any real resolution. Different parts do not seem to fit together.
December 17, 2021
Story was ok. I didn't like the art and found it too hard to tell characters apart, often within the same panel.
March 23, 2021
Read the novel.
It's been a few years, but I liked the book. This adaptation is of the screenplay, and isn't terribly well done. It trades the novel's California setting for Canada and ruins Chandler's Marlow.
I didn't like it.
It's been a few years, but I liked the book. This adaptation is of the screenplay, and isn't terribly well done. It trades the novel's California setting for Canada and ruins Chandler's Marlow.
I didn't like it.
March 3, 2016
Raymond Chandler's last novel, PLAYBACK, began as a screenplay. It did not feature Philip Marlowe, as the novel does, but is the story of a woman who may be guilty of murder finding herself again accused of murder. The story is quite different, really, though the core of it is the same.
The ideal is to publish the screenplay, which was done under the title RAYMOND CHANDLER'S UNKNOWN SCREENPLAY. Read that instead of this graphic novel, please.
The idea of graphically adapting the screenplay is not bad, and I guess the writing of the adaptation is OK, but the art is stilted, the characters too hard to distinguish, the characterizations of important characters, especially the detective, feel wrong, and Francois Ayroles is a terrible, terrible visual storyteller. The result is a book that should never have been published. Its only interest is to read Chandler's original story, but we have the screenplay for that, don't we?
The ideal is to publish the screenplay, which was done under the title RAYMOND CHANDLER'S UNKNOWN SCREENPLAY. Read that instead of this graphic novel, please.
The idea of graphically adapting the screenplay is not bad, and I guess the writing of the adaptation is OK, but the art is stilted, the characters too hard to distinguish, the characterizations of important characters, especially the detective, feel wrong, and Francois Ayroles is a terrible, terrible visual storyteller. The result is a book that should never have been published. Its only interest is to read Chandler's original story, but we have the screenplay for that, don't we?
February 23, 2009
This comic based on Chandler's unproduced script for a film was later adapted into a Marlowe book by Chandler, but they are not exactly the same.
This strange book refers to itself as "storyboard art," but the art was clearly created for this publication and not for the abandoned film project. Even so, the art is so flat-out bad that I had to stop reading. It is nearly impossible to tell one character from another, let alone read any kind of emotion or pull anything else of value from this art.
This is a great idea, badly executed.
This strange book refers to itself as "storyboard art," but the art was clearly created for this publication and not for the abandoned film project. Even so, the art is so flat-out bad that I had to stop reading. It is nearly impossible to tell one character from another, let alone read any kind of emotion or pull anything else of value from this art.
This is a great idea, badly executed.
June 14, 2007
An adaptation of a lost '40s Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep, The Long Goodbye) screenplay. It's an engaging parlor-mystery, very good for the first half and ok at the end. The stark artwork fits well with the subject. Ayroles did a fine job establishing character through posture and body language but failed in depicting subtle facial expressions.
February 19, 2009
A pretty pleasurable noir read, and a nice rescue of an unmade script, although the story behind it in the intro leads me to believe Raymond Chandler deserved the karmic justice of never getting the movie made. The story definitely isn't as strong as it could be and the art style didn't knock my socks off, but it is what it is.
August 14, 2009
This was an unusual format -- cartoon blocks the entire book. I'm
not a visual person, so I would have much preferred reading a story.
I also found it hard to follow, as if scenes were skipped or no infor-
mation given. A favorite line: "This is the ace, Betty, but not of
spades." An interesting Somerset Maugham quote: "Money is a sort of
sixth sense that gives meaning to all the others."
not a visual person, so I would have much preferred reading a story.
I also found it hard to follow, as if scenes were skipped or no infor-
mation given. A favorite line: "This is the ace, Betty, but not of
spades." An interesting Somerset Maugham quote: "Money is a sort of
sixth sense that gives meaning to all the others."
May 5, 2016
Other than the fine if brief intro by Philippe Garnier on the history of the script, what stands out here is the art, which gives it the suitable hardboiled 50s feel. Tragic antihero with questionable morals, a 'black widow' haunted by her past, and a cop whose badge is called "the naked steel of the sword of justice"... . A pity this was never filmed.
August 18, 2016
Classic story poor adaptation to kindle
Playback is a great Chandler story. Not his best but decent. Graphic novel idea is good. Trying to read on kindle fire and iPhone not so good. I have a paperwhite as well, didn't even try to read it there as I'm sure it wouldn't be any better.
Playback is a great Chandler story. Not his best but decent. Graphic novel idea is good. Trying to read on kindle fire and iPhone not so good. I have a paperwhite as well, didn't even try to read it there as I'm sure it wouldn't be any better.
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June 14, 2010the finishing of this book ws the part that caught my eye.this was becausethe athor made it sloww and than it got wah faster and mor interesting because the cop had to cauht her two times and the secound time was better.
June 7, 2010
Not a big fan of this art style. Also, it seemed like sentences were missing, but maybe that's just the style of the screenplay.
May 21, 2011
The storyline was decent, but the illustrations are atrocious.
February 12, 2015
Neither the story nor artwork was anything terrific.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews