For this week’s “Adapt This” column at IFC, I recommended the Image Comics graphic novel Poseurs, which follows a trio of teenagers caught up in the Hollywood nightlife who get mixed up in a botched kidnapping plot. The book was written by Deborah Vankin, a writer for The L.A. Times who covers the club scene and clearly has a unique perspective into the city’s club scene and the people who populate it.

Here’s an excerpt from the column:

The original pitch for this graphic novel from Los Angeles Times writer Deborah Vankin frames it as “‘Gossip Girl’ meets Bret Easton Ellis for the comic book crowd,” which is actually a pretty accurate comparison — though it offers a decidedly more PG-rated, young-adult take on youth culture than Ellis’ novels. And while “Gossip Girl” restricted itself to the teenage wealthy elite, Poseurs offers a more varied mix of backgrounds and social strata in L.A. culture, and takes readers inside (and behind) the glamour from each character’s perspective.

What sets Poseurs apart from the two elements in that pitch and makes it an even more attractive subject for adaptation, however, is the genuine sense of heart in the story that makes the characters feel more like real people instead of amalgams of night-life archetypes. With a film or television series based on Poseurs — and it could be a good fit in either format, really — there’s a real chance for character development and drama that spans social and economic classes, and a cool “party noir” tale that unfolds in a much broader environment than the typical young-adult story.

You can read the rest of the column at IFC.com…