Top of Sidebar
Mission Statement
Books, Equipment, Software, and Training Reviews
Film Critiques
Community Section
Savings and Links
Editorials
Archives
Bottom of Sidebar
Back to the Home Page
Visionary Connections with
Visionary Comics

by Kari Ann Morgan

To understand the potential of comics and films synergy, it is helpful to look at the history that led us to the present day.

Comics, in some shape or form, have been a part of American culture since the colonial days prior to the Revolutionary War. These comics were often used in single panel form to stress editorial or political concerns--a function that is still used in magazine and newspapers to the current day. The earliest such use in America was in 1754, with a comic panel drawn by Ben Franklin to rally colonists to resist the British.

The comic book itself was actually birthed in 1837 by a Swiss author and illustrator named Rudolph Topfer, who created a series of graphic novels called the Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck which showed multiple drawings on each page and text descriptions of the story below them. This was then reprinted in English in New York in 1842, making it the first American published comic book. By the 1890's, the American comic strip known as The Yellow Kid had originated the text bubble, which allowed the comic to further separate itself from normal prose writings. Because the short strips newspapers would publish were more adequately suited to humorous topics, these strips came to be known as 'the funnies' and featured the likes of Mutt & Jeff, Popeye, and Krazy Kat. As more and more magazines and newspapers added these 'funnies' to their content, they came to be known by the more cerebral term, 'comics'. 'Comic books' were simply collections of these strips, reprinted in a single volume.

It wasn't until the early years of the Depression that comic books grew out of being reprints of comic strips and started to become their own entities, maturing out of the realm of pure humor and into deeper story lines. It was around this time, as well, that the films of Hollywood really started to grow out of the realm of short slapstick reels and silent status into the realm of full length dramas and recorded dialogue. During the Depression, both comics and films tried to provide an escape for their audience, many of whom were living in vast poverty. The works of Flash Gordon and Tarzan let comic readers escape to other worlds, while Dick Tracy let them journey to a more powerful place in this world. Hollywood explored their own escape through the use of 'noir' tales which let viewers go to a more dangerous, often criminal place, yet they were quick to assimilate comics like Flash Gordon and Tarzan into on-screen serials and epics. In the midst of the depression, comic creators introduced the first masked hero in The Phantom. Superman followed suit in 1938 and Batman in 1939. In the '40's, D.C. Comics created hundreds of superheroes as Americans became more and more entranced with the idea of true Justice in a corrupt world…a world in which the Nazis were fought by both Captain America and Superman. And Hollywood quickly sucked up any comic franchises they could get their hands on, regardless of whether they could or would do an accurate job of representing the comics on the big screen.

As the decades passed, Hollywood and the comic industry evolved into a strangely co-dependent entity that simultaneously loved and hated one another. By the end of the century, many films had come to be inspired by comic books, from Flash Gordon in the '30's to the Batman films of the '60's to the Superman films of the '70s and '80s to The Crow in 1995. Meanwhile, companies like Dark Horse were creating comic book adaptations of movies like Robocop and Star Wars, and combining franchises like Aliens vs. Predator.

Mission | Tips & Tricks | Equipment & Software Reviews | Film Critiques
Groups & Community | Links & Savings
| Home


Contact Us Search Submit Films for Critique