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In Reply to: Been sleeping all your life? posted by Victor Khomenko on November 11, 2003 at 06:52:30:
Grown men serving in WWII were reading comic books while crossing the Rhine and finishing off Hitler. In the early 60's Marvel Comics, the publishers of that Spiderman page on eBay you've referenced, actually aimed at an older college level audience by creating entertaining stories which delved into complex social and personal subjects rarely approached before in the medium. Note: There are exceptions, the most notable being EC's science fiction comics published in the 1950's, but let's keep it simple and not go into another area about which you're apparently unfamiliar.The bottom line is that there's no shame in reading/collecting comics any more than there is appreciating movies derived from them. Comic books are an art form which combine words with pictures in a pseudo-cinematic form that can be appreciated by young and old alike. Although grossly misnamed, "comic books" have never been considered as a substitute for or an alternative to books by those who understand the creative effort involved in producing them, but rather they should be viewed as a separate and distinct art form.
AuPh
Follow Ups:
Movies I like from comics are "Ghost World", "American Splendor", and "Dark City". Well, "Superman" was good too. And even the first of the "Batman" movies.Might even be an interesting thread to list all the movies derived from comics. I'm sure it's more than the just above.
and the Tarzan movies (which were first novels, of course). Also The Phantom (twice made, the first being simply godawful). There were a number of Blondie movies as well.
Ahhh, Audiophilander... your opinion is always a breath of fresh air in these turgid film climes. (That's a compliment by the way).In the United States, the comic book (or graphic novel as I prefer to call it) is a lot like the bicycle -- something that most people consider to be strictly for kids. Yet the bicycle remains one of the leading forms of personal transportation outside the USA. And so it goes with the graphic novel.... it just don't get no respect, even though it is a unique medium with an integral mix of the written word combined with illustrations, one enhancing the other. Sure, many comic books are geared to adolescent males, but you can point to television shows, movies, radio programs, etc that also target the same audience.
Putting aside graphic novels that are geared towards adults (for example, Frank Miller's "Dark Knight" series in which Batman is a 50 year old alchoholic living in guilt and pain) the simple fact is that many of the comic book characters created 40 and even 50 years ago have an enduring appeal that reaches millions of readers across many generations. Hollywood has known this for years and only recently has begun celebrating comic book characters with big budget films that have met great commercial and critical success. Even so, most of the darker or more adult comic book themes and characters have been ignored, something that I hope changes soon.
BTW, of all the comic book movies that have come out in the last 20 years, my favorite is "Daredevil" (for many reasons I won't go into, mostly to avoid the juvinile "Ben Afleck" BS that goes with this territory) followed closely by the vastly underappreciated "Captain America" starring Matt Salinger. I don't think Captain America was released in the US but it is remarkably faithful the the 50's version of the Marvel comic (complete with visuals that reflect Jack Kirby's artwork) as well as including a tragic love story and a warning about the dangers of facism in modern society.
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