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.
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.
