A + D 419 • Prof. Phoebe Gloeckner
Monday and Wednesday 6:30-9:30
Art + Architecture Bldg. 2043
Gloeckner's e-mail
Gloeckner's web site
School of Art and Design
U of M

• SYLLABUS

• SEMESTER SCHEDULE

• STUDENT PROJECTS, winter 05
fall 04

• PROJECT 1

• PROJECT 2

• COMICS RESEARCH PROJECT

DEVELOPING COMICS ENCYCLOPEDIA: ARTISTS • THEMES

The Evolution of Comics Into Film
by Max Mollhagen-Jaksa
Fall 2004

MORE INFO | MORE ARTISTS | COMICS-RELATED TOPICS

Comics, as an art form, has always yearned for a means to distinguish itself as a medium onto itself. One of the seemingly haziest barriers has always been that between comics and film. Without a doubt, the sibling mediums share many like characteristics. Both draw from visual vocabularies, both often deal with narrative, both tend to treat the audience as the observer (as opposed to the “2nd party” technique often adopted by the novel). Surely, there are enough differences between the two to clearly designate each as its own medium. One of these focal differences deals with scope of history and the fulfillment to explore the visually fantastic. The American comic book originally rose into the limelight as a consequence of several factors. The printing press had become standard process. Mass produced visual communication had proven its power. Now was the time for papers and publishers to try their hands at entertainment. For several decades thereon, the American comic book became synonymous with its primary contents. “The Superhero,” “The Power Fantasy,” “The Unknown.” Topics such as these ran rampant in the world of mainstream comics because, on the technological end, this was the arena for visually fantastic realism. The 60’s “Batman” TV show is clear enough evidence that this sort of content could not be executed with only actors and cameras while attempting to maintain a serious undertone. And yet in the medium of comics, these characters and concepts rooted in the visually fantastic could maintain enough realism and dignity to deliver the story. In the end, there has never been a limit to the visual capacity of this medium beyond whatever the penciler could not draw. Comics were the peak of their technology.

Technologies, however, have since advanced. By the mid-to-late eighties and all through the nineties, the mainstream American comic book audience turned elsewhere for visual thrills—leaving the comic book for dead. Hollywood, and now beyond, have become the sites for the fantastic. Particularly with the incorporation of computer technologies into full motion video has allowed for the most fantastic visual facades yet. Just now in film can these characters work, and thus we are seeing an astounding number of comic book icons melding into the medium of video.

All the while, this technological advancement has put the mainstream American comic book into quite a unique position. Many creators have come into an acceptance of this “role shift” and reflect as much with the quality and thoughtfulness of their works. As early as the mid-eighties, we can see Frank Miller crafting “The Dark Knight Returns”—a “superhero” book that becomes extreme social commentary. Writers have found a consistent challenge to expand these characters and stories outside the shadow of the generic “BANG!”, “POW” stereotypes into substantial and meaningful narratives.

This “era” of modern comic books has been called a comics renaissance by many critics and aficionados of the form. Whether renaissance or not, it is assuredly curious to see the form rise and reinvent itself to this older and more mature audience.


From Spiderman | Batman poster

MORE INFO | MORE ARTISTS | COMICS-RELATED TOPICS