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Scan Journal Vol 9 Number 1 June 2012
Special Effect: Have film adaptations changed mainstream comics?
Liam Burke
In an acerbic answer often credited to James. M Cain, the respected pulp writer responded to the question "How do you feel
about what Hollywood has done to your books?" with "Hollywood has done nothing to my books… They're right over there
on the shelf, exactly as I wrote them". [1] Although the Mildred Pierce author may have been being somewhat facetious,
nonetheless novels and other similarly inert texts are less affected by audiovisual interpretations than episodic texts.
Conversely, mainstream comic books with their Sisyphean protagonists engaged in neverending battles against "the evil
forces of society" serve "as a model of the perpetually suspended narrative" (Lunenfeld 15). In his first appearance in
Detective Comics # 27 (May 1939) Batman is introduced with the caption, "The 'BATMAN', a mysterious and adventurous
figure fighting for righteousness and apprehending the wrong doer, in his lone battle against the evil forces of society… his
identity remains unknown" (Finger and Kane 4). Consequently, these episodic works are susceptible to the influence of their
adaptations an influence that has intensified in this era of media convergence.
Media content today is rarely confined to one form with corporate dictums and technological innovations motivating the
content, and its audiences, to migrate to various forms. Media scholar Henry Jenkins has explored this trend in several
publications, adopting the term "convergence" to describe the "flow of content across multiple media platforms, the
cooperation between multiple media industries, and the migratory behaviour of media audiences who will go almost
anywhere in search of the kinds of entertainment experience they want" (2006 23). Jenkins believes that within
convergence, "licensing will give way to what industry insiders are calling 'cocreation.' In cocreation, the companies
collaborate from the beginning to create content they know plays well in each of their sectors, allowing each medium to
generate new experiences for the consumer and expand the points of entry into the new franchise" (2006 107). As comics
often only offer the semblance of change their openended narratives are well suited to cocreation, where closure is
avoided. Thus comics books have become central to media production in this era of convergence, as testified by the Walt
Disney Company's 2009 acquisition of Marvel Entertainment, a company that could boast it was "one of the world's most
prominent characterbased entertainment companies, built on a library of over 5,000 characters featured in a variety of
media over seventy years" ("Disney to Acquire Marvel Entertainment"). However, as this paper will explore, on moving to
the centre of media conglomerates, mainstream American comic books, both the texts themselves and the wider industry,
increasingly fall under the yoke of their most widely seen audiovisual adaptations: Hollywood movies.
In 2002 the recordbreaking gross of SpiderMan (Sam Raimi 2002) ushered in an unprecedented trend in the adaptation of
comic books by American studios that continues today. For example, SpiderMan became the first film to pass the $100
million mark in a single weekend on its release. It ultimately grossed $821,708,551 worldwide. This paper will explore the
impact of cinema's increasing influence on comics on a number of levels: Publishing, how have comic book companies
tailored their strategies and practices to maximise the exposure and sales film production can offer. Continuity, what effect
have the more widely seen cinematic narratives had on storytelling content and style. Medium Specificity, has the desire to
make comics content amenable to film adaptation diminished the form's unique means of expression?
Publishing
To meet corporate remits and/or maximise mainstream attention, publishers and retailers have adopted a number of
strategies that find them acquiescing to the film industry. For instance, since 2002 the American comic book industry has
annually held a free comic book day, which is designed to bring new customers into specialist retailers. Rather than being
timed to coincide with a major comic book crossover or the introduction of new creative team, Free Comic Book Day has
been held on the weekend a major comic book film adaptation is released, with retailers even voting to move the event by
two months to coincide with SpiderMan 2. Similarly, a high profile adaptation will often find a comic book being
"rebooted" (i.e. restarted at issue one with a fresh or simplified continuity). For instance, in April 2011 The Mighty Thor
comic book was relaunched for the second time in less than four years in an attempt to siphon interest from the film
adaptation. The covers for these relaunched titles often evoke and even directly cite the feature films, serving as posters for
the big screen adaptations.
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Fig. 1 The poster for Thor (Branagh 2011) is evoked and directly cited on the covers for the relaunched comic book
The Might Thor (April 2011).
However, under today's corporate structure what these covers are selling is often entirely unrelated to the comic. As
mentioned earlier, the Walt Disney Company bought Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion dollars in 2009 ("Disney to
Acquire Marvel Entertainment"). Very soon the influence of the conglomerate became evident in the comics. For instance,
the promotion for Walt Disney Pictures Tron: Legacy found its new corporate affiliate becoming "TRONified" as Marvel
Comics was "proud to announce variant covers celebrating the film" (Marvel.com), with issues of the publisher's most
popular comics (e.g. The Amazing SpiderMan, Wolverine and Captain America) released in Troninspired variant covers.
Fig. 2 "TRONified" variants of Marvel Comics were released in October 2010 to coincide with the release of the
Walt Disney Pictures' film Tron: Legacy.
Thus, under this corporate structure comic covers are becoming just another opportunity for crosspromotion. However,
cinema's influence goes beyond, or rather beneath, comic covers, with adaptations having a farreaching effect on content
and style.
Continuity
Undoubtedly the greatest criticism of film adaptations of cult text is a perceived lack of fidelity, with a qualiquantitative
audience study carried out at screenings of Thor and Green Lantern demonstrating the premium audiences place on fidelity,
as 74% considered it "moderately", "very" or "extremely" important that a film matches the source (Burke). However, the
episodic nature of most mainstream comics complicates the idea of a source text. Often what is subsequently considered
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"unfaithful" was at the time of production closer to the source than purists would like to think, such as the jingoism of
Columbia's World War II Batman serial or the ridiculous setups of the 1960s television series. [2] In this way, these
adaptations become fidelity fossils, capturing in time the evolution of these Sispyhean characters.
While comic book readers prize "fidelity", the term most often used, and in relation to comic book adaptations the one
which is more apt, is "continuity". The notion of continuity allows comic book fans to adopt a less hierarchical view of the
relationship between source and adaptation. Comic book fans may want adaptations to display the same continuity (i.e.
fidelity) as the source, but they are not adverse to elements introduced by the adaptations becoming canon. Accordingly,
interpretations may often add elements that later become character mainstays, thereby increasing the fidelity of the
adaptations retrospectively, such as the Batcave, Barbara Gordon, Grappling Gun, Harley Quinn and Paracapes. The
Batcave was introduced to the Batman mythos by the Columbia serial The Batman (Lambert Hillyer 1943). In order to
capitalise on the success of Catwoman Batman (19668) producer William Dozier asked DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz
to introduce more female characters, with Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino creating Barbara Gordon, who appeared in
the comic book and television series simultaneously. Following its frequent use in Batman (1989) the Grappling Gun
became the hero's rooftop conveyance of choice in the comics, until Batman Begins (2005) introduced memory cloth with
Batman developing his own "paracape" in Batman & Robin #1 (Summer, 2009). Many elements of Batman: The Animated
Series subsequently became "canon" when introduced to the comic books, such as: Joker's sidekick Harley Quinn who first
appeared in the 1992 Batman: The Animated Series episode "Joker's Favor" before being added to the comic book with an
incontinuity appearance in Batman: Harley Quinn (August, 1999). Similarly, police officer Renee Montoya became a
regular fixture of the comic book following an appearance in the season one episode "P.O.V.", while the Emmy award
winning episode "Heart of Ice" introduced a new backstory for not only the comic book version of Mr. Freeze, but also the
1997 film adaptation Batman & Robin. In this way adaptations form part of the bedrock over which an ongoing comic
narrative flows, sending it in different directions and shaping its course.
The continuity that has existed between comics and their adaptations is the transmedia goal of many of today's media
conglomerates, where entertainments are cocreated across a number of platforms rather than simply adapted. Appropriately
recent shifts in the field of adaptation studies, have found scholars moving away from linear fidelity studies to a post
structuralist approach that positions each adaptation at the centre of a spider's web of intertextual relations, which includes
but is not limited to the source text. Such an approach is a direct challenge to the fidelity orthodoxy that critics feel
encumbered adaptation studies in the past, with McFarlane stating in 1996 that those who "repudiate the notion 'fidelity' as
an evaluative criterion when talking about the relations between film and literature can bolster their case by invoking the far
more productive notion of intertextuality" (26) and Stam suggesting that critics need, "to be less concerned with inchoate
notions of 'fidelity' and to give more attention to dialogical responses" (76). Such approaches were predated by French critic
André Bazin, whose optimistic prediction of 1948 is realised in the fluid continuity between comic books and their
audiovisual adaptations, where chronological precedence is eschewed, and each version is produced and received
simultaneously. Bazin wrote:
the (literary?) critic of 2050 would find not a novel out of which a play and a film had been 'made', but
rather a single work reflected through three art forms, an artistic pyramid with three sides, all equal in the
eyes of the critic. The 'work' would then be only an ideal point at the top of this figure, which itself is an
ideal construct (26).
Forty years from the deadline, the cocreation practiced by conglomerates such as Time Warner and The Walt Disney
Company has achieved Bazin's "ideal construct" where each version contributes to the whole. DC Entertainment President
Diane Nelson even echoed Bazin's analogy in describing the strategies by which her company produces audiovisual versions
of their comic book characters, "This is about looking at all the different faces of the prism" (Marshall).
However, despite egalitarian claims, it is the more widely seen adaptations that tend to dictate content. This process has
many antecedents. For instance, in the 1950s, DC Comics precursor National Comics realised the advantages of maintaining
consistency with the Adventures of Superman television series. However, as current Action Comics writer Grant Morrison
notes, "By aping the kitchensink scale of the Reeves show, Superman's writers and artists squandered his epic potential on a
parade of gangsters, pranksters, and thieves" (Supergods 53). However, once the television series was cancelled the comic
creators were free to introduce fantastical ideas that became character mainstays such as the Legion of SuperHeroes,
Brainiac, Kandor and the Fortress of Solitude. Similarly, after more than fifty years of courtship Clark Kent and Lois Lane's
comic book marriage may have seemed rushed in October 1996, but editor Mike Carlin had to shelve earlier ideas for a
wedding when the singletons of the television adaptation, Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, proved a hit,
and quickly resurrect those plans when ABC decided to marry its leads (Pasko 1801). Whether it is a corporate dictum, or
publishers that are eager to exploit mass media exposure, this trend has intensified in recent years as levels of adaptation
increase and franchiseminded studios strive to achieve brand consistency.
For instance, many fans voiced resistance to the bright coloured heroes of XMen donning black leather costumes for the
first feature length adaptation (Brent). Nonetheless these costumes were subsequently introduced to the comics (New XMen
#114, July 2001) and other audiovisual versions, such as the animated series XMen: Evolution and the video game XMen
Legends. Derek Johnson describes how Marvel's licensing strategies in an era of transmedia storytelling, "first required the
elimination of difference between the comic and audiovisual versions of its character properties" (667). Johnson further
notes how Wolverine went from a short brutish antihero, to a taller, more classically handsome romantic lead thereby
increasing similarities with actor Hugh Jackman who portrayed Wolverine in the feature films. This point is made explicit in
the script for the second issue of Ultimate XMen, a title introduced in 2001 to build on the popularity of the films, where
writer Mark Millar suggests that the artist "Play him [Wolverine] like Jackman" (DeFalco, 2006: 243). A similar controversy
surrounded the first adaptation of SpiderMan, when the character's webshooters were changed from mechanical to organic.
However, following the release of SpiderMan this "unfaithful" aspect was incorporated into the comic books in Spectacular
SpiderMan (vol 2) # 1520.
Despite some rare inconsistencies,[3] this desire for brand uniformity continues. For instance, in July 2011 original Captain
America Steve Rogers made an inevitable return as the starspangled hero, just in time for the character's feature film debut.
This "cocreation" has also lead to longrunning episodic comics being effectively reverseengineered to tally with the more
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widely seen versions. For instance, the controversial SpiderMan storyline "One More Day", in which the character's
backstory was simplified, was viewed by some as an attempt to increase the consistency between the SpiderMan comics
and film adaptations (Ahmed). Similarly, DC Comics recent relaunch of its entire publication line, branded "The New 52",
is widely considered an attempt to prime its characters for adaptation (Moore), much as Marvel did with its Ultimate line, a
strategy that is currently bearing fruit. Despite Marvel Studios recent adaptations having decades of source material to adapt,
the primary reference for these film are the recent Ultimate imprint versions of the characters, including: the militarisation of
the heroes, action setpieces (e.g. Bruce Banner's fall from the helicopter in The Incredible Hulk) and casting (Samuel L.
Jackson as Nick Fury).
This desire to maximise brands through a variety of adaptations may have contributed to the comic book industry's decline
(Hiatt). In audience research all but one nonfan participant enjoyed Thor, yet when asked if it would compel them to seek
out the comics only 22% indicated that they would (Burke). Following, this result the survey was changed for Green
Lantern to ask participants would they be interested in following Green Lantern in any other format, with 50% saying they
would. A series of formats from novels through musical theatre and web comics were offered. Comic books and an animated
TV series proved the top choices, with a Live Action TV series, mobile phone app and video game also generating interest.
Thus, with those mainstream audience members who are enticed by films more amenable to television than the source, the
plethora of adaptations of recent years may have bolstered the profile of the characters but it also seems to have weakened
interest in the source material, with consumers no longer needing to return to comics to get their regular fix.
In concert with these relaunched titles, many mainstream comics now have what Grant Morrison describes as a
"decompressed screenplay style" (Supergods 96). This style not only lends itself to the repackaging of comics for the trade
paperback market, but it is also amenable to cinema's traditional threeact structure. Where once Batman's origin could be
told in two quick pages (Detective Comics # 33 November 1939), or an XMen fan could be transported from Days of the
Future Past, to the present and back again in two issues (JanuaryFebruary 1981), today every plot development is given the
multiissue treatment, with Mark Millar explaining, "We knew we were writing for graphic novels at this stage and a six
issue graphic novel has roughly the same number of beats as a movie. Thus, these stories were constructed with a classic
threeact plan every time. I just thought of [ Ultimate XMen story arc] 'The Tomorrow People' as my XMen movie and the
subsequent arcs were the sequels" (DeFalco, 2006: 246).
Thus the desire for "screenplay style" storytelling and brand uniformity has had an impact on comic book stories and how
they are told, while constant adaptations seem to have diminished interest in the source. However, cinema has also had a
considerable impact on the form's specificity.
Medium Specificity
Writing in 1933 art critic Rudolph Arnheim argues that, "In order that the film artist may create a work of art it is important
that he consciously stress the peculiarities of his medium" (35). This is a frequent criticism of many film adaptations that are
deemed to be too beholden to their source text, such as films based on novels, which, despite cinema's omniscience, use a
voice over to maintain first person narration. On the subject of literary adaptation and film voiceover Seymour Chatman
notes, "It is not cinematic description but merely description by literary assertion transferred to film. Filmmakers and critics
traditionally show disdain for verbal commentary because it explicates what, they feel, should be implicated visually" (450).
As George Bluestone noted, "it is insufficiently recognised that the end products of novel and film represent different
aesthetic genera, as different as ballet is from architecture" (5). However, as comics and film are both graphic narrative
mediums, they at least occupy the same aesthetic genera, if not quite the same species, only being as distinct as ballet from
boxing. Accordingly, many codes and conventions pass backandforth between the forms, increasing the expressivity of
both languages. The traffic of conventions is so heavy between comics and cinema that it can often be difficult to cite an
originator. Lacassin notes how the "extreme closeup was born on a cinema screen. But only the comic strip, mirror of the
imaginary, could raise it a fantasy level [sic] denied to cinema" (14).
Despite these commonalties, and the potential for crosspollination, both forms have unique means of expression, or what
Arnheim calls "peculiarities". Duncan and Smith consider variable frames, graphiation, visualised sounds and the blending
of word and image "unique to comics". To this list one could add layout, reader participation and static images. However, in
the desire to emulate mainstream cinema and its popular adaptations the form's specificity has been eroded in mainstream
comics in recent years.
Starting with Duncan and Smith's first unique element, "the shape of the frame can affect the meaning of what is being
framed" (10). Unlike the rigid aspect ratios of cinema, the variability of the comic panel boarder can enhance storytelling.
However, some of this diversity has been lost in recent years as a number of creators strive to emulate cinema. For instance,
traditionally the most common pasttense indicator in comics was the wavyedged or scalloped border, but today creators
will more often use black and white or sepia tone to suggest a flashback. Clearly, this shifting of signifiers is attributable to
cinema's influence on comics. Films frequently use black and white and other muted tones for scenes taking place in the past
as it recalls antiquated film technology. However, the same reasoning does not apply to comic books as even the earliest
comics appeared in colour. A more appropriate approach in comics would be to approximate older forms of printing. For
instance, for a flashback panel in Dark Avengers # 13 (January 2010) the creators recreate Ben Day dots, restricted colours
and Kirbyesque "krackle" to achieve a mediumspecific flashback. (Krackle is a pseudofractal image used in comics to
represent energy discharages. The technique is often credited to comic book artist Jack Kirby who cocreated the Fantastic
Four in 1961.) However, with the exception of this panel the rest of the issue's flashbacks are conveyed through the more
cinematic technique of black and white, which has become the most regularly used past tense signifier in modern comics,
with the traditional scallopededge border rarely employed.
Despite the variability of the comic book panel, the comic book frame may not be as flexible as it first appears. The
American comic book is standardised at 17 x 26 cm (6 ⅝" x 10 ¼ "), resulting in an optimum aspect ratio of 1.53:1. Thus,
while cinema's anamorphic lens may capture the breath of Monument Valley, a comic book's portrait scale and gridlike
structure is better suited to tall buildings and cityscapes. However, some attempts have been made to play with the frame,
even within the confines of its size. Very often these innovations have come from artists emulating a cinematic proscenium.
One method sporadically practiced is the "sideways comic" of which John Byrne noted, "When I sat down to draw
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[Fantastic Four #252], I just suddenly thought, this issue needs to be in Cinerama, so I drew it sideways" (DeFalco, 2005:
101). Doublepage spreads are a more frequently employed technique to widen a comic's rigid frame. One oftcited example
of this technique is Jack Kirby's opening pages for Adventures of the Fly #1 (August, 1959), which mirrors widescreen
presentations in an image captioned, "Now for the first time in comics: The Wide Angle Scream!". In the panel Kirby uses
two pages to create a cinematic aspect ratio and completes the effect by adding a parabolicshaped border and exaggerated
distortions within the image.
While Kirby's example was a rare homage, for today's socalled "widescreen artists" like Bryan Hitch, Frank Quietly and
John Cassaday these double page spreads have become almost a default setting, with Hitch using as many as four double
page spreads and two splash pages in The Ultimates 2 # 11, and employing a rigid widescreen frame for most other panels.
To further accentuate the parallels with cinema, many of these comics eschew traditional whites spaces and adopt black
gutters between the panels that evoke a cinematic proscenium. In addition to diminishing the expressivity of the comic book
frame, these movieinspired tableaux all encroach upon another vital aspect of the comic form: layout.
Layout is undeniably a central aspect of comic book storytelling with Robert Harvey going so far as to suggest that, "Only in
the comics does layout assist in storytelling" (162). Jim Collins believes that the major difference in the miseenscène of
cinema to comics is that, "Mise en scene in film depends upon sequential replacement of one image with another, but the
mise en scene of the comic depends upon simultaneous copresence on the page"(1991: 173). This copresence of imagery
has led McCloud to conclude that "unlike other media, in comics… both the past and future are real and visible and all
around us" (1994: 104). An inventive use of this "retroactive determination" (Groensteen 10) can be found in Watchmen # 6,
where vigilante Rorschach's anaemic responses to a physiatrist's inkblot test are juxtaposed in the same layout with his
memories of a dog carcass. However, this contrast would be lost if every page contained only a single image, as McCloud
famously noted, "there's no such thing as a sequence of one" (ibid 20). Therefore, Millar and Hitch's 26 issue run on
Ultimates, which includes 25 double page spreads and 69 splash pages, signals a disconcerting trend in mainstream comics,
where layout is sacrificed in favour of widescreen aesthetics.
McCloud describes comic book art as inescapably expressionistic (1994:126). However, this expressive "graphiation"
(Baetens, 2001: 147) has come under increasing threat in the digital age where creators have unprecedented access to
photographic material. In the past many artist strived for credible characters and employed photographic models. John
Romita describes his reallife inspiration for SpiderMan's love interest Mary Jane Watson, "I used AnnMargret from the
movie Bye Bye, Birdie as a guide, using here colouring, the shape of her face, her red hair and her formfitting short skirts. I
exaggerated her dimples and the cleft in her chin" (DeFalco, 2004: 32). However, today photoreal more often means
photoshop. Perhaps the mainstream creator most criticised for his overreliance on photoshop is Greg Land, with Brian
Cronin of CBR describing his work as, "Possibly the most harmful art I've seen in a comic". Although Cronin's phrasing
may be somewhat hyperbolic, his point is well founded. Much of Land's art is translated directly from film images and other
photographic material resulting in inconsistent storytelling and diminishing the handcrafted nature that many identify as a
central tenet of the comic book medium. The blog Jimsmash has a number of examples of this photographic referencing,
identifying panels where Land's borrowing from film posters, other comic book art and magazines is indisputable.
Despite limiting the potential of the form, this photoshoprealism is obviously considered important for soliciting the movie
audience, hence Land's most frequent work coming from the Ultimate line, which Marvel developed to attract the film
adaptation audience. Some issues, such as Ultimate Power # 1 (October 2006), were even published in a "Director's cut"
variant, with no indication as to who the "director" of this comic book is supposed to be. Clearly the publisher, and its parent
company, value Land's style, with the artist tasked with providing the covers for the comic book adaptation of Tron, which
was timed to coincide with the sequel's release by Marvel's new corporate affiliate Walt Disney Pictures.Comic book writer
Grant Morrison colourfully summed up the approach of those artists who frequently use photo references, "The new school
aimed for a luminous photo realism, a beyondnatural 3D simulated style where faces were Botoxed to a masklike sheen.
At the extremes of this approach, every female Marvel character appeared drawn in poses derived from original
photographic images of swimsuit or porn models. Sometimes the same unfortunate superheroine could resemble four or five
completely different, completely lifelike women in a single issue, depending on how many different pictures of pouting
odalisques the artist had light boxed from Maxim or FHM" (Morrison 350)
While this photoshopealism still offers the veneer of handcrafted art. In 2003 Marvel introduced the "Ultimate Picture
Books" which reworked the first story arcs of Ultimate SpiderMan and Ultimate XMen as picture books with models and
actors. Although, these books were not continued past the initial publications, they represent a willingness on the part of the
comic publisher to eliminate the artist in an effort to solicit wider audiences.
Traditionally comic book art would brim with the creator's style. As Harvey notes of this "graphic manoeuvring", "Style is…
the visual result of an individual artist's use of the entire arsenal of graphic devices available, including the very tools of the
craft. An artist's style can be identified by describing the way he draws certain objects (shoes, hands, lips) or how he uses a
brush or pen (thin lines, thick lines; sketchy or labored or detailed)" (152). For instance, Kirby's characters may not have
always been anatomically correct, but their clean lines and heroic angles ensured that they were in keeping with the
dynamism of the story. Today's trend toward photoshoprealism, may only serve to diminish the expressivity of comic book
graphiation.
Duncan and Smith also cite visualising sounds and the blending of words and images as essential aspects of the comic form.
However, how these sounds are visualised and words are blended has changed in recent years. McCloud notes how in
modern comics the caption, which he describes as 'the equivalent of a movie over voice [sic]' (2006: 155), has eclipsed the
thought balloon as the dominant means by which a character's inner dialogue is expressed. While a caption can fulfil many
of the same functions as a thought balloon, McCloud notes a "caption only works as running narration, and readers have to
know which character is doing the thinking, even in panels overflowing with characters. A thought balloon… can appear
once in a 200 page graphic novel… and audiences will think nothing of it" (2006: 155). Despite medium specific
advantages, moviestyle captions, which are not well integrated into the art, have become the more dominant means of
conveying a character's inner thoughts.
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Two final aspects of comic book's means of expression that are under threat in this era of cocreation, are reader
participation and static images. Discussing the participatory requirement of comics Pascal Lefèvre notes, "It is the readers
who have to leaf through a comic and they can choose their own reading speed. They can linger on a panel, scan they
complete plate, and return to panels or whole sequences at free will. A film though, obliges the viewer to follow the rhythm
of the sequences" (5). Michael Cohen describes the virtues of comics' static images, "The depiction of motion by
conventions in the artwork is complemented by the static nature of the image, which imbues it with a contemplative
potential: even though the image might suggest or be part of a continuous motion, it can be scrutinized and savoured in a
way cinematic images cannot" (28).
Batman editor Denny O'Neil cited participation as the inherent difference between the forms, as "reading requires more
participation from the audience than cinema, where if you are just passive you can still get it" (Pearson and Uricchio 32).
While Federico Fellini recognised that "the world of comics may, in its generosity, lend scripts, characters, and stories to the
movies, but not its inexpressible secret power of suggestion that resides in that fixity, that immobility of a butterfly on a pin"
(Gravett 2). However in the desire to maximise massmedia potential, producers have sought to erase these elements with
the contradictory "motion comic", which features original comic art with some animation and voice over. A Watchmen
motion comic was released online and on DVD to coincide with the Warner Bros. film adaptation, but any gains were at the
detriment of the participation and limitless discoursetime of the source. The motion comic is an example of what Bolter and
Grusin would term "aggressive" remediation, whereby there is an attempt to "refashion the older medium or media entirely,
while still marking the presence of the older media". As Bolter and Grusin explain, this "tearing out of context makes us
aware of the artificiality of both the digital version and the original" (46). Being neither comic nor cartoon, the motion
comic becomes an unnecessary byproduct of media convergence, and as McCloud pointed out, "When it comes to time
based immersion, the art of film already does a better job than any trickedup comic can" (2000: 210).
Thus in this filmcentric environment, many of comics' unique means of expression have been diminished in the mainstream
industry, including: the malleability of panel borders, the playful possibilities of layouts, the expressionism inherent in a
handcrafted line, the intricate blending of words and images, reader participation, as well as the static images that are
fundamental to the form. With so many of comics' unique means of expression diminished in the mainstream, has the form
reached what Marshall McLuhan describes as a "break boundary at which the system suddenly changes into another" (41).
Although comics have always borrowed and repurposed film techniques, the last two decades of media convergence has
seen the systematic replacement of comic signifiers with film codes that transgress the form's specificity. Such developments
give credence to Will Eisner's warning from 1996, "How many of the classic vehicles of communication have disappeared
as a result of advance of delivery?" (150)
Grant Morrison, opened his recent book Supergods: Our Age in the Wold of The Superheroes by optimistically stating "I've
been aware of comic books' range, and of the big ideas and emotions they can communicate, for a long time now, so it's with
amazement and a little pride that I've watched the ongoing, bloodless surrender of mainstream culture to relentless
colonization from the geek hinterlands" (xvi). Morrison optimistically suggests that it is comics that are annexing
Hollywood, when one could equally argue the reverse is taking place. Over the past decade the film industry has mined
comics for inspiration, with many mainstream publishers offering little resistance. However a number of commentators
believe that cinema's annexation of the mainstream industry's power fantasies will benefit the form (McCloud, 2000: 212
213), with Brad Brooks suggesting "that since now movies can use CGI, there is no need for comics to have superheroes in
them" (Regalado 118). Accordingly, readers may finally find a diversity of genres on their shelves. Thus, it remains to be
seen whether cinema, after it inevitably moves onto the next profitable source, will leave behind a rich artform or a barren
industry unable to function on its own.
References
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Endnotes
[1] This quote is sometimes attributed to Raymond Chandler, including in the Introduction to Everything is Permitted: The
Making of 'Naked Lunch' by William Burroughs.
[2] Like many World War II US entertainments, the 1943 Batman Columbia serial took part in the vilification of Japanese
soldiers, with Martin Pasko describing the villain, Dr. Daka, as a "Japanese spy stereotype" (51). However, the film did
not/could not fully recreate the extreme caricaturing of the comic books and other visual materials of the time, with Will
Brooker concluding that it was "a more realist variation on the grotesque stereotypes of the posterart" (188).
[3] Eschewing brand uniformity DC Comics sent Bruce Wayne to purgatory at the same time The Dark Knight was breaking
box office records around the world. Although this probably owed more to writer Grant Morrison's cache as a creator than
any efforts to maintain sovereignty on the part of the publishers.
Scan is a project of the Media Department @ Macquarie University, Sydney
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