Wham! Pow! Comics Aren't Just For Kids Anymore!

What sort of proof do you want, Lee, and does it have to be related to American comics?

Now, I'm beginning to think that I should bring up all the 'legitimate' authors crossing over into comics, and the popularity of film adaptations as indications of the popularity of comics in mainstream culture.

Is the actual headline you're looking for "Comics aren't just for geeks anymore!", Leee?

Andrew OTM re: the actual headline I mean.

I've known about this for a while because I've been freelancing as a production artist for the nytimes marketing dept. I told them Chris Ware was the obvious choice and played out and that they should've gotten Gilbert Hernandez. But in anycase, many, many people are going to see Chris Ware's work for the first time in the New York Times Magazine. The Magazine actually had a good issue a few months back with Chester Brown on the cover, so they've been leaning in that direction forever.

The Daily Texan would like a word with you.

Did they point out that it's not 1987 any more?

I said they should've gotten Gilbert Hernadez because he's my favorite and he's still doing wonderful work, some of which is as good or better then anything he's ever done. Poison River, Heroin, Julio's Day, etc.

did Acme start in the Texan, or did they just run Floyd Farlane?

the New York Times ran a strip by Peter Kuper in the 1990s.

plus afterwards: Robert Rodriguez, Tom King, Walt Holcombe, Martin Wagner's Hepcats...

Anyway, yeah, a lot of the Quimby(ies)/Potato Man stuff ran in the Texan, not just Floyd Farland.

oh christ, is this still out there?

what's to be learned from this: furry artists don't have the best relationships with their wives(just ask Kate Waller)...

*Waller = Reed Waller, Kate Worley never dropped her surname in either marriage.

but yeah, one guy was the violent misogynist asshole, the other more a hyperdramatic sad sack.

Hepcats was pretty ok. I haven't flipped through my issues in a long time, but I seem to recall that the series took a turn after the first few issues and became really morbid. According to the Lambiek website, Martin Wagner "retired" from comics in 1999. Fun fact: Wagner did some work for Robert Rodriguez on "Spy Kids" and now works on industrials and commercials.

Waller/Worley - long-term relationship breaks down messily after ten years together following the stress of one partner nursing the other through cancer, artist becomes unproductive afterwards

Wagner/Surname - 19-year-old marries stripper, is amazed when she turns out to be flighty nutbag with abandonment/abuse/daddy issues. remains productive for some years afterwards before flaking out under his own recognisance.

I'm still kind of amazed that anyone outside of Austin knows about him, though.

“Batman” isn’t a comic book anymore. Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” is a haunted film that leaps beyond its origins and becomes an engrossing tragedy. It creates characters we come to care about. That’s because of the performances, because of the direction, because of the writing, and because of the superlative technical quality of the entire production. This film, and to a lesser degree “Iron Man,” redefine the possibilities of the “comic-book movie.”

“The Dark Knight” is not a simplistic tale of good and evil. Batman is good, yes, The Joker is evil, yes. But Batman poses a more complex puzzle than usual: The citizens of Gotham City are in an uproar, calling him a vigilante and blaming him for the deaths of policemen and others. And the Joker is more than a villain. He’s a Mephistopheles whose actions are fiendishly designed to pose moral dilemmas for his enemies.

...

But now “Iron Man” and even more so “The Dark Knight” move the genre into deeper waters. They realize, as some comic-book readers instinctively do, that these stories touch on deep fears, traumas, fantasies and hopes.

(oh ebertpaws)

What's the diss here, exactly? (I'm curious.)

it's not surprising, but ebert seems to imply that the movies are bringing these stories into new territory (in terms of complexity, characterization, etc.). like the comics haven't been doing the same things in more detail for decades.

Ebert probably hasn't looked at an actual comic book since 1947.

...and it didn't have any "injury to eye" motif.

I think the bigger story is that the studio would allow a Batman movie to be made that was as sophisticated as the comics. The studio just hit the jackpot and hired a director that got it like Peter Jackson did on The Lord of the Rings movies.

"getting it" = ROBIN

(i won't be seeing TDK until Friday at the soonest, but rest assured, all these interviews Bale's giving about refusing to be in any Batman movie with Robin in it tells me he doesn't 'get it')

Speaking as somebody totes unfamiliar with Robin's importance outside what we're given in Schumacher & TAS, what's important about Robin that Nolan/Bale aren't "getting"?

batdickery, apparently

http://superdickery.com/images/stories/other/87_4_0381.jpg

I told them Chris Ware was the obvious choice and played out and that they should've gotten Gilbert Hernandez.

ha ha, someone misheard Dan!

Batman - Robin = Sourpuss Batpaws = Nolan/Bale Batman

Honestly, I'm not too sure I really want to see Robin in the Nolan films - they should stick to the modernized, brooding template they've already set. But, given the abundance of father figures there already are in the two movies, it does seem natural for them to end a trilogy by introducing him... I'm not sure this team should (or even can) do Robin right.

Oddly one of the biggest difficulties with Robin is merely the costume. You may be able to get around the adoption, the joint mission and even the kid out there helping him - but its that extra leap to suggest that "Mr Shadows" is going to hang around with the primary coloured boy target.

Later Robin's in some ways have better back stories that might work better: Jason Todd shows Batman actively helping the community by raising a criminal to be good. Tim Drake is the detective who figures out his Secret Identity and blackmails Batman into letting him help out. Perhaps Frank Miller's ASBARTBW shows another way of doing it via the asshole Batman. But its a tall order.

Batman - Robin also = Burton Batman, so that theory needs some work.

It's funny, Christopher Nolan's movies kinda reminded me why I liked Robin so much. I think it's good for Bruce to have someone to talk to who kinda gets what he's doing a bit more, and to have a comrade in his war.

I think the next Batman movie should either introduce Robin, or be World's Finest with Superman.

Actually, one of the things I couldn't stop thinking about while watching the Dark Knight was how incredibly easy it would be for someone to figure out that Bruce Wayne = Batman by doing just a bit of detective work. In the next movie, they should have a 16 or 17 year old Tim Drake do that detective work, stumble into things, and end up becoming Batman's protege. Why not?

And seriously, eff a Dick Grayson. I think it'd be better to get away from the name Dick -- pretty anachronistic in 2008, wouldn't you say? -- and get away from the circus/orphan thing. Tim Drake's origin makes more sense for a movie, and then you get the interesting tension of Tim still having his parents, and keeping it all a secret from them.

There's a lot to be said for Robin, not the least of which is his popularity with the kids thanks to the Teen Titans cartoon. I've said before, but I know a kid (5 now) who thinks Batman is Robin's sidekick. Robin changes the dynamic completely, which is the whole point, I guess. But I think the Nolan, Nolan & Bale Batman Firm should embrace the challenge. Still haven't seen TDK (it's killing me), but, yeah, what with Batman Begins being all about BW searching for father figures, becoming one would be thematically satisfying.

Even the Jason Todd/street urchin scenario would be more fitting with the Nolan mood than a visit to the circus (though highwire fall in IMAX!!!), but I like the Tim Drake scenario, since it brings a lot of tension if the kids comes to Batman.

A major theme of The Dark Knight is that Bruce is hoping to inspire people to continue his crusade should something happen to him.

DON'T TELL ME ANYTHING! (but, yeah, see that makes me think that maybe Battlin' Bale is just running hijinks on the whole anti-boy wonder crusade, and that maybe Robin is the whole point of the film series, esp. since that's supposedly where the prev. series went down the crapper, it would kinda behoove the Nolan to prove that he could do Robin right--or am I thinking of Sean Penn?)

And seriously, eff a Dick Grayson. I think it'd be better to get away from the name Dick -- pretty anachronistic in 2008, wouldn't you say?

http://www.newsgroper.com/files/post_images/cheney_grr.jpg

I'm the goddamned vice-president!

It's likely your point, but I'd say Cheney is pretty anachronistic in 08 too!

But he's not going without a fight!

The point is, especially in light of Dick Cheney, how many teenagers now are named Dick?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/22/arts/a-storyteller-who-thrives-in-the-shadows.html

“I’ve always believed the best way to know a city is to stay close to the ground. To feel the cracks in the sidewalk under your shoe. The strange bright silence of the park under snow. The hissing sparks that come down when the elevated train passes overhead on Third Avenue.” So long, Bam! Pow! Zzzttt!

Hardly knew u, Bam! Pow! Zzzttt! RIP

Such a hack move, especially in the NYTimes.

A++ revive

wait someone reinvented Batman as a grim, brooding oh I can't even finish this post

I heard a rumor that they're going to start having the Joker shave his moustache off before he puts his makeup on. Truly, these are dark times we've entered.