Superman. Batman. Barack Obama. Our nation's 44th president is a geek, says Matthew Yglesias, because he is a huge comic book nerd. Of course, when Yglesias says "geek" he means it as a compliment, because obviously Obama is just like James Bond or something, so the fact that he reads Spiderman comics doesn't make him a loser, it's just one more of his awesome quirks, like listening to Lil' Wayne or being black.
So I thought, what are CONTINUED »
Sure, it's been a really sad day with all the deaths and all, so let's lighten the tone a smidge. Chip Kidd is the amazing graphic designer/book cover artist/writer who's managed to turn his triple threat talents into two amazing books, The Cheese Monkeys and it's sequel, The Learners. Both books are about graphic design advertising in the 60's: a precursor to Mad Men, if the whole story was told by Salvatore Romano. And yes, closeted homosexuality runs rampant in the books as well.
But now Kidd has a new book out, on the portrayal of Bruce Wayne overseas. Bat-Manga!: The Secret History of Batman in Japan looks amazing and everyone should check it out, post-haste. In case you needed any more urging, here is an interview with Chip, describing his love of all things bat-related.
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Oh yah, so The Dark Knight and Iron Man and X-men and the upcoming Watchmen movie have some classicist goons bemoaning the fact that the traditional comic medium is getting raped for the almighty buck on the big screen. What the purist nerds seem to forget is, before Maus, no one took the comic book genre seriously: there was no such things as "graphic novels" and the industry wasn't all Kavalier and Clay until some publisher somewhere realized that elevating comics to a high art form actually made more money than the traditional penny weeklies.
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Comic book adaptations are so in right now. The trend started around Sin City and went downhill from there; you can pretty much chart the progression of awfulness that goes from V for Vendetta to The 300 to the steaming dogpile that The Spirit is going to be. Even The Watchmen, the definitive graphic novel for smart people and college students, is prompting preemptive whines from fanboys worried that 300 director Zack Snyder will ruin Alan Moore's dystopian vision.
So you'd think Hollywood producers would get wise to the zeitgeist being over, before something really bad happens (Uwe Boll directing Maus, perhaps?), but nope. The answer obviously, is to turn classics that were never even graphic novels in the first place into comic-book-style films.
Sorry, Moby Dick, you're getting remade by the guy who directed Wanted:
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