The Random Comic Strip

The Random Comic Strip

Words to live by...

"How beautiful it is to do nothing, and to rest afterward."

[Spanish Proverb]

Ius luxuriae publice datum est

(The right to looseness has been officially given)

"Everyone carries a part of society on his shoulders," wrote Ludwig von Mises, "no one is relieved of his share of responsibility by others. And no one can find a safe way for himself if society is sweeping towards destruction. Therefore everyone, in his own interest, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle."

Apparently, the crossword puzzle that disappeared from the blog, came back.


Monday, August 26, 2013

Look! Up in the Sky!


There's a big fuss going on over the next actor slated to play Batman in a movie. Seems like the public doesn't think much of tapping Ben Affleck for the part of the "Caped Crusader."

I don't much care. My beef has to do with the genre. Why are we watching comic books on the silver screen? Yes, I watched George Reeves as "Superman" back in the 50's. And that was certainly a show based on a comic book. I also watched Dick Tracy. Neither of these were high drama. They were TV shows in the early days of television and no one thought of anything other than Playhouse 90 as serious entertainment from that medium... even Playhouse 90 struggled to get the recognition it deserved.

But movies? I am sure stage actors thought cinema was a "step down" from the great drama and comedy of the stage at one time. Some might still feel that way. But American cinema desired to be like Broadway and so it put out great drama and great musicals as well as rolling out trash. It also put out serials using comic strip heroes like Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers but these were "shorts" and not serious films. Comic book genre is more than a "step down", it's a leap off a cliff onto the rocks below. I also feel this way about video game movies.

In the 60's TV dragged  Batman and Robin out of the comics and camped it up a bit more than the old comic book version. It was a big hit. Personally, I thought it was stupid and silly. Comic books were my reading primers and I loved Batman, Superman, The Flash, Aquaman, and Wonder Woman. They appealed to me... after all, I was aged 5 to 10 during my comic book years.

I grew up. I put those things away and have no desire to recapture the alleged innocence of those days. However, apparently there is a significant number of people who revel in this stuff.

Batman was not some dark and brooding, haunted, character to me. But that is what he is portrayed as on the Big Screen. That seems to be the underlying theme these days. I suppose it is the evolution of the genre to now delve into a comic book character's secret needs and desires.

It is turning my childhood upside down.
 

 

2 comments:

Pearl said...

I'm not a fan of the genre in general, but I think Hollywood has simply run out of ideas and are hoping that nostalgia -- and better yet, nostalgia for people who never experienced the original comic book experience in the first place -- will sell enough tickets to allow them to continue to make their yacht payments.

That and I think the whole "super hero" thing allows people to feel that there will be heroes, that there will be rescuers in a time that needs them...

Pearl

Douglas said...

You are truly a Pearl of wisdom.