Movie Comics: Page to Screen/Screen to Page

Blair Davis

Published by Rutgers University Press 2017

Movie Comics

Page to Screen/Screen to Page

Blair Davis

https://doi.org/10.36019/9780813572284

Overview
Contents

About this book

As Christopher Nolan’s Batman films and releases from the Marvel Cinematic Universe have regularly topped the box office charts, fans and critics alike might assume that the “comic book movie” is a distinctly twenty-first-century form. Yet adaptations of comics have been an integral part of American cinema from its very inception, with comics characters regularly leaping from the page to the screen and cinematic icons spawning comics of their own.

Movie Comics is the first book to study the long history of both comics-to-film and film-to-comics adaptations, covering everything from silent films starring Happy Hooligan to sound films and serials featuring Dick Tracy and Superman to comic books starring John Wayne, Gene Autry, Bob Hope, Abbott & Costello, Alan Ladd, and Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. With a special focus on the Classical Hollywood era, Blair Davis investigates the factors that spurred this media convergence, as the film and comics industries joined forces to expand the reach of their various brands. While analyzing this production history, he also tracks the artistic coevolution of films and comics, considering the many formal elements that each medium adopted and adapted from the other.

As it explores our abiding desire to experience the same characters and stories in multiple forms, Movie Comics gives readers a new appreciation for the unique qualities of the illustrated page and the cinematic moving image.

Author / Editor information

BLAIR DAVIS is an assistant professor of media and cinema studies at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois. He is the author of The Battle for the Bs: 1950s Hollywood and the Rebirth of Low-Budget Cinema (Rutgers University Press) and coeditor of Rashomon Effects: Kurosawa, Rashomon, and Their Legacies.

Reviews

"The curiosity which the Movie Comics elicits about these mostly forgotten artifacts testifies to the success of its project: making accessible and understandable a period heretofore covered only tangentially in a variety of cinema and comics histories. The cultural history it presents provides a nuanced and polyphonic account of the practice of adaptation in the middle of the 20th century, a necessary background for anyone interested in the current surge in the practice and discussion of comics adaptations."

— The Comics Grid

"In addition to being a highly rewarding read, [Movie Comics] is a thing of utter beauty, with photos, panels and pages reprinted in gorgeous full color. In film studies like this, that royal treatment is not the norm, but it makes perfect sense here. That Davis’ contents deserve it makes it all the more special."

— Flick Attack

"As Davis’s Movie Comics so masterfully proves: the modern explosion of comic book movies cannot be understood without looking at the origins of this dynamic and vital comic-screen alliance."

— Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature.

"Both accessible and well written, Movie Comics will appeal to specialists in film and popular culture and also to the wide fan community that enjoys comic books."

— Susan Ohmer, author of George Gallup in Hollywood

"His proven talent for trenchant research well on display, Blair Davis not only chronicles comics' influence on cinema but shows innovatively the movies' frequent adaptation into comics. A masterful study."

— Dana Polan, author of The Sopranos (Spin Offs)

"Take a studied look at the synergy between the silver screen and the pulpy pages from which Superman, Batman, Spider-Man and hundreds of other colorful characters have sprung."

— Parade Preview

"This is an enlightening, scholarly history. Davis treats his topic seriously while also celebrating the pleasures of these two lively arts."

— Publishers Weekly

"Movie Comics makes a crucial contribution to media studies not only by unearthing and exploring the very long history of comics adapted for the screen, but also by simultaneously covering the myriad ways that comics presented material originally produced for film and television. The real subject of this book is the never-ending saga of media mediating one another, and in Blair Davis’s most capable hands, it’s a tale meticulously researched and engagingly told."

— Scott Bukatman, author of Hellboy’s World: Comics and Monsters on the Margins

"Thanks to Davis's arduous work and keen knowledge of media and cinema, Movie Comics is a masterful work, suitable for both academic use and leisure reading… Highly recommended."

— Choice

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction: Movies And Comics Adapt Each Other Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1 • 1930S Comics-To-Film Adaptations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
2 • 1930S Cinema And Comics Screen To Page Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	53
3 • 1940S Comics-To-Film Adaptations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	88
4 • 1940S Cinema And Comics Screen To Page Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	123
5 • 1950S Comics-To-Film And Television Adaptations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	165
6 • 1950S Cinema, Television, And Comics Screen To Page Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	201
Conclusion The 1960S And Beyond Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	243
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	253
Select Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	279
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	285
About The Author Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	295

Language: English
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 256
Illustrations
- Other: 36 color and 14 black-and-whit

eBook

Published: January 3, 2017
ISBN: 9780813572284