Movie Moment - The Other Comic Book Movies

The recent death of Paul Newman made me start thinking back on great movies I had seen him in (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting), and ones I haven’t seen and really need to (Cool Hand Luke). I also remembered the last movie I saw him in was the excellent Road to Perdition, with Tom Hanks and Jude Law. And that led to the recollection that Road to Perdition was originally a comic book.

I have resisted writing about comic books in the past because, well, most people think comic books are dumb. Guys tend to have a more nostalgic attachment to them due to things like Halloween costumes, Underoos, and the Superfriends cartoon which translates into a mild to medium appreciation as adults. But most girls tend to think comic books are dumb. At least, the girl I am married to does.

I’ll probably attempt to explain why I like comic books later, in a very long post in which I will reveal waaaaay too much about myself. Hollywood, at least, is very much in a comic book mood lately – with the highest grossing blockbusters this summer being based directly on comic book characters or on conventions found in them (Iron Man, The Dark Knight, Hancock). But Hollywood has also realized something for a while now that the general population has not – there are more kinds of comic books than superhero comics. It’s just that in general when we think comic books, we think Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, but since the beginning of comic books they have encompassed multiple genres, from Westerns to horror to romance to biography.

So, in the interest of broadening horizons and deepening knowledge – some notable movies based on comic books, arranged by genre, with brief commentary.

The Supernatural:
30 Days of Night – vampires in Alaska!
Constantine – Theology, horror, and superheroes meet at last!
The Crow

More Traditional, But Not As Famous, Super-Heroics:
The Mask – A fine film!
Men In Black
Mystery Men
The Rocketeer – An underrated film, I feel.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Timecop – Van Damme! at the top of his game.

Crime Drama:
Art School Confidential – Art school murder mystery.
From Hell – Johnny Depp, Jack the Ripper, and based on the comic book by Alan Moore, who may be the best comic book writer ever.
A History of Violence – Viggo Mortensen. Be warned – we were expecting the violence – it’s in the title. We weren’t expecting all the sex.
Road to Perdition
Sin City
Wanted – In the original work (which features way too much of – well, everything – the characters are supervillain assassins – you know, with powers and stuff).

Miscellaneous:
300 – Pectoral muscles feature much less strongly in the source material. Both this and Sin City were by Frank Miller, whose "Batman:Year One" was a major influence on Batman Begins.
American Splendor
Ghost World – Scarlett Johanson and Steve Buscemi. Suburban teenage drama.
Persepolis - Academy-award nominated animated movie of the autobiography of an Iranian immigrant.
V for Vendetta – Jeni really liked this one – another Alan Moore piece.

Ones to Look Out For In ’09:
Whiteout – Antarctic murder mystery.
Watchmen – Maybe the best work by the best comic book writer. We’ll see how the movie matches up.

Of course, these are only the English-language movies. There is a whole world of Japanese and European comic books, and comic book movies, that is too vast for me to even try to comprehend. These are also only the movies based on comic books, as opposed to comic strips - like The Addams Family (snap, snap).