Here’s a tip for all you struggling actors out there: If you even get the slightest whiff of a comic-book-inspired or superhero-themed script, screw the whole “reading it beforehand” thing and jump straight to the “try desperately to get an audition, no matter what” phase, because that’s where the money is these days.
Yes, friends, we said it last summer, and it still holds true today: it’s a beautiful time to be a comic book fan. Even better, it’s no longer the domain of the kind of guy who’s already pressed and folded his “My Virginity Is In Mint Condition” t-shirt for the opening day of Comic-Con 2007. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) When one of the most buzzed-about original dramas on network television centers on people with abilities beyond those of mere mortals – and if you haven’t jumped on the “Heroes” bandwagon yet, you’re really missing out – even the most macho of men can probably stop claiming that they only watched the “X-Men” flicks because they wanted to see Rebecca Romijn covered in nothing but blue body paint.
Comic books and superheroes have taken a long and winding path to get to their current position of mainstream acceptance, however, and nowhere has that been more evident than on the silver screen. In fact, when speaking of the comic book film genre, you can very easily divide cinematic history into two parts: before “Superman: The Movie,” and after “Superman: The Movie.”
To read the rest of our historical retrospective, click here.
To investigate the status of future comic book flicks, click here.
To read the first of our three roundtable discussions about various and sundry comic book film related topics, click here. (You’ll find links to the other discussions on that page as well.)
And, lastly, to check out a shopping list of graphic novels and trade paperbacks to check out after you leave the theater, click here.
Oh, yeah, and if you’ve got any feedback, feel free to leave it below…
