Comics & Cinema – My Introduction

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First a little bit of a history lesson as well as that babe staring out you above.

Original Content Published By InvestComics for
Project Fanboy on 9-08-09 (
www.projectfanboy.com)

First let me say, welcome to Comics & Cinema. A very special thanks to Steven Sykora for bringing me on board. My name is Jay Katz and I’m going to be with you guys for a while, so get used to me. A long story short, I’m originally from Brooklyn, New York and now reside in Florida. I had a free magazine that was in print 3 years ago called InvestComics that was distributed throughout Florida in comic shops. This became very costly and I soon moved the focus over to my web site and now have a tight run place that can reach a larger audience and be more effective. InvestComics is teamed with The Outhouse (www.theouthousers.com), Comicnews (www.comicnews.info), Zaldiva (www.zaldiva.com), Bob Heske (www.coldbloodedchillers.com) and many more. InvestComics is going into its’ 17th month as a web site and is enjoying the many fans coming on board to ride the wave. So sit back and ride a new wave with Project Fanboy. This is going to be enjoyable, so grab a cup of coffee, Pepsi, Coke, beer, water or whatever, sit back in that computer chair, smile, relax, chill……..it’s Comics & Cinema time.

Let’s do a very quick history lesson .There is some debate as to when the very first motion picture was made. Some say it was in 1878, The Horse Motion. This film was a series of multiple cameras’ that were placed to take pictures at a consecutive level at the same time to create a moving picture. This was done by Eadweard Muybridge because a question arose from Leland Stanford of Stanford University; he wanted to know (scientifically) if all four of a horse’s hooves ever were off the ground at the same time while it is galloping. The answer would prove to be yes. Another film said to be ‘the first’ was in 1888 called Roundhay Garden Scene. The film lasts only about 2 seconds and was made by French director Louis Le Prince. It shows the Le Prince family playing in a garden. The last mention I will give here is Edison. In 1890, he invented the first film camera to employ moving images called the Kinetograph. And the first film strip made was dubbed “Strongman Sandow”  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=570r67gGhfs) which is just a guy flexing his muscles.

advcapmarvel_1941movieposter.gifAnd so the debates rage on. What really was the first?
Was it the
shazam.gif moving pictures? Maybe the Frenchman had it first? But we are talking COMICS and Cinema here right? So when did a superhero first come on film?? Well at least this isn’t up for as much debate, but The Adventures of Captain Marvel from 1941 gets this distinct honor. Good old Billy Batson dons the costume with the famous lightning bolt on it. Funny now we come back all of these years later with the news of a new Shazam movie possibly getting done, follow this link for more info on that. (http://www.trendingpopculture.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=542&Itemid=1)

supermanmovie_1978.giflordoftherings_1978.gifWe could then go forward a little bit to 1948 for the first Superman 15 part serial. The Batman did his thing in a movie in 1966 which was based off the ridiculousness of the television series. 12 years later, the year of 1978 ‘IT’ finally happened. It took 68 years for Hollywood to put together a real superhero movie and who better to start it all off than THE comic book ‘God’ himself?……Superman. Love him or hate him (how could anyone hate him??) Superman had arrived, so did comic books to cinema. Richard Donner (Director) brought a sense of magic, fantasy, sci-fi, drama, action, romance, comedy and most of all a comic book to life on the silver screen for the first time to the likes no one had seen up to that point in time. Superman was joined in 1978 with movies like The Deer Hunter, Halloween, Animal House, The Lord of The Rings (animated) and Midnight Express to name a few. Superman though, was indeed the standout. Christopher Reeves brought both Clark and Superman to a level of greatness. Richard Donner brought the film to a level of classic.

Other comic book movies soon started following after the success of Superman. Insupergirlmovie.gifbetween the sequels, before and after them you had films such as Flash Gordon, Supergirl, Sheena, but it wasn’t until 1989 that comic book movies were about to make another huge impact on Hollywood. Tim Burton brought in The Batman as a vision that Frank Miller saw, The Dark Knight. The
movie was a colossal success and set the comic book movies into a new era. The dark edge of superhero film making took comic book cinema to a new intensity. No longer does
 a film like a “hokey” type Superman (Reeves) take in the money, but The Crow or maybe even The Blade appeals more now to the generation of emo and darkness. There were talks about the next Superman film being a bit darker and edger. It’s what the fans want. This is where the money is at right now. They don’t want to see some hero/villain in spandex in a world that looks campy. It needs to fit with some sense of reality of ‘today’s world’, which is, unfortunate sort of a dark place these days.  

300themovie.gifComic book movies have expanded tremendously since the days of superheroes even, The Green Mile, 300, Road to Perdition, Bulletproof Monk and 30 Days of Night. The market will continue to do so with many movies to come in the very near future.

So what will C&C bring in this bi-weekly column? Simple, It’ll bring you what comics are coming to the silver screen. The director, the actors, the actresses, but most of all what comic book it came from, what issues are focal points and what key issues are there to possibly look for to put into your collection. You get to read origin issues of characters maybe you are not that familiar with. Maybe get a first appearance of a character that is very affordable and add it to your collection. We’re here to have some fun, so let’s do that…… 

jonahhexmovieposter.gifAt the recent San Diego Comic Con, DC Comics released a movie poster with Josh Brolin and Megan Fox. The film titled Jonah Hex hits theaters in 2010 and looks to be a hot film. Jonah Hex first appeared in a comic named All Star
Western #10 in 1972. This comic in a NM condition will run about $900. The value of this comic may continue to increase as the movie gets closer to release. Then the comic will stall out to see where the movie is going as far
as success goes. A big risk to buy this comic at this value, so there is another route to take if you so choose. In 1977 DC released Jonah’s first self titled solo series. The number one issue here is only $100 in NM condition. Then you have the top buy in my opinion as far a good read goes and a sweet collector’s item. Within the same series from 1977, issue number #31 gives the origin of Jonah at a mere $15. This is a gem here folks. You get to read an origin story from Jonah that was told 32 years ago for less than $20? Plus you have a collector’s item on your hands.

 

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horton.gifDirector of the Hex movie Jimmy Hayward does not have an extensive credit listmonsterinc.gif under his belt as far as movie making goes. In fact, he only has 1 film credit as a director ‘Horton Hears a Who!’ Source: (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0371755/) Under the IMDB banner, this would be about the only thing you’d find as far as his directing duties go. He also has credits for animation with Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc, Toy Story and A Bug’s Life, but how will this all translate into a good live action comic book film? Well, we as fans hope he takes a lesson from the school of John Favreau of Iron Man fame. That juggernaut of a film has already grossed almost $600 million worldwide. Source: (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=ironman.htm)

So DC’s going with yet another ‘non-superhero’ type movie. There are moremarvelfilms.gifcharacters in the DC universe than Batman & Superman right? Time Warner (Warner Brothers) needs to get going with their superhero movies while the heroes are still in demand from Hollywood. There are many articles that have come out recently regarding Green Lantern, but then articles like this one  http://www.trendingpopculture.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=562&Itemid=1
tell a different tale. DC’s delays, or whomever it may be at this point must get their act together and get this film out as well as The Flash film, (http://www.trendingpopculture.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=466&Itemid=1)
It’s an absolute travesty to any DC or comic book fan of what is happening to the DC superhero when it comes to film making. Enough of the delays, Marvel is making a killing at the box office and is on the cusp, in less than 5 years of making an Avengers film. Where is the JLA film? Where is the Teen Titans Film? Get on it DC! We as fans want to see Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Lobo on the silver screen.
Well, promise no more rants regarding ‘DC Hero no show at the theaters’ in the next column. As a fan of comic books though, you really yearn to see some of these heroes (and villains!) come to life, but they always seem to get stuck in some weird place of ‘delayed again’ and it’s very frustrating.

Well thank you for inviting me into your life Project Fanboy, this was a blast; I look forward to seeing  all of you in 2 weeks with another Comics
& Cinema.

………And one more thing, next time you’re reading this article please don’t forget to turn off your cell phone. We need quiet in this theater.

Jay Katz

InvestComics
(www.trendingpopculture.com)

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