Comics: not just for geeks anymore

Posted on Aug 30, 2010 in Features

Movies based on comic books are big business. 2008’s The Dark Knight(fifth on the list of highest grossing movies of all time) grossed $1,001,921,825 worldwide, and in 2009 Iron Man grossed $318,412,101 in the United States alone. The list of top 50 highest grossing films of all time include at least seven movies based on comic book properties.

With the success of movies like Spider-Man and The Dark Knight being counted among the highest grossing movies of all time it is easy to see how Marvel Comics were given their own movie studio and why Disney bought out the publisher for $4 billion last year. This has had an affect on comic book shops, comic readers and the industry as a whole.

Stan Daniel, the owner of Kingdom Comics in Vestavia Hills has watched the explosion of comic book movies with a vested interest. Daniel says that the success of comic book movies is good for the industry. “Comic books are cool now. The stigma formerly attached to comic books is gone. We have UAB football players that come in each week to get their stash of comics. It’s not just a nerd thing anymore,” said Daniel whose shop is decorated with Superman t-shirts, Batman action figures, Hulk posters and comic book style signs advertising sales or the location of the bathroom.

Customers in the store are mostly adult males but some days see more variety. Most customers visit the shop on Wednesday when the latest shipment of comics come in. Often buyers have a pre-made list of comic books that they buy each week called a pull list. Daniel holds a copy of these comics for the customer who picks them up weekly. Others wander in and pick up trade paperback collections of stories in one volume and most of the customers chat with Daniel or other shoppers in the store during their purchases.

Daniel himself is dressed in casual khaki shorts and a faded gray t-shirt with a picture of Mickey Mouse on it. He takes a break from unpacking the latest shipment of comics and takes a seat to talk about what is not only his job but his passion.

“Comics are only going to become more and more mainstream in the next four to five years. Disney buying Marvel is a game changer. Disney will launch a campaign to ensure that kids 10 and older will have a comic book in hand each week,” said Daniel. “Even b-list comic book characters like The Vision will have as much name recognition as Spider-Man,”

According to Daniel there is a common misconception that movies like Batman, Spider-Man and Superman dramatically affect sales. “We see parents bring in their kid to buy one comic book before or after these movies come out but no committed customers,” said Daniel.

In contrast Daniel says that movies like Watchmen, Iron Man, 300 or Kick-Ass have a big impact. “Before the movie I might sell one copy of Watchmen a week. After the first trailer aired I was selling boxes of the graphic novel each week. I couldn’t keep up,”

Bob Conwell, owner of Bob’s Comics in Trussville saw a similar reaction to Watchmen. “People have wanted a Watchmen movie for a long time. It sold well,” says Conwell.

For Conwell movies have not affected his business enough to fight the problems he faces from a bad economy.
“I have had a 15 percent decline in the sales in the last year and a half,” said Conwell, whose shop is located along a stretch of highway between Roebuck and Trussville. “We may get a small bump when each movie comes out but it is nothing compared to 1989 when the first Batman movie hit theaters,” said Conwell. Bob’s Comics is a smaller shop with less decoration than Kingdom Comics but Conwell sells more online via E-bay.

Daniel says that the quality of comic book genre movies are improving. The movies are finally catching up to the comics. Hollywood seems to understand lately, with movies like The Dark Knight and Kick-Ass, that these are more than just genre movies. They are stories and they have a life all their own no matter the medium,” said Daniel.

Not only are comic book movies finally beginning to tell real stories but with the creation of Marvel Movie Studios it is only going to become a more prominent and powerful genre in Hollywood.

“For the first time we have an ongoing continuity within a genre of cinema. Iron Man, The Hulk, Captain America and Thor all inhabit the same movie universe,” says Daniel.

Fans have already witnessed this continuity last summer when Iron Man(played by Robert Downey Jr.) made a cameo appearance at the end of the The Incredible Hulk. All of this will pay off in the summer of 2012 when all of these characters will appear in The Avengers.

Daniel also says that a common misconception is that movie studios are trying to make comic moves darker and edgier.

Instead Daniel says that movies are finally catching up to comic books and beginning to capture what attracts people to comic books in the first place.

“It’s not that comics are darker than they used to be. They are just more accepting of real life situations. Characters can be flawed and make mistakes now,” said Daniel.

This wasn’t always the case with comic books, especially super hero ones. From 1954 to 1971 the CCA ruled and regulated the industry prohibiting graphic depictions of violence and gore in crime and horror comics, as well as any sexual innuendos because the primary consumers of comic books were children and some believed them to be a factor in childhood delinquency.

The CCA became less important(though it is still active) after Stan Lee wrote a 1971 Spider-Man comic book that portrayed drug use in a negative light. The CCA tried to censor the issue because of its subject matter, they did not care about the context, but Marvel published it anyway. This issue of Spider-Man sparked a decline for the CCA and by the mid 80s and early 90s when comic book shops became the main carrier of comic books it was all but a memory in the industries past.

It was after the fall of CCA that comics like Sin City, The Dark Knight Returns, 300 and Watchmen became prominent. DC created Vertigo comics to carry their mature titles and Marvel created the MAX series to do the same. According to Daniel Hollywood is just now reflecting this industry change.

“The original 1989 Batman starring Micheal Keaton was nothing like the comics at the time. Batman Begins and The Dark Knight are far truer to the character of Batman,” said Daniel.

“The movies are definitely influenced by the comics,” agrees Conwell. “Sometime the comics may make small changes to reflect something in the movies but that is mostly superficial. Like Iron Man’s armor changing a little,” says Conwell.

With the advent of the Ipad and other e-readers comics, and print media in general, have a challenge ahead. Already Marvel Comics have released an Iphone and Ipad app that allows its owners to download and read free or cheap comics. The selection is limited but that will change with time. Daniel and Conwell seem unthreatened by this however.

“Digital media will never have the same connection as touching, feeling and owning a book or comic book has,” says Daniel. “As Americans we are defined by what we own. Physical objects have a weight and sentimentality that digital content cannot match,” Conwell agrees.

“It will affect casual readers and perhaps the sales of trade paperback collections because it is so accessible. Longtime fans will continue to buy physical books,” says Conwell.

It looks as if comic book films and comic books themselves have a bright future and the modern American mythology that comics have created will only become more and more prominent in American and worldwide culture.

Email: editor@insideuab.com