Confession: I have never read Will Eisner’s The Spirit. I am aware of Eisner and The Spirit and the Eisner Awards and the influence of Eisner on comic book storytelling; it’s just that I haven’t read the original stories. Even the London library system doesn’t have any collections for me…
I was delighted when I heard that not only Hellboy was getting a sequel but also that it would be directed by Guillermo del Toro. Although the first film wasn’t a brilliant film, it was a brilliant adaptation of the comic book to film, with spot-on visuals and a perfect…
I can't see how this was proposed as an idea: let's do a Batman version of The Animatrix, an anime anthology of separate but linked short stories about and around Batman. It's not a natural choice, is it? There's nothing organic about the process. And, after the excellent Batman: The…
The film Wanted is completely silly yet also completely enjoyable. If you watch the film with this in mind, you will be entertained by implausible nonsense that happens to be visually dazzling. A film that has ‘The Loom of Fate’ as the centre of the plot cannot be taken seriously;…
And I'm back. New computer and time to blog. So, even though the film isn't out until next year, the first Watchmen trailer hit the internet. Empire has even done a trailer/comic comparison. They certainly made their mark. Watchmen is a masterpiece of superhero comic books, and I love it…
In anticipation of the release of Iron Man, Entertainment Weekly provided a selection of the best comic book movies here. The list, seemingly in no particular order, is as follows: Batman Begins and Batman Returns X2: X-Men United Akira From Hell American Splendor V for Vendetta Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2…
There is a lot of sense in Marvel producing their own film versions of the superheroes. There have been some excellent films based on Marvel characters (step forward X-Men 2 and Spider-Man 2) but there have also been some awful films (Elektra and Blade: Trinity). Also, and more importantly to…
Just to show how up to date and topical I am not, here are my thoughts on the made-for-DVD cartoon film of Iron Man in the week in which the much-hyped Iron Man film reaches our screens. I would say this is irony, but that would be an awful pun…
Doctor Strange: The Sorcerer Supreme The Master of the Mystic Arts seems like an idea that is great for animation – the cartoonists will be able to bring to life the ethereal quality of magic as envisaged by Steve Ditko and make it even more tangible, the stuff of dreams…
It’s been too long since these films to come out for these thoughts to be considered current or topical, and neither film merits intense discussion, so I’ll merge my musings (alliteration!) on the two into one semi-coherent post. Let’s take it chronologically, with Spider-Man 3. After the first two films,…