Jeffries - Comic Book Film Style

COMIC BOOK FILM STYLE

CINEMA AT 24 PANELS PER SECOND

DRU JEFFRIES

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS PRESS

AUSTIN

Copyright 2017 by the University of Texas Press

All rights reserved

First edition, 2017

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Names: Jeffries, Dru, author.

Title: Comic book film style : cinema at 24 panels per second / Dru Jeffries.

Description: First edition. | Austin : University of Texas Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017000691

ISBN 978-1-4773-1325-1 (cloth : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-1-4773-1450-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-1-4773-1326-8 (library e-book)

ISBN 978-1-4773-1327-5 (non-library e-book)

Subjects: LCSH: Comic books, strips, etc.History and criticism. | Motion pictures and comic books. | Motion picturesProduction and direction. | Film adaptationsHistory and criticism. | Motion picture industryHistory and criticism.

Classification: LCC PN6725 .J43 2017 | DDC 741.5/9dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017000691

doi:10.7560/313251

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Ones first book doesnt materialize easily or painlessly; thankfully, the process of researching, writing, and revising Comic Book Film Style was made as smooth as possible thanks to the remarkable support, wisdom, and friendship I received throughout from my family, friends, and colleagues. First I must express my profound gratitude to Martin Lefebvre, whose mentorship and friendship have been truly invaluable from the very outset of this project, throughout my doctoral studies, and beyond. I also want to thank Charlie Keil for his encouragement, counsel, and seemingly endless reservoir of warmth over the years; you make academia feel like the supportive and truly collegial environment that it could and should be. Id also like to recognize Marc Steinberg, Luca Caminati, Darren Wershler, and Will Brooker, whose instructive comments on previous versions of this project helped give shape to the book that it ultimately became. Rob King and Philippa Gates supervised earlier research projects that led to Comic Book Film Style and deserve credit for planting seeds and leading me in productive directions. Id also like to acknowledge the rest of my colleagues at Concordia University, the University of Toronto, and Wilfrid Laurier University, as well as the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, who saw fit to fund my research multiple times over the years. Special thanks, finally, to Jim Burr, Lindsay Starr, Lynne Chapman, Sarah McGavick, Nancy Warrington, everyone at the University of Texas Press, and my two anonymous readers, whose suggestions improved my manuscript immensely. The blame for any errors that may remain in this book should be directed entirely at the author.

There are obviously many more people whose impact on this book cannot be as directly quantified as those cited above but who are equally worthy of my thanks. Jeff Gross talked things through with me every morning on his walk to workand still does (sometimes we even talk about my research). Tony Fong read drafts and offered moral support even when his own work commitments were overwhelming already. Since 2011, Ive also cohosted a podcast on the subject of comic book films, which has allowed me to ramble long enough to land on some of the ideas that appear in this book. My cohosts all deserve credit for putting up with me (and I hope I didnt inadvertently steal any of their ideas): Dave Babbitt, James Hrivnak, Andrew Kannegiesser, and Chris Martin. Speaking of putting up with me, nobody has done so to such a tremendous extent as Giselle Kraus, whose love and profound empathy make me better with every day. To paraphrase the great Sam Cooke: Youre the apple of my eye / Youre cherry pie / Youre coconut cake and vegan ice cream.

Portions of have been published previously as Comics at 300 Frames per Second: Zack Snyders 300 and the Figural Translation of Comics to Film in Quarterly Review of Film and Video 31, no. 3 (2014). My thanks to the journals editors for permission to include some of that material here.

This book is dedicated with all my love to my parents, Pat and Rick, and to my sisters, Amanda and Emily. I love the shit out of you.

INTRODUCTION

For The Warriors 2005 home video release, director Walter Hill produced a new version of the 1979 cult film, dubbed the Ultimate Directors Cut. Hill claimed that this new version better reflected his original intentions for the film, which was conceived as a comic book rock n roll version of the Xenophon story [Anabasis].structure of a comic book page. The cumulative suggestion of these stylistic additions is clear: whereas The Warriors 79 simply presents a cinematic representation of a live-action fictional storyworld, The Warriors 05 presents a comic book storyworld brought to life through live-action cinema. The relevant difference between these two versions lies not in their narrative content but rather in how that content is mediatedor remediated, as the case may befor the viewer.

This is merely one example of the much broader phenomenon that will be explored at length in this book, which I dub comic book film style. This designation refers to the results of an intermedial relationship between comics and film, whereby the latter medium appropriates and transforms certain of the formal attributes unique to the former as a means of stylization. While this phenomenon has inarguably been most visible in Hollywood cinema since the 1990s, a distinctly comic bookinfluenced film style can be found in various examples dating back to the mid-1960s at least, and adaptations of popular newspaper comic strips are among the earliest fiction films of the silent era. This is not to imply that all comic book adaptations necessarily have an interest in comics medium-specific formal characteristics. Indeed, one common way that critics measure the success of a comic book film adaptation is the degree to which it renounces any residual trace of the comic book medium. One need look no further than reviews of one of the most successful comic book adaptations of all time, Christopher Nolans The Dark Knight (2008), which was lauded by critics for the specifically cinematic qualities that allowed it to transcend its comic book origins.

If its so undesirable, why devote a book to understanding comic book film style? To answer the question, one must understand why it is derided in the first place. Certainly one factor that contributes to the generally low opinion of comic book film style is the prevailing wisdom that films adapted from other media ought to replace the stylistic choices made in the texts original medium with cinematic equivalents: by this logic, a comics dialogue, presented via text contained in speech balloons, should be replaced in a film adaptation by recorded dialogue, presented via synchronized sound. At a press junket for Marvels The Avengers (2012), the films writer/director, Joss Whedon, echoed this logic, stating that the key to making a good comic In other words, a good adaptation will disavow those elements of the original that would seem alien in a cinematic context, favoring the conventions of cinema rather than comics wherever they come into conflict. Comic book film style thereby goes against the grain of good adaptation practice by retaining, if not privileging, the aesthetics of the original medium at the expense of cinematic convention.