It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s a big budget Hollywood comic book adaptation breaking box office records. Superhero movies are gaining exposure and respect with recent advances in technology and bold new marketing strategies. Movies like “Iron Man,” “300,” and specifically “The Dark Knight” are bringing the comic book world out of the specialty stores and to the attention of a national audience.

“The Dark Knight” and “Iron Man” movies alone have made more than 1.5 billion dollars and have made their mark in history as two of the highest grossing movies of all time. For some moviegoers, this past summer was their first real introduction to superhuman heroes and larger than life battles between good and evil, but for comic book fans these movies are just the pinnacle of a long history of comic book movies and their paper counterparts.

Ron Richards, co-founder of iFanboy.com, has loved comics for more than two decades. He vividly remembers picking up “Spiderman” and “G.I. Joe” comics on a weekly basis. Richards represents a large group of fans and collectors who have witnessed the evolution of comics and superhero movies. He remembers the original “Superman” movie as the motion picture that defined the superhero movie.

“I watched that movie over and over on VHS throughout my childhood,” Richards recalls.

The appeal of comic books seems to be in their ability to span generations and ring true no matter the age. William Flournoy, an Auburn resident, has been collecting comics since his mom placed one in his third grade Easter basket and attributes the success of recent comic book film adaptations to three key factors. 

“Their success is a combination of a lot of things: action and imagery,” Flournoy says. “But I really think that they’ve done so well because these are great stories and film has given people who find it difficult to read comics the privilege to discover these characters and their stories.”

A key distinction must be made between episodic comics and graphic novels. Episodic novels are short in length, are released every week, and provide only a chapter in a overarching story. Graphic novels are complete stories, with artwork, contained in one long book. Flournoy describes the difference as the difference between episodes and entire stories.

“Single issued comic books are more like episodes, just a fraction of the story, and graphic novels are entire stories in one book,” Flournoy said. “I go for the single issues for more collecting purposes, but graphic novels are more fit for reading in my opinion.”

Sterling Clay, an Auburn High School Student, explained graphic novels as a compilation of a couple of comic books or a really big one like “Watchmen.”
“Also it could be a side story of a hero, like “Batman: The Long Halloween”,” Clay adds.

Clay says he believes that graphic novels are more appealing to the average person.

“The general person can like it and get into it rather than it pertaining to the comic story so strictly that you have to read them to understand everything,” Clay adds. 

The self-contained stories need no knowledge of back story or character arcs to understand.

Several graphic novels have been gaining notoriety over the past months as a result of their Hollywood adaptations. Frank Miller is one of the hottest names in Hollywood right now and is in high demand as a result of the adaptations of his graphic novels “Sin City” and “300.”

Comic fans and critics alike have been praising him for capturing the story, essence, and visual style of graphic novels. 

“In my opinion, the best comic adaptation has been Frank Miller’s ‘Sin City’ and Frank Miller’s ‘300,’ Richards says. “Both movies were true adaptation in film format of the original comics material.”

Frank Miller has a new project hitting theaters soon entitled “The Spirit.” 
“This film is an homage to Will Eisner and one of the original and groundbreaking comics,” Miller says of his new movie.

Ticketholders who arrived early enough to catch the previews at screenings of “The Dark Knight” were treated to a preview of “The Spirit” as well as one of the most anticipated graphic novel adaptations: “Watchmen.”

“Watchman” is a graphic novel written by Alan Moore that has been heralded as “must read” for comic fans and is considered a seminal text of the comic medium. The upcoming film release is a highly anticipated event.

Promotion has become a main focus for filmmakers with recent superhero movies with “The Dark Knight” being a prime example. Almost a year before the film was released, pictures from the set taken by cell phone cameras began to leak online. Soon Web sites began to premiere with urls like whysoserious.com and ibelieveinharveydent.com. These Web site contained mysterious clues and content but held no mention of the film, a release date, or any concrete evidence they were even related to the film. On Thanksgiving 2007, a challenge appeared on whysoserious.com asking readers to take a picture of themselves, in Joker makeup, in front of a local monument. Participants were rewarded with a copy of “The Gotham Times” newspaper with news stories related to events in the film. The final unfortunate publicity event happened when Heath Ledger overdosed on prescription medicine.

The precedent set by “The Dark Knight” when it comes viral marketing has begun to take hold in Hollywood. More than half a year ago, a Web site appeared with only an iconic image of a smiley face with a blood drop and the phrase, “Who watched the Watchmen.” This image and slogan alone set the comic world on fire as fans began to speculate on film adaptation of the “Watchman” graphic novel. 

Also,  recent directors have begun to hide secrets in their films linking movies together. Both “Iron Man” and “The Incredible Hulk” hold some secret and some not so secret clues to the upcoming release of the move, “The Avengers.” 

The comic industry is having to adapt to modern society just like newspapers, television and terrestrial radio. Already comic giants like DC comics have begun to make their comics available online. 

“Hopefully comics will remain in their current form, a printed medium that you can hold and read and carry with you,” Richards says. “But it’s irresponsible to think that the digital revolution will not affect comics.”
Modern technology has made the process of transferring the visuals and story of comics to the big screen and with the successes of recent superhero movies have only opened the door for an increasing number of comics to make the move. Films, comics, and graphic novels can be enjoyed by casual or die hard fans.

As the Joker says, “Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen. We are tonight’s entertainment!”