Comics and cinema seem more intertwined than ever. Even setting aside the countless film adaptations of superhero franchises, the coolest movies in recent times have evoked many of the magical features of comic books.
Thematically, last year’s The Worst Person in the World framed its bittersweet tale about aging by addressing the creative process of Crumb-ish indie comix that look increasingly out of place in a post-millennial era. Visually, while there is a long history of attempts to simulate the look of pages on the screen (Ang Lee’s Hulk went particularly far in its use of split screens and even swipes from Barry Windsor-Smith’s Weapon X… even though the cartooniest thing in that picture was Nick Nolte’s scenery-chewing performance!), the closest a film has come to delivering that kind of sensorial experience was the recent The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun, which invites you to keep hitting the pause button and bask in each shot as you would do in a double spread splash. Tone-wise, Everything Everywhere All At Once went further than most in terms of capturing the gonzo slapstick we’ve come to associate with comics (while also, shockingly, managing to use this brand of absurdity to strike a chord about the debilitating anxieties that come with trying to cope with a modern world saturated with stimuli and overlapping priorities).
With filmmakers looking beyond specific characters or stories and actually channeling the *feel* of comics, I figure it makes sense to celebrate the oddball, everything-goes vibe that has been a big part of the medium since its early stages, so here is this week’s reminder that comic book covers can be awesome:
