1) French cartoons The comic book series "Asterix" by Goscinny and Uderzo has been analyzed by historians and other 'academix' several times. The Asterix books I have concentrate on Asterix' (quite accurate) portrayal of the Roman Empire - email me if you need the exact titles. Asterix has also been made into about a half-dozen movies - cartoons at first, now digitally enhanced films with real actors. The latest one, "Asterix & Cleopatra" with Christian Clavier as Asterix and Gerard Depardieu as Obelix, apparently sold more tickets in France than "Titanic". For info on the Asterix films, just search akas.imdb.com for "Asterix". Oh: Amazon.com has some 190 books, 6 VHS tapes, but no DVD with "Asterix". Asterix is also turning into a regional phenomenon: Dialect translations are appearing for many small regions, even those which linguists put together as one area. In Vienna, dialect poet HC Artmann did an Asterix version; others have been translated into Bavarian and other dialects by local celebrities and/or writers. "Barbarella" was originally a French comic. The 1969 film with Jane Fonda is cheesy, but great (even if "Hanoi Jane" later said she had deep regrets about showing so much bare skin). There seems to be a remake in the works, with Drew Barrymore as Barbarella. [The new "Barrymorella" is being written as a PG-12 movie, so expect it to be a puritanically-correct, no-nudity version *sigh*] 2) German cartoons / films German cartoonists have become very successful on their home markets, some of the films even made it to the US. Here's a list sorted by cartoonist 2a) Ralf Koenig: Kondom des Grauens (Killer Condom) Based on a cartoon which styled itself quite like a film... a genetically engineered condom which lives off, well, human fleshy bits that are put into it. And a muscular, gay police detective... http://akas.imdb.com/Details?0116791 Der Bewegte Mann (Mabe, Maybe Not) Young man is thrown out by his girl because he cheated on her... and moves in with a gay guy he met a few days earlier. He's too dumb to notice that the guy's in love with him, and the girlfriend's pregnant... lots of unexpected things happen. Loosely based on a cartoon of the same name, uses real actors (though it may be debated whether Til Schweiger is really an actor or just likes to pretend he can act *grin*) http://akas.imdb.com/Details?0109255 2b) Walter Moers: Kleines Arschloch ("Little Bastard" in the - not very literal - US translation. It's based on an irreverent cartoon series about a real nightmare of a kid...) http://akas.imdb.com/Details?0119471 Kaept'n Blaubaer (literal title translation would be "Capt'n Blueberry" - a seafaring, semi-retired bear who tells his grandchildren swaggering stories about his monumental battles with evil (all true, of course!). Refreshingly "different" adventure with "wave dwarves" (the little guys who make the ocean move), arch- nemesis and play-by-mail-chess-partner Feinfinger, evil "real estate sharks" in the "Capitalist Ocean", man-eating moles and much more... The children's cartoon series has also spawned an animated TV series for small children, a novel for grown-up readers, and more. Full of great language- based jokes (which may be the reason why it doesn't seem to be available in the US) http://akas.imdb.com/Details?0215919 2c) Broesel (Roetger Feldmann) Based on a popular cartoon series about a boozing, hard-rocking biker who works as a plumber's assistant, several "Werner" movies appeared. If I remember right, the second one has the cartoonist acting a main role (an unfortunate choice), but the latest film was excellent (cartoon only). Lots of merchandise items available :-) http://akas.imdb.com/Name?Feldmann,+R%F6tger http://www.werner.de/ 2d) A children's book by Hans de Beer was the basis for a series of TV shorts (for the "Sendung mit der Maus" kid's programme). Now Warner is distributing the film in Germany (DVD) - it seems to be a really sweet polar children's adventure where a little ice bear, a polar goose called Peep, a penguin and a little Eskimo girl together fight an evil, polluting fishing trawler. http://www.warnerbros.de/movies/derkleineeisbaer/ http://akas.imdb.com/Details?0293849 2e) Otto Waalkes German comedian Otto made several trashy comedies and also created the "Ottifant" cartoons. The cartoon film "Kommando Stoertebeker" seems to be based on these Otto elephants. http://akas.imdb.com/Details?0294677 http://www.dem.de/entertainment/kino/1110/111117.html www.ottifanten.de 3) US cartoons / films Superheros? Superman, Batman, Spawn are all based on US comic books. Superman has been analyzed several times (email me if you need the exact title of a (german) Superman analysis book I've got at home). There are several Peanuts films (all the ones I know have the word "Snoopy" in the title, which makes them easy to find on IMDB) :-) Kevin Smith's "Jay and Silent Bob" have a weird history: Originally just a small side-plot in Clerks, they keep reappearing in more of Smith's films (Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma) - and now apparently got their own movie, "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back". This film is about Jay&Bob fighting against their own cartoon series (which is actually being produced AFAIK). Silent Bob, by the way, is played by Kevin Smith. http://akas.imdb.com/Details?0261392 Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - originally a mediocre game which was hugely successful (there are speculations in the game industry that the game's success had a lot more to do with the main character's body proportions than with a the usual sales arguments of advanced programming technology and good gameplay). After the game's huge success, there were a few issues of a licensed Tomb Raider cartoon, and of course the movie. Dave Skreiner Editor, DVD-Home Magazine (Germany) ----- Original Message ----- From: zoughi <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Monday, March 11, 2002 7:41 PM Subject: Comic Book Aesthetic > Hello' > > I am looking for any academic papers on the topic of the comic book > aesthetic. I am interested on seeing how the comic book medium has > influenced the content and form of film. If you know of any movies that > were originally comic books (besides the superhero movies) I would really > appreciate it. > > ---- > For past messages, visit the Screen-L Archives: > http://bama.ua.edu/archives/screen-l.html ---- For past messages, visit the Screen-L Archives: http://bama.ua.edu/archives/screen-l.html