The Best Media of 2011 (Version .05)

Throughout the year, I like to track the titles that have ranked amongst my favorites in film and music (sometimes television, comics, and video games, but my selection sample normally isn't broad enough to inspire more than two or three titles).  Much can be said about first impressions and how they can actually hold film criticism back - imagine if Andrew Sarris would not have re-evaluated the work of Billy Wilder after initially writing him off - and how criticism can, in fact, be extremely subjective.  Dan Carlson at Pajiba posted a guide on the topic (my contribution was my hate/love relationship with David Lynch's Mulholland Dr.) that readers may find enlightening.  In the meantime, let's cut to the chase... 

Comics to Film (and Halfway Back Again) Redux

This week, I will be contributing a curated video entitled "The Outrageous Origins of the Motion Comic!" to In Media Res.  It is an incredibly short piece (350 words), based around the largely untold history of the motion comic, which is often (and ahistorically) considered to be a "new media" form.  The piece includes some gems of research I uncovered while writing a dissertation chapter on the form, including some key thoughts from one of the Comics Studies founding fathers, Scott McCloud.


In celebration of the weekly theme and my forthcoming contribution to it, I am reprinting an early video essay entitled "Comics to Film (and Halfway Back Again)" that served as the springboard to my dissertation topic:  the formal interchange between comics and film.  While I have since moved away from looking solely at film adaptations - the sole focus of this video essay - this video provides a sketch of what sparked my research.  While some of the theoretical arguments involving these forms has become antiquated by the growth that Comics Studies has experienced over the past couple years, I'm still incredibly proud of it.


Originally published in 2007 by Flow.  Unfortunately, I cannot embed the video here due to copyright claims.


Part One
Part Two

Welcome: A Declaration of Principles

Bernstein: You don't want to make any promises, Mr. Kane, that you don't want to keep.

Kane: These will be kept. 'I'll provide the people of this city with a daily paper that will tell all the news honestly. I will also provide them...'

Jedediah: That's the second sentence you've started with 'I'.

Kane: People are gonna know who's responsible. Now they're gonna get the truth in the Inquirer, quickly and simply and entertainingly and no special interests are gonna be allowed to interfere with that truth. (Continuing with the Declaration.) 'I will also provide them with a fighting and tireless champion of their rights as citizens and as human beings. Signed, Charles Foster Kane.'