Comics Are in Right Now

This book examines the intricacies of the American film's stylistic remediation of comics. Stylistic remediation refers to the stylistic practice by films (both adaptations of comics and original properties), in which they have increasingly relied on the formal characteristics of comic books (such as panels, speed lines, the dissection of motion, flat compositions). For their part, comics have drawn upon formal devices derived from film (such as the film noir compositional technique of high-contrast lighting and Photoshop assisted motion blurring to produce a more cinematic look). The book explores how stylistic remediation complicates the idea of media specificity, the role of horizontal integration and conglomeration in the process of stylistic remediation, the industrial motivation behind remediation in films and comics, and whether the remediation of comic book stylistics into films is fundamentally a by-product of technologies and an indication of a larger ontological shift from cinema to digital cinema.

“There, That Looks Much Better”: The Joker, Sin City, The Spirit, and the Dialogical Process of Remediation

This chapter examines the dialogical aspects of stylistic remediation by focusing on Batman's arch-nemesis the Joker and Frank Miller's Sin City, and The Spirit. It first considers how the graphical remediation of the Joker character have been altered in response to the success of other titles in the franchise before describing the career trajectory of Miller from Sin City to The Spirit. In particular, it explores how Sin City and The Spirit remediated the stylistic devices of film noir. It shows that Joker's cinematic representation was informed by the comics, which in turn influenced an animated series, which existed in dialogue with a comic book. On the other hand, Sin City and The Spirit illustrate the limits of stylistic remediation.

The Dread of Sitting through Dailies that Look like Comic Strips: Graphical Remediation in Dick Tracy (1990) and the Remediation of the Multiframe in Hulk (2003)

This chapter examines the basic taxonomy of stylistic remediation and the various evolving contexts grounding it within film adaptations of comic book properties. More specifically, it considers how two unique aspects of form comics—graphical representation and the multiframe—were remediated by Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy (1990) and Ang Lee's Hulk (2003). It also explores how a filmmaker can attempt to find a cinematic equivalent for the varied modes of graphical representation practiced by a cartoonist. The chapter first provides an overview of graphical remediation in Dick Tracy before discussing the remediation of the multiframe in Hulk. It shows that the remediations exemplifed by both films illustrate the disjunction between the formal vocabularies of the film and the comic. It concludes with an analysis of the economic and formal compromises of stylistic remediation.

Comics Are in Right Now?

This conclusion reconsiders the role of horizontal integration and multimedia conglomerates in the process of stylistic remediation and the industrial motivation behind stylistic remediation, both in films and comics. It shows that horizontal integration and conglomeration have become more influential over the past three decades, as seen in the case of Time Warner. It also discusses the ways in which stylistic remediation can serve as a research and development function by allowing multinational conglomerates to experiment with computer-generated imagery (CGI) and form that can be spread across multiple properties (like “bullet time” in The Matrix). Finally, it examines whether the remediation of comic book stylistics into films is fundamentally a by-product of technologies and an indication of a Manovichian shift from cinema to digital cinema.

“He Cared More about the Appeasement of Fanboys …”: Spatiotemporal Remediation in 300 (2006) and Watchmen (2009) and Textual Remediation in American Splendor (2003)

This chapter examines spatiotemporal remediation in 300 (2006) and Watchmen (2009) and textual remediation in American Splendor (2003). More specifically, it explores the comic book panel and the film frame in terms of spatiotemporal construction and representation as well as the relationship between image and text in the comic. The chapter first provides an overview of the taxonomy of stylistic remediation before discussing how space and time are remediated in 300 and Watchmen. It then analyzes textual remediation in Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini's American Splendor, based on Harvey Pekar's comics (1976–2008). It also reconsiders the role of horizontal integration and conglomeration in the process of stylistic remediation, suggesting that media conglomerates can capitalize upon the added visibility and cultural capital of comic books and their adaptations both directly and indirectly (through licensing rights).

“It’s Perfect. It Looks Just Like the Book!”: Scott Pilgrim, Stylistic Remediation, and Transmedia Style

This chapter examines the process of stylistic remediation at work in the adaptation of a comic book to a film and how it is used by a media conglomerate as a means to unite its transmedia properties. It uses Edgar Wright's adaptation of Bryan Lee O'Malley's comic series, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, as a case study and shows how the comic book's stylistic remediation became a type of transmedia style. The chapter first explains what makes film and comic books distinct media forms by identifying their ontological differences before defining the formal properties that are being remediated in Scott Pilgrim. It then considers how stylistic remediation can become a form of transmedia style through O'Malley's work in the Scott Pilgrim series. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) did poorly in the box office, which the chapter argues diminished a rich trajectory of stylistic remediation in comic book adaptations.

Derived from Comic Strip Graphics: Remediation beyond Comic Book Adaptations in The Matrix (1999), The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966), and The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born (2007)

This chapter examines stylistic remediation beyond comic book films and the industrial practice beyond case studies in adaptation by focusing on three films: The Matrix (1999), The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966), and The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born (2007). It first considers “bullet time” in The Matrix, showing that its formal migration is an example of transmedia style: narratives delivered across multiple platforms that are united by stylistic remediation. It then compares comic book space and caricature in Sergio Leone's The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and the Marvel Comics adaptation of Stephen King's The Dark Tower novels. It also explains how The Matrix stylistically remediates the motion lines of comics within its bullet time sequences while Leone's construction of space eschews the conventions of the continuity system in favor of the spatial discontinuity present across comic book panels.

Camp, Verisimilitude, Noir, and Neon: The Historical Evolution towards Stylistic Remediation

This chapter examines the historical, cultural, industrial, and technological contexts of stylistic remediation between comics and film. It traces the evolution of these various contexts in relation to remediation of style by focusing on three film cycles that span from the blockbuster period that began with Jaws in 1975 to the contemporary period. These cycles are exemplified by the Superman films of the 1970s and 1980s, the Batman films of the 1980s and 1990s, and what Bob Rehak has defined as the high fidelity adaptations of the late 1990s and early 2000s. The chapter first provides a brief contextual history of comic books, film, and television before the blockbusters (1934–1968) before discussing the three cycles: Superman cycle (1978–1987), Batman cycle (1989–1997), and high-fidelity cycle (2000–2013). It shows that, during the Superman cycle, realism was essentially favored over the more formally flamboyant trajectory of stylistic remediation.