Column: Pulp

When is the last time you went into a comic book shop? Was is yesterday, or maybe last Wednesday? Or was it a month ago to pick up the back-issues that the friendly middle-aged clerk with the Swamp Thing shirt has been saving in your file for you? Or it could have been a year ago when you bought that random issue of Ultimate Spiderman for your little brother because it seemed pretty juvenile, but oddly, in the back of your mind, a little hip too.

But let's be realistic. You've probably never been in a comic book shop, whether out of disinterest or fear of suddenly finding yourself caught in the middle of a raging game of Dungeons and Dragons. Or at the very least because your friends would find out and call you a "nerd." Or maybe just a "dork," which I have heard is a slightly less offensive term.

On the other hand, when is the last time you went to a movie theater? In general, though, I bet most people have been to the movies at least a couple times over the last year. I know a lot of people went out to see X-Men: The Last Stand and Superman Returns during the summer. And then in 2005 there was the Fantastic Four movie as well as Batman Begins. There are others I'm forgetting, but these are the ones that stuck in my mind; some in a good way, some not so much.

According to rottentomatoes.com and my calculator, the box office openings of just these four comic book movies added together earned over $275 million (X-3 contributing to about half of that by itself).

So why do comic book movies draw in the masses but comic books themselves are largely neglected? People accept the action and characters in the movies as suitable and entertaining for adults, but this same action and these same characters in print form are relegated to the realm of children's amusement.

And beyond that, comic books are just about as close to the movies as a printed page can come. They are mostly visual, with minimal reading or intellectual engagement involved. The gap between a comic book page and a scene in film is really only a bit of animation. Sin City, for example, doesn't have screenwriting credits at the end because it was taken almost page-for-page from the comic book version.

When it comes down to it, it's hard to say why movies sell but comic books don't.

But I know why comic book movies are popular. People like mindless entertainment. Comic books themselves are often poorly written, with undeveloped, unchanging characters and predictable plots. And this is not entirely the fault of the people who make comic books. The medium - a 22-page booklet with very little room for word - doesn't really allow for great literature. I appreciate how hard it would be for even a great writer to maneuver in that space. But it's a goldmine for Hollywood.

Moviemakers are attracted to making cheap, visually stunning movies that give viewers sensory engagement but little else. And what better to use as a base than comic books and popular ones in particular. When moviemakers create a film based on a comic book like Spiderman or Batman, they know that they've already got characters and stories that have stood the test of time in a largely visual medium. All they have to do is make the pages move and they've got a blockbuster.

I'm sure we'll eventually get every comic book character, from Aquaman to the Blue Beetle, on the big screen. Maybe some weekend instead of going to the movies you could head over to Clifton Comics and check out the originals. What you see there could be the scripts for future filmmakers.

Agree or disagree? Think comics are worthless? E-mail Andrew at welshad@email.uc.edu