Sunday, November 25, 2012

Secret Origin - The Story Of DC Comics



I consider myself to be an expert on comics books. It's been one of my passions for the last 40 years of my life. I love any documentaries like INK - Alter Egos Exposed that interviews the people responsible for ushering these iconic characters from one generation to the next. The strength of the characters and the concepts is that they can survive multiple interpretations.

I give DC Comics a lot of shit these days because I feel that this latest cycle of creators is by far one of the weakest I have seen in my decades as a fan. For every bad comic that DC puts out these days, there are a hundred great ones that I can point to from the past. But that doesn't mean that I stop reading. I try a little of everything hoping that something great finds me.

I have heard and read these stories and seen a number of the interviews before. Many of the greatest artists and writers from the history of the medium were called upon to offer their commentary of the origin and importance of DC Comics.

I love the way this documentary describes how the world these creators lived in directly influenced the birth of a uniquely American art form, as important as Baseball and Jazz. The culture was crying for truth and justice and it would be an alien from a distant planet who would see that they got their wish. He was Superman - a concept so appealing to the outcast in us all.

Let's be honest. In all your imagination, you could never have predicted that a character like Superman would ever have became the cultural icon he became. Enjoy one of these Fleischer cartoons that have just gone into public domain which means it's free to see all 17 of them for free on sites like You Tube. Takes some time to enjoy what are arguably some of the greatest superhero cartoons ever created. They were very influential on any cartoon makers like Bruce Timm.



Behind the amazing tales of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and a host of other well-known characters is the equally impressive story of the challenges, creativity and triumphs of the company that brought those characters to life. Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics is both a celebration of the best writers and artists in comics and a thoughtful exploration of 75 years of DC Comics history.

 

5 comments:

Erik Johnson Illustrator said...

I love these old Fleischer Shorts (and animation titans like Bruce Timm and Miayzaki-san have sighted it as hugely inspiring) The compilation DVD was a steal at $1.

Kal said...

They were so far ahead of their time when those cartoons were created. They have now fallen into public domain.

The Flying Dachshund said...

I'm on the fence with the whole DCNU thing... I feel that there are certain characters (Wonder Woman, Power Girl (origin-wise, not costume), Huntress, Batgirl, and even parts of Superman) have all improved with the new universe... I, however, don't like that they've omitted some of the best GL and pretty much all of PAD's Aquaman. I also dislike Tim Drake being Red Robin, as that is such a stupid name to give a character when there's already a Robin... I also absolutely HATE Cyborg being part of the League... I see him as a senior member of the Titans, and feel if they wanted an African American character, either pick Black Lightning, or go for the double whammy by picking Vixen (you get a 2nd female that way... See what I did there?)

Kal said...

I am not a fan of any of the way the top characters have handled except for Batman. You can contain his Batverse and everything is fine. I haven't been happy with Superman for a long time. I like that they finally made Aquaman so grumpy as he should be but for the most part I am not happy with anything Marvel or DC has been doing lately.

david_b said...

LOVE the old Fleischer shorts as well..!!

Anyone ever catch the 'WonderMan' shorts on Youtube from TV Funhouse..?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_IQ44VNQ64

Just AWESOME. Great homage to the classic animation style AND hilarious. There's like 3-4 of them as far as I've counted.