Artists like Miyazaki highlight the considerable overlap
that exists between the realms of cinema and comics. A
number of cartoonists have moved from the production
of comic books to the creation of films in various capacities. As early as 1911, for example, Winsor McCay
(1871–1934), creator of the comic strip Little Nemo in
Slumberland, was experimenting with animation in films
like Little Nemo and then Gertie the Dinosaur (1914).
Other artists have taken on specialized roles in film
production. One obvious example of overlap is the area
of storyboarding, a specialization pursued by comic book
artists like Paul Chadwick and Howard Chaykin at various points in their careers. A large number of cartoonists
and comic book writers have written screenplays, including Jules Feiffer and Frank Miller (b. 1957). Cartoonists
have also become film directors, though less frequently.
The celebrated Yugoslavian cartoonist Enki Bilal
(b. 1951), for example, wrote and directed three feature
films: Bunker Palace Hoˆtel (1989), Tykho Moon (1996),
and Immortel (ad vitam) (2004), based on his comics La
Foire aux Immortels (The Carnival of Immortals) and La
Femme Pie `ge (The Woman Trap). Similarly, Sylvain
Chomet (b. 1963) moved from comics to directing animated films, including the Academy Award–nominated
short La Vieille Dame et les Pigeons (The Old Lady and the
Pigeons, 1998) and Les Triplettes de Belleville (The Triplets
of Belleville, 2003).
While it is less common for filmmakers to move
from film to comics, it is not unheard of. Significantly,
Kevin Smith (b. 1970) used his fame as an independent
filmmaker to establish a side career as the writer of the
superhero comic book series Daredevil and The Green
Arrow, and Joss Whedon (b. 1964) created his own
comic book, Fray, based on his Buffy the Vampire Slayer
film and television series. Perhaps the best-known filmmaker to work in comics was Federico Fellini (1920–
1993), who authored two graphic novels with the artist
Milo Manara (b. 1945): Viaggio a Tulum (1989) and Il
Viaggio di G. Mastorna (1992).
The extent of the exchange between film and comics
suggests the shared ancestry of the two media and the
elements that bind them as visual narrative forms. While
film has greatly outpaced comics in terms of developing
material for audiences beyond children, recent comics-tofilm adaptations, particularly in the superhero genre,
indicate that much of the appeal for filmmakers in comics is precisely this affiliation with children’s culture. At
the same time, it is clear that the stage is only now set
technologically for a vast explosion of films based on
comic books. Advances in computer-generated animation
and special effects since the mid-1990s have allowed
filmmakers to capture the sense of the fantastic that is a
hallmark of many successful comic book series. New
developments such as the digital backlot promise to push
this ability even further. Interestingly, two of the first
four films created entirely on digital backlots were based
on comic books and directed by the creators of those
comics: Immortel (ad vitam) and Sin City (2005), which
was directed by Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez
(b. 1968) and based on Miller’s comic book series by the
same name. As film technology changes, the distinctions
between comics and film will continue to decrease.