The birth of the comic book movie: It's not what you think
The public's current fascination with superheroes in the movies seems, to some, a flight of fancy that we've just been in since Spider-Man graced the screen in the early 2000s. They produce article after article wondering just how long before this 'faze' will wear off. But, if you look at the very history of the comic book superhero on the big screen, you'll soon realize that this is much more than a 'faze'. It becomes clear, after a little research, that what we're dealing with is a love affair that dates back to the early part of the twentieth century.
Thought to be the forefather of the modern comic book
But let
's start from the beginning. The crush America has had with the superhero goes back to post Civil War America. Considered to be the first actual prototype of the comic book , The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck written by Swiss caricaturist, Rodolphe Topffer, was first published in 1837 and was printed in many languages besides its original. It is the first known illustrated comic of its kind following the adventures of Oldbuck as he tries to woo his sweetheart to hilarious ends.
One of the forefathers of the modern comic was the 'Pulp Fiction' serials. Still in literary form with the occasional illustration, these stories captured our attentions with stories of various heroes; some of which we still celebrate today (like Tarzan and Zorro). The first of these pulp fiction magazines was The Argosy. It ran from 1882-1978 and was published by Frank Munsey. What began as a children's weekly 'story-paper' (The Golden Argosy) ran the gambit of adventure stories; from western to swashbucklers to scifi space stories to real crime dramas. From the 1940s on, its fiction base gave way to more of a men's magazine feel.
Next up, adventure took to the radio! And the Pulp heroes moved there too. Characters like The Shadow, the Green Hornet, the Lone Ranger and even Superman began to draw audiences across the world with their radio serials and, undisputedly, led to the appearance of these heroes and many others in the coming innovation of entertainment; movies.
Douglas Fairbanks starred in MARK OF ZORRO
The first movie to star one of these 'Pulp' heroes was released by United Artist in 920 named The Mark of Zorro. Starring the masked Zorro, it was a silent movie based on the pulp fiction 'The Curse of Capistrano' (1919) and was produced and starred the dashing Douglas Fairbanks. But it's not the first 'comic book' hero to hit although, later on, Zorro would grace that medium as well. No, the first comicbook movie wouldn't come for another twenty years.
In 1941, at the height of World War II, heroes which we had only seen in the pages of the early renditions of the comics began to make their way to the big screen. Movie serials had been a going thing since the very first film with heroes like Tarzan gracing the big screen. Most of that, of course, stemmed from the flood of pulp fiction heroes. But, in 1938, the superheroes began to grace the comic covers where the pulp heroes and funny paper favorites had ruled the roost. Superman debuted from a scrapped story by Siegel and Shuster and the rest, they say, is history.
SHAZAM aka Captain Marvel was the FIRST superhero in the movies!
But, if you think the first actual movie superhero was Superman, you'd be mistaken. Because of negotiation problems between Republic Pictures and National Comics (later DC Comics), there were several failed attempts to get the big blue boy-scout on the big screen. While they were stalling, comic competition, Fawcett Comics, beat them to the punch with the first ever comic book movie, Captain Marvel. A character later bought by DC and re packaged recently as SHAZAM!, Captain Marvel told the story of the young Billy Batson who just by saying the word, SHAZAM, became the full grown superhero, Captain Marvel. It would be a whole seven more years before Superman could be seen in theaters. And he would be beaten to the punch also by The Shadow (1940), Mysterious Doctor Satan (1940), The Green Hornet (1940), Batman (1943), The Masked Marvel (1943) and Captain America (1944). Green Hornet and Zorro also had sequels during this wait.
It's been a long and arduous journey, but our recent superhero surge at the box office is simply echoes of days gone by when the kids rushed the magazine stands to grab the latest pulp magazines and, later, comics and crowded the theaters to see the latest serials of their favorite heroes. When will this 'faze' be over? I dare say, as long as children both young and old have imaginations and heroes, we will have superhero movies.
