Comic Books Unbound

Starz Originals

Anchor Bay 2008

R1 DVD

Comic Books Unbound is an original Starz documentary exploring the interaction between cinema and comic books. It offers a comprehensive history of the development of comic books from print to the screen from the earliest comic book serials shown at Saturday Matinees through the campy Batman of the Sixties to the success of the first Superman and then the failure and the later demise of the franchise. It then moves on to explore the revival of modern comic book based films from Batman to Spiderman, X-men and Iron Man. Also examined are graphic novel adaptations such as Sin City, 300, Persepolis and A History of Violence, as well as the newest entries such as The Dark Knight and Hellboy II: The Golden Army.

Comic Books Unbound features exclusive interviews with comic book aficionados and luminaries, including actors Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Edward Norton (The Incredible Hulk), Ron Perlman and Selma Blair and writer/director Guillermo Del Toro (the Hellboy films); filmmakers Guillermo Del Toro (Hellboy), Zak Penn (X-Men, X-Men 2), Richard Donner (Superman), Michael Uslan (Batman); comic book experts including Kevin Feige of Marvel Studios, Mike Richardson of Dark Horse Comics and as would be expected, the comic book maestro himself – Stan Lee.

While this documentary is primarily focused on the interaction between comic books and cinema, we are also treated to a brief history of comic books themselves moving from newspaper comics to print serials with a special discussion of issues relating to censorship and the development of the comic book code. There is also a discussion of comic book culture from mainstream to underground as well as the role of comic book conventions in the industry.

Comic Books Unbound is a superb documentary and includes some very rare footage, lots of interviews and some great background information. It even documents the legendary Fantastic Four film by Roger Corman which is still locked away in a well known studios archives marked “never to be released” !

The bonus features are Interview outtakes.