The Walking Dead

Remixing Mediums

In KS205: Comics and Cartoons last term, we discussed adaptation of comics to film and other mediums. Though we didn’t discuss this as a remix, I want to bring attention to this medium adaptation as a form of remix in the means of what we discuss in KS400. I was inspired by kayy_g's post on Bedtime stories remixed!

Now all special effects from drawing comic art can be replicated onto film. (For example: DC is owned by Time Warner.) Hollywood has found it easier to forge old myths rather then come up with new ideas. Comics in the film industry are valuable because they’ve already made a name for themselves, they are a brand with a rather large following. So filmmakers take advantage of that. Since print media is threatened because of film and computers, a positive look on this is that comics will always be up to date because of film technology that keeps them alive. The negative aspect is that print culture is losing value, but it is reassuring to know comics will be available online and in film.

Instead of seeing this as negative we can look at it in terms of Remix culture. Filmmakers can add new meanings and re-write parts artistically. There is also many ways montage keep this an artistic remix, montage means editing, camera angles, and movements. Using Benjamin’s theory “The conventional is uncritically enjoyed, and the truly new is criticized with aversion. This does not diminish its importance, however; if anything, it underlines it. Mechanical reproduction of art changes the reaction of the masses toward art. The reactionary attitude toward a Picasso painting changes into the progressive reaction toward a Chaplin movie. The progressive reaction is characterized by the direct, intimate fusion of visual and emotional enjoyment with the orientation of the expert. Such fusion is of great social significance (Benjamin).”

So the reaction, for example, the X-Men movie gets is a much different and progressive attitude towards it then the comic did. Not saying one is better then the other, they should both be viewed as their own separate entities according to their medium. The expert filmmaker can characterize X-Men movie in a way that differs from the comic, attaching different emotional enjoyment to it that the comic might lack since it is illustration vs. actors.

My last point is that although directors and filmmakers can take advantage of an existing piece of popular work and turn it into film for an almost guaranteed success, and many critics have scrutinized this for not having any creative value, I believe different mediums have their own artistic value. Yes I agree this is a profit motivated medium remix but at the same time every medium has something they do best and they should take advantage of that, and exploit its advantages to create a new product of art. X-Men probably took on a more adult sensibility with the movie, and even a bigger audience since films are much more popular medium for the masses rather the niche comic market. Remixing comics to film form can be very helpful and useful. So in turn the movie might have made the original comic much more popular. An Example of this is when The Walking Dead comic, was made into a television show, and the show made the original comic much more popular. Though the tv show deviates from the comic and only the first comic was faithfully re-created it still made the comic much more popular!