Comic Book: The Movie
Genre: Comedy, Documentary
Released: January 27, 2004
Rated: PG-13 (USA)
Director: Mark Hamill
Mark's Role: Donald Swan
Also starring: Billy West, Roger Rose, Jess Harnell, Tom Kenny, Lori Alan
Trailer: Comic Book Resources
Available Formats:
Region 1 DVD (English) from Amazon.com
Region 1 DVD (English) from Amazon.co.uk
Mark says...
"Comic Book: The Movie is probably the most exciting project I've been involved with since maybe
Harrigan n' Hart, in terms of personal investment. The film is highly personal. It's filled with biographical details. Some of it is altered
and filtered through a funhouse mirror, but everyone in the movie - and even behind the scenes, the hair and costume people - are people I've
worked with before on other projects.
Dreamwatch
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Donald Swan
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Summary
High School teacher Donald Swan is a comic book fan and historian. Owner of his own comic book shop, his favorite comic book hero is Commander Courage. As a big movie studio endeavours to bring the story to the silver screen, Donald jumps at the offer to be in on the extra features of the DVD, documenting the history of the Commander's creator Jackson Whitney.
He is, however, disappointed as he realizes that the studio has completely revamped his beloved character. Commander Courage has become Codename: Courage; anonymous, brutal, bereft of the symbolism and warmth with which the original Commander was created and portrayed.
Determined to make the studio people see their error, Donald puts into motion a devious (and hilarious) little scheme to win the fans' favor on Comic-Con in San Diego, where he's supposed to shoot his documentary under the supervision of studio executive Taylor Donahue, who's quite confident to have the situation under control. Little does he know.
Control is slipping through his fingers as Donald presents an up until then unknown heir to the deceased Jackson Whitney and tries to get him on his side. In the final showdown, it's entirely up to the fans who wins and who falls.
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Behind the Scenes
All fictional comic book and comic strip characters in the film were created by Mark.
More than 100 hours of material were edited down to the DVD version.
The names for Timely Studios, Don Swan and Derek Sprang were chosen in homage to Timely Comics (which became Marvel Comics), Curt Swan (Superman artist) and Dick Sprang (Batman artist).
Mark's original title for the film was Once Upon a Dime, was then changed to The Comic Book Movie before it finally became Comic Book: The Movie
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Mark in Interviews
- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
- NewsDay.Com
- SW Insider
- BBC Radio
- Dreamwatch
- SW.Com
- IGN Film Force
- Comic Book Resources
- Fanboy Planet
- IGN Film Force
- IGN Film Force III
- Metro Café
- Home Theater
- Film Freak Central
- The Modesto Bee
- G4