"Reflections" ("The Dark Knight")
The largest problem with the 2008 summer of film was every other movie released was based on a comic book. Now that may not seem like a problem to most, considering that this IS a comic book website, yet we started this Blockbuster Gallery to show our comic "outside" of comics. Or another way to look at it is that we wanted to show "films" as comics. Now taking a comic book, transforming that into a film, and then for us to come along and turn it right back into a comic... well that just gets a bit redundant. For most of our time here we've been able to do that, the one or two comic films a year were a chore but doable. Then last year hits and EVERY flick is a comic film. Jake and I both knew that burnout would hit WAY before the summer's most anticipated movie "The Dark Knight" would even be in theaters. Add to that burnout the fact that we've already DONE a Batman pinup for the Gallery, and it only intensified.
Yet we made a pact to at least get most of the year's pics done.. so here we were, nearly a year later and still at a deadlock of what to do with arguably the best comic book movie ever made. Our original idea was to have it be a play on "The Dark Knight" by having Erik fight an actual knight dressed in black armor. I hope you all know by now how much we actually suck at drawing armor. It looked grim folks. The biggest flick and we were gonna skip it or at worst give a sub-par entry.
But then one night it just hit me as I was lying in bed trying my hardest to fall asleep. One of the greatest rituals of seeing films is the inevitable conversations they later generate. Both Jake and I have wasted many hours in our lives just dissecting films for the heck of it, as I'm sure many others have. And it just happens that due to a similar lack of inspiration years ago we already have an established "movie buddy" pair in Erik and Crispy. Just thinking of the two of them together spawned this fabulous moment of conversation that is full of both character and history.
I'm not gonna gloat and say its the best picture I've ever done but I will say that it IS the best picture for "The Dark Knight" I've done. And we'll leave it at that. - Tony