Broken Frontier

The Criterion Collection's famous tagline is "continuing series of important classic and contemporary films, dedicated to gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions that offer the highest technical quality and award-winning, original supplements."  For many of us who are on a budget, they are the DVDs and Blurays that cost twice as much as the rest of them and are never on sale.  So we quickly put them down and never consider them again.  Which would be a real shame, because these releases are the film equivilant of DC's Absolute Editions and a lot of times, have comic book connections we never imagined.

Just this past Tuesday, Criterion released their edition of Sweet Smell of Success, a classic American film starring Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster.  For anyone who hasn't seen this movie, you really should.  However, the one thing that should really draw attention to comic fans is the cover, drawn by the one and only Sean Phillips.  Take a look; it's really impressive.

This isn't the first one he's done for them (he also did the cover for Blast of Silence), but it is probably his most impressive.  There was a bit of legalese when the movie was originally released that no piece of film artwork or imagery could show Tony Curtis' head in a larger size than Lancaster's.  Look at the image again to see how inventive Phillips was here.

And Phillips isn't even close to the only one who has done artwork for Criterion.  Daniel Clowes, of Ghostworld fame, recently did the artwork for two Samuel Fuller releases: The Naked Kiss and Shock Corridor.  And indie comic darling Adrian Tomine, best known for his Optic Nerve series, contributed the covers for Japanese legendary director Yasujiro Ozu's The Only Son and There Was a Father.  Although, my favorite of all of these was Seth's cover for Make Way for Tomorrow, an image I found so simple yet inescapable in it's impact.  (Note: I merely linked the others for space concerns, and in the hope that you will go take a look at them yourselves.)

It is without question that there are a lot more covers done by comic creators.  Most are uncredited on the artwork so it adds a little extra sleuthing.  The cover to the new editiion of Diabolique is incredibly familiar.  But Criterion covers are so famous that Time magazine recently released their Top 10, and if you have hours to kill google "fake criterion covers." This proves that there are a lot of creative people out there who have a good amount of time on their hands.

The comic connection doesn't end there though.  Many comic creators tend to be cinephiles who gladly give their top 10 Criterion films.  Check out lists by legends Mike Allred and Scott Morse for films that inspire them.  Oh, and there is also Kent Williams, who beautifully illustrated Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain, providing this brilliant poster for Akira Kurosawa's landmark film, Rashomon.