Movies trump comics, what can I say?

I’m glad that Persepolis has been made into a movie.

For those of you who don’t know, Persepolis is a coming of age graphic novel set in revolutionary Iran. If you know me, you know that I don’t fall for identity stuff. That the exotic nature of the story is not going to sell me. That it’s about the Middle East. That it’s indirectly about US Imperialism. None of this is good enough. I will only say something good about something that is good.

And Persepolis is good. It’s very good. It’s probably one of the best graphic novels I have ever read. It’s good because you really care about the young Satrapi. It’s good because you see her parents as heroic. It’s good because its the most graphically impress autobio I have ever seen. Ever.

Now, Satrapi has made it into a French language movie and it is getting a lot of attention here, there and everywhere. Yesterday, in the Philadelphia Weekly, I read a mini-review that called the movie “superfluous” if you were familiar with the graphic novel (I’d give you a link, but PW’s website never works).

Well, that’s a lot of crap. I’m sure the comic is better, but I’m really happy for Satrapi. She’s a great talent and deserves all the attention she can get. The simple fact is that movies have more credibility and get a lot more viewers than even the most popular graphic novel, and this is going to get her message to a lot of people who never would have seen it without the movie.

In fact, when I think of the handful of comic books that have made it somewhat into the mainstream consciousness in the last few years (Blankets, Understanding Comics, Acme Novelty Library and others), I’m pretty pumped that it’s a young upstart Satrapi that got the first big movie deal, and not that schmuck Art Spiegelman (for Maus).

While I haven’t seen the adaptation of Persepolis yet, I also have no doubt that her fantastic drawing style adapts beautifully to animation’s movement and that she did great things with the opportunity to run her characters around, merge them into each other and take on strange aspects.

People should read the comic. It’s really good, but if a movie helps a new audience discover a voice this fresh and bright then I say: “let’s all go to the movies!” Like my image above suggests, Punk will never die and I don’t think Satrapi’s days of making comics are over, either. Let her have her minute on the silver screen without hating, please.

[NOTE from 2020: I don’t remember when I saw it but it is great.]