Tuesday, January 22, 2008

"Remembering, out of the black silence..."

It's been officially announced, so the cat's out of the bag on my favorite project so far this year (Berlin was last november): Blast of Silence. Not only is the film now on my personal top ten within the collection, not only is Allen Baron (the director) one of the nicest, most interesting people I've met in a while, but it's got my single favorite supplement on any DVD ever: a four-page comic book adaptation of the beginning of the film, drawn by the inimitable Sean Phillips. The text of the comic is taken straight from the narration written by Waldo Salt, and it is uncanny how well it works as a comic. Sean's got some sketches and samples up on his own blog, which you should absolutely check out. Here's the cover, also by Sean:



(And while I'm on the subject, if you have any affinity at all for noir or "hard-boiled"-type stories, and you're not reading Criminal, Sean's book with writer Ed Brubaker, you're missing out on some of the best crime fiction in any medium—film, prose, comics, whatever—in quite some time. There are two volumes available now, Coward and Lawless, and I can't recommend either highly enough. Just great, great stuff.)

3 comments:

Fat Punk Studio said...

WOW, I'd never heard of or seen this film before it was announced as going into the collection. From what you've wrote and your excitement regarding the film I can't wait to pick it up and give it a watch!!!! Cheers Eric

MacGuffin said...

Beautiful cover. I like the choice of colors, not the kind I would've thought to use but very effective & evocative.

I'll have to check those comics out.

Ed Howard said...

Yea I love this cover too. Sean Phillips also did some great work on an older Brubaker series, Sleeper, an excellent combination of noir, spy thrillers, and superheroes.