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1941
This is the city - Los Angeles, California. Something big is about to happen here. Something so big that nothing that follows will ever be the same. Something bigger and more incredible than anything you've ever seen before. It's called 1941.
First published January 1, 1979
About the author
Allan Asherman
18 books1 followerAllan Asherman is an author and researcher of several genre-related projects. His Star Trek-related projects include The Star Trek Compendium, The Star Trek Interview Book and The Making of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
He has also authored dozens of magazine and newspaper articles on films and television. An authority on the classic TV series The Adventures of Superman, he has worked in several capacities at DC Comics, was a film booker for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and taught homebound students in the New York City school system.
His other interests include studying music written for TV and movies; researching his favorite TV series (including The Lone Ranger, The Untouchables, Science Fiction Theatre, Rocky Jones, Space Ranger and Men into Space), and uncovering new information on his favorite films (including The Day the Earth Stood Still, Things to Come, This Island Earth', Jason and the Argonauts, the 1959 version of Ben Hur, and various sound serials). He provided the supplementary material for the Criterion Collection's special Forbidden Planet laser disc (and subsequent DVD), and the Topps Official Collectors' Magazine for Batman Returns. Allan and his wife, Arlene Lo (the proofreader at DC Comics), live on Long Island, NY.
He has also authored dozens of magazine and newspaper articles on films and television. An authority on the classic TV series The Adventures of Superman, he has worked in several capacities at DC Comics, was a film booker for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and taught homebound students in the New York City school system.
His other interests include studying music written for TV and movies; researching his favorite TV series (including The Lone Ranger, The Untouchables, Science Fiction Theatre, Rocky Jones, Space Ranger and Men into Space), and uncovering new information on his favorite films (including The Day the Earth Stood Still, Things to Come, This Island Earth', Jason and the Argonauts, the 1959 version of Ben Hur, and various sound serials). He provided the supplementary material for the Criterion Collection's special Forbidden Planet laser disc (and subsequent DVD), and the Topps Official Collectors' Magazine for Batman Returns. Allan and his wife, Arlene Lo (the proofreader at DC Comics), live on Long Island, NY.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 25, 2024
Based on the Spielberg movie... maybe the only Spielberg movie I've never heard of.
I love Bissette and last year I became a bit of a Rick Veitch completionist, so I had to check this out. It's basically an R-rated Mad comic about racism in the 40s. Beyond that I'm not sure what the heck was going on. It's insanity.
Although I didn't really like the comic, I would be interested in seeing the original artwork for some of these pages. They really threw everything on the page. Some are mixed media with splices from magazines and whatnot.
I love Bissette and last year I became a bit of a Rick Veitch completionist, so I had to check this out. It's basically an R-rated Mad comic about racism in the 40s. Beyond that I'm not sure what the heck was going on. It's insanity.
Although I didn't really like the comic, I would be interested in seeing the original artwork for some of these pages. They really threw everything on the page. Some are mixed media with splices from magazines and whatnot.
April 14, 2018
Very rarely does an adaptation stray so far from the source material. This comic (produced by Heavy Metal) is one of the furthest pushes from good taste imaginable. Imagine of Spielberg being adapted by Larry Flint and Harvey Kurtzman, and you'll get an idea. If Spielberg was strung out of meth.
Well-designed--but lurid and racist. Collage comics churned through American Propoganda and creative burnouts.
Well-designed--but lurid and racist. Collage comics churned through American Propoganda and creative burnouts.
November 21, 2020
This is an illustrated book based on the script for a failed film. 1941 came out in 1979, directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Dan Akroyd, John Belushi, John Candy, Christopher Lee, Tishiro Mifune, Warren Oates, Robert Stack, Treat Williams, Tim Matheson, and so on. A substantial cast. It was touted everywhere. Huge publicity for the film was splashed across TV and print. Belushi and Matheson was straight off of Animal House, while Spielberg just landed two major hits with Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It could not fail. Until it did. A bomb. A major bomb. It was gone within a week from theaters, and nearly dropped out of the American zeitgeist, except as a trivia question.
Somewhere in that can’t fail category, Heavy Metal Magazine, still in a nascent form, bought the rights to make a graphic novel of the film. At the time, a novelization of a film was commonplace, but a graphic novel was completely new. There was a spat of time in the 1970s when they would do a picture book of a film made from the film stills, but that was rare. This was a great new idea. If only they had picked a different film to start with.
The book is essentially like the film. Two horndogs try to get laid. Meanwhile hysteria grips California in the wake of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. An assorted group of defenders attempt to make the coast defensible against an imagined Japanese invasion - which eventually turns out to be true. Comedy ensues. What sets this book apart is that the graphic novel is actually way better than the film. The combined efforts of Stephen Bissette and Rick Veitch elevated a raunchy comedy into a work of art. Stylistically it reminds me of old Heavy Metal, with insane backgrounds, reused old animations, and sometimes photos of the actual actors in their parts. Granted this was produced as the film was being made, so it looks different from the finished product, which is just as well. The film is a dud. This is a work of art.
If you are interested, avoid going to Amazon, where the price gougers are out in force. I looked at a few prices ranging from $155 to $650. The link above is to the Heavy Metal website, where copies are being sold for $3 apiece. I suppose these gougers justified their prices by claiming it's a rare item. That’s because no one wanted to buy a copy, due to its terrible source material. But apparently it’s not so rare. Most of the copies are still filling up a warehouse owned by Heavy Metal Magazine. Funny, I expected them to be buried in a landfill next to all those copies of E.T. for the Atari 2600.
Somewhere in that can’t fail category, Heavy Metal Magazine, still in a nascent form, bought the rights to make a graphic novel of the film. At the time, a novelization of a film was commonplace, but a graphic novel was completely new. There was a spat of time in the 1970s when they would do a picture book of a film made from the film stills, but that was rare. This was a great new idea. If only they had picked a different film to start with.
The book is essentially like the film. Two horndogs try to get laid. Meanwhile hysteria grips California in the wake of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. An assorted group of defenders attempt to make the coast defensible against an imagined Japanese invasion - which eventually turns out to be true. Comedy ensues. What sets this book apart is that the graphic novel is actually way better than the film. The combined efforts of Stephen Bissette and Rick Veitch elevated a raunchy comedy into a work of art. Stylistically it reminds me of old Heavy Metal, with insane backgrounds, reused old animations, and sometimes photos of the actual actors in their parts. Granted this was produced as the film was being made, so it looks different from the finished product, which is just as well. The film is a dud. This is a work of art.
If you are interested, avoid going to Amazon, where the price gougers are out in force. I looked at a few prices ranging from $155 to $650. The link above is to the Heavy Metal website, where copies are being sold for $3 apiece. I suppose these gougers justified their prices by claiming it's a rare item. That’s because no one wanted to buy a copy, due to its terrible source material. But apparently it’s not so rare. Most of the copies are still filling up a warehouse owned by Heavy Metal Magazine. Funny, I expected them to be buried in a landfill next to all those copies of E.T. for the Atari 2600.
November 16, 2022
Adapts the Stephen Spielberg movie in brutally gross and racist fashion- they tried to be as offensive as possible and succeeded. It perfectly highlights just how paranoid, xenophobic and ignorant certain types in the U.S. were back then. The problem is that it's heaped at the reader like puke in the face! I just wanted to reach the end because it was so repetitive.
Despite a pervasive sloppiness that I knew was below the talents of the artists, their art still has it's specific merits- but undoes them with too much era-symbolic "flotsam" inserted into every panel that made it all into too much of a mess to want to look at.
Despite a pervasive sloppiness that I knew was below the talents of the artists, their art still has it's specific merits- but undoes them with too much era-symbolic "flotsam" inserted into every panel that made it all into too much of a mess to want to look at.
December 8, 2017
It's Will Elder-drawing-MAD-Magazine dense and chaotic, and it's certainly well drawn, but I can't say many of the gags landed. Lotsa sound and fury, but not much more.
October 11, 2020
Pretty nuts.
June 3, 2010
This comic book version of the film 1941 is absolutely perfect. The crazy drawing style and the collaged illustrations exactly capture the demented, madcap spirit of the movie. Although it isn't an exact representation (Betty's friend is drawn as a cute girl instead of the fat, aggressive character she is in the movie, and her obsession with Treat Williams' character is left out), it gets most of it right. If you liked the movie, you'll like this.
December 6, 2017
Wow, I remember the movie being bad, but the book was so much worse. At least it didn’t take two hours to get through.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews