Drawn to the silver screen

Editor's note: The print version of the story referred to Michael as David's son when he is in fact, his father. It is corrected below. WEEKEND regrets the error.

Sarah Sneed has an unusual job; she dresses as a penguin.

Sneed, the public relations director for indie comic Angry Penguin, was an exhibitor at the first Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo held from April 16 to 18.  
Sneed attended IU but left before completing her degree to work in public relations for Chicago based Victory Records.

Sneed got involved with comics because two writers of the comic, her friends Jon Bernier and Tony Esteves, needed someone to handle public relations.
“I realized I knew more about comics than I thought I did,” she said. “It’s a really interesting and entertaining world.”

Angry Penguin is the sort of property that might catch the eye of IU alumnus David Uslan, a television and film producer who discussed digital comics at the Expo.
David said finding new content from indie creators and small press publishers and transforming them into film and television are his favorite parts of comic conventions.
Bringing comics to the digital medium is David’s current focus. 

“Digital media is like the California Gold Rush mixed with the Wild Wild West — it’s a lawless arena and there are unknown areas to explore,” David said. Throughout the creative process, he said it’s important to have a comic’s creator involved, noting that past comic films that didn’t stay true to  the characters — such as 2004’s Catwoman — did poorly both critically and commercially.

The comic film expert said his time at IU enhanced both his professional and personal life.

“It was such a wonderful time,” he said of his years on campus. “The access I had to plays, concerts and lectures — it shaped the person I am today,” David said.

David’s father Michael Uslan, who is also an IU alumnus, blazed the trail his son later followed. After earning three degrees from IU — bachelors, masters and law — Michael went on to produce every Batman film from Tim Burton’s take on the Caped Crusader to Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight.” 

Michael was also a guest at panels on adapting comics to film and television, and spoke about his career and struggle to get the ideal Batman film made.

Uslan said it was IU that enabled his career in the film industry and described the school as “very supportive.” Michael actually taught the first college class on comics while still an undergrad at IU. He said he pitched the idea as a modern mythology class.

“I called the UPI and posed as a taxpayer complaining about my money being spent on a course on comics, a commie plot to subvert our children,” he said. “There was a piece on it in virtually every paper. The classes were full of cameras.”

Michael soon received a call from the vice president of DC Comics that led to a job writing The Shadow and later Batman.

He bought the film rights to Batman in 1979 and spent the next 10 years trying to get the film he wanted to see made.

“I wanted to make the dark, definitive Batman film,” he said. “I wanted to return the character to his roots as Bill Finger and Bob Kane envisioned him: a dark creature of the night preying on criminals from the shadows.”

Michael donated 45,000 of his comics to the Lilly Library in 2005. One day he plans to donate his personal papers to the library.

“It will be the permanent home for my lifelong collection and love,” he said.