Uslan lecture highlights the impact of comics

There once was a boy who loved Batman.

The boy came to IU, got three degrees and loved both Bloomington and Batman so much he started the first-ever academic class on comic book folklore.

But the boy didn’t stop there. He took his love of comic books seriously and helped make the first dark and serious Batman movies.
 
He had such a good time, changed so much and made such an impression on the world of popular culture that he then wrote an autobiography called “The Boy Who Loved Batman” and came back to IU to share his story.

Michael Uslan’s story might sound ripped from the panels of a much happier
DC comic, but his story is still being written with his appearance at 3 p.m. today at the IU Cinema to kick off the academic film symposium “The Comic Book Rises: From Underdogs to Blockbusters.”

Uslan has come to share his rags-to-riches story of taking his love of Batman and finding a way to make it in Hollywood as the producer of all the Batman movies, starting with Tim Burton’s 1989 production of “Batman” and up to “The Dark Knight,” which is showing in a sold-out screening at 7 p.m. today at the IU Cinema.

“After ‘The Dark Knight’ opened, my wife, Nancy, sat me down and said, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’” Uslan said. “At this stage in my career, I decided I want to do more than just entertain people for two hours. I have a story to tell: You can in this world — make your dreams come true.”

Uslan has spoken at 60 universities about his success story since.

But because Uslan says IU gave him his first shot on the road to the movies, he said he feels it is critical IU students know they have the same opportunity.

“It’s important for me to come back and share this with IU students and make them realize their journey is right there in front of them,” Uslan said. “There’s no reason they can’t do it themselves, whatever their passions are in life.”

Uslan’s appearance, the screening of his film and the showings of all the other comic book-based films this weekend are designed to provide an academic insight into comic books as an art form and a significant form of American folklore.

Sahar Pastel-Daneshgar, a senior and the undergraduate IU Cinema representative who initiated this series, explained how the lectures, cartoons and graduate research papers centered around the films are all designed to legitimize comics with films.

“If you asked people 30 years ago what they were studying, and they said film, a lot of people would have scoffed and not taken them seriously,” Pastel-Daneshgar said. “That’s the game that’s happened with comic books now. They’re actually being recognized as texts, but they’re also profitable.”

This mindset stems directly from Uslan’s influence at IU in starting the first  University class studying comic books. Uslan said he feels his efforts have made a permanent
impact.

“When I started teaching the course, the public was always looking down their nose at comic books — that they were some cheap and lurid entertainment for kids, nothing more and nothing less,” Uslan said.

“I was out there trying to prove that comic books are a legitimate American art form as indigenous to this country as jazz. They are our American folklore. Our years of working in the trenches of trying to overcome this stigma in the minds of the general public have succeeded.”

IU Cinema director Jon Vickers said he hopes this series of popular films encourages new audiences to explore the wealth of resources the IU Cinema has to offer.

“We hope that their first visit to the IU Cinema is fantastic, leaving them with a feel for what the cinema can do,” Vickers said. “Maybe, if we’re lucky, they will pick up a Fall Program Book and find a reason to come back. If we’ve done our jobs well, they will.”