Liberty Bell March, Day 22: Midnight sunshine, silent thunder, sky as black as day...only a dream away

In the 1980s, during the last few years before the arrival of the VHS and Beta videocassettes, Marvel put out a lot of comics in the genre that would soon mostly killed off: the movie adpatation comic book. They ranged from the extraordinary (Dune and...um...surely some others I'll think of later) to the forgettable (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Dragonslayer, For Your Eyes Only, Blade Runner, Howard the Duck, Buckaroo Banzai, Annie, The Muppets Take Manhattan, 2010, Willow, Xanadu (really?), Dark Crystal, Sheena, Masters of the Universe, Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night (huh.), House II...) A genre of comic that had worked pretty well in the 1950s and 60s for Dell and Gold Key (especially in their Walt Disney movie adaptations) became passé when you could see the movie again later whenever you wanted on chunky VHS. You could5 really see Marvel throwing everything against the wall, hoping for another Star Wars-sized hit.

Still, during this period they published what I think is the only collaboration between Marvel and Monty Python...sort of. Time Bandits (1981) is not an official Python film, but it's pretty close, with script and direction by Terry Gilliam, appearances by John Cleese and Michael Palin (who also co-wrote the script), and it's produced by HandMade Films, the closest thing there is to an official Python movie studio, having been founded by George Harrison (yes, that one!) and Denis O'Brien to finance Monty Python and the Holy Grail.



The movie is charming and silly, with fun high adventure and eye-catching visual effects. It's a great favorite of mine despite being a bit disjointed and uneven (almost a characteristic trademark of Gilliam films). The comic's much the same. It's written by Steve Parkhouse (2000 AD and Doctor Who Magazine) and drawn by David Lloyd (Night Raven and V for Vendetta), neither of whom were big comics names in America, so while it's nicely understated and subtle, it doesn't pack the punch of a typical American comic, and I say that's a good thing. Compare the bombastic American cover above by Ed Hannigan and Al Milgrom, with this sequence featuring Shelley Duvall and Python Michael Palin as ill-fated lovers Patsy and Vincent:


from Time Bandits #1 one-shot (February 1982), script by Steve Parkhouse, pencils by David Lloyd, inks by John Stokes, colors by Don Warfield, letters by Irving Watanabe
Vincent and Patsy pop up again on the Titanic:


I always thought that, in keeping with the comedy Rule of Three, there might have been one more Vincent and Patsy scene to come, but no, only two. Then again, Terry Gilliam plays by no one's rules in writing, making movies, and being politically correct (sadly).

Here's another figure that's fallen from my estimation for his corrent viewpoints and statements, altho' I still find him funny in character: John Cleese as Robin Hood.



Some more great cameos in movie and comic: Sean Connery as Agamemnon (I am utterly entranced by this short but riveting performance):


Here's the brilliant David Warner hamming it up as the personifocation of Evil:


And Sir Ralph Richardson as...well, the Supreme Being!


The comic doesn't quite stick the landing of the amazing ending scene, criminally omitting the "Mom! Dad! Don't touch it! It's evil!" line:


But at least we have a reprise of Sean Connery. It's a fact: he makes any movie better. (Even Highlander 2? Yes!)


Play us off, George Harrison!